On Processing Psychedelic Experiences

Psychedelics are inherently dis-integrating. They can disintegrate your ego or your sense of self. Often it can feel as if things are coming apart and that reality is not as you knew it. After such an intensely fragmenting experience, coming back together can be difficult. Everything may feel new, different, suddenly very wrong, or suddenly very right. It may have been the single most spiritual and wonderful experience of your life, or it may have been terrifying and traumatic. 

Psychedelic integration therapy is the process of making sense of and reducing any harm associated with a previous psychedelic experience within the context of an ongoing therapeutic relationship. Integrating can mean continuing to process and make meaning out of what was experienced, restructuring your life on various levels, bringing awareness to what might be new for you, or paying attention to your dreams (where the journey continues).

Join integral psychotherapist Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold for a conversation with psychotherapist and integrationist Sara Ouimette exploring the process of integrating and making meaning from a psychedelic experience. 

This conversation does not promote, facilitate, or require the use of entheogens. This event and the views expressed by the presenter(s) are not a reflection of the views of California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), its Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, or the individuals employed by CIIS.

Sara Ouimette is a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice on the Oakland/Berkeley border. She received her MA in Integral Counseling Psychology from CIIS in 2011. Sara then went on to train in psychodynamic psychotherapy at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley before becoming licensed and opening her practice in 2016. In her private practice, Sara specializes in psychedelic integration, cannabis use and abuse, trauma (specifically complex trauma), highly sensitive people, and the unique struggles of the millennial generation. She also works as an Adherence Rater on the M.A.P.S. Phase 3 study using MDMA therapy for severe PTSD. In her time away from work, Sara enjoys nature, dance, writing, involvement with conscious communities, and ritual. To learn more about Sara and her work, visit her website. 

Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold is a licensed psychotherapist and core faculty member in the Integral Counseling Psychology program at CIIS. She has been working as a psychotherapist for twenty years, using an integrative approach that is rooted in Somatic, Humanistic-Existential and Transpersonal psychologies. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2001, Gisele has been working with diverse clients in community mental health and private practice settings, being particularly involved in serving the Latino population. Being an immigrant to the United States, a woman of color and in a bicultural marriage, Gisele has a profound interest in multicultural issues, which has become one of the main topics of her clinical work, teaching and consulting. Gisele’s personal approach to healing is rooted in her commitment to yoga, dance and spiritual traditions of her native Brazil.

CIIS students, staff, and faculty receive discounts on all events. CIIS Public Programs Members receive a 20% discount on all events. Contact us for more information at publicprograms@ciis.edu. Please note that we will check your ID for proof of eligibility on arrival at event.