physis integration

WELCOME TO PHYSIS

Physis offers Depth-Relational Psychotherapy as well as harm reduction and integration for those who have experienced or will be experiencing the transformational processes of psychedelic-assisted therapies, plant medicine ceremonies, or any other experiences and practices that expand and deepen individual consciousness.

Entheogens and techniques such as Holotropic Breathwork have the capacity to reveal the depths of our psyche. While these plants, molecules, and practices can serve as powerful catalysts in the therapeutic process, often by bringing unconscious material into awareness, they are not the therapeutic process itself.

Amid the hype of the so-called 'Psychedelic Renaissance' in the Global North, we believe it is important to remember that these substances are neither shortcuts nor magic bullets capable of simply erasing existential struggles or deeply rooted issues. Moreover, experiences in expanded states can sometimes leave us feeling disoriented or overwhelmed, highlighting the importance of grounding, integration, and containment as essential parts of the healing journey.

Psychotherapy, along with meaningful changes in lifestyle and habits, is a key component in making the most of what has emerged, or may emerge, from experiences in expanded states. Our work is deeply relational and depth-oriented: it begins with building a solid therapeutic alliance, includes harm reduction, as well as managing expectations, and continues with integration after those experiences, creating lasting change by tending to and honouring what has been revealed.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

— C.G. Jung

DEPTH-Relational PSYCHOTHERAPY

PHYSIS RECIPROCITY wheel

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”

―William Blake

ALESSIA Chiappino

I am a London‑based Integrative and Depth Relational psychotherapist (MBACP), group facilitator and visual artist (MA).

I offer harm-reduction-oriented preparation and integration around psychedelic therapies, supported by the ongoing advanced clinical training at the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy (UK) and additional training in Somatic Attachment Therapy and Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration (PHRI) with NUMINUS, Canada. I am currently studying for a Certificate in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta (Canada), which informs a respectful, non-appropriative stance toward the Indigenous plant-medicine traditions of the Americas.

I am a member of The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, a non-profit organisation based in Northern California. Along with my private practice, I belong to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (UK), and have professional memberships with The Institute of Psychedelic Therapy (UK), The OPEN Foundation (NL) and the Italian Society of Psychedelic Medicine (IT).

Philanthropic Support for Biocultural Conservation & Research
View fullsize Psychotria Viridis • • Chacruna, Chacrona, or Chaqruy in the Quechua languages. “We are being trained by the plants, the fungi and some other marvellous molecules to see what truly is.” — Kathleen Harrison 📸 by @ales
View fullsize A Very Swollen Salt River • • “The Navajo have that wonderful image of what they call the Pollen Path. The Navajo say, ‘Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above
View fullsize Hope • • Baby Hope, our four years old African Desert Elephant, browsing the Huab River area together with her mum. Thoughts on Reciprocity —- There is a term in the Quechua language “Ayni” - it reflects a world in perpe
View fullsize Saguaro National Park • “The Holy Land is everywhere” ― Heȟáka Sápa [ Black Elk ] 📸 by @alessia.chiappino Saguaro National Park #BlackElk #NativeAmerican #medicineman #lakota #oglala #ecology #spirituality #sacredp
View fullsize The Ayahusca vine - cleaned and smashed before being boiled. • On becoming the plant. Thoughts on the Dieta Vegetalista. SG: “That’s an important way that shamans gain knowledge of the objects of studies is rather than being detache
View fullsize Ceiba Lupuna [continued] • “Make yourself useful to many, and there will be many hoping for you to succeed.” – — Robin Van Loon “When we talk about the ecology of a forest, and the ecology for example of a tree sp
View fullsize The Italian Alps • “A human being, is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of op
View fullsize Rescued Tamarin a La Isla de Los Monos • “Any little thing that brings us back into communion with the natural world and the spiritual power that permeates all life will help us to move a little further along the path of human moral and sp
View fullsize West and East Mitten Buttes • “The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants 📸 by @alessia.chi
View fullsize Victoria Amazonica • “If diversity is a source of wonder, its opposite - the ubiquitous condensation to some blandly amorphous and singularly generic modern culture that takes for granted an impoverished environment - is a source of dism
View fullsize Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii • • “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” — Chief Seattle&
View fullsize La Maloca at Nihue Rao • • Ayahuasca ceremonies are held in a large circular hut called the maloca, which is the traditional ceremonial space used by the Shipibo people for ceremonies. “These structures represent the largest works of
View fullsize The Red Rock Formations of The Colorado Plateau ‘All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. ... Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the
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