MUSIC IS PART OF THE JOURNEY
Spotify Playlists:
- Psychedelic Therapy Playlist 1 Curated by Mendel Kaelen, this playlist features ambient and instrumental tracks tailored for therapeutic sessions.
- Listen on Spotify
- Spotify
- Music for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (Psilocybin) Created for the Foundations of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy with Beckley Academy, this collection offers a serene auditory backdrop for deep exploration.
- Listen on Spotify
- Spotify
- Guided Psilocybin Journeys | Inner Peace Inspired by the Johns Hopkins psilocybin research studies, this playlist is designed to accompany mushroom ceremonies and psychedelic sessions.
- Listen on Spotify
- Spotify
- Psychedelic Therapy: Calming A soothing compilation suitable for meditation, yoga, or any heart-centered practice, promoting relaxation and grounding.
- Listen on Spotify
- Spotify
- Shamanic Deep Journey / Psychedelic Therapy / Ayahuasca / Ethnic A relaxed mix featuring ambient and ethnic tracks from around the world—deep, meditative, and shamanic sounds ideal for therapeutic settings.
- Listen on Spotify
- Spotify
YouTube Playlists and Videos:
- Ketamine Therapy Music & Wellness Instrumentals for Stress Relief A selection of calming instrumentals aimed at enhancing the ketamine therapy experience and alleviating stress.
- Watch on YouTube
- Ketamine Infusion Playlist A curated series of videos featuring peaceful and relaxing instrumental music, suitable for ketamine infusion sessions.
- Watch on YouTube
- Psychedelic Assisted Therapy - Immersive Sound Experience - 001 An immersive auditory experience designed to support psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions.
- Watch on YouTube
- Ketamine Therapy Audiovisual Experience - Volume 1 A trippy audiovisual journey crafted to complement ketamine therapy and promote deep relaxation.
- Watch on YouTube
- Ketamine Therapy Audiovisual Experience - Volume 2 [Ambient Music] [4K] A continuation of the immersive audiovisual series, offering ambient music paired with captivating visuals.
- Watch on YouTube
INTENTION SETTING
The Power of Intention in Ketamine and Psychedelic Therapy: A Compass for Healing
In the world of psychedelic therapy, whether through ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, or other entheogens, intention is more than a helpful preparation step; it is a sacred invitation to collaborate with the healing process. As a Somatic Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist, I’ve witnessed how setting clear, compassionate intentions can open portals within us, helping clients deepen into the work and experience more meaningful, transformative sessions.
But what does it really mean to set an intention for psychedelic therapy? And how can this process support the unique unfolding of your healing journey?
Why Intention Matters
Psychedelic states, including those brought on by ketamine, can usher in expansive awareness, non-linear insight, emotional release, and deeply felt experiences that are often difficult to articulate. These states are fertile ground for healing, but they are also tender, porous, and powerful. Having an intention is like setting the coordinates for your inner navigation system, it doesn’t guarantee a specific outcome, but it helps orient you when things feel unfamiliar, emotional, or surprising.
An intention serves as:
- A grounding anchor during intense moments
- A guiding light when the path feels unclear
- A relational offering to your inner wisdom and the medicine
- A container for what your heart, body, and soul are ready to explore
How to Set an Intention
There is no right or wrong way to set an intention, but it can be helpful to approach the process with curiosity, compassion, and a sense of openness. Here are a few reflective steps to support you:
1. Create Space to Listen Inward
Before your session, carve out quiet time to connect with yourself. Sit with your breath. Journal. Walk in nature. Meditate.
Ask yourself:
- What is calling for attention in my life?
- What patterns or beliefs am I ready to shift?
- Where do I feel disconnected or longing for healing?
- What is the next layer of my awakening?
Let the answers arise without judgment or agenda.
2. Speak from the Heart, Not the Ego
Rather than focusing on outcomes like “I want to fix my anxiety,” shift toward compassionate curiosity:
- “I want to understand the roots of my anxiety.”
- “I am open to meeting the parts of me that are holding pain.”
