Anthony Pleetanino

About Anthony Pleetanino

Psychedelic experiences remind us that there is far more to this world and far more to our lives than we often realize. Sometimes these expansive states are exhilarating, revelatory, and blissful. Other times they can be unsettling, chaotic, and difficult to navigate. I am called to serve as an integration coach because I have experienced both of these polarities and have spent the last fifteen years learning to make my life a direct response to that which is sacred in all things.

My work with psychedelics and my training in spiritual care began together in 2009 and have informed one another ever since. As a religious studies major at a small liberal arts school in Asheville, North Carolina, I experienced and witnessed phenomena through the use of psychedelics that appeared profoundly similar to the mystical experiences I was studying in sacred texts. Likewise, I watched people around me pose the same philosophical questions and existential musings in the midst of recreational psychedelic exploration as were being addressed by the philosophers I was studying. These parallels were not much more than a source of intrigue to me until I found myself facing a psychedelic experience that my previous sense of myself and the world could not hold. Whereas any challenging experience I had encountered up until that point (both on and off of psychedelics) had seemed manageable, or at least endurable, on this particular day I found that the very foundation of my world was fallible. And when the trip wore off, the crisis did not.

In the days, months, and years that followed, I came to understand that what I encountered on that day in November of 2009 was the felt realization of some truths that had only been abstract ideas to me until that time; that change, pain, and death are unavoidable parts of this life, and that while I am not in control of them, I am still responsible for my life. Integrating this embodied realization required hard work, compassion, and help from many loving friends and teachers. It required me to take self-care, mental health, and contemplative practice seriously. Most of all, it taught me that the only appropriate response to the wild, brutal beauty of reality is a loving one; an honest one; in some sense, a religious one. Through further study and practice, I began to understand that rather than overcoming my difficulties and returning to “normal”, I was meant to find a sense of home in this larger and more animate world; for it is from these places of love and pain that meaning is palpable, and from these journeys that life’s callings emerge.

As my own calling to walk with and support others through life’s transitions became clearer to me, I decided to move to the West Coast in order to further my training. I deepened my meditation practice and attended retreats in the Zen, Vipassana, and Vedanta traditions. I studied and later ghost-wrote a book about the Enneagram. I spent six months apprenticing with a shamanic practitioner from the Kogi lineage of Colombia. I learned how to feel my emotions more deeply. How to dwell in my body. How to grieve. I re-explored my Christian roots, becoming a member of a Quaker community in Berkeley, CA. I studied the work of Joseph Campbell and Fr. Richard Rohr pertaining to rites of passage and initiation. These tools also helped me hold space and provide guidance for others, giving me the confidence to begin offering support to people from various backgrounds.

As I continued my study of theology at a graduate level starting in 2014, I also expanded my service work, volunteering at a hospice centre and later at a street outreach organization in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood. Whether I was sitting with someone facing death, grieving tