Research
Studying the questions that deserve closer attention
Our research focuses on lived experience at the intersections of trauma, embodiment, chronic illness, and psychedelic medicine. We are especially interested in areas where qualitative inquiry can help reveal dimensions of experience that standardized measures may not fully capture, and where clinical observation can help generate stronger questions for future study.
Our current work includes an ongoing qualitative study of adults with significant histories of developmental adversity who have received iboga or ibogaine. The study grew from repeated clinical observations about the ways people describe changes in trauma-related patterns, body experience, self-perception, relationships, and health following treatment, alongside the recognition that much of this lived experience remains underrepresented in the literature.
Current Study
Exploring Healing Journeys with Iboga + Ibogaine
Led by Lyndsey Ryan, LPC, LAC, ACS, this ongoing qualitative study explores how people with developmental trauma describe emotional, psychological, relational, and somatic changes during and after iboga or ibogaine treatment.
We are currently inviting adults with an ACE score of 4 or higher who have already received iboga or ibogaine to participate in confidential interviews about their experiences. The study is particularly interested in how participants understand shifts in trauma-related patterns, embodiment, self-perception, relationships, chronic illness, and the longer process of integration.
Chronic illness or autoimmunity may be present, though neither is required for participation.
The study is exploratory in nature. It is designed to deepen clinical understanding and identify patterns that may help shape future research, rather than to establish that iboga or ibogaine causes a particular therapeutic outcome.
Why this research matters
Standardized measures can tell us a great deal about symptom change, functioning, and treatment response. Qualitative research offers another kind of information by allowing participants to describe how an experience changed the way they relate to their bodies, histories, relationships, identities, or sense of possibility over time.
Those narratives cannot establish causation on their own, and they can still help clarify what people are experiencing, where recurring patterns may be emerging, and which questions deserve more rigorous investigation.
That matters in a field moving as quickly as psychedelic medicine. The quality of future care will depend in part on the quality of the questions we are willing to ask now, including questions that remain close to the complexity of lived experience.
A note about iboga + ibogaine
Iboga and ibogaine carry significant medical risks and require careful screening and monitoring. Participation in this research does not constitute medical advice, an endorsement of treatment, or a recommendation to pursue these substances.
The study examines experiences that have already occurred and does not involve the administration, provision, or procurement of iboga or ibogaine.
Emerging Work
Developing what the work continues to ask for
Some projects begin with a research question, while others take shape through patterns that become difficult to ignore across clinical practice, supervision, consultation, or professional education. As those patterns become clearer, they sometimes point toward the need for a new training, a different kind of professional space, or a framework that can hold more complexity than the ones already available.
Our emerging work currently includes the development of The Encounter Lab, the evolving Firekeeper model of professional formation, expanded consultation and learning communities for clinicians, ongoing research related to iboga and ibogaine, and new approaches to preparation and integration that account more fully for trauma, attachment, dissociation, embodiment, and the relational environment surrounding psychedelic work.
Research + Collaboration
Much of the work we care about most will require partnership across disciplines.
We welcome conversations with researchers, universities, clinical organizations, psychedelic medicine programs, healthcare systems, nonprofit organizations, educators, and others working at the intersections of trauma, altered states, ibogaine, psychedelic medicine, chronic illness, professional education, and integration.
We are especially interested in collaborations that bring formal research into closer relationship with clinical practice and lived experience, while preserving the dignity and complexity of the people whose experiences are informing the field.
If your work intersects with ours, we would be glad to hear from you.
[Research + Partnership Inquiry]
Stay close to the work
Our writing, research, and emerging projects will continue to evolve alongside the clinical work that informs them. This is where we will share what we are learning, the questions we are still following, and the projects taking shape around those questions.
For clinicians, researchers, facilitators, and others interested in trauma and psychedelic-assisted care, this page offers a way to stay connected to the thinking as it develops.