How Can One Avoid Spiritual Bypass After Powerful Experiences?

How can Internal Family Systems help us prepare for, experience, and integrate psychedelic journeys in a truly Self-led way? And what if Self itself can be the journey, without medicine at all?

In this episode, I talk with Nick Brüss, an IFS practitioner and licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in psychedelic-assisted therapy. What I loved about this conversation is how grounded and humble Nick is about the work. He reminds us that psychedelics can open the door, but Self is what does the healing. 

Why listen: Many people are curious about how psychedelics and IFS intersect. This conversation goes deeper into integration, humility, and what it really means to let Self lead before, during, and after expanded states.

In this conversation, we explore:

• How IFS can guide and ground psychedelic experiences through Self Energy

• Why integration, not the journey itself, is where true healing happens

• How to meet expanded states with curiosity, consent, and care for all parts

• How to partner with the medicine to turn toward what needs our attention, bringing the same kind of compassion and curiosity we bring to our parts

• The nervous system and trauma dynamics that often surface after psychedelic experiences

• How Self can open the same sense of connection and wonder that psychedelics reveal

• The risks of spiritual bypass and how to stay Self-led 

• What an ethical, Self-led approach to psychedelic healing looks like

Favorite Quotes:

“The real question is, are we partnering with the medicine, or are we giving it all the power?” — Nick Brüss

“Psychedelics don’t heal anyone. They open a window. What heals is the relationship with Self.” — Nick Brüss

Connect with Nick at www.apracticeoffreedom.com

Pisgah Coaching Institute: Founded by IFS-trained master coach Brian Jaudon, a pioneer in the integration of IFS and coaching for more than two decades. Brian and his faculty teach a blended methodology for clarifying and living into a vision of any kind. pisgahcoaching.com

I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that’s still at the heart of all we do.

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