Latest / The Trauma Therapist / Guest Host Christina Kantzavelos interviews Charmaine Husum
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the special guest host series of the Trauma
- 0:02Speaker 1: Theverst podcast, where I'm going to be handing over the
- 0:05Speaker 1: mic to some incredible guest hosts. In each episode, you'll
- 0:09Speaker 1: hear fresh perspectives and unique insights to inform and inspire
- 0:13Speaker 1: you in all the while keeping the heart of this
- 0:15Speaker 1: podcast alive. So sit back and enjoy.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Hey Charmaine, Hi Christina, so lovely to be here with
- 0:23Speaker 2: you today.
- 0:24Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm thrilled to have you on here for folks
- 0:27Speaker 3: listening or watching to hear what tools and resources you.
- 0:31Speaker 4: Offer, including your new book.
- 0:32Speaker 3: But before we share all of that, please let us
- 0:36Speaker 3: know about your practice and how it evolved into what
- 0:39Speaker 3: it is today.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm a registered art therapist and somatic counselor.
- 0:46Speaker 2: I work with people to support them in healing from
- 0:50Speaker 2: symptoms of trauma as well as depression, anxiety, and one
- 0:56Speaker 2: of the areas that I focus in or ways to
- 0:59Speaker 2: support both the preparation and integration of psychedelic experiences or
- 1:06Speaker 2: non ordinary states of any kind. So the way that
- 1:10Speaker 2: my practice evolved really was from a lot of my
- 1:13Speaker 2: own personal experiences, a lot of different influences that have
- 1:19Speaker 2: been a part of my life like meditation, sound healing.
- 1:22Speaker 2: I'm a Kundlina yoga teacher. Indigenous traditions that I've been
- 1:27Speaker 2: trained in also really add to what I offer. Other
- 1:33Speaker 2: areas I'm trained in as internal family systems, transpersonal psychology.
- 1:39Speaker 2: So these are all pieces that I incorporate into my
- 1:42Speaker 2: work with others.
- 1:44Speaker 3: Amazing And for those who don't know what are non
- 1:48Speaker 3: ordinary states?
- 1:50Speaker 4: If you were to just say.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Yeah, well, non ordinary states like we're talking about psychedelics,
- 1:56Speaker 2: really here in ways to support a psychedelic journey to
- 2:02Speaker 2: be long lasting. But it's not necessarily that we're needing
- 2:05Speaker 2: to use a psychedelic to get to this place of
- 2:07Speaker 2: needing integration. So non ordinary states could be using breathwork
- 2:14Speaker 2: like holotropic breath work, or it could be having a
- 2:18Speaker 2: Kundalini awakening. Deep transformative meditations can bring us to a
- 2:24Speaker 2: non ordinary state or an ecstatic state. Ecstatic dance can
- 2:28Speaker 2: be another one near death experiences, and interestingly enough, even
- 2:33Speaker 2: the act of creating art can bring one into a
- 2:36Speaker 2: non ordinary state. So a non ordinary state is basically
- 2:40Speaker 2: any state of consciousness that is different from our waking reality,
- 2:44Speaker 2: and it can mean a lot of things. For a
- 2:46Speaker 2: lot of people. But the potential for healing is huge
- 2:50Speaker 2: if we are able to properly integrate these experiences.
- 2:54Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Thank you for that beautiful, perfect explanation, because so often
- 2:59Speaker 3: we associate that with strictly psychedelics, and that isn't the
- 3:03Speaker 3: only route for us to get to get to that state.
- 3:08Speaker 3: And even without psychedelics, it's so important to have, in
- 3:12Speaker 3: my opinion, that assisted therapy piece attached to it, right,
- 3:17Speaker 3: because to help us understand, prepare, integrate what comes up
- 3:23Speaker 3: during and afterwards, even before things can come up before
- 3:27Speaker 3: we even enter into that state.
- 3:29Speaker 2: So thank you absolutely, And I just want to say
- 3:31Speaker 2: oftentimes people may feel called through their dreams or through
- 3:36Speaker 2: meditations to these states, right if they're using a specific medicine,
- 3:42Speaker 2: or there could be some information coming to the surface
- 3:46Speaker 2: before one actually has a non ordinary state. That is
- 3:51Speaker 2: kind of a just a prelude into what will be experiencing.
- 3:55Speaker 4: So amen, Amen, I know I personally had that as well.
- 3:59Speaker 4: I'm sure too, right.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know one thing that we often don't
- 4:03Speaker 2: talk about, something that I incorporate into the work I do,
- 4:06Speaker 2: is we experience non ordinary states every night when we
- 4:09Speaker 2: go to sleep with our dreams. So having a relationship
- 4:14Speaker 2: to our dreams understanding what they might mean for us
- 4:18Speaker 2: can be another non ordinary state that we can utilize.
- 4:22Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 4:23Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think for me it's been life changing
- 4:26Speaker 3: to get a dream journal, like to really create a
- 4:29Speaker 3: relationship with my dreams. And in fact, you know, as
- 4:34Speaker 3: we as we the more we journal, I think, the
- 4:36Speaker 3: more we remember our dreams and details, and it's such
- 4:42Speaker 3: a it can be such a beautiful insight into what
- 4:45Speaker 3: we're experiencing and letting us see it from a different perspective.
- 4:51Speaker 3: And you offer courses correct, yea, at this time, can
- 4:57Speaker 3: you tell us more about them?
- 4:59Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been training professionals and experiencers on ways to
- 5:03Speaker 2: utilize therapeutic creative techniques to support preparation and integration for
- 5:10Speaker 2: maybe the last seven years. I've been offering these courses.
- 5:13Speaker 2: I have another one coming up here September twenty second,
- 5:18Speaker 2: which really trains people, but teaches people, whether you're a
- 5:22Speaker 2: professional or someone who's experienced a non ordinary state or
- 5:26Speaker 2: using a psychedelic goes through specific protocols on ways that
- 5:30Speaker 2: we can incorporate art and art therapy into our integration
- 5:36Speaker 2: and preparation in order to support us, So yeah, it's
- 5:41Speaker 2: I think it's important to name too. There's a difference
- 5:43Speaker 2: between making art, which can feel very therapeutic, and art therapy.
- 5:48Speaker 2: So art therapy is something that is offered by someone
- 5:52Speaker 2: trained as an art therapist, which requires postgraduate education a
- 5:59Speaker 2: master's agree in art therapy, and so it's we're using
- 6:03Speaker 2: clinical approaches with creative processes. So yeah, I feel like
- 6:11Speaker 2: there's a myths there in psychedelic assisted therapy where the
- 6:16Speaker 2: creation or the utilization of therapeutic art really enhances the
- 6:24Speaker 2: experience for it to be long lasting.
- 6:28Speaker 3: M This is a random question, but how do you
- 6:33Speaker 3: feel about experiencers using art during an experience?
- 6:42Speaker 2: If it's available to them, it can be very powerful,
- 6:45Speaker 2: and I've heard trying that I don't. My experience has
- 6:51Speaker 2: been and those that I work with is that. And
- 6:53Speaker 2: also the research is that it's not very accessible right
- 6:57Speaker 2: when we are in a non ordinary state or when
- 6:59Speaker 2: we're under the influence of a psychedelic to use the
- 7:04Speaker 2: art materials themselves. But what is extremely supportive is to
- 7:11Speaker 2: use art therapy or have an art therapy session before
- 7:16Speaker 2: one's experience and then taking that art into their journey.
- 7:21Speaker 2: So when we're using art in this way, what we're
- 7:24Speaker 2: doing is we are taking pieces from our unconscious and
- 7:27Speaker 2: from within us and moving them outside of us now.
- 7:31Speaker 2: So now we have something tangible, something we can look
- 7:33Speaker 2: at and hold and feel and remember as we move
- 7:37Speaker 2: into our journey. So an activity I do with people
- 7:41Speaker 2: I work with is in preparation, and I do this
- 7:46Speaker 2: with most of my clients that I'm working with to
- 7:49Speaker 2: heal traumas. We are creating a tangible representation of what
- 7:56Speaker 2: healing feels like inside, about what safety feels like inside.
- 8:00Speaker 2: So I may use language depending on who I'm working with,
- 8:04Speaker 2: you know, creating an image of our soul or our essence.
