Embracing Non-Ordinary States: A Therapeutic Journey of Understanding and Compassion with Julian Cabezas, LCSW

As a therapist working with people around being in non-ordinary states of consciousness, I've learned that our human experience exists on a rich, nuanced spectrum far beyond traditional Western psychological frameworks. Through an integrative lens that honors both clinical understanding and indigenous wisdom traditions, I approach these experiences not as pathologies to be treated, but as profound opportunities for healing, self-discovery, and personal transformation. Where one cultural context might label an experience as a mental health crisis, another might recognize it as a sacred initiation, a spiritual calling, or a deeply meaningful self emergence – a subtle but profound difference that fundamentally shifts how we understand human consciousness and psychological resilience.

Working from an Internal Family Systems perspective, I collaborate with clients to map their inner landscape, recognizing that non-ordinary states often emerge as complex communication from different protective parts of the self. We explore these experiences with gentle curiosity, understanding that what might appear disruptive on the surface is often a sophisticated internal system attempting to process trauma, integrate spiritual insights, or communicate unmet needs. Our therapeutic work involves developing robust inner resources, creating safe internal and external containers for these experiences, and helping individuals develop practical grounding techniques that allow them to navigate both mystical insights and everyday functionality with greater ease and self-compassion.

Practical Guidance for Navigating Non-Ordinary States

Neuroscience-Informed Practices:

Grounding techniques that regulate the autonomic nervous system
Mindfulness practices that support neural integration
Somatic experiencing to process stored physiological memories

Internal Family System Principles:

Embracing what feels uncertain
Practicing self-compassion
Developing a playful, curious relationship with challenging experiences
Recognizing how disruption can be a pathway to profound healing

Who May Find This Practice Helpful:

Individuals experiencing spiritual emergencies
Survivors of complex trauma and single traumas
Couples who often find they don't know how they went from 0 to 100 in their arguments
Those navigating cross-cultural spiritual experiences
Individuals exploring psychedelic-assisted and ketamine assisted psychotherapy experiences
Looking to understand spiritual experiences
Compassionate and non-pathologizing therapy for mystical experiences
Healing through altered states of consciousness
Support during your spiritual awakening(s)
Managing unexplained psychological experiences
Integrating transformative consciousness experiences

Scientific and Clinical Terminology
Scientific and clinical perspectives have developed several terms to describe non-ordinary states of consciousness:

Altered States of Consciousness (ASC): A broad category encompassing any significant deviation from normal waking consciousness, including meditation, hypnosis, and psychedelic experiences.

Transpersonal Experiences: Psychological states that transcend typical personal identity boundaries, involving spiritual or mystical phenomena.

Psychedelic and Dissociative Drugs-Induced States: Neurologically distinct states triggered by psychoactive substances like psilocybin, LSD, ketamine or ayahuasca.

Dissociative States: Experiences of detachment from one's immediate environment or personal identity, including depersonalization and derealization.

Mystical-Type Experiences: Characterized by a sense of unity, transcendence, sacredness, and ineffability, often studied in clinical psychedelic research.

Exceptional Human Experiences (EHE): Profound psychological experiences that challenge conventional understanding of consciousness, including near-death experiences, spontaneous mystical states, and profound intuitive insights.

Holding Space: The Shadow Terrain of Profound Psychological Experiences

I want to speak directly to anyone who has ever felt lost in the landscape of their own consciousness, who has touched something beyond the everyday and felt both wonder and terror. These journeys are not for the faint of heart, and they're certainly not the social media-filtered, aesthetically pleasing spiritual experiences that pop culture often romanticizes.

The Raw Reality of Transformation
Let's be honest: diving deep into your inner world can be messy, complicated, and sometimes absolutely terrifying. These experiences don't care about your carefully constructed life plan. They can arrive like unexpected guests – sometimes gentle, sometimes demanding, and always transformative. Some days, it might feel like you're falling apart, and in many ways, you are. But falling apart is also how we can rebuild, how we become more authentically ourselves.

What These Experiences Really Look Like

Moments of profound insight followed by days of confusion
Spiritual experiences that shake your entire understanding of reality
Feelings of connection so deep they're almost unbearable
Periods of intense vulnerability
Encounters with parts of yourself you've long kept hidden
Grief that comes from seeing your past with new eyes
Moments of liberation mixed with profound loneliness

The Compassionate Approach
My role isn't to fix you or to make these experiences neat and tidy. My role is to sit with you, to hold space for the complexity of your journey. I'm here to say: "I see you. Your experience is valid. You're not broken – you're in process."

What Healing Really Looks Like
Healing isn't linear. It's not about reaching some perfect state of enlightenment. It's about:

Learning to trust yourself
Developing radical self-compassion
Understanding that your experience matters
Creating safety within yourself
Finding meaning in the most unexpected places

The Internal Landscape
Think of your inner world like a vast, wild landscape. Some territories are familiar, some are completely unknown. Some areas are sunny meadows, others are dense, dark forests. Our work together is about gentle exploration, about bringing compassionate curiosity to every terrain.

Survival Skills for the Inner Journey

Grounding techniques
Learning to resource yourself
Developing a kind inner dialogue
Understanding your nervous system
Creating emotional containers
Practicing radical acceptance

A Word of Hope (Because Yes, There is Hope)
These experiences – whether they come through meditation, plant medicine, spontaneous spiritual emergence, or deep therapeutic work – they're not happening to you. They're happening for you. They're invitations to deeper self-understanding, to healing ancestral wounds, to breaking patterns that no longer serve you.
But – and this is crucial – you don't have to do this alone. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to understand everything right away.

"The wound is where the light enters you." - Rumi

An Invitation
If you're reading this and feeling simultaneously worried and curious, good. This may be a good time to begin and continue.

Please reach out and let's start.

Get in Touch

646-363-6543