Retreat Aftercare

Integration is as important, if not more important than the retreat itself.

Integration tools can be used after or between experiences of expanded states of consciousness and transformation to help us make sense of our experience and stabilize positive changes in our daily lives. We will discuss these thoroughly during the retreat.

After the retreat, you will experience a “grace period” of a few weeks during which you will continue to receive insights while the medicine works through your system.

Integration Advice

  • Follow the Dieta- avoid 1) Red Meat + Pork,  2) Fermented foods + alcohol, and  3) drugs, sex, and rock and roll (intense energies) for 7-10 days. 

  • Be gentle, compassionate, and *kind* with yourself — You may feel more sensitive than usual, have emotions arising, and need some extra time in quiet.

  • Trust the process and your system’s natural intelligence to organize itself towards health. Stay calm and curious as your psyche integrates itself.

  • Witness with Curiosity — Don’t get too involved with ‘figuring out’ what happened, but just observe and be present with the feelings that arise

  • Know that Weird Stuff happening is Normal — physical shaking, feeling very sensitive, fatigue, picking up on new levels of data in the environment, feelings of sadness, feeling lost, feeling fear, or feeling like you’re in an altered state of consciousness, intense intuitions, and strong synchronicities are common to the process of consciousness expansion. Rest plenty and when feeling strange, ask, “Oh, How interesting. What is this like?”

  • Take good care of the body — 1. Sleep. 2. Eat. 3. Move gently

    • Eat brain nourishing foods - protein, omega oil, B vitamins, fish, broccoli, blueberries, almonds. 

    • Walking, Yoga, Qi Gong, Dance, or any form of movement will help you process realizations and release emotional energy.

    • *I really love yoga as a way to not only care for the body, access the numinous, but also to keep developing on the spiritual path.

  • Journal. Bring the insights into your conscious mind through free writing.

  • Pay attention to your dreams.  Log them and notice the feelings that are coming up in them, processing the material that comes up.

  • Ground. Lay on the earth, get your hands in the soil, Get into Nature. Listen and Feel.

  • Express Creatively - journal, make art, write songs and poems, to give voice to the experience that is often beyond words

  • Reconnect with the numinous space you accessed - through yoga, meditation, qi gong, even going to places of awe in nature. Set a sacred space with an altar where you can go routinely and connect to inner space. Stay in dialogue with the resources you accessed — such as plants, guides, or your higher self.

  • Honor the Sacred. Stay humble and remember your creator, however that may be.

Counselors + Community Resources We  Recommend:

Psychotherapy + Coaches

  • Yossi Shahar: Trauma, Hakomi (South Bay) yossi.shahar@protonmail.com

  • Jessica Clarke, https://sites.google.com/view/jessicarclarklmft/home, jessicahmclark@gmail.com

  • Susana Bustos, Phd: Psychedelic integration, plant dieta, and piritual emergence. (Mendocino) drsusanabustos@gmail.com

  • Manuela Mischke-Reed, MFT: Trauma, Hakomi: www.manuelamischkereeds.com

  • Anna Harland, MSW: Antiracism, trauma, hakomi: www.annaharland.ca

  • Sebastien Beca, MFT: Psychedelic integration, gestalt: www.sebastianbeca.com

  • Ido Cohen, PsyD Jungian, psychedelic integration, idocohenpsych@gmail.com

  • Raphael Gunner PhD: Trauma, Eating Disorders, psychoanalytic, drraphaelgunner.com

  • Jan Edl Stein, MFT: Somatic and eco-psychology (North Bay) www.janedl.com

  • Noam Kedem: Hakomi (South Bay) www.presentfully.com 

  • Shirley Bar Dvir, MFT: Trauma, Hakomi (East Bay) shorturl.at/dnGN7

  • Emily Marinelli, MFT: LGBTQIA+, polyamorous relationships: shorturl.at/ixFVX

  • Melissa Whippo: shamanic affirming: melissawhippo.com

  • Greg Bogart PhD: astrology and psychotherapy, www.dawnmountain.com

  • Shana Butler, PsyD: http://www.shannabutler.com/

Affordable Psychotherapy:

  • CIIS Integral Counseling Centers: www.ciis.edu/counseling-and-acupuncture-clinics

  • Liberation Institute: www.liberationinstitute.org

  • Heart in Balance: www.heartinbalancetherapy.com

  • Pacific Center: specializing in LGBTQIA+ www.pacificcenter.org

    Couples Therapy:

  • Gal Szeleky: Couples counseling, hakomi www.thecouplescenter.org

  • Daphne Lowe: Somatic Psychotherapy, couples: www.daphnelowe.com

    MD

  • Kristie Boyce, MD: Integrative psychiatry www.kristieboyce.com

  • Dr. Davi Prakter, Integrative Medicine (East Bay) david.pakter@gmail.com

  • Dr. Dan Engle, Integrative Psychiatry www.drdanengle.com

  • Dr. Joe Tafur, traditional-allopathic Integrative Medicine www.drjoetafur.com

Acupuncture:

  • SF:  Courtney Moore www.courtneymooreacu.com

  • Mill Valley: Chris Veiga Chris@acupuncture-marin.com

  • East Bay:  Scott Blossom www.shunyatayoga.com

Intuitive readings:

  • Lianda Swain www.liandaswain.com

Kundalini Syndrome and Spiritual Emergence:

  • Tao Semko www.taosemko.com

Community Resources:

Music: 

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How to Integrate After Your Long Dieta 

(intensive work with the plants in the jungle) 

Summary

During this time, it’s important to rest, eat healthy clean foods, and listen to your body. To get the most out of your experience, be sure to follow the dietary guidelines listed below. Journaling, making art or music, and gentle movement are helpful to keeping your energy flowing and bringing the insights into your conscious reality. Energetic body work, meditation, yoga, and counseling can be very supportive to the integration process.  Your experience is precious and sacred to you. Honor it. You may want to only share it with others who might understand it, not those who may discredit it.

After the dieta you’ll be in a special energetic state that will gradually fade over a period of time about twice as long as you were at dieting (for example, if you dieted for one month, be mindful of post-dieta for 2 months). During this time the spirits of the plants are still working with you.  In this special energetic state, you may feel particularly open, sensitive, and even tender. It’s not uncommon to feel nervousness or fear, or to feel the effects of the plants come again at random times. If this happens, give yourself a little space to rest and don’t be alarmed. This is natural.

The intention of these suggestions is so that you can get the most from your dieta experience and avoid what’s called “crossing the dieta.” The “cross” is a sort of energetic twist that comes from chemical and energetic conflicts with the energy of the plants in your body.  After an 8 day dieta, there is not much risk of doing any harm, aside from having an upset digestion. However, even an upset belly is not necessary.

The return phase of the dieta, coming back to your existing relationships and life, is truly a process of getting to know your new self.  You have been transformed in the jungle in ways that you haven’t had a chance to test out yet. So be gentle and compassionate with yourself as you get reacquainted with how you feel inside, who you are, what you value, and who you walk through the world. You may find that relationships feel different than they did before and that you feel very subtly different. 

Consider the integration along 6 different directions, or axis: 

Physical

Emotional

Mental / Ideological

Spiritual 

Environment

Community

Physical

Follow the Dieta for 8 days after your last session. 