- 8:09Speaker 2: So we do this in combination with guided meditation, and
- 8:14Speaker 2: then I invite one to create what they felt in
- 8:17Speaker 2: that meditation that connects them to their self energy. And
- 8:23Speaker 2: this has been super very powerful for ones moving into
- 8:27Speaker 2: their journey. So now they have a representation of what
- 8:30Speaker 2: strength feels like inside, what safety feels like inside. And
- 8:34Speaker 2: what it does is it just allows them to go
- 8:36Speaker 2: deeper into their psychedelic journey because they have within them
- 8:41Speaker 2: this sense of safety, right, because it can be really
- 8:44Speaker 2: difficult moving into these experiences. Really we're pulled out of ourselves,
- 8:49Speaker 2: So how can we remain in our body?
- 8:54Speaker 3: I completely agree with that, and I've been on the
- 8:56Speaker 3: receiving end of it, and I can just tell everyone
- 8:59Speaker 3: how amazing and powerful and beautiful it is, because yeah,
- 9:04Speaker 3: we do. We do have that safety within us. It's
- 9:06Speaker 3: it's a matter of really recognizing it, seeing it, feeling it,
- 9:10Speaker 3: to be able to access it during right during that
- 9:13Speaker 3: state and even just out in the world in a stressful,
- 9:17Speaker 3: you know, situation. Before we hopped on, I was just saying, like,
- 9:20Speaker 3: how you know, I've been in a semi stressful situation,
- 9:22Speaker 3: and you know, Charmaine has provided me with tools that
- 9:25Speaker 3: I've been able to access through through these exercises, So
- 9:30Speaker 3: even without being in a you know, non ordinary state,
- 9:34Speaker 3: I can I can also say that confidently say it's
- 9:36Speaker 3: also helped these stressful states as well, because we have that,
- 9:40Speaker 3: like I said, that that place of strengthen of peace
- 9:43Speaker 3: within ourselves that we can we can access if needed.
- 9:46Speaker 3: It's just a matter of us connecting, really connecting to it.
- 9:51Speaker 3: And and gosh, the art. I mean, I've gotten to
- 9:54Speaker 3: see some of some of the art.
- 9:56Speaker 4: From folks who've worked with you too.
- 9:57Speaker 3: It's just it's all you know, it's it's across the
- 10:00Speaker 3: born and it's also like just fascinating.
- 10:03Speaker 4: Interesting, cool, beautiful.
- 10:04Speaker 3: I mean, you can attribute a bunch of different words
- 10:08Speaker 3: to it. So yeah, what what you do is really
- 10:12Speaker 3: fascinating and what you offer. So with the courses though,
- 10:17Speaker 3: you don't have do you have to be a clinician
- 10:18Speaker 3: in order to take the courses?
- 10:22Speaker 2: No, okay, doesn't have to be a clinician. The courses
- 10:26Speaker 2: are I have some different courses, some are on demand
- 10:30Speaker 2: that incorporate a lot more guendolina, yoga and meditations, sacred geometry,
- 10:36Speaker 2: and so I find that those courses can be really
- 10:40Speaker 2: supportive for those wanting to move through something on their own.
- 10:46Speaker 2: So they are a little more geared towards one who's
- 10:49Speaker 2: had an experience and then is wanting to move forward
- 10:52Speaker 2: with learning those techniques and protocols on their own. The
- 10:56Speaker 2: live courses that I teach, I've been teaching through the
- 11:00Speaker 2: New York Therapy Institute, and those ones have been focused
- 11:05Speaker 2: more towards clinicians, doctors, psychologists, guides, psychedelic guides, but we
- 11:15Speaker 2: also have some people sign up that are ready for
- 11:17Speaker 2: that that are experiencers. Right, So yeah, anyone can take
- 11:23Speaker 2: those courses, but they're intended to really teach those specific
- 11:27Speaker 2: protocols on using a harm reduction lens too. Right, That's
- 11:32Speaker 2: a huge focus of my work is both trauma informed
- 11:35Speaker 2: and a harm reduction lens, but teaching people to use
- 11:38Speaker 2: these protocols and tools so they're not going back to
- 11:41Speaker 2: the medicine over and over again. So they're really instilling
- 11:45Speaker 2: in both preparation and integration that sense of the healer
- 11:51Speaker 2: being within right, So using a trans personal psychology language,
- 11:57Speaker 2: there that inner healer. And so when we're able to
- 12:01Speaker 2: identify that that is inside of us, the medicine that
- 12:05Speaker 2: we took, the energy of that is now inside of us,
- 12:08Speaker 2: or the experience we had, we can access that experience energetically.
- 12:14Speaker 2: We're able to utilize those tools moving forward in life.
- 12:18Speaker 3: M Yeah, And I think that's the the importance of
- 12:23Speaker 3: that therapeutic component. When we decide to sit with a medicine,
- 12:29Speaker 3: it's like, how do we integrate that experience in our
- 12:33Speaker 3: day to day living so we don't feel this this
- 12:36Speaker 3: you know, constant need, I must go back to the
- 12:38Speaker 3: met in order to experience this, I must go back
- 12:40Speaker 3: to the medicine. Creating this sort of dependency that we
- 12:44Speaker 3: sometimes sometimes hear about. It's not too often, but sometimes
- 12:47Speaker 3: we hear about it, and this helps us remember, like
- 12:51Speaker 3: that what it showed us is within us forever.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Yeah I wanted to say there, or sorry, go ahead, no,
- 12:58Speaker 2: go ahead, go ahead? Yeah, you know, you know, we
- 13:02Speaker 2: know or you know we hear that psychedelics are not addictive,
- 13:07Speaker 2: and they are not because you need the more you take,
- 13:12Speaker 2: the more you would need, right, And so what is
- 13:17Speaker 2: addictive though, is looking for heightened experiences or looking outside
- 13:21Speaker 2: of ourselves for healing. And so because what I find
- 13:26Speaker 2: is that the medicines and non ordinary states as well,
- 13:30Speaker 2: but they can really bring trauma to the surface. And
- 13:34Speaker 2: so it's so important to be holding that trauma informed
- 13:37Speaker 2: lens each step of the way as we're working through
- 13:41Speaker 2: our journey, because it's we never know what might come up,
- 13:46Speaker 2: and especially in using art in this way our therapy,
- 13:49Speaker 2: we're also trusting that our psyche protects us. It's only
- 13:53Speaker 2: going to bring up what we are ready to hold
- 13:56Speaker 2: and handle. The medicines are as gentle always right, they
- 14:00Speaker 2: can bring things up that we may not have expected,
- 14:03Speaker 2: and so it's really that container we hold afterwards that
- 14:07Speaker 2: supports the longer healing, agreed.
- 14:11Speaker 3: And I think the resourcing that you do in advance
- 14:14Speaker 3: as well with that nervous system component and like you said,
- 14:17Speaker 3: finding that piece inside so that if these things come up,
- 14:20Speaker 3: it's like yes, you know, yes, this is challenging and
- 14:23Speaker 3: I have the strength to be with it, to move
- 14:26Speaker 3: through it, to feel it, to heal it.
- 14:30Speaker 4: Yeah, all of all of those, all of those things.
- 14:34Speaker 3: And you know you mentioned sacred geometry earlier, So for
- 14:38Speaker 3: those who may not be familiar with sacred geometry, can
- 14:41Speaker 3: you speak to so even you know have written about
- 14:43Speaker 3: it and that will lead us actually to your books
- 14:46Speaker 3: as well.
- 14:47Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So sacred geometry is it's close to my heart.
- 14:51Speaker 2: It's something that I enjoy engaging in artistically. It's not
- 14:58Speaker 2: something I would always I would necessarily bring into an
- 15:01Speaker 2: art therapy session because it can be difficult for some.
- 15:06Speaker 2: But I do find sacred geometry is something that seems
- 15:12Speaker 2: inherently connected to psychedelics. Right if you look at the
- 15:15Speaker 2: work of Alex Gray or Martina Hoffman or you know,
- 15:18Speaker 2: some of these psychedelic artists, a lot of the imagery
- 15:22Speaker 2: reflects things that may be seen, visuals that people may
- 15:28Speaker 2: have while they're in a psychedelic state. But really, what
- 15:30Speaker 2: sacred geometry is is this kind of inherent wisdom of
- 15:35Speaker 2: nature for life to survive and thrive. We see it everywhere.
- 15:40Speaker 2: We are geometrical beings. Our DNA is geometric. We see
- 15:45Speaker 2: it in plants, in flowers, in trees, right, they are
- 15:49Speaker 2: designed in order for water to move to their roots
- 15:53Speaker 2: in the fastest way possible. And so yeah, there's many
- 15:58Speaker 2: different forms of sacred geometry, many different like actual images.
