Content vs. Process: the Key to Durable Transformation

One of the remarkable differences between traditional talk therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy/ceremony is how accelerated the healing process can be. Work with plant medicines is often described as “ten years of therapy in ten hours”. Indeed, more than 95% of our participants share that this is the most transformative experience of their lives. With this extraordinary opportunity comes an equally extraordinary responsibility: we can transform into our Highest Selves or construct new protective layers. We believe that tools from psychology and psychospirituality are essential for safe and durable transformation.

In talk therapy and common plant medicine ceremonies, there are experts to help hold one’s content: the emotions, stories, beliefs, and challenges that come up as one peels back their protective layers. The very nature of giving space to this content and having it witnessed with loving kindness is healing. This can provide a compass for people to know what is possible: we do not need to be in anger, guilt, or fear. We know that acceptance and love is possible.

However, there is a missed opportunity that can often lead to hidden harm: one externalizing the healing agent, thus creating a reliance on someone or something else for one’s betterment. If we believe that the source of our healing is the medicine, spirits, therapist, or shaman, then we can fall into the trap of “spiritual bypassing”: the avoidance of responsibility, which leads to the degradation of our own Innate, Inner Power.

At Ceremonia, one of our core values is sovereignty: the belief that the individual contains within themselves the power to heal and create their own reality. To this end, we believe that the missing link in talk therapy and traditional plant medicine work is process: the tools by which an individual can hold their own content. We facilitate and constantly reinforce process in our program through experiential workshops where you can learn to transmute your content from the lower energies of shame, guilt, apathy, fear, and anger into Power via courage, acceptance, willingness, love, and peace. While the felt-sense of a new way of being with your content is the compass, the process is the map on how to get there.

The latest research shows that healing trauma comes from voluntarily reliving an experience while choosing a different outcome. Let’s deconstruct this statement. “Voluntarily” means that the individual opts to allow for the experience within their full agency and sovereignty, which is an essential component for safety and being with what is. “Reliving an experience” does not necessarily mean putting oneself in a traumatic situation. It means allowing the felt-sense of the experience. For example, rather than reliving a car accident, one can experience the fear and pain of one. This is something that the psychedelic experience is particularly good at conducting because it helps us relax our protective layers, enabling us to re-experience trauma in a safer setting. “Choosing a different outcome” means choosing to approach this experience with a different way of being… to choose surrender and letting go versus resistance and gripping. For example, rather than feeling angry within a state of victimhood, we can recognize the Is-ness of the event, opt to forgive someone we once viewed as a perpetrator, and then feel grateful for how the experience shaped who we are today.

Process helps us “choose a different outcome” by giving us the tools of awareness, discernment, and empowered choice. In our Level 1: Awaken journey, we facilitate a synthesis of David Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness, psychosomatic techniques, and the Letting Go process. With these tools, our participants have been able to become aware of the emotions within their body, discern what energetic state they are in (e.g., shame, fear, or anger), and then choose courage, trust, hope, and forgiveness to accelerate into love, peace, and joy.

By learning process, participants in our journeys have shared that they feel more empowered and thus safer to approach challenging content that surfaces. We can penetrate deeper into the psychedelic experience with lower dosages because safety is the key determinant of efficacy and harm reduction.

Importantly, process paired with psychedelic work translates into tools for integration in daily life. With both the compass of what we can feel and the map of how to create this feeling, we can meet life’s enduring challenges with greater self-empowerment. This manifestation of trust is inherently valuable in itself because self-trust is the key ingredient for self-love, which is itself the key to unlocking enduring levels of peace, love, and joy towards the final state of Enlightenment.