May 29, 2025 by Adam Miezio
As awareness and acceptance of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) grows, public perception of the newfound healing method hangs in the balance. In America, we often leap to embrace the novel, and sometimes expectations don’t meet reality. In the case of psychedelic-assisted therapy, we may not land on a feather bed, as much as be dragged through a bed of coals. Alex Abraham endured one such healing journey. Alex’s journey through his personal hell turned up the heat, as his psyche unleashed cries for wholeness in the form of dramatic, somatic responses that will shock you.
The Blowback of Trauma and Ecstasy
Alex Abraham is the author of Trauma and Ecstasy, which shares his harrowing story to ameliorate childhood trauma at any cost. Reading Trauma and Ecstasy:How Psychedelics Made My Life Worth Living isn’t for the faint of heart. In the book, Alex describes the gritty and harsh realities of psychedelic-assisted therapy in detail.
While reading the book to write a review of Trauma and Ecstasy, the numerous somatic blows Alex absorbed left me in awe. The human body’s ability to translate the experiential and intangible into physical reactions occupies firm ground between beauty and horror. I’ve done psychedelic-assisted therapy once, and the experience provoked a cathartic release leading to a stream of tears that seemed to last forever.
Trauma and Ecstasy shows that not everyone gets off that easy. One of the prevailing messages Alex’s book left me with is psychedelic-assisted therapy’s potential to put you through a physical ordeal. Alex’s audacity to treat his childhood sexual abuse with unconventional methods became his own version of the Labors of Hercules.
Fascinated by the physical manifestations and energetic release of trauma, I decided to sit down with Alex to learn more about the trials and tribulations of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Trigger Warning
The following content includes discussions of sexual trauma, which may be distressing or activating for some readers.
Interview with Alex Abraham
Once the psychedelic experience begins, whether through microdosing over weeks or a macrodose during a single session, three mindfulness qualities—Equanimity, Calm Abiding, and Mindful Awareness—deepen self-reflection and awareness of the experience. They better support witnessing what arises when meeting the unknown terrain that lies ahead.
Q: What were your expectations for psychedelic-assisted therapy, prior to taking your therapeutic journey?
Alex: I had almost no expectations for psychedelic therapy. I really wasn’t sure why I was doing it to begin with. I didn’t think it could change me very much, if at all. I had doubts on the subway for the first session. I thought it was going to be pretty easy. I thought it was going to be a waste of time. I was skeptical. I just felt very out of alignment when I was going there, that this is a mistake even. But, I went. Once I took the medicine for the first time and the MDMA started coming on I thought, “Shit. This is real.” That was a very transformative moment for me and it’s something I’ll always remember.
Q: The somatic effects of your therapy sessions were quite dramatic at times. Please explain what somatic effects are, and provide some examples of what somatic effects you experienced. What was it like enduring the arduous and ongoing somatic blowback?
Alex: I think of something coming up from my past that leads to some sort of sensation or feeling in my body, some link between something I’m processing emotionally and something that’s coming up physically. So for me unfortunately, the somatic effects were due to trauma particularly the sexual abuse I felt.
When I think of the somatic effect, I think of processing being forced to perform oral sex. That would come up in my body, and in my mouth during a session, and it almost felt like an exorcism.
The repeated trauma that was stored inside me was literally coming out of my body. The trauma exits, and may result in crying, screaming, or throwing up, and literally letting go of that. This helps reset your nervous system. This helps your body get more in touch with your heart and your soul, and leads to a more aligned person and a more comfortable being and less chronic pain.
Q: In your book, you discuss that you did CrossFit for a number of years. CrossFit and psychedelic-assisted therapy are unrelated and yet I see some interesting parallels between your somatic resilience and CrossFit lifestyle.
With CrossFit, people intentionally put their bodies right up to the limit and beyond sometimes. With psychedelic-assisted therapy, you’re doing it with the intention to heal, but there’s a roll of the dice because you don’t know what’s going to arise somatically.
What do you think about CrossFit mirroring psychedelic-assisted therapy or vice versa?
Alex: I’m a hardcore person. I do things that are difficult and hard, even subconsciously. CrossFit is notoriously intense and I was drawn to that; because of its intensity and because it can be very difficult. I wasn’t drawn to psychedelics specifically for its intensity. I guess in some ways I was because I think that’s the hardest modality to work through trauma, but also the most healing. So I think in some ways I was drawn to the most intense way to heal and I think the strongest way to heal.
I think people that have worked through a lot of trauma tend to be hardcore because I think you have to be hardcore to survive deep difficult shit, whether that’s physical abuse, or neglect. I think that that creates a very strong ego structure that can get in the way of relationships and healing, but also something that can be very motivational and very intense and very strong willed.
I think that same strong will leads to people sometimes achieving. Not always of course, but sometimes achieving great things, whether that’s building businesses, creating great works of art, etc., isn’t possible for people who didn’t have this trauma and this adversity. People who didn’t have such an intense or such a difficult upbringing might not be as motivated or as hardcore as people that have been through that.
Q: Considering you ended up on a bathroom floor vomiting in the middle of one of your psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions, what’s the most crucial piece of advice you’d offer for anyone considering psychedelic-assisted therapy?
Alex: I don’t like telling people what to do but I will say in my own journey, things definitely got worse before I got better. I’m really glad I had trained practitioners working with me. I had support and I took it seriously and I went all in on trying to heal. So I would say that this is like Pandora’s box of psychedelic medicine. When you first open the box, things are not probably going to be all rosy and colorful. One thing I’ve noticed is a lot of people doing psychedelics, not everyone, but a lot of people, generally there’s something missing or they wouldn’t be taking these compounds in the first place.
Q: What’s your opinion on psychedelic-assisted therapy in real life versus how it’s portrayed in the media? For me, it tends to look gift wrapped with a bow on it at times. You go to a therapist’s office, you lie on a couch, you take some MDMA, put on a sleep mask, play melodic music on headphones and it’s a very smooth, light, easy process. How do you feel about that? Do you agree with that, disagree?
Alex: I agree with that. I do think it’s either fear-based and how bad psychedelics are, or the media make it seem really easy and really chill and a nonchalant event. I do think those are the two extremes. I think the media right now is missing a lot of nuance. It’s somewhere in the middle that these can be very difficult and they can be very intense. It’s not usually all love and roses, but I also think that they can really help people.
Especially with mushrooms and even MDMA, there are not really any physical problems the way people think, in terms of in the brain. Mushrooms literally come from the ground and the idea of a toxic dose- I don’t think they ever even found a toxic dose for psilocybin.
So I do think, the idea that these are harmful compounds, I think is for the most part inaccurate. And so I would say a lot in the media, it’s either one extreme or the other extreme. And the hope with my book was that I could go somewhere in the middle that these are not easy compounds to use and it can be very difficult, but they also can transform lives in a way no other therapeutic modality, at least in my experience, has been able to touch.
Measure Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Expectations
Intentional use of psychedelics for healing and psychedelic-assisted therapy can’t be conflated with images of hippies from the 1960s skipping carefree through lush, clover filled meadows.
Many people don’t understand how something stored psychically can be released physically. Through a direct confrontation with our pain and suffering, we vanquish our demons and they get exorcised in strange ways. Thanks to courageous people like Alex, we can refine our perception of trauma healing, and have a better understanding of what may be involved.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy isn’t summer camp, as much as it’s a boot camp for the soul. How fit will your psyche be when you decide to cross the line?
NOTE: The content provided is for educational and informational purposes only and should be a substitute for medical or other professional advice. Articles are based on personal opinions, research, and experiences of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Psychedelic Pulse.