Free Webinar · July 17 12pm PT · Reserve your spot →
We do not provide psychedelic medicines. We do not facilitate psychedelic experiences. What we offer is the functional medicine preparation and integration support that surrounds legal psychedelic-assisted therapy — the biological, nutritional, and physiological work that optimizes outcomes before, during, and after the work itself.
This includes preparation for legal modalities — ketamine in clinical settings, eventually psilocybin in approved programs, MDMA-assisted therapy as it becomes available — as well as integration support for people who have already had psychedelic experiences in those settings.
Psychedelic experiences are extraordinary biological events. Recent research from Gul Dolen’s lab and others suggests these medicines reopen critical-period plasticity — what’s now being called metaplasticity — making the brain transiently more receptive to learning, social reward, and new patterns. That window is real and measurable. But it is also brief, and the depth of what it can accomplish depends on the biological terrain it lands in. As psychedelic researcher Manesh Girn puts it, the medicines open the door; the integration is what walks through it. A nervous system stuck in chronic stress activation, a gut in dysbiosis, a methylation system in dysregulation, a body depleted of the cofactors required for serotonin and dopamine synthesis — these conditions limit what any psychedelic experience can do, no matter how skilled the therapist or how potent the dose.
Our preparation work targets the systems most relevant to psychedelic outcomes:
Psychedelics work largely through serotonergic systems — psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA all act on the 5-HT2A receptor — and through glutamatergic systems for ketamine, where NMDA antagonism drives downstream AMPA signaling, mTOR activation, and BDNF release. The raw materials for those pathways — folate forms, B12, B6, magnesium, amino acid precursors — need to be present in adequate supply. Common methylation variants (MTHFR, COMT) shape both the experience itself and the integration phase that follows.
The enteric nervous system produces and regulates the majority of the body’s serotonin precursor activity. A compromised gut barrier and dysbiotic microbiome dampen the substrate the medicines work on, and contribute to the systemic inflammation that constrains brain plasticity. Gut work before psychedelic therapy is foundational, not optional.
A nervous system stuck in chronic activation has a narrower window of tolerance — less capacity for the parasympathetic openness that allows psychedelic experiences to land without overwhelming the system. HPA axis work in the months before the experience changes what’s possible during it, and reduces the likelihood of dysregulated states the therapist then has to manage.
Both reduce the brain’s neuroplasticity potential. Anti-inflammatory protocols and antioxidant support — particularly NAC and glutathione precursors — set the conditions for the metaplasticity window to open fully and for newly-formed dendritic connections to consolidate.
The nights surrounding a psychedelic session are when much of the consolidation happens. Sleep optimization in advance — and sleep protection in the days after — significantly affects integration outcomes.
Psychedelics interact dangerously with several psychiatric medications. SSRIs, SNRIs, and MAOIs raise serotonin syndrome risk with serotonergic psychedelics. Lithium carries particularly serious risk. Tramadol and other serotonergic agents must be screened. Many antidepressants also blunt the psychedelic experience itself, leaving people frustrated and the work compromised. Tapering windows matter and vary by drug. We screen carefully and coordinate with prescribers when medications need adjustment around the work. This is non-negotiable safety work.
The work doesn’t end with the experience. Integration is where transformation either consolidates or dissipates — where the insights from the journey either translate into a different way of living, or fade into memory as a story you tell about a meaningful weekend. Integration begins in preparation, intensifies in the days and weeks immediately after the experience while the metaplasticity window is open, and continues for months as the changes settle into baseline.
Not every psychedelic experience needs to be interpreted or resolved. Sometimes integration is helping the body hold what was opened, without forcing it into meaning. For some people, psychedelic-assisted therapy comes after months of foundational functional medicine work. For others, the functional medicine work begins after a transformative experience as a way to consolidate it. Both sequences work, and we accommodate either.
For more on our perspective on this work, see our blog posts on psychedelic medicine and substance use recovery and on plant allies and the psychedelic journey
Psychedelic preparation and integration support sits alongside our structured, multi-phase functional medicine program rather than replacing it. The same testing — blood biomarkers, DUTCH hormone testing , nutrient analysis, genetic analysis , gut assessment, food sensitivity testing — informs both the foundational protocol and the psychedelic-specific work.
For patients pursuing legal psychedelic-assisted therapy, we adjust the timing and sequencing of interventions to maximize benefit around the experience. For patients integrating after experiences they’ve already had, we focus on consolidation work.
This work is not appropriate as preparation for unsupervised, illegal, or recreational psychedelic use. We work only in the context of legal, clinically supervised psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Psychedelic preparation and integration support is available as part of our functional medicine assessment and consultation program and through our ongoing membership. Full structure: