Hey there,

Last week, I shared how EMDR therapists (like you) can ethically support clients in the preparation and integration phases of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Since then, I've been thinking more about the technical side of this work, specifically questions like:

"What does EMDR integration actually look like after a psychedelic experience?" and "How do you adapt the protocol when clients return with challenging or confusing material?"

These are exactly the right questions to be asking.

Today, I want to get into the clinical details of post-psychedelic integration using EMDR. This builds on the ethical framework we covered, but focuses specifically on the advanced techniques that make this work so effective.

By the end of this email, you'll have a clear understanding of how to adapt EMDR protocols for integration work (and what to expect when clients return from psychedelic experiences).

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What Clients Bring Back from Psychedelic Experiences

Before diving into techniques, it's important to understand what you're likely to encounter when clients return from legal psychedelic experiences.

In my integration practice, I've noticed clients typically come back with one of several patterns:

Profound insights that need anchoring. Many clients return with powerful realizations about relationships, life patterns, or self-worth that emerged during their experience. These insights often feel crystal clear in the moment but can fade or feel overwhelming when they try to integrate them into daily life.

Challenging material that surfaced. Psychedelics can bring up unprocessed trauma, difficult emotions, or confusing symbolic content. Sometimes clients feel like they opened a door they're not sure how to close. Other times, they've touched something important but don't know how to work with it constructively.

Somatic experiences that need processing. The body often holds memories and sensations that emerged during the psychedelic experience. Clients might report feeling like they're still carrying physical tension, energy, or activation that needs to be addressed.

New neural pathways that need strengthening. One of the most exciting aspects of psychedelic therapy is its ability to create new neural pathways (due to the psychedelic potential to create neuroplasticity in the brain for weeks to months after). But those pathways often need to be reinforced through therapeutic work to become lasting changes.

This is where EMDR becomes particularly powerful in integration work.

So how do we actually adapt the protocol for this unique context?

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Adapting EMDR Protocol for Integration Work

The standard 8-phase EMDR protocol translates beautifully to integration work, but with some important adaptations.

Here's how I approach each phase:

Phase 1: Client History and Treatment Planning

Integration work requires a different kind of assessment than traditional EMDR.

Unlike standard trauma processing, you're not just looking at historical trauma. With integration, you're understanding what emerged during the psychedelic experience and how it connects to the client's overall healing journey.

Key questions I ask include:

• What was your intention going into the experience and how has that played out?
• What was most emotionally charged during your experience?
• What insights feel most important to anchor?
• What material feels unfinished or confusing?
• What feels like a priority in your life or relationships now?
• How is your nervous system responding since the experience?

This phase really involves understanding the context of their psychedelic experience (i.e. the setting, any challenges that arose, and what they learned about themselves).

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Phase 2: Preparation and Stabilization

Many clients return from psychedelic experiences feeling somewhat destabilized (even when the experience was positive).

That’s why the preparation phase is so important.

After a profound psychedelic experience, the priority becomes re-establishing grounding and safety while honoring what they've learned.

I often spend extra time reinforcing the resources they developed before their experience, while also helping them develop new resources based on what they discovered about themselves during the psychedelic journey.

This often means a reflection and orientation to new, healthy routines. If we can build healthy supportive routines during that window of neuroplasticity, the routines tend to become habits more readily, and bodes well for their future.

It might also include strengthening their sense of connection to insights they gained, or developing new coping strategies for material that surfaced.

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Phases 3-7: Assessment, Desensitization, Installation, and Body Scan

This is where the real integration work happens (where we actually process and anchor the material), and it often looks different from traditional EMDR processing.

There are three main approaches I use:

Targeting psychedelic content directly: Sometimes clients need to process challenging or traumatic aspects of the psychedelic experience itself. This might involve targeting moments of fear, confusion, or overwhelm that occurred during their journey.

Using psychedelic insights as pathways: More often, I use the insights or material that emerged during the psychedelic experience as a bridge to deeper processing. For example, if a client gained clarity about childhood patterns during their experience, we use that awareness as a starting point for EMDR work on the underlying memories if the SUDs are still high (above ecological).

Strengthening positive insights: The installation and future templates phases become particularly important for anchoring the positive realizations clients gained. We're not just installing new positive cognitions… we're strengthening the neural pathways that were opened during the psychedelic experience.

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Phase 8: Reevaluation and Future Planning

Beyond the standard reevaluation protocol, integration work also requires ongoing attention to how insights are being integrated into daily life. This phase often involves developing specific plans for how clients will continue to honor and build on what they learned (i.e. strengthening their new, healthy routines or grounding activities).

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Advanced Integration Techniques

Beyond adapting the standard protocol, there are specific techniques I've found particularly effective for post-psychedelic integration work.