- 16:03Speaker 2: If we look at the flower of life or Metatron's
- 16:05Speaker 2: cube or pie or a Fibonacci sequence, there's there's many
- 16:10Speaker 2: different images we can look at. But I find it
- 16:14Speaker 2: powerful as a tool even to look at, right, So
- 16:17Speaker 2: not necessarily creating, but drawing or sorry of coloring it in,
- 16:22Speaker 2: or or just looking at an image of sacred geometry
- 16:26Speaker 2: can be powerful in a way that there's a language
- 16:31Speaker 2: being spoken in that medicine that I think reaches us
- 16:35Speaker 2: on a cellular level. So that's my own personal piece
- 16:39Speaker 2: of that. It's not always something I bring into my
- 16:41Speaker 2: therapeutic work.
- 16:43Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but you're right, even just just looking at
- 16:46Speaker 3: it is super to me, healing and powerful like a
- 16:49Speaker 3: honeycomb for example, I mean you just I could just
- 16:53Speaker 3: watch it for hours of different flowers. I mean everything.
- 16:57Speaker 3: Sacred geometry is in everything. It is is everywhere. It's
- 17:00Speaker 3: a matter of how we how we view, how we see,
- 17:03Speaker 3: and I feel like connecting with it in this way
- 17:06Speaker 3: helps us connect, you know, to nature, and connect to
- 17:09Speaker 3: ourselves something.
- 17:13Speaker 2: The name with that too is the importance. So I
- 17:18Speaker 2: feel that art or and therapeutic art is is fundamentally
- 17:22Speaker 2: important in this work that we do, but as is meditation.
- 17:26Speaker 2: And so when I use sacred geometry in meditation, I
- 17:31Speaker 2: you know, just looking at an image with a softened gaze,
- 17:34Speaker 2: there's different lines that maybe appear brighter and then others soften.
- 17:38Speaker 2: And I love the work of Robin Carhart Harris right
- 17:42Speaker 2: and the correlations that he's made here with between what's
- 17:48Speaker 2: happening in the brain and the default mode network going offline.
- 17:51Speaker 2: How we see that when people meditate, we see that
- 17:55Speaker 2: when people are using psychedelics, but we also see that
- 17:58Speaker 2: when we're making art in the brain. And I would
- 18:01Speaker 2: like for the research to be done on this correlation,
- 18:04Speaker 2: right that it feels like something's amiss here. Why are
- 18:07Speaker 2: we not including art in this process of psychedelic assisted therapy.
- 18:13Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's bring KRT onto on here and have
- 18:17Speaker 3: a discussion. Yeah, because it's true, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 18:24Speaker 3: great question. And I hope I hope it does happen.
- 18:26Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, there's there's so much to say about
- 18:30Speaker 3: art and there's so little research giving us providing us
- 18:35Speaker 3: this information.
- 18:35Speaker 4: I mean, I can feel it sensationally, so can you.
- 18:39Speaker 4: But it'd be nice to have research backing it up
- 18:41Speaker 4: and going nope.
- 18:42Speaker 3: This is this is why, this is why it works,
- 18:44Speaker 3: that is why it's so it is so therapeutic and powerful.
- 18:48Speaker 2: That's more research coming to the surface. I'm so grateful
- 18:51Speaker 2: for that. Even you know, my book is is there's
- 18:54Speaker 2: a ton of research in in my newest book, Psychedelics
- 18:57Speaker 2: and Art Therapy. But yeah, more MRI functional MRIs need
- 19:03Speaker 2: to be done about you know, what is happening in
- 19:05Speaker 2: the brain and why is there this connection between meditation, psychedelics,
- 19:11Speaker 2: and art therapy, and how can we utilize all of
- 19:15Speaker 2: those to really feel safer when we move into these
- 19:18Speaker 2: medicine journeys, because that's what is happening for those using
- 19:23Speaker 2: all three of these components.
- 19:25Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, amen, And again, working with you do you
- 19:30Speaker 3: do combine all of it together, so hence why your
- 19:33Speaker 3: sessions are so powerful, And we'll get to those in
- 19:37Speaker 3: a moment, but I want to go back to the book.
- 19:39Speaker 4: Can you tell us more about your latest book?
