In this episode, Andria, a therapist based in Vancouver, speaks about her first 5-MeO-DMT experience in 2021 and the sessions that followed. She describes feeling a clear pull toward the work despite not having prior guided psychedelic experience, and moving forward based on intuition and trust in the referral that connected her to it.

She shares how her background as a therapist shaped the way she entered the experience. Andria also describes being accustomed to holding space for others, and what it was like to shift into being the one inside the process. In her words, this involved navigating control, trust, and letting go within the sessions themselves.

Andria describes her experiences as unfolding across multiple sessions rather than being contained to a single moment. Some are described as subtle, others more direct, and she speaks to how each session met her in a different way depending on where she was at the time.

Andria also speaks about working one-to-one with the same guide and returning for multiple sessions, and how that continuity and setting supported her engagement with the process.

_________

chad charles is a practitioner, educator, and mentor specializing in 5-MeO-DMT. Since 2016, he has worked exclusively in this field, developing a practice-based understanding of these experiences through direct facilitation, practitioner training, and ongoing research. He works one-on-one with individuals in therapy-assisted contexts, supports people around the world through integration calls, and guides practitioners through mentorship and training. A large, detailed body of documented sessions since 2020 informs targeted research initiatives, with a focus on clarity, precision, and lived data. His private practice operates in Toronto and Montreal. Learn more at chadcharles.net

Substack

Timestamped Summary

00:00 – Introduction to Andria’s 5-MeO-DMT journey

02:00 – Her background as a therapist specializing in EMDR and somatic work

04:00 – Working beyond cognition: healing through the body and energy

05:30 – Her first 5-MeO-DMT session in 2021

06:30 – Physical releases, observing consciousness, and energetic purging

08:00 – Understanding the “observer” state and equanimity

10:00 – Spiritual practice, meditation, and emotional detachment

12:00 – Intensity, blocked energy, and nervous system release

13:30 – Reactivations and integration after the first session

15:00 – Why she returned for a second session years later

16:00 – A radically different second experience: from darkness to rebirth

17:30 – Encountering “the void” and wanting to stop the process

18:30 – Emotional aftermath, integration support, and post-session lows

20:00 – Why guidance and relational safety matter in psychedelic work

22:00 – Vulnerability, trust, and the therapeutic container

24:00 – Why this became some of the most important work of her life

27:00 – Lasting changes: observer consciousness, self-compassion, and resilience

28:30 – Supporting others through psychedelic integration work

30:00 – Living with epilepsy and shifting her relationship to epilepsy and medication

34:00 – Reflections on long-term psychedelic integration and closing thoughts