Healing Trauma & Depression at a Retreat Centre Using Plant Medicine
Find Yourself Of Amir
Summary Of The Case Studies
- Safety first. Amir completed medical/psychological screening, collaborated with a primary care provider, and agreed to a structured plan: preparation sessions → retreat → multi-week integration.
- Stabilization goals. Before any non-ordinary state work, we built a foundation: daily grounding micro-practices (orientation, paced breathing), a written “anchor plan” for flashbacks, and consent signals for pausing.
- Therapeutic frame. We clarified how to build relief from dissociation, reconnect with self/body without focusing on outcomes. We named potential risks and created aftercare supports.
Therapeutic Approach Used
- Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR): to access and process early, pre-verbal shock responses without retraumatization by tracking the “initial orienting tension” and carefully titrating activation.
- Ericksonian Hypnotherapy: permissive, resource-focused suggestions to strengthen felt-sense safety and widen Amir’s window of tolerance.
- Trauma-Informed Somatic Work: co-regulation through voice pace, posture, and breath.
- Psychodynamic & Family-of-Origin Exploration: mapping attachment patterns, shame narratives, and protective parts that formed around early abuse.
- Feeling sad, wanting to cry, empty, desperate
- Excited or hot-tempered
- Feeling whatever you do is not good enough
- Increase the consumption of alcoholic beverages
- Indifferent to physical health and appearance
- The thought of death has an idea of how to end life
Therapies For This Case
Expert In This Case:
Wallace Murray
Counselling Therapist • Hypnotherapist
Expert said: ”Amir identified early body signals for “spacing out” (narrowing vision, numbness) and applied anchors before losing contact. The internal voice of self-blame became recognizable as an old protective strategy; it now meets a practiced counter-voice of care.
With clearer boundaries and trust signals, Amir could stay present during emotionally charged conversations. He uses brief daily somatic reps (30–90 seconds) and reports quicker returns to baseline after triggers.”
Mode Of Treatment
Stability Phase (4 sessions, pre-retreat). We established reliable down-regulation tools, somatic and hypnotherapy reinforced body-based safety cues.
Meaningful Preparation. We rehearsed a clear retreat plan: intention statements, somatic boundaries, and how to ask facilitators for support.
Retreat (plant medicine, medically screened & facilitated). My role remained relational and trauma-informed: grounding check-ins, pacing, and support for choice and consent. Interventions were minimal, primarily breath, orientation, and time-outs when dissociative edges appeared.
Integration (6 sessions, post-retreat). We used DBR to process specific trigger-roots that surfaced, paired with somatic work and hypnotherapy for consolidating safety and self-compassion with early life impacts. Psychodynamic work helped reframe “it was my fault” into an age-appropriate understanding of protection and survival.
Treatment Results
- Fewer dissociative episodes and flashbacks; improved sleep continuity; greater access to self-soothing skills.
- Increased insight into attachment-driven patterns and reduced depressive withdrawal.
- Sustained gains supported by somatic micro-practices, relational boundaries, and periodic booster sessions.
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