Jonalyn Blaha

Track: Psychedelics – Science, Spirituality and Therapeutic Potential

Riding the Bliss Wave: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS of Intuitive Entheogen Dance Experiences in Women

This study used consensual qualitative methods to explore the lived, embodied experiences of intuitive entheogen dance experiences (IEDE) in women. This study interviewed 6 participants about their experiences with IEDE. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcribed interviews. The specific primary aim of the present study was to investigate the following research question: What is the lived experience of IEDE, and how can this experience be understood through a psychological perspective? Secondary aims explored the following questions: (a) How does one arrive at IEDE? and (b) What meaning and purpose comes about the experience of IEDE? This research is simultaneously transpersonal and embodied, which sets it apart from many other approaches to the mind–body problem. The results of this study clearly show the somatic nature of the entheogenic experience and provides a thorough example of how the spiritual experience is felt directly through the body. The findings amplify Jung’s understanding of the psychic dimension with the somatic dimension and how these two dimensions might be further integrated and bridged. The results suggest that the body has an inherent widsom and the whole mental health of the person cannot be fully explored and healed without considering the body. It is important for psychotherapists to begin to understand that the body is learning about spirit and psyche through the body and that this learning remains in memory in the physical body. Further research would help support and explore the potential for the healing of trauma using movement and ASC, explore how the body is the shadow and how unconscious material first becomes lost in the body and then also how it is integrated into the self through movement and through alteres states, and explore archetypes and complexes within an IEDE, diving deeper into personal, cultural, and primordial themes.

Jonalyn is committed to a life of self-discovery, awareness, and professional development. Her clinical training has included working with children and families as well as adults and couples who present with dementia, personality disorders, severe early trauma, characterological disorders, psychotic spectrum disorders, anxiety, and depression. She also has experience with complex family systems, emotionally disturbed children and adolescents, and crisis intervention services. In addition to that, Jonalyn had the privilege of acting as an existential facilitator with the elderly and those who were in hospice care and at the end of their lives. Her theoretical orientations are psychodynamic, existential, and relational in nature.

Aside from her clinical work, ​Jonalyn's academic research has revolved around psychedelics and their healing potential. Her dissertation research entitled, "Riding the Bliss Wave: A Thematic Analysis of Intuitive Entheogen Dance Experiences in Women" explores the interplay between psyche and soma and the psychospiritual effects of being in an altered state while using movement as a catalyst for healing.