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Grief has a way of finding all of us eventually.
It doesn’t just make us sad, it shakes everything we thought we knew about ourselves and the world.
It can leave us feeling disconnected, hollow, like we’re going through the motions while some essential part of us is missing.
Talk therapy helps. Antidepressants can take the edge off. But for many, there’s still something unresolved, something that conventional approaches just can’t quite reach.
That’s where psilocybin comes in: not as a magic cure, but as a doorway to a different kind of healing.
At Essence Institute, we’ve seen firsthand how psilocybin can help people move through grief in ways that feel genuine and transformative. It’s not about forgetting or “getting over it.” It’s about finding a way to carry loss that doesn’t crush you, and sometimes even discovering unexpected gifts within the pain.
When Grief Becomes More Than Sadness
Grief isn’t just an emotion. It’s a full-body, full-life experience. It shows up as exhaustion you can’t shake, tightness in your chest that won’t release, guilt that loops endlessly in your mind. It can make you question everything: Who am I now? What does anything mean without them?
Traditional therapy often focuses on helping you “move on,” but that phrase can feel so wrong when you’re in it. You don’t want to move on, you want to find a way to move forward while still honoring what you’ve lost.
This is where psilocybin assisted-therapy offers something different. Instead of helping you avoid the pain, it creates a safe container where you can actually go into it, fully, deeply, and come out the other side changed.
People often tell us that during their psilocybin experience, they felt reconnected to the person they lost, not in a way that felt delusional, but in a way that felt true. They describe feeling love beneath the sorrow, finding gratitude mixed with the grief, and experiencing a sense of peace they didn’t think was possible.
What’s Actually Happening in Your Brain
You might be wondering: what makes these experiences possible? Why does psilocybin open these doors when traditional approaches sometimes fall short?
Here’s the fascinating part: psilocybin works by activating serotonin receptors in your brain, particularly the 5-HT2A receptor. This creates more communication between brain regions that don’t usually talk to each other much.
One of the most important effects is that it temporarily quiets something called the default mode network, basically the part of your brain that runs your inner narrative, including all those repetitive, painful thought loops that keep you stuck in grief.
When that network quiets down, something remarkable can happen. Your brain becomes more flexible, more open to new perspectives. The story you’ve been telling yourself about your loss can shift. Painful memories that felt frozen in time can start to soften and transform.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London have documented this in clinical studies. They’ve found that psilocybin can significantly reduce depression and anxiety, especially in people dealing with loss or facing their own mortality. Participants describe feeling more connected. To the person they lost, to nature, to life itself.
The key thing to understand is that psilocybin doesn’t erase your grief. It helps you transform your relationship with it.
A Quick Word About Ibogaine
You might have heard about ibogaine, another plant medicine that’s sometimes used for deep psychological work. It comes from African iboga root and has a strong tradition in ceremonial contexts.
While both psilocybin and ibogaine can facilitate profound healing, they’re quite different medicines. Ibogaine tends to be used more for addiction treatment and what people call “life reset” experiences. It’s also more physically demanding and carries higher medical risks, requiring intensive medical supervision.
Psilocybin, especially for grief work, tends to be gentler and more emotionally focused. It opens your heart rather than pushing you through something. That’s why it works so well in therapeutic settings where the goal is acceptance, reconnection, and emotional healing.
At Essence Institute, we work exclusively with psilocybin truffles, which are legal in the Netherlands and have an excellent safety profile when used with proper guidance.
The Three Pillars: Set, Setting, and Integration
Anyone who’s studied psychedelic therapy will tell you about the three pillars: set, setting, and integration. They sound like jargon, but they’re actually quite important.
- Set is your mindset going in. What are you bringing to the experience? What do you hope to understand or heal? Coming in with clear intentions and an open heart makes all the difference.
- Setting is the environment. This is why we put so much care into creating spaces that feel safe, peaceful, and held. You need to know you’re in good hands, that you can let go and trust the process. Our facilitators are trained not just in safety protocols but in holding space for deep emotional work.
- Integration is where the real magic happens, or rather, where you make it happen. The insights that come during a psilocybin experience can be profound, but they need to be woven into your daily life. Through journaling, therapy, conversations, or simply quiet reflection, you take what you’ve learned and make it real.
We support integration throughout the entire journey at Essence Institute. Before, during, and especially after. Because insight without integration is just a nice memory. Integration is what creates lasting change.
Doing This Safely and Ethically
Let’s talk about the practical stuff. In the Netherlands, psilocybin truffles are legal and can be used in structured retreat settings. This isn’t the Wild West, there are real regulations, and we take them seriously.
But beyond legality, there’s ethics. Not everyone is a good candidate for psilocybin work. People with certain heart conditions or psychiatric histories need extra care or might not be suitable at all. That’s why we screen every participant thoroughly.
Grief is one of the most vulnerable states a human being can experience. Using psilocybin to work with grief requires professionalism, preparation, genuine compassion, and robust aftercare. We’re not here to facilitate a “trip”, we’re here to support a healing journey.
Healing Isn’t About Escaping Pain
Here’s what we’ve learned from years of this work: healing doesn’t mean the pain goes away. It means your relationship with the pain changes.
When you can sit with your grief, really sit with it in a supported way, something shifts. The grief doesn’t feel like an enemy anymore. It starts to feel like a teacher, one that’s showing you the depth of your love, the preciousness of life, the interconnection of all things.
People leave our retreats changed. Not because they’ve forgotten their loss, but because they’ve found a way to carry it differently.
They discover peace within the loss. Clarity amid the confusion. A renewed sense of connection to life, even (or especially) in its fragility.
Moving Forward
Grief reshapes us. There’s no way around that. But with the right support, it can also awaken something in us: wisdom, compassion, a deeper appreciation for love and life.
Psilocybin for grief isn’t for everyone, and it’s not a quick fix. But for those who feel called to this path, it can offer something rare: a chance to transform suffering into understanding, isolation into connection, and despair into a kind of bittersweet peace.
At Essence Institute, we’re honored to walk this path with people. To witness their courage, hold their pain, and celebrate their breakthroughs. If you’re considering this journey, know that you don’t have to do it alone.
Ready to explore what’s possible? View our upcoming psilocybin retreats.
Frequently Asked Questions About Psilocybin for Grief
Is psilocybin safe for people processing grief?
Yes, when used in a professional setting with proper screening and guidance. Psilocybin has a strong safety profile for most people. That said, anyone with heart conditions or certain psychiatric histories needs to be carefully evaluated first. Safety always comes first.
How does psilocybin help with emotional healing?
It increases your brain’s flexibility and quiets those repetitive thought patterns that keep you stuck. This creates space for new perspectives to emerge. It helps you feel your grief fully without being consumed by it.
How can I prepare for a psilocybin retreat to help with my grief?
Start by getting clear on your intentions. Why are you coming? What are you hoping to heal or understand? Take care of your body in the weeks leading up. Eat well, rest and avoid alcohol. Most importantly: come with an open heart. The medicine works with you, not on you. After the retreat, commit to integration work, whether that’s therapy, journaling, or simply creating space for reflection. That’s where the real transformation happens.