What does “healing” mean anyway?
Part 1 of Understanding Psychedelics as Allies in Healing Series
by Katie Simons, PharmD, BCPS
The term “healing” is thrown around a lot these days, and this is truly the place where the conversation begins. Before we can understand how psychedelics are allies in the healing process, we have to have a common understanding of what healing is. A good place to start may be by identifying what healing is not. Healing is not a one-time event, quick fix, or sudden epiphany. Healing isn't the removal or absence of challenging or uncomfortable sensations, conditions, or feelings. Healing isn’t working towards perfection or a set destination. Healing isn’t simply the absence of symptoms or “fixing” what feels broken, and it’s not an external process. Healing is not linear. So before there’s any love lost here, what is it?
Here is my working definition: Healing is an intentional practice of restoring balance and wholeness in the mind, body, and spirit. It involves transmuting fear, suffering, and self-limiting beliefs into gratitude, connectedness, inner peace, and love through resilience, awareness, and expansion. (Phew—that’s a lot of loaded words!) It’s a process that invites us to tune into our deepest needs, to confront and reshape outdated beliefs, and to integrate past experiences—including traumas and struggles—into a more cohesive, empowered sense of self. Healing is a return to the felt sense of self-sovereignty, and is an ongoing, dynamic process that can be enlightening, intense, and, sometimes, downright wild.
Practice of Healing Breakdown
Part 1: Finding Safety, Connection, and Awareness
Ok, flowery words, but how does one go about this practice of healing? Everyone’s healing journey is unique and deserves to be honored. That said, there are several parts to the process that, in my experience, are universal. The first of those being reconnecting the often-frayed bond between our constantly chattering mind and taken-for-granted bodies. The wisdom and traumas that are held within our bodies are only accessible through the practice of quieting the mind and tuning into what the body is communicating through sensation. In this sense, healing starts by quieting the noise and restoring a sense of internal safety that’s often missing in our fast-paced, hyperactive world.
Rebuilding the mind-body connection then leads to the next part - decompressing the nervous system. Thanks to our evolutionary survival wiring and modern-day world of relentless stressors, our nervous systems are too often stuck in survival mode, whether that be a loop of fight or flight or, past that, to burnout and dissociation. To truly heal, we need to help the nervous system unwind and return to a state of internal safety—one that allows us to shift from mere survival into a place where we can grow, connect, and choose freely.
As I mentioned above, none of this process or practice is ever linear. As we ping-pong between these first two parts, we then encounter a third part to this wave form - our deep-rooted, subconscious belief systems. These belief systems are the neural pathways we accumulated starting from infancy through our experiences, caregiver’s co-regulation, stresses, and traumas. These beliefs, while originally formed to protect us, can become maladaptive, trapping us in cycles of self-doubt, fear, unworthiness, and shame through nervous system disregulation. Real healing requires us to become aware of these old stories, gently question their validity, and allow space for new beliefs that actually serve us.
Part 2: What Then? Finding Freedom and the Authentic Self
These three aspects are the foundation to the healing practice that is just getting to know ourselves - truly, deeply, authentically. But they are not the whole healing practice. Once we have reformed our relationship with our bodies, challenged and restructured our core beliefs, and built internal safety and resilience through our nervous systems, the practice of healing then invites us to discover how and who we called to be in this life. This is the existential moment when you look at yourself in the mirror and the questions arise “Who am I? How do I want to feel? What lights me up? Where do I want to spend my energy? Who do I want to be unburdened from the past?” And you realize, for the first time in life, there is the potential for true freedom - choice.
This is often the pivotal moment—the “hard” work of unpacking the past has been done (though arguably, it’s never truly complete), but the act of choosing empowered and aligned attitudes and behaviors can feel like evolving into a new version of self. We open the prison door of our minds, but stepping out of the cell and in a direction doesn’t always come naturally. When we have been prisoner to past conditioning our entire life, this new found freedom can be confusing and intimidating. Sometimes we get stuck here looking to the past for more problems to solve and resist moving forward. But if we do not step out, eventually the cell door will close again - old patterns will come back if not replaced with new ones. Who knew freedom takes practice too?
