“I remember my high school teacher saying that most of you are not going to become therapists…You’re probably going to end up like a high school teacher like me,” Angela Leong, 30, said. “That’s not going to happen to me,” Leong the determined 11th grader thought,
“I want to become a therapist.” She wasn’t exactly a star-studded student but there was one class she excelled in, advanced placement psychology. From the 11th grade, Leong knew she wanted to be a therapist. Today Leong is a counselor in Vancouver, BC at An Elegant Mind, where she practices psychedelic integration therapy.
As a child of immigrant parents from Guang Dong, China, Leong found it difficult to connect with her parents. At the time, they were stuck in “survival mode.” Leong’s childhood and teenage years were filled with anxiety, depression, and isolation. “I really struggled with self-esteem for probably the first half of my 20s up until I started doing psychedelics in a spiritual healing, ceremonial way.”
So she took a trip to Spain with a group of friends. They flew a Shaman from South America and all together, they embarked on a 3 day ayahuasca healing ceremony. “I remember the first night being profoundly uneventful,” Leong admits. Yet by the third nightfall, Leong endured the most difficult part of her healing journey. At the time, she recently ended an unhealthy relationship with a partner. “I had a great purge, and it felt like something had released from me.” Leong was free of anxiety and depression, “I had no concept of it,” for many months after.
Psychedelic therapy has a track record for long lasting results after just 1-2 doses. Much of that success is from integration therapy. Or in Leong’s case it was especially helpful after a traumatic, uncomfortable, and confusing ayahuasca experience. “When you do psychedelics you are very sensitive and when messages are not delivered in a sensitive, caring, compassionate, open, forgiving, way it can really damage someone psychologically and create dysfunction for them, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Shortly after, Leong found an integration circle facilitated by professional counselors. Only then she felt the validation to let go of the trauma. It was the catalyst for Leong to pursue training in psychedelic integration therapy. In the harsh winter of Montreal, November 2019, Leong took part in the first ever comprehensive training for integration therapy; Psychedelics 101 & 102.
Psychedelic use amid the COVID-19 pandemic is happening. For Leong, it’s a sign of the times as patients have asked to call in on Zoom as they have give themselves a psychedelic experience from their living room. Yet integration therapists are not always certified psychedelic therapists. As in Leong’s case she cannot provide therapy with psychedelics. Her part comes in afterwards to help you process the aftermath. After having navigated her own traumatic psychedelic experience, Leong helps patients sort through the confusion. “It might be 10 years of therapy in one night,” Leong said, “but it’s not 10 years of processing.” Integration therapists like Leong help patients wield the therapeutic benefits of their psychedelic visions into their day-to-day lives.
