Remembering, Reclaiming, Rising
Each story is a testament to what becomes possible when people return to themselves, reclaim their voice, and rise into new ways of being.
Background
A. is a woman who presented with lifelong challenges related to body awareness, coordination, and sexual functioning. She described herself as consistently clumsy and having difficulty sensing her body in space, accompanied by a long-standing sense of disconnection from her body.
Growing up, A. avoided movement-based activities, believing she was too uncoordinated. As a young adult, she had tried yoga but quickly felt overwhelmed and inadequate. She invested heavily in areas where she felt competent: intellect, achievement, and care for others. While successful in these domains, her physical self felt like something to hide rather than celebrate.
A. also reported difficulty accessing physical pleasure and sexual fulfillment. Despite various therapeutic approaches, these challenges persisted. These patterns appeared linked to early childhood medical trauma during infancy: necessary but invasive procedures that disrupted her developing sense of safety and physical autonomy.
Therapeutic Intervention
A. engaged in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, supported by preparation and integration work over time. These sessions opened emotional and sensory access points that had long been shut down. For the first time in her life, A. experienced physical and emotional safety in her body.
Integration Through Movement
Her return to yoga was entirely unplanned. She unexpectedly found herself in a yoga class and nearly left due to anxiety. However, in the days that followed, she noticed something shift: deeper sleep, a calmer body, and a quiet sense of connection.
Curious about this unexpected impact, A. began attending more classes. She quickly recognized this was not just exercise but a pathway to healing. What had once overwhelmed her now offered access to parts of herself she had not felt in years. She committed to a regular practice, which became her primary form of integration: a ritual of emotional regulation, strength building, and embodied processing.
Outcomes
A. described this period as a sexual and existential awakening. After consistent yoga practice, she reported a surge of energy and vitality that felt both unfamiliar and deeply empowering. Only through reflection did she recognize how the psychedelic sessions had set the stage, and yoga had become the catalyst that allowed what the medicine uncovered to move freely through her body and life. A. now describes her body as a source of strength, clarity, and pride. For the first time, she sees herself as physically empowered, not just intellectually capable.
Integration: Beyond Talk Therapy
A.’s transformation illustrates how critical embodied integration work can be for lasting change. The psychedelic sessions provided access to long-held trauma and new possibilities, but it was her daily yoga practice that anchored these insights into lived experience.
The medicine opened the door; movement walked her through it. Her body became both the site of healing and the vehicle for integration. This embodied approach offered something that traditional talk therapy alone had not been able to provide: a way to literally feel her way into a new relationship with herself.
The yoga practice became the bridge between insight and transformation, helping her develop new neural pathways through repetitive embodied experience.
Final Reflections
A.’s story demonstrates that integration work doesn’t have to look like traditional therapy. Sometimes the most profound healing happens through breath, movement, and sustained presence with the body. Her journey from disconnection to embodiment shows how psychedelic therapy, combined with committed somatic practice, can unlock authentic self-expression that had been buried for decades.
She now inhabits her body with clarity and confidence: not in place of her intellect and compassion, but as a fully integrated expression of her whole self.
To learn more about our approach or to refer a patient, please visit:
www.arikellner.com/psychedelic-assisted
