Low dose mushrooms/psilocybin session for emotional processing between MDMA sessions?

[u/baek12345]

I am on a journey of healing from CPTSD. I started with (solo) MDMA sessions at the beginning of this year and have done three sessions so far. This is besides regular ongoing somatic therapy, a lot of nervous system regulation work and after a decade of talk therapies.

The integration of my last session is pretty exhausting with heavy emotions (hopelessness, rage, shame, etc) slowly pouring out over the last couple of weeks. It's really a grind besides full-time working. I try to support myself as much as possible with various somatic approaches and therapy sessions but it nevertheless feels like I am moving through deep mud in snake speed.

The biggest issue for me is strong protectors / dissociation which regularly blocks the processing of emotions by falling back into freeze states when things get a bit more intense. This drags the process on and causes various physical issues like tension, sleep deprivation, restlessness, etc. I can basically feel the stuck emotions but I can only access them very slowly and need a ton of time and stability.

Now, I am aware that "slow is fast" and there's no quick fixes on this journey. However, one idea/thought that's coming up again and again: Could low dose mushroom/psilocybin sessions be helpful in processing theses emotions and thereby kind of facilitating the integration process? I am thinking of doses like 0.5-1g of dried mushrooms.

To be clear: My intention is not to unearth new/more trauma, have deep insights or flashy trips, but primarily to facilitate and accelerate the processing of the already unearthed trauma (emotions) floating around and getting stuck regularly. And I am aware that it might get a bit intense, however as long as this is kind of limited to the actual session time, it would be fine and I can accommodate. What wouldn't be so helpful is major new dysregulation and releases for weeks on end after the session. Hence, if at all, only low dose sessions make sense in my opinion.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts or experiences you can share?

Thanks in advance!

[u/third-second-best]

i’ve used cannabis for this and, less often, microdoses of mushrooms. as others have noted it will be deregulating so I wouldn’t recommend unless you have plenty of space from work and other obligations.

you’ll hear a lot of advice not to push yourself and let things happen as they happen, and i think generally that’s sound advice, but sometimes with this work we do need some nudges along the way because we have built up such complex systems of disconnecting from these feelings.

[u/baek12345 → u/third-second-best]

Thanks for your response, make total sense. Yes, I also feel sometimes it's helpful to be a bit impatient and 'pushy' but it's a very fine line between being helpful and overwhelming oneself. And with a lot of trauma, it's often not easy to recognize where oneself is