Why Every Mental Health Professional Should Attend the Mindful Psychedelics Integration Method Certificate Training: A Client’s Humble Perspective

I asked to write this article and requested only that my name be withheld to protect my privacy, as the nuances of my personal journey and struggle aren’t widely known. For 38 years, I was locked in a relentless battle with low-grade depression. I was not confined to my bed (most days), but for years, nothing felt good. As they say, "neurons that fire together wire together," and my brain housed a superhighway of poopy feelings, to use the scientific term. Graduations, weddings, promotions, and births happened in my life while I felt like an outsider watching my own life play out from behind a glass pane. I knew how to “act happy” but not how to experience happy feelings.

My days were marked by a fog of sadness and dysregulation, a sense of emptiness that no amount of therapy or medication could lift. I had tried everything from cognitive behavioral therapy to antidepressants, yoga to strict elimination diets, yet nothing seemed to provide lasting relief. It felt like I was treading water. The search itself was dispiriting and exhausting. This was a gun fight and there I was, time after time, wielding a shiny spoon.

Having experimented with in-person psychedelic-led therapy years prior and several remote psychedelic-guided therapy sessions, I was looking for an in-person option. And so, I googled "psychedelic integration therapists in Miami." That's how I found Mindful Psychedelics. Not the most riveting of stories, I know, but it is the truth. We met online. Like everyone else these days.

When I contacted Mindful Psychedelics via their online contact form, I was at the end of my rope. It was not my first rodeo. As I mentioned, it was not even my first (or second) rodeo with psychedelic therapy. I was deeply skeptical but too uncomfortable to let sleeping dogs lie. And so, driven by a heady a mix of desperation and guarded hope, I decided to give yet another place a try.

The Mindful Psychedelics approach, developed by Dr. Isaac Farin and Dr. Vanessa Bibliowicz, promised a holistic approach to integrating psychedelic experiences into daily life. As I would soon come to learn, Dr. Farin and Dr. Bibliowicz have forged an entirely new path in psychedelic integration. You will not find anyone practicing the Mindful Psychedelics method unless they were taught it directly by Dr. Farin and Dr. Bibliowicz because it is entirely new and novel. But I digress.

In my first phone conversation with Dr. Farin, there was certainly a part of me that thought, "What is this guy going to do that a dozen other therapists didn’t do?" But in that very first conversation, I heard something in Dr. Farin's voice that I hadn't heard before—a buoyancy, perhaps? I wasn’t sure (and still am not). And while he was sympathetic to my tale of woe, he didn't seem floored by it. While he never said so explicitly, I got the distinct impression that he was certain that the monstrous depression that had been plaguing me was no match for whatever it was he had in store for me. And, of course, in that initial call, I thought there was more than a zero chance this guy’s head might be firmly planted in his own behind. But I showed up for the first session.

The initial session was surprisingly similar to the intake process of many larger practices: questions about my family, questions about the major issues I was facing, and before too long, the 50 minutes were over, and I was politely invited to vacate the sofa for the next client. After a few sessions that felt somehow both insightful and confusing (all part of the process, I eventually came to learn), Dr. Farin suggested ketamine.

As an avid researcher, I had been knee-deep in clinical data of phase 2 and 3 trials of a variety of psychedelic molecules, and ketamine was not my first choice, which I expressed in no uncertain terms to Dr. Farin. He responded just as firmly, insisting that I should try it anyway because the Mindful Psychedelic Method has yielded excellent results with it. I agreed, smiling sweetly, and muttering under my breath.

It was a series of sessions—the first a guided session in the office and several at home where I followed the precise protocol Dr. Farin dictated to me. And let me tell you, it was very detailed. It felt like learning a brand-new skill without a name. And you know what? I wasn’t bad at whatever-it-was.  Additionally, between ketamine sessions, I attended several breathwork sessions with Dr. Bibliowicz, which were also psychedelic and just as profound in their own way. The preparation and integration for any psychedelic sessions were painstaking and collaborative.

Importantly, there were some principles introduced by Dr. Farin that I had never heard of before in the context of psychedelics or otherwise. The most important one was that “all reality is psychedelic”, meaning life itself is a psychedelic experience, albeit one we are so used to that it becomes easy to forget this truth. This idea, I've come to understand, forms the backbone of the transformation that I and so many others have undergone in those cozy, essential-oil-diffused, white noise-suffused rooms of the Mindful Psychedelics practice.

While every psychedelic journey provides its own profound insights, the protocol that I was now following allowed my conscious and unconscious minds to convene, and for those insights to land in a way that was immediately transformative. Yes, I know it sounds abstract. There is no easy way to write about psychedelic experiences. But bear with me as I get a bit more specific.

The reason that the understanding that life itself is a psychedelic experience—that “all reality is psychedelic”—is powerful is because once internalized, it allowed my mind to view the very essence of my experience, my relationship with reality, as malleable. Theoretically, it is a belief that, once accepted, set the stage to fully capitalize on the neuroplasticity offered by the psychedelic medicine: what was once a prison soon becoming a realm of limitless possibilities.

This transformation didn’t happen overnight. In fact, and forgive my little tangent, the perception and touting of psychedelics as a silver bullet for any mental condition is a dangerous one. I have felt personally and painfully the sting of a psychedelic journey that failed to deliver the longed-for transformative results. The trick is not to expect immediate transformation. Now back to business.

After about eight psychedelic sessions punctuated by twenty or so preparation and integration sessions , I had a longer and deeper psychedelic session with both Dr. Farin and Dr. Bibliowicz. Having all my prior insights so alive and accessible in my mind, there was one moment when everything suddenly changed.

I love the example mentioned in the book "Atomic Habits" about the way transformation happens, because it so closely tracks my own experience. Imagine your goal is to melt a cube of ice. If the room is too cold, say 20 degrees, you better start warming up the room. As the room reaches 23, 24, 25, 26 degrees, nothing happens. It's very easy to think that what you're doing isn't working. But as soon as the room hits 32 and then 33 degrees, the ice starts to melt. Like the ice, my depression melted away that day.

And that’s not all folks. I had always struggled with mindfulness, finding it difficult to quiet my mind and focus on the present moment. In 2014, I even completed the famous 8-week Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation course and watched as it changed participants’ lives while experiencing absolutely no personal benefit. I was a tough nut to crack. Now, meditation and mindfulness are daily practices that are transformative.

I will leave it to Aldous Huxley, Terence McKenna and Miley Cyrus to describe their actual journeys in detail. Instead, I will say that almost a year later, my new relationship with reality has only improved. It was that nameless new skill, you see? That skill was reality building. You could even say that skill was life itself.

Before coming to Mindful Psychedelics I had a secret plan, I knew better than to share it—if nothing helped by the age of 40, I would start thinking of taking an indefinite leave of presence, if you catch my drift. The person who felt that way is not who I am today, though I feel great sympathy for her.

When I heard that Dr. Farin and Dr. Bibliowicz were thinking of teaching their method to other mental health professional in a course, I felt it was the greatest act of altruism. Their willingness to spread this profound wisdom rather than keep it to themselves is admirable. If you are a mental health professional who wants to help clients do more than just survive, I implore you to take this course. Dr. Farin and Dr. Bibliowicz are pioneers, and the Mindful Psychedelics Method is the psychedelic therapy of the future.

My experience is far from isolated. I see it in their waiting rooms, and I hear it in conversations whispered around town by those too ashamed to openly discuss their mental health struggles, and perhaps too afraid of the stigma associated with resorting to psychedelics as a therapeutic approach, which is a different enchilada entirely.

Take the course. And if you are not a mental health practitioner but are suffering, seek out a Mindful Psychedelics Certified professional because they will change your life for good.

Today, I am filled with gratitude, not only to the extraordinary innovators at Mindful Psychedelics but to life itself. The old me would have struggled to understand what that even means. And to the old me, I say, "We did it. We’re safe. We’re happy."