Triggers, Trauma, and Transformation: Coaching Through Psychedelics with Greg Lawrence - Episode 131

The latest episode of the Caregiver Relief Podcast features a fascinating conversation with Greg Lawrence, a certified life coach and psychedelic integration coach, exploring the rapidly evolving world of psychedelic-assisted healing and transformation. Host Diane Carbo and Greg discuss how these substances, when combined with proper coaching and integration, can lead to real, lasting change, particularly for those dealing with trauma and old behavioral patterns.

Greg, one of the first psychedelic integration coaches, shares his personal journey from addiction and unresolved trauma to finding healing through intentional psychedelic use, which inspired his work. He emphasizes that a psychedelic experience is just the beginning; the real transformation lies in the integration work that follows.

📝 Episode Outline: Key Takeaways

The episode dives deep into the mechanism of psychedelic-assisted change, focusing on the brain, behavior, and the essential role of integration.

1. The Genesis of a Psychedelic Integration Coach

• Personal Motivation: Greg was inspired to become a coach after psychedelics helped him address unresolved childhood trauma and past addiction issues.
• The Power of Intention: He discovered that a psychedelic experience's outcome is tied to the intent, contrasting his earlier, mindless use with later, introspective journeys.
• The Integration Revelation: Greg realized that insights gained during the experience quickly faded, leading him to research and become certified in psychedelic integration to sustain transformation.

2. Defining Psychedelic Integration

• More Than Just an Experience: Integration is the process of taking realizations—like acknowledging a trauma or a need for change—from an expanded state of consciousness and embedding them into the "normal, everyday operating state".
• The Unconscious Mind: Our habits are "burned into us at the level of the unconscious mind." The unconscious acts quickly, often before the conscious mind, reinforcing patterns, even bad ones, because they ensured survival.
• The Challenge of Change: The brain generalizes experiences and views change as a potential threat to survival, making the process inherently awkward or uncomfortable. Recognizing this discomfort is a vital part of integration.

3. Preparation and Trauma Healing

• Harm Reduction: A crucial aspect of preparation is understanding that the experience may be very uncomfortable, as psychedelics can amplify emotional states 5 to 10 times.
• Completing the Cycle of Emotion: Psychedelics often force people to feel "incomplete experiences"—emotions that were previously suppressed—to allow them to run their full course and resolve.
• MDMA and PTSD: MDMA is highlighted for its effectiveness in helping veterans and first responders heal treatment-resistant PTSD by quieting the brain's fight-or-flight response. This allows the person to see that the traumatic event happened "over there" while they are "safe now".
• Therapeutic Component: All successful clinical trials for psychedelics include a significant therapeutic component before and after the experience, underscoring that the experience doesn't end when the substance wears off; it's just the beginning.

4. The Science of Change

• Neuroplasticity: Psychedelics increase the potential for neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to structurally change.
• Conditioning: Consistently practicing a new habit or behavior, even with discomfort, reinforces the neural pathway. This follows the principle of "what fires together wires together," leading to actual structural growth and conditioning.
• Behavioral Psychology & Prediction: Our behavior is often driven by unconscious bodily reactions and the brain's reliance on prediction (e.g., the "missing step" feeling). The thoughts we have are often distractions from deeper physical reactions.

5. Integration Tools and Misconceptions

• Mindfulness as a Tool: Practicing mindfulness—"actively noticing novelty"—quiets the brain's default mode network (the source of anxiety, chatter, and self-criticism). This state of presence mirrors one of the core takeaways of the psychedelic experience.
• Negative Self-Talk: The critical, negative thoughts in our heads are often not our own, but phrases internalized from childhood, which we reinforce by taking them too seriously.
• NLP and HNLP: Greg uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to understand the space between a stimulus and a response, and Humanistic Neuro-Linguistic Psychology (HNLP)—which incorporates spirituality and quantum theory—to effectively change internal reactions and habits.
• Major Misconception: The biggest misunderstanding is that the substance itself will cure a condition or make the change. What you do in the aftermath determines the level of change you achieve.

🙏 A Message for Caregivers

Host Diane Carbo emphasizes the relevance of this topic for caregivers who often deal with their own trauma, PTSD from navigating the medical system, and the difficulty of practicing self-care. The conversation serves as a beacon of hope for those seeking more effective treatment for conditions like treatment-resistant depression, which Diane manages with Ketamine.

"Please learn to be gentle with yourself. Practice self-care every day because you are worth it."

Guest Information:

If you're curious about transformational coaching or psychedelic integration, you can find Greg here:

• Website: greglawrencecoach.com
• Facebook: Greg Lawrence
• Instagram: psychedelic_integration
• YouTube: psychedelic integration specialist

🎙️ Ready to Dive Deeper?

Click the link below to listen to the full conversation and learn more about how intentional psychedelic use and integration coaching are leading to profound transformation.