(For longer dietas, observe for longer period)

• Avoid fermented foods -- including any alcohol or vinegars

• Avoid recreational drugs, Rx drugs, or over the counter drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen are okay)

• Avoid red meat and pork

• Avoid dairy products

• Abstain from sexual activity to conserve your vital energy and allow your psyche to naturally integrate when you experienced

• Reduced excessive fatty foods and excessive oils (deep fried especially)

• Reduced salt (including high amounts of salt in processed foods)

• Reduced sugar (including sugar in processed foods)

• Be mindful of psychic consumption - avoid violent movies and make more space for stillness and relaxation

(Note that different maestros will offer different guidelines, and some plants have different regulations and considerations than others. Plants like Came Renaco, Shihuaco, Chuchuhuasi, Tamamuri, and Chacruna will get best results if you follow the directions above. Other plants are more strict. For Chiric Sanango, also avoid fish and eggs, and the dieta is very important. For plants like Ayahuma, Lupuna, and Ajosquiero, crossing the diet can be dangerous.)

Gentle movement like yoga, Qi Gong, and hikes in nature are also very useful to keep the energy flowing in your body and mind.

Emotional

It is likely that you will feel emotionally tender for some time after your dietas and you may continue to have emotional material coming to the surface after the dieta.  

Be compassionate and gentle with yourself. Give it space and welcome any feelings that come up.  

When you have emotions comes up, it can be helpful to move your body, make art, journal, or call an understanding friend.

If you have any emotions or memories come up that are particularly difficult to process or feel intense, working with a counselor can be appropriate and helpful.

Mental

You may feel like you received a ton of insights but when you get back into the day to day of your world, you aren’t sure what to do with all of them.  Review your notes in your journal from your dieta. Were there any action items to implement? Take them one at a time. 

Try keeping an ongoing integration journal. I like to keep this on my phone in a notes doc, so that I can keep making little notes about what  I am noticing about my own process when I return. 

Spiritual 

Continue nourishing your connection to the numinous (the transcendent state). When you diet, you are opened up to access these higher states. You don’t want to be that open and high in the day to day world, as that would be a bit much. However, you do want to create a bridge so that world is more available to you. 

A few great ways to stay connected:

1) Build an altar and put objects on it that remind you of your dietas, the jungle, and your insights; 

2) Maintain your practice of meditation or taking some quiet time in nature, or any special rituals you did for yourself during the dieta; 

3) Listen to the icarros.  You can find recordings of many of the ceremonies we’ve done as well as sessions in the jungle here.

4) Stay connected to friends and community that support the plant work.

Environment and Community

After the dieta, you are much more sensitive and open than you used to be. This will gently close over time.  However, you will want to take care of yourself and follow you gut sense of where to be and who to share your experience with.  

Spend time with those who support and understand you. It’s unlikely that most other people will be able to really understand what you’ve experienced in the jungle, so be discerning about who you share with. Over time, you’ll find that your transcendent experiences will distill into practical applications — how you know yourself, how you value others, how you act and behave in the world. These insights and virtues are the ones to share with others. And in the meanwhile, let your personal experiences be precious to you and possibly it’s better not to share them with just anyone.

Keep your space clean and *spend lots of time in nature* to resource yourself.

Keeping the process going smoothly with support.

When you get back from the dieta is when the actual work starts.

You may feel like once you get back, you are eating real food again, and everything should be normal again… but it’s not.  Once you return, you’ve now just started the process. You can expect the plants to continue working with you for about twice as long as you dieted.  

During this time, don’t be afraid to get support from a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist, or counselor of some kind who is familiar with the dieta or at least psycho-spiritual processes. You may be processing and experiencing deep internal shifts, sometimes surfacing long held psychological material, for months after the dieta.

This is your very personal personal process of finding freedom within yourself.  Please take good care of yourself and don’t let this moment pass by.

Implementation:

Did you make any commitments from the jungle of things to do?

A good rule of thumb is to not make any bold life decisions for 3-6 weeks after your dieta.  Trust me, you may feel differently after you ground a bit, and you want to let the post-dieta unfold before making any major decisions.

However, if you have anyone to give gratitude for, relationships to repair, or positive actions to do - now is a good time to do that

Integration support will be provided during and after the retreat through group calls and one-on-one sessions with each participant that we will schedule before the retreat.  If you would like additional integration support, you can schedule further sessions with Jordana to continue deepening and unfolding your process.