The Somatic Bridge for Psychedelic Content

As an augment to the strategies above, when clients return with strong bodily sensations or emotional states that were activated during their experience. I use the somatic bridge (or floatback) technique to connect these sensations to underlying memories or patterns that need processing.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say a client returns feeling a specific type of sadness in their chest that emerged during their psychedelic experience. As an EMDR therapist, we can use that sensation as a bridge to float back and identify what historical experiences it connects to (then process those memories using standard EMDR protocol).

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Symbolic Processing

What about when clients return with vivid imagery or metaphorical content?

Psychedelic experiences often involve symbolic or metaphorical content that can be powerful to work with directly. I've developed approaches for using EMDR to process symbolic material, targeting the emotional charge around specific images, sensations, or narratives that emerged.

This might involve:

• Processing a powerful visual that appeared during the experience
• Working with metaphorical representations of family patterns or life themes
• Targeting the emotions and somatic experiences connected to symbolic encounters with deceased loved ones or spiritual figures (if challenging) or strengthening with RDI or future templates (if supportive)

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Integration-Focused Resource Development

Traditional EMDR resource development focuses on safety and stabilization.

In integration work, I also develop resources specifically related to the insights and growth that occurred during the psychedelic experience.

This might involve strengthening the client's connection to a sense of self-worth they discovered, or anchoring a feeling of connection to something larger than themselves.

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Future Templating for Integration

The future template phase becomes particularly important for helping clients envision how they'll live differently based on what they learned. We create detailed templates for how they'll handle relationships, work challenges, or life decisions from their new perspective.

The opportunity to rehearse bringing these healthy, adaptive resources and awareness into the future can be such a meaningful way to support the client’s wellbeing long after they’ve completed their therapy with you.

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Working with Challenging Integration Experiences

Not every psychedelic experience leads to positive insights that are easy to integrate.

Sometimes clients return with difficult or confusing material that needs careful processing. Here's how to approach the more complex cases:

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Processing Difficult Psychedelic Experiences

When clients have challenging psychedelic experiences, EMDR can be used to process the experience itself as a potentially traumatic event. This involves careful attention to how their nervous system responded during the experience and helping them develop a sense of resolution and safety around what occurred.

Managing Integration Overwhelm

Sometimes clients return feeling overwhelmed by the depth of what they experienced or the magnitude of changes they feel called to make. EMDR helps break down these feelings into manageable pieces and process any underlying fears about change or growth.

Addressing Spiritual or Transpersonal Content

Psychedelic experiences often involve spiritual or transpersonal elements that can be challenging to integrate. I've found EMDR effective for helping clients process any conflicts between their expanded awareness and their previous worldview, or fears about what their experiences mean.

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The Unique Power of EMDR in Integration Work

What makes EMDR particularly effective for post-psychedelic integration is its ability to work with the neuroplasticity that psychedelic experiences create.

Psychedelics appear to open windows of enhanced neuroplasticity (i.e. periods when the brain is more capable of forming new connections and releasing old patterns). EMDR during these windows can be exceptionally powerful for creating lasting change.

The bilateral stimulation in EMDR also helps integrate the often intense and multi-layered content that emerges during psychedelic experiences. Clients frequently report that EMDR helps them make sense of and anchor insights that might otherwise feel too abstract or overwhelming.

Most importantly, EMDR provides a structured framework for processing what can be profoundly transformative but also destabilizing experiences. It helps clients integrate their expanded awareness in ways that are grounded and sustainable.

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Building Your Integration Practice

Now if you're reading this, you may be interested in developing this expertise yourself.

If you're considering adding post-psychedelic integration work to your EMDR practice, start with solid preparation and training:

• Make sure you're thoroughly trained in both EMDR and psychedelic integration approaches
• Seek consultation from experienced practitioners
• Consider starting with clients who have had positive, straightforward psychedelic experiences before working with more complex cases.

It's also important to have your own understanding of psychedelic experiences (whether through personal work, extensive reading, or immersive training programs).

The integration work happening at the intersection of EMDR and psychedelic therapy represents some of the most exciting developments in trauma treatment today.

As these approaches become more mainstream, EMDR therapists (like you) have a unique opportunity to contribute to this emerging field.

Are you working with clients who are interested in psychedelic integration? What questions do you have about adapting EMDR protocols for this work?

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Until next week,

Chris

P.S. If you’re interested in developing expertise in psychedelic integration, we have a network of licensed professionals who are exploring this intersection of EMDR and psychedelic therapy (among other advanced EMDR protocols). We focus on ethical practice, advanced techniques, and supporting each other in this emerging field. You can learn more about joining our community here.

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Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is for informational purposes only. This is not legal advice and I make no guarantees about the outcomes or results from information shared in this document. Proceed at your own risk and discretion.

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