EMDR as a Precursor to Psychedelic Work: Four Skills That Can Be the Groundwork for Transformative Experiences

The Background

As the landscape of healing continues to change and evolve, the tools of psychedelics have garnered more and more attention. This increased focus is for a good reason, too. Their proven ability to heal and change our hearts and minds as we explore expanded states has been well-documented.

As this work continues to evolve, we continue to assess how to identify the qualities needed for deep psychedelic work. Perhaps another way of putting this is looking for the characteristics needed within an individual for psychedelics to be in alignment with the current moment.

Within this process, psychedelic communities have looked to the past. They have looked to modalities that people invented or evolved as the United States outlawed psychedelics. From alternative chemicals that seem to mirror psychedelic effects to breathwork to therapeutic modalities that seem to set seekers up for ideal experiences, the titration of psychedelics—and the acknowledgment of them as part of the pathway of healing rather than the source—is key in the journey we are all on.

An Unconsidered Pathway

As this has happened, using modalities like IFS or Somatic Experiencing has emerged as a useful preparation for psychedelic work. These modalities give clients practice before ingesting substances that can induce expanded states.

“EMDR treatment is unique in this. While meditation can induce many possibilities with practice and, specifically, time… EMDR can achieve deep work within shorter segments.”

— David Hayden, LPC

In my experience, I have found EMDR treatment to be transformative when used in synchronicity with psychedelic experiences. EMDR refers to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. I’ve often supported people prior to or after a psychedelic experience. Additionally, through others’ reports, I noticed that EMDR treatment seems to lend itself to the development of certain internal skills needed. These skills help individuals traverse their inner landscape with greater subtlety and skill. They also seem to set individuals up for a more satisfying experience.

A study comes to mind of meditators who were given mushrooms during a deep meditation retreat. Researchers compared the results with those of those who had just received mushrooms. The study concluded that the positive aspects of mushrooms, such as deep peace, seemed to deepen and last longer for those on the retreat than those who had just received the mushrooms. 

The Medicine Relationship

It seems that psychedelics respect when we’ve done the inner work, chipping away at the well that we need to dig. At this point, psychedelics come along to offer assistance. I like to consider this within the framework of having the ability to traverse our inner landscape. In this framework, we have the skills to navigate it rather than just being subjected to it.

If we have practiced this within ordinary states of consciousness, then non-ordinary experiences don’t shock our system quite as much. EMDR treatment is unique in this. While meditation can induce many possibilities with practice and, specifically, time (a 10-minute meditation has different impacts than a 30-minute meditation), EMDR treatment can achieve deep work within shorter segments. Additionally, specific studies have shown how bilateral stimulation impacts the brain. These effects are something that is unique to EMDR treatment and are still being studied.

However, it’s important to note that the framework of relationship grounds any of the internal skills discussed here. Simply expecting our inner lives to generate any one of these skills without any sort of relational assistance is to set ourselves up for deeper performance issues. These issues can then cause deep problems within psychedelic settings. I often tell my clients that our work together is the practice of internalization. I let them know that when they reach a certain skill level, they will be able to do some of the work by themselves. But just like when we learn to ride a bike, we need someone holding us. We need someone to show us how to balance ourselves as we navigate something tricky.

Discern

The first skill set that EMDR treatment offers is the ability to discern and traverse the unique complexity within us all. This skill set is something that becomes increasingly honed through EMDR treatment. It’s truly beautiful to witness clients developing and mastering this essential ability. I think of Mark. At the start of work in EMDR treatment, he would arrive with a host of concerns that he wanted to talk about. As he became better at discernment, he, with the support of the interpersonal neurobiology that was present, started to be able to traverse the host of his concerns. This support helped him make an embodied list of areas he actually had the capacity to work with.

Channels of Awareness 

Another skill set that begins to develop as the skill of discernment grows is the ability to intercept and sense different channels of awareness within ourselves. Many are familiar with the channel of cognition and how this plays out. However, they remain unaware of the other diverse channels that take place from moment to moment within us. These channels, ranging from the somatic to more integrated and relational aspects of our being, hold unique and diverse information. This information gives us a greater picture of what we are working with from moment to moment.

Susan comes to mind as I think about this skill set. When she started therapy, she came in with a deep sense of what was taking place within her mind. She would often only respond from this channel. She was quick-witted and intellectual and knew how to use this channel to get a lot of things done in her life. But she was also deeply unhappy. 

Learning to discover and traverse the language spoken by the other channels of her being was deeply integrative for her. It allowed her to come to a more holistic experience. I remember, after several sessions, her pausing mid-sentence and listening to the channel of sensation that was speaking to her. This channel allowed her to identify a past memory that informed her present decision-making at the time to her detriment.

Skill Three: Tolerance for Alternative States

The next skill set that seems to develop as channel awareness grows is tolerance for alternative states. I can’t tell you how many nervous systems I’ve worked with who—when first entering therapy—are so used to talk therapy. They know the rules, are aware of the expectations, and respond to them all from an informed place.

However, as they begin to grow in awareness and tolerance to altered states, they begin to see a deeper magic taking place in their lives. We often get so focused on the action we need to change ourselves or our lives that we don’t start on the internal level and move outward. Or we become so focused on the internal that we never move to action.

This skill set of being open and tolerant to alternative states of being allows a client to begin to get comfortable with journeying deeply into themselves. Sometimes, this journey is to their earliest memories, and they begin to do the work to reconstruct those memories. They find a deeper healing that moves past experiences they believed they couldn’t touch. This healing moves into black-and-white pictures that remain but no longer take up the inner effort to hold down or project in some fashion. Then, they move from this deep inner work to going back out into the world. They are able to set down this mildly transformative experience. Then, they can go back into the everyday: pumping their gas, talking to their friends, and paying their bills.

There begins to become this special respect for the time spent within these subtle states. It’s a respect for how they are able to observe and change themselves but using deeply different muscles than those to which they are accustomed. This enhanced awareness then sets them up for beautiful magic that often happens within psychedelic experiences. This preparation comes because they’ve had a taste of what it’s like to swim in the pool before diving into the deep end. 

Reverence for the Past

The last skill set I see develop is a reverence for the past. The past often gets a bad rap in therapy; coaching is a whole industry where this outlook is downplayed. And some of that is well-deserved; simply being in the past, through psychotherapy, isn’t often the change we need.

However, when this skill set is developed, clients are able to traverse the timelines of their lives. They can identify what implicit memories continue to invade the problems and headaches of their lives. They come into a deep embodied knowing of their experiences, large and small. These experiences have changed them, influenced them, and mentored them—sometimes against their will—into the people they are now.

Through this awareness, they respect the past, and they don’t as often engage in beating themselves up over experiences. Instead, they see that every present-moment challenge appears so they can address a past element in its fullness. When a client really gains awareness of this skill set, I see them moving from the same cycles that they know—on some level—they are doing into a place of profound transformation. Within this understanding, a client can go into a psychedelic experience and let past memories come with a sense of ease. They are co-conspirators in change, working with the medicine to offer themselves the transformative experiences that they are deeply seeking rather than simply having a spotlight on them that they might fumble on how to handle.

Through Embodiment 

A key point I’d like to stress within this last skill set is that respect for the past comes from an embodied place that is deeply aware of limitations and “what the work still is.”

The patterning of downplaying, distancing, or undercutting these things seems to fade away. Then, a more profound sense of almost playfulness begins to emerge. I remember a client telling me of a medicine experience after doing this work. In it, strong emotions came up as they listened to the medicine discuss how their past was influencing them.

As they listened to the medicine, experiencing that sense of almost reverence for what was taking place, they noticed that they were not in a place of full embodiment. They playfully moved their feet, chuckling to themselves as they cried on the mat. They stated, “As I did it, I didn’t let go of the challenge that was being played out in front of me, of what I was experiencing, but I also was able to not take it wholly in; I seemed to know a deeper sense of balance than what I had ever had before.”

This respect for the past continues to play out as they leave psychedelic experiences. They leave knowing that they were on one path up the mountain and now have a deeper commitment to the other tools of the mountain. They let each play themselves out in a sense of harmony that demonstrated the beautiful diversity of what level of inner healing and, therefore, personal transformation is possible.

References

Harper, M. L., Rasolkhani-Kalhorn, T., & Drozd, J. F. (2009). On the neural basis of EMDR therapy: Insights from qEEG studies. Traumatology: An International Journal, 15(2), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534765609338498

Smigielski, L., Scheidegger, M., Kometer, M., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2019, April 6). Psilocybin-Assisted Mindfulness Training Modulates Self-Consciousness and Brain Default Mode Network Connectivity With Lasting Effects. NeuroImage, 196, 207–215. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811919302952?via%3Dihub