Why I am Training as a Psychospiritual Integration and Addiction Recovery Coach

I must have been around ten years old when I wanted to become a child psychologist. I had a deep desire to work with children through healing play and creative therapy. I believe that this was my own inner child seeking healing at an already young age. Through my eating disorder, I have journeyed far away from my inner child and have slowly, over the years, come back to her. She was buried deep underneath harsh, critical, punishing orders from my eating disorder voice. There was no colour, no laughter, no carefree play. Play meant following a spontaneous impulse, a creative strike, a surprising improv, and that was too risky. I would risk making mistakes, loosing control, not getting it right, or having “too much” fun. All of these fears kept my inner child repressed and ignored.

As I grew older, I became disillusioned and believed I wasn't good enough to be a psychologist. Additionally, as my ED became stronger and stronger, I had no more passion or life inside of me. I didn't know what I enjoyed doing or what my talents were. I also couldn't envision a future for myself for all I could think about was food. So, I willy-nilly I decided I would be good at something in advertising. I didn't really know what exactly but I gave it go for a few years only to leave the industry completely empty and further soul-sucked.

Now after all these years, it is interesting to hear reflections from people I meet who often say I bring lightness and play into the dynamic. I notice too that I have been a catalyst for people to touch back into their innocent inner child or their creative side. I can see the inner child in people and love encouraging the child within to come out to express and play.

The inner child theme comes up a lot in eating disorders and addiction and in psychedelic and plant medicine journeys. Since leaving the world of advertising and corporate, and stepping more fully into the role of supporting others through eating disorder, I have been searching for a training that will assist me holding space for all parts of my clients, including their inner child.

And I managed to find a training that ticks those boxes, which is Addiction Recovery and Psychospiritual Coaching program by Being True To You, which begins September 2021. Note: this is not a paid post nor was I asked to share this program. This is me just wanting to share resources.

In the last few years, the media has been all over psychedelics and plant medicines, like 5-MeO-DMT, Ibogaine, Psilocybin, Ayahuasca, and MDMA. This has led to a tidal wave of interest in these substances for supporting and improving mental health. Side note, I sometimes wonder where we would be if these substance didn’t become illegal in the 60s.

This is great news that there is this resurgence. However, after reading story after story about how effective and transformative a guided session with a trained psychedelic therapist is, people want to experience this medicine themselves. There is an issue with this: the only legal psychedelic therapy available, other than ketamine, are occurring inside small clinical trials in select parts of the world, with a limit on the amount of participants able to join. This leaves thousands of people either waiting for who knows how long for these psychedelic therapies to legal, traveling to a foreign country where they are legal (like Jamaica), or seeking out these substances underground. Which option do you think is the most likely?

So many people all over the world are in urgent need for healing from addition, depression, eating disorders, and trauma, and are not in the position to wait around for x amount of years, or invest in a significant amount of time and money into an overseas retreat. So what happens is that people seek out these medicines themselves, with no guide or sitter, little information on what to expect, and are not adequately prepared or have the integration support; the integration is as important as the journey itself.

Even as psychedelic clinics emerge, there will be challenges for certain communities and income groups, as well as difference in choice of how people want to receive support. I know many people who prefer working with coaches over therapists, and some people who enjoy groups instead of 1:1. This is why integration coaching can be a pivotal antidote to the mental health system, and when you layer that with affordable coaches who specialise in addiction recovery and psychedelic preparation, navigation, and integration, their experience has high potential to be safe, positive, and transformational.

Integration coaching can also work in conjunction with psychedelic therapy or traditional ceremonies for those who are able to find it. Indeed, healing takes a village and so having full-spectrum support leading up to a journey, and having the support in the weeks or months after the session, can help someone really get the most out of their experience and give people the fortitude to make lasting change.

Transformational experiences that psychedelics can offer help people heal from past traumas on a core level, and see the world with fresh eyes. With the proper support to integrate these experiences with a coach who specialises in this kind of process, they can release the rigid patterns of behaviour that hold them back (aka addictions), and open up and free channels of energy that allow them to reconnect with their whole self, their play and creativity, and rediscover their passions… their light.

The number of people who are turning to psychedelics right now exceeds the number of therapists and clinical trials. This is where psychospiritual coaches come in who are dedicated to the preparation and integration, and who aim to make this work accessible and sustainable for all involved.

And to further drive this point by tying in eating disorders, which is a form of addiction, an article in The Guardian has recently stated that there is a record number of young people with life-threatening eating disorders, waiting for treatment as psychiatrists, psychologists and in-patient clinics are overwhelmed with how many they can help. Since the Covid pandemic, more people are needing treatment than ever before. As quoted by Agnes Ayton, chair of the faculty of eating disorders psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, “Delays to treatment can put lives at risk. Services are struggling with soaring demand, fewer beds because of social distancing, and an ongoing shortage of specialist doctors.”

We need more people who can support others. There may not be time to studying six years before being able to officially work with people. I believe it is time we relook at the medical and mental health care model and adapt to the needs of the time, which are urgent. Those of us who are far along in our own journey, not only have the personal life experience to authentically relate with others, but there are many relevant courses out there that do not take years to complete, so that we can be of service immediately. If I look at my own healing journey, it is a rich tapestry of modalities from talk therapy, to in-patient treatment, art therapy, mindfulness, plant medicine, dance, CBT, breathwork and more. As supporters and healers, that means we too can have a number of tools that we can offer our clients. There is no one way to help someone. If there is intention, presence, compassion, and integrity, along with practical skills that you are genuinely interested in and have experienced yourself, you can show up to any session. My approach is to hold the person I am working with in the Highest light, the belief that they have the power to heal themselves and that they have something to teach me. With this attitude, healing for all involved (and beyond) is possible.

I am excited to continue supporting people psychedelic healing experiences and eating disorder/addiction recovery over the years to come.

Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash