Integration is the meat on the bone of transformation. The bone cannot hollow itself and sing its unique song without putting into daily practice all of the wisdom that comes through in a psychedelic therapy, vision quest, plant medicine ceremony or the numerous initiations and therapies the human form will encounter in one lifetime.
There is a term -“the medicine is always with you”. If we really took this to heart we would understand that the healing we experience in a therapeutic/ceremonial setting is not the initiation itself. It is only the marking of what is already alive and waiting to be digested, embodied and made into medicine in your life. The initiation and the healing happen in the mundane moments of life where one begins to viscerally, physically feel a repatterning. The miracle, and for me the heart cracking awe and gratitude, comes when life all around begins to heal simply by our/my healing and integrating. Families repattern, relationships reorganize, illnesses vanish, dream states are restored, creativity is restored. Peace inside is restored and a new level of faith in this wild life to support everything we need is reborn.
These repatternings are a gift AND they can be a tad “hard”. This is where support from someone who has embodied these pathways and walked these thresholds can become necessary. We are not an island. Our belonging and our healing matters to the stars. Being mirrored in our vast miraculous capacities to evolve is how we make it all real. We get to see our beauty and our genius reflected back to us through another. And we need someone who has been to other side and back to say “keep going, you are loved”.
When integrating we need someone to help us make new choices because the old worn out patterns die hard. In order to run on a new operating system free of the addictions, impulses, depressions, manias, confusions, traumas etc.,we have to be radical in listening to the little voice, that came through in a big way during our therapeutic session, and choose to follow it. The old pattern will kick and scream until it also realizes that peace is possible by your willingness to choose it- again and again.
Without integration what we experience in our ceremonial settings tends to denigrate into symbolic theatre. Without integration we open up potential for more confusion, bypassing, appropriation and ensnaring of these powerful modalities into a fanatastical make believe experience. In my opinion this harms the Earth and disrespects the lineage and generosity of what was gifted through the ceremony, the chosen medicine and practitioner. I used to say- without integration we are just in self indulgence. Sounds harsh maybe. But what do you profess to stand for? And do you honor those words?
Our work together will help you stand inside of your virtues and become aligned to the medicine that guides your life. Without total (or almost total) alignment there is no healing and the repetitive impulse to keep getting a holy high tugs you more out of alignment. This is not to say that multiple therapeutic sessions and ceremonies is wrong at all. In fact I had a year where I was immersed in such healings. Yet, which voice is driving you towards wanting to recreate the experience rather than integrate it?
Integration is at the pace of the body. The body is at the pace of Earth. Your spirit and soul have the capacity to shapeshift at cosmic light speed, but your body- which we all know keeps the score- digests all of this new information in a slow churn. This is so we can feel it all. We are feeling beings. Transformation happens through the lived experience, and we live our experiences through our bodies. This is to say that integration will also be at the pace of corporeal intelligence. Our bodies wisdom will never push us into situations we are not ready for- only our eager egos do that. Healing does not happen in the mind, it can begin with a shift in perspective, but embodiment of that perspective is how wisdom is born. I have had integrations of medicine journeys many years after and I will tell you how profound they have been and how much self love was anchored inside of me to be brave and follow through. Ask me- I am an open book. The healing I have experienced is profound. I am in it for the long run and my nervous system thanks me.
My integration is never done as new layers continue emerge. Life is an onion. And rather than say that I am “doing my work” I have reframed this path into an exciting journey always blowing my mind at what is possible. We are evolutionary, cyclic beings. So, when entering this pathway together we will align to our endless potentials and let go of achieving some goal. In all of my experience working in clinical settings, in private practice, hosting numerous ceremonial spaces and attending (and continuing to attend) my initiations, when there can be a relaxing into the journey rather than the destination then one can begin to touch the essence of Life as the greatest love story ever told.
What Does a Session Look Like?
~Sessions are typically an hour unless there is a somatic modality like breath work or child part work that comes up.
~The space is tended by prayer and the forces of Life that make the moment possible. I call in a circle for us.
~I allow for what is truly emergent in the moment. Healing only happens in the moment and whatever the moment provides is what is most relevant to work with.
~Your wisdom is mirrored. Oracular practices draw upon my inherited wisdom to flow through to your inherited wisdom. Inside of this transmission a repatterining can take place.
~ I often suggest rituals and homework for outside of the container.
~ It is simple and it is profound.
~ I work on a sliding fee from $50- $5,000,000,000 and no one is turned away.
~ If you are local to me I prefer to see you in person, to sit upon the Earth and listen together. If not, then we have the technology Gods at our service.
For questions and sessions please email me: Shirastardrift@theoriginalmedicine.com
Blessed Be