- 19:42Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, my latest book, Psychedelics and Art Therapy, a
- 19:46Speaker 2: trama for manual for somatic self Discovery, published through Routledge.
- 19:52Speaker 2: It's just been this labor of love, right, all of
- 19:54Speaker 2: my work in research over the last it's been twelve
- 19:58Speaker 2: years already that I've been working in this field with
- 20:00Speaker 2: a focus on using art, therapeutic art to support preparation
- 20:05Speaker 2: and integration. Yeah, it's uh, it's been a joy to create,
- 20:12Speaker 2: and I'm super grateful for all the endorsements. I know,
- 20:15Speaker 2: is Stan Groff endorsed it, Brigitte Graf, Bruce, No big
- 20:20Speaker 2: deal because I know I'm like, what these guys lib
- 20:23Speaker 2: all on the same page. And also I'm loving, you know,
- 20:27Speaker 2: the work of Brigitte Graf too. I don't think that's
- 20:30Speaker 2: spoken about enough and her her book on holotropic art
- 20:33Speaker 2: is just amazing. So yeah, it's been a joy creating it.
- 20:39Speaker 2: What I've done in the book is really the first
- 20:42Speaker 2: half focused on different theory that can support people in
- 20:47Speaker 2: learning about ways to use art within psychedelics, I too.
- 20:54Speaker 2: And then the second part is is actual activities, art
- 20:59Speaker 2: activity and meditations that I recommend kind of more of
- 21:03Speaker 2: a manual for people to move through those nine different
- 21:06Speaker 2: protocols I've created. But what's different about my work, I
- 21:11Speaker 2: find is the lens I take with what I teach
- 21:18Speaker 2: really has a strong harm reduction focus to it. I
- 21:22Speaker 2: believe that the medicines are powerful, but I'm not an
- 21:25Speaker 2: advocate for people to use illegal drugs. They're illegal in
- 21:29Speaker 2: many places, and so I don't advocate for that. What
- 21:32Speaker 2: I advocate for is working towards developing and strengthening that
- 21:38Speaker 2: connection to self, that connection to a spirit within ourselves.
- 21:44Speaker 2: And so in the book, I speak a lot about
- 21:49Speaker 2: the shadow sides too of this work. And really what
- 21:54Speaker 2: brought me to feeling comfortable enough to come forward with
- 21:58Speaker 2: the work I do, because that's whole other piece, right,
- 22:01Speaker 2: is that we've been moving through this psychedelic renaissance and
- 22:04Speaker 2: these medicines are illegal in a lot of places, and
- 22:07Speaker 2: so what kind of pushed me to want to share
- 22:13Speaker 2: what I was doing in a larger format with a
- 22:17Speaker 2: published book is a friend of mine dying after using
- 22:21Speaker 2: these medicines and then another colleague dying both from suicide.
- 22:26Speaker 2: And so what I see with the clients I work
- 22:29Speaker 2: with as well, is that because I work with trauma,
- 22:32Speaker 2: so many are going to these medicines as this magic bullet,
- 22:35Speaker 2: like this is going to be it, This is finally
- 22:37Speaker 2: going to heal me or help me heal from symptoms
- 22:41Speaker 2: of trauma. I don't believe that it is a magic bullet.
- 22:45Speaker 2: Maybe for some it's been, and that's fantastic, But in
- 22:48Speaker 2: order to properly hold spaces for people as therapists, I
- 22:53Speaker 2: think we really need to recognize the importance of proper
- 22:57Speaker 2: preparation and integration and have those in place for our
- 23:01Speaker 2: clients before we're moving, before one is moving into a journey,
- 23:05Speaker 2: because it can be very destabilizing if one hasn't had
- 23:09Speaker 2: the proper support or done the work needed beforehand.
- 23:14Speaker 4: Amen.
- 23:15Speaker 3: Amen, I think like we we have this tendency to
- 23:19Speaker 3: romanticize the just plant medicine and psychedelics in general, and
- 23:25Speaker 3: we don't think of, you know, all all of the
- 23:28Speaker 3: things that can that can happen and have happened, and
- 23:32Speaker 3: the importance of that assisted therapy component, like what that's
- 23:38Speaker 3: why it's so important and ensuring that we have the
- 23:41Speaker 3: vessel to be able to hold what comes up if
- 23:46Speaker 3: in when, if and when it does. And I don't
- 23:48Speaker 3: feel very dissimilar about things like em E, M, d
- 23:52Speaker 3: R and other modalities. Right when we go into them
- 23:55Speaker 3: too soon without the preparation, the resourceing, the nervous system support,
- 24:02Speaker 3: things can also arise right that we're not exactly ready for.
