Psychedelic Integration

My Story

About the time I started Mirror Pond Counseling in 2015 I began sitting in psychedelic circles through spiritual communities, consuming macro doses of healing psychedelic tea. I was grateful to sit in a container that was exempt from the law, in that we could consume the tea for religious purposes. This allowed me to benefit from the medicine without fear of legal repercussions-and I would not have done it without that.

Because it was a spiritually syncretic space, we sang songs that called upon God and other spiritual guides for help. I sat in the desert with friends. I felt safe bringing in my own personal spiritual guides along with the people around. I was not overwhelmed or distracted with stigma, fear of the law, or conditioning about drugs; I am grateful for that.

I felt called to sit in these spaces to be completely focused on doing my own psychological-spiritual healing. My intention in this practice from the very beginning was to confront the parts within myself that had been closed off. I hoped to open up aspects of my self, that were relentlessly holding onto traumatic data. I wanted to open my brain pathways to more updated resources and reality. I knew I needed to do this in order to serve my clients and my family so my own insecurities would not get so in the way. I wanted to be relentlessly myself!

It was an important space and time that I carved out away from my counseling practice, where I had to fit the roles of being a leader, entrepreneur, and licensed professional. Having a community of others who were impeccably devoted to strengthening their true self, further created safety and mutual respect with my peers. Everyone was committed to doing the hard work that it takes to evolve and serve their community from a place of strength.

While holding gratitude for the spectrum of medicine available, the psychedelic space was a different approach to pharmaceutical treatments that I’d been on in the past. I can remember confronting both physically and emotionally, how I’d been holding depression, grief, fear and overall trauma in my body, and also seeing how it’s held in my family line. I saw generations of what had contributed to these feelings, which made me less resentful of my immediate family. I was more hopeful that if I could do some of the work, it would not only help me but bring more light to my family line, past and future.

Through psychedelics, I was able to retrieve previously unaccessed trauma memories from a very young age that I have spent years integrating into my path as a counselor and using the information to further activate my spiritual gifts. Helping people with a “bad trip” to ground and make this experience productive is one of my main passions because it took me years to understand how to integrate what I downloaded in just one of my ceremonies. I was able to see how that trauma contributed to my purpose. Part of that is to help people integrate the wisdom that their spiritual guides are wanting them to see. Over the years, I’ve contemplated dissociative responses vs. astral projections, and how our spiritual body metabolizes what our defense mechanisms cannot.

Over the years, I have continued to macro dose but only when I was called, which was about every 3-9 months. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure why I waited so long to do another session, when I saw some of my peers partaking much more often. I then started to realize how important it was to fully ground myself and integrate the learning in between ceremonies. I would sometimes do micro-dosing protocols in between and dabble in meditation music to get into the medicine space that way, without taking any substances. I realized that once the higher frequency brain pathways light up, I should continue to activate and install the learning into my everyday life. There are so many plants, music, art and deep learning that happens outside of ceremonies and these have been very important aspects of my medicine journey.

One journey taught me how important it is to paint and listen to music with my family, so now my nice kitchen table is full of paint from letting my toddler do whatever he wants on it. It opened up joy and I no longer see it as a “mess.” I could let go of rigidness, to embrace the beauty of living life in the now. This is why I love the boundaried, intentional use of psychedelics. The new perspectives can be so clear and embodied.

When Measure 109 passed, I was really excited that another psychedelic would be available, not only in exclusive spiritual ceremonies, but to the general public! I started networking with other licensed professional counselors and that community grew in the 2 years the State of Oregon was rolling out M109. My psychedelic world was expanding into the mainstream right before my eyes, and I was able to process many fears, stigma, grief that followed the war on drugs. I saw my community process these fears, and more professionals get on board with how this medicine can help our clients. Over the years, I have learned how important mental health professionals are and will be in these spaces, helping those who go through psilocybin, ketamine, and ayahuasca ceremonies integrate what comes up in altered states of consciousness.

Some of the people I’ve met on this path are my most dear friends and colleagues. Some of the most passionate, capable, and professional people that I admire, I have met in a psychedelic space. I have so much respect for the trail blazers around me who are devoted to making psychedelics available in a legal container, like I was able to feel held in. I know from my own experience and talking to my colleagues, that the reason we are in this space is because it has helped us in our own lives. So we are devoted to providing safe and effective sessions that are in alignment with Oregon State laws.

Thank you for reading my story, and I hope you find exactly what you are looking for on your unique journey.

-Kimberly Drew

I have a wide network of people that I know who are doing medicine work above ground. Mirror Pond Counseling does not prescribe medicine, but we can refer you to a provider if you ask. We are here to help you integrate your experiences both above and underground; to make sense of unaccessed trauma that may come up that call for psychotherapy sessions and further stabilization, to be a general consultant about what medicine may work best for you, how to create your set and setting before a ceremony to include your own spiritual guides for your own safety and comfort, and much more.