It’s in this space of self-discovery that we begin to see the beauty in the process. As we come to know our authentic self, we often realize how much of who we thought we were was shaped by wounding, trauma, or outside expectations. In this unfolding, self-sovereignty emerges—the recognition that we are the ultimate authority in our healing process. It is the understanding that while external tools, guides, or insights may support us, the power to transform lies within. We are our own best healers, and reclaiming this truth is an act of profound empowerment.
Connecting with our intuition becomes essential in practicing self-sovereignty. It allows us to listen deeply to the subtle sensations and signals that arise from our body, beyond the chatter of the mind. By tuning into the whispers of the body, heart, and higher consciousness, we uncover a path forward that feels uniquely our own. This is where healing transcends problem-solving and becomes a journey of embodiment—a process of expansion, where curiosity and trust replace fear and hesitation. It is here we see that healing is less about fixing and more about growing into the fullest, truest expression of who we are.
This part in the practice of healing can often times look like clearing space, as well. Some things from “old you” may fall away to make space for what you call in next. Some folks call this the Dark Night of the Soul—or the Void, when approached from a place of acceptance. During this time, the things, activities, places, and even people that once brought satisfaction may no longer resonate, which can be profoundly disorienting. How we relate to others begins to shift and change as codependency unravels, which may not always be seen as a welcomed change to those around us. It takes courage to evolve - the courage to choose in new alignment with what resonates with your desired feelings. Without this part of the practice, things will return to the way they were. Moving through this part to authenticity, passion, and expansion is the way through the darkness.
Can Psychedelics Help to Heal Physical Disease?
Now, wait—what about physical disease? Healing isn’t just about the mind or emotion. For many, the need for suffering to end applies to physical ailments as much as it does emotional or spiritual pain, if not more. Without getting too metaphysical, the more we understand the interplay of the nervous system and the mind, the more we recognize that the root of many physical diseases is intricately linked to chronic stress, unresolved trauma, coupled with environmental and lifestyle factors (reference studies in the field of psychoneuroimmunology). Even our genetic expression is now understood to be a result of the environment of our cells - aka the neurotransmitters and hormones we have running around our bodies. After all, we are not minds disconnected from our bodies; we are a unified organism where every thought, emotion, and experience ripples through our physical being.
When we begin to process old traumas and reframe our belief systems, shifts can occur not just in our emotional well-being but in how we relate to our bodies and symptoms as well as how our bodies express symptoms or disease. Sometimes these shifts are subtle, like feeling less anxiety or chronic fatigue; other times, they can be profound, leading to significant relief or remission of disease. The bottom line is that we are not slaves to our genetics or to our bodies, but instead, our bodies are an expression of self as a whole. Healing from disease is not always about a “cure” in the traditional sense—it’s about easing suffering, nurturing the body, and creating a supportive environment where the body’s natural intelligence can thrive.
Healing is a Practice
In essence, healing is changing how you are from the version that was burdened by the past to a remembrance of your true, authentic, expansive self - layer after layer after layer. It is embodiment of your consciousness, values, power, and freedom. And from this place of embodiment, the practice of healing becomes one of true connection with all, as well as manifestation. This isn’t an endpoint but a way of being that embraces curiosity, compassion, openness, expansion, unity, and presence. Here is where challenges can be seen as opportunity, grief is understood as part of joy, and the waveform of life is moved through as a vibrantly alive dance because we feel our own capacity to alchemize and experience life wholly and fully. Some might call this enlightenment, but I see that word as an endpoint. Healing is not a destination; it’s a continuous, upward spiral—an ever-evolving journey of growth, presence, and expansion. This is the practice of healing.
This is part 1 to a series of blog entries. A full downloadable copy of the series document is available here. Please be respectful of intellectual property when using and sharing.
If you are looking for assistance with coaching or building a personalized taper plan, please reach out to set up a strategy call with me at TheHolisticApothec.com.
Please remember, this document is not intended as medical advice, a substitute for medical care, or promotion for illegal activity.