- 24:07Speaker 3: So it's just as I think as clinicians like who
- 24:11Speaker 3: are who are listening and watching right now, really knowing
- 24:15Speaker 3: and under and understanding that is vital for the for
- 24:19Speaker 3: the safety of the client, the patient you are working.
- 24:23Speaker 2: With, absolutely, yeah, and something that you know, kind of
- 24:27Speaker 2: coming back to that art directive I spoke of at
- 24:30Speaker 2: the beginning, where you know, we're tapping into that sense
- 24:32Speaker 2: of safety and then creating an image of that. Really,
- 24:36Speaker 2: you know, the idea of that is understanding the difference
- 24:41Speaker 2: between a trauma var text and a healing vortext And
- 24:44Speaker 2: I believe it's Peter Levine speaks about this right that
- 24:48Speaker 2: we really need to create and know what does a
- 24:51Speaker 2: healing vortex feel like in our body? What does it
- 24:54Speaker 2: feel like to be in that? So then we can
- 24:57Speaker 2: dip our toes into the traumatic piece, but we're not
- 25:01Speaker 2: being sucked into the vortex of that. And psychedelics especially
- 25:06Speaker 2: are not always gentle and they can pull us into that.
- 25:11Speaker 2: And so yeah, clinicians supporting clients, we need to be
- 25:13Speaker 2: aware of that and and aware of how do we
- 25:16Speaker 2: create the healing vortex before the potential of a trauma
- 25:21Speaker 2: vortex is it comes to the surface.
- 25:25Speaker 3: Amen, Amen, Amen, amen, Yeah, thank you, thank you for that,
- 25:29Speaker 3: and thank you for writing about that in the book,
- 25:34Speaker 3: and for for clinicians more interested in your work. Where
- 25:40Speaker 3: can they Where can they find the book? Where can
- 25:43Speaker 3: they find your courses?
- 25:46Speaker 4: Where can they consult you?
- 25:48Speaker 2: Yeah? On my website is probably the best place. Center
- 25:52Speaker 2: of the Heart dot com spelled c N t R E,
- 25:56Speaker 2: not e R, and all the links for my work
- 25:59Speaker 2: are there.
- 26:00Speaker 3: Uh.
- 26:01Speaker 2: This book is published through Routledge, so there's a link
- 26:04Speaker 2: on my website to that, but you can also find
- 26:06Speaker 2: that on Routledge's website. My other book Sacred Geometry and
- 26:15Speaker 2: actually let me.
- 26:15Speaker 4: Grab it, ring it, show it off.
- 26:21Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is an older version, but anyway,
- 26:27Speaker 2: Sacred Geometry Visionary Art is uh, my other book, so
- 26:31Speaker 2: that can be found on Amazon, and yeah, both are
- 26:34Speaker 2: are intended just to support connecting to ourselves, connecting to spirit,
- 26:39Speaker 2: connecting to the medicine or to our experience in a
- 26:42Speaker 2: way that we're able to thrive in life right that
- 26:45Speaker 2: we're not we're not just surviving.
- 26:49Speaker 4: That's that's the goal.
- 26:51Speaker 3: And I also want to say that with the coloring book,
- 26:54Speaker 3: like such a beautiful mindfulness tool and exercise. So if
- 27:00Speaker 3: you're looking for more mindful next activities, you want to
- 27:03Speaker 3: turn to a.
- 27:03Speaker 2: Page I do. Yeah, and this is one of the
- 27:06Speaker 2: preliminary ones that was sent to me. But so it
- 27:09Speaker 2: doesn't have everything, but let's see, yees, I took the
- 27:13Speaker 2: colors out of all of my artwork and then created
- 27:18Speaker 2: these images to be colored, and they're all based on
- 27:21Speaker 2: different sacred geometry images the Chakras. There's meditations to go
- 27:25Speaker 2: with it. And then in the other version of the book,
- 27:31Speaker 2: I included all of the original pictures as well, So
- 27:34Speaker 2: the ones you see at the background, this one doesn't
- 27:36Speaker 2: have it in it, but yeah, so you can cut
- 27:38Speaker 2: those out and use them as a tool for meditation
- 27:41Speaker 2: as well.
