Patrick DaxenbichlerC – stock.adobe.com In recent years, traditional approaches to addressing mental health and addiction issues have evolved to embrace alternative therapies that utilize the transformative power of our inner selves, nature and ancient healing practices. Among these emerging therapies, psychedelic retreats have gained significant interest as a modality. Retreats are short-term inpatient treatment programs that provide a deepened wellness experience while focusing on personal growth, healing and self-discovery. Psychedelic retreats also include structured, immersive experiences where participants engage in guided sessions with psychedelic substances to facilitate a deeper personal transformation.
While pursuing skills and training that help me provide modern treatment approaches using legal psychedelics, I couldn’t help but notice the growing demand for healing retreats. My psychedelic treatment program at the Center of Inner Transformations has provided in-office, in-home and group treatment modalities for many years, while I referred my clients out for inpatient treatment programs. The requests and demands for me to create a retreat-style inpatient program piqued my interest in acquiring various psychedelic retreat experiences, both personal and experiential. By allowing myself to feel vulnerable with professionals who I vetted my trust, I allowed myself to be me, not The Happy Therapist , or the psychotherapist, but Sonia Singh, the first-generation Punjabi-American woman with an openness about her past of battling and overcoming mental health struggles.
My journey led me to meet Dr. Berenice Blyzet, a psychedelic facilitator and psychedelic retreat curator, working for Dr. Magalie Brewer, a seasoned psychiatric treatment veteran, who invited me to my most poignant psychedelic treatment experience at “Healing Escapes” in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This legal psilocybin-assisted treatment program offered me a unique personalized treatment experience that included pre- and post-assessment screening and assessment, a 1:1 treatment provider-to-client ratio, a private luxury accommodation for me to have a private dosing session, personalized wellness and mind-body therapies, various integrative therapy groups, nutritional chef-inspired meals, an island nature excursion, harm reduction counseling, and a psychedelic facilitator sitting in on my “high-dose” of psilocybin mushroom session for support and to process my mystical experience. They also offer experiential training and education retreats for clinicians seeking […]
The Happy Therapist Experience: Psychedelic Retreats for Inner Transformations