- “I want to experience more connection to my true self.”
These intentions invite insight and healing, rather than control.
3. Keep it Simple and Soulful
Your intention might be just a few words:
- “I surrender.”
- “I open to love.”
- “I want to remember who I am.”
- “I’m ready to heal generational pain.”
Trust the simplicity. The medicine often meets us in profound ways when we’re honest, humble, and present.
During and After the Session
Hold your intention lightly. It is not a command, it’s a prayer. Sometimes the experience will reflect it directly; other times, it may take a different route entirely. That’s okay. Let yourself be surprised. Let yourself be taught. After the session, revisit your intention and journal about how it showed up….or didn’t
Ask
- What did I learn?
- What felt unfamiliar but important?
- How might I continue living into this intention?
Integration is where the intention takes root in your life. Continue to walk with it. Reflect on it. Let it evolve as you do.
Intentions as a Practice of Sacred Collaboration
In ketamine and psychedelic work, we are not passive recipients, we are active participants in the unfolding of our own healing. Intention-setting honors that. It says: I am here. I am listening. I am ready. It is one of the most courageous and compassionate ways we can prepare ourselves for this deep work. If you are preparing for a ketamine-assisted therapy session…or any psychedelic experience…give yourself the gift of time to connect with your intention. Even if you’re unsure, even if it feels messy, trust that your heart knows what it needs. And remember: the journey is not about perfection. It’s about presence.
With kindness and reverence,
Anissa Pfannenstiel, LSCSW Somatic Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist
Activities for Integration
Somatic Grounding + Sensations
Somatic Grounding + Mapping Sensations
To anchor insights into the body, where transformation can truly take root.
Invite yourself to calm your mind and then perform a body scan meditation by taking deep breaths to relax and focusing on your body & recalling sensations they experienced during the journey.
Draw a body outline and color in where they felt openness, pain, lightness, grief, etc.
Recommend to journal: What messages did those parts hold? What might your body need now to continue integrating this shift?
Dialogue with Inner Self
Dialogue with the Inner Self/Guides
To support continued relationship with inner wisdom or archetypal figures that may have emerged.
Write a conversation between their current self and a part/guide/message that showed up during the Ketamine experience.
Use prompts like: What do you want me to know? What are you here to help me with? What needs to happen now for me to live from this truth?
This can also be done aloud, with self in mirror. You may journal an interaction of your parts.
Sacred Nature Walk + Intentional Listening
Sacred Nature Walk with Intentional Listening
Take a solo walk in nature (even a city park can be enough), with the intention of listening rather than thinking.
Ask a question before the walk begins: What am I meant to carry forward from my journey? or What does my soul need me to know right now?
As you walk, have notice which plants, animals, shapes, sounds, or patterns seem to “speak” to them.
Afterward, journal what was noticed and reflect on any metaphors or messages that emerged.
Beauty of Psychedelic Healing
Psychedelic journeys, whether through traditional plant medicines or substances like ketamine, offer us a profound and often sacred encounter with the inner self, the unconscious, and the unseen realms of our being. These experiences can open the doors of perception, revealing insights, emotions, and truths that lie beneath our day-to-day awareness. They invite us into deep surrender where healing often arises not from doing, but from allowing, witnessing, and reconnecting with the innate wisdom that already lives within us. The beauty of these journeys lies not only in the visions or sensations they evoke, but in the way they tenderly illuminate the places within us that are ready to be seen, held, and transformed.
Though ketamine is technically classified as a dissociative, it shares the spirit of psychedelic healing in its capacity to soften the boundaries of the ego and invite spaciousness around pain, trauma, or entrenched patterns. For many, ketamine produces experiences that feel dreamlike, mystical, or even transcendental, offering a reprieve from the tight grip of depressive or anxious thought loops. This altered state can allow clients to access insights, compassion, and perspectives that are difficult to reach through traditional talk therapy alone. When held in a sacred, therapeutic, and integrative container, ketamine, like the plant teachers before it, can become a powerful ally in awakening, healing, and returning to the heart of who we truly are.