- 27:42Speaker 3: So so cool, really amazing. And then for clients interested
- 27:48Speaker 3: in working with you, they can also find you right
- 27:52Speaker 3: on your website and also shout out to the fact
- 27:55Speaker 3: that you meet with us for ninety minutes, right, it's
- 27:58Speaker 3: not just an hour. Can you just share little bit
- 28:00Speaker 3: about why ninety minutes instead of the arbitrary sixty minutes.
- 28:04Speaker 3: So many therapists, I'm like, you, we go over, but
- 28:08Speaker 3: why do you do it?
- 28:09Speaker 4: What's your reason?
- 28:10Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question that comes up a lot
- 28:13Speaker 2: with people when you know they could be surprised by that.
- 28:15Speaker 2: But really it's because of my own experience is in
- 28:18Speaker 2: therapy where I just feel like we're opening things up
- 28:21Speaker 2: at sixty minutes. Because I work with attachment as well,
- 28:25Speaker 2: which is also a big part of my book Psychedelics
- 28:28Speaker 2: and Art Therapy and the process of integration, I feel
- 28:33Speaker 2: like it's important to have that extra time right and space,
- 28:37Speaker 2: and so I just include that in the same price
- 28:40Speaker 2: that I would charge people for an hour, because it
- 28:43Speaker 2: helps me too to go deeper with clients and support
- 28:48Speaker 2: support whatever is needed. But I feel it's important when
- 28:51Speaker 2: we're working with trauma especially, and attachment is usually a
- 28:54Speaker 2: part of that, reparenting that we're given that extra time
- 28:59Speaker 2: to support healing.
- 29:01Speaker 3: I cannot agree any anymore. In that I just I
- 29:05Speaker 3: think like the lot of a lot of the stuff
- 29:07Speaker 3: comes out's like we finally got over what happened in
- 29:09Speaker 3: the last you know, a week or two weeks since
- 29:11Speaker 3: I last you know, met with them, and we really
- 29:15Speaker 3: get into and get into the things at that hour
- 29:18Speaker 3: mark usually so and it's better also, I think you
- 29:23Speaker 3: basically so it's for my nervous system for us to
- 29:26Speaker 3: not feel like rushed or saying that thought or feeling
- 29:30Speaker 3: for for next time, because we usually never do.
- 29:33Speaker 4: We usually never do.
- 29:34Speaker 3: I sat on both sides right of the couch, so
- 29:36Speaker 3: to speak, and I know, I know how that goes.
- 29:38Speaker 3: So thank you for that, and I think it's good
- 29:42Speaker 3: for other clinicians to hear on that perspective as well. So, yeah, Charry,
- 29:48Speaker 3: thank you for coming on here and sharing your vast
- 29:51Speaker 3: amount of knowledge and wisdom with us. Is there one,
- 29:56Speaker 3: like one takeaway for for listeners or viewers that you'd
- 30:02Speaker 3: like to share?
- 30:03Speaker 2: Yeah, a huge takeaway or something that I'd like to offer.
- 30:07Speaker 2: And maybe you know people have heard this in other spaces,
- 30:10Speaker 2: But the medicine is within you. The power is within
- 30:13Speaker 2: you to heal, to expand, and psychedelics in particular they
- 30:21Speaker 2: open up a window for us, and it's an amazing
- 30:24Speaker 2: window that opens. But it's the work we do afterwards
- 30:27Speaker 2: in walking through that and preparing ourselves for that, which
- 30:31Speaker 2: create lasting healing.
- 30:35Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you so much. I'm taking that in
- 30:38Speaker 4: as well.
- 30:39Speaker 3: And thank you to all who've come on here to
- 30:43Speaker 3: listen and to watch. And yeah, I've been so open
- 30:47Speaker 3: minded about this conversation.
- 30:49Speaker 4: We appreciate you. Thank you again, Charmaine, my pleasure.
- 30:53Speaker 2: Thank you, Christine. Yeah, thank you guys here today.
- 30:58Speaker 4: All right, lots of love everyone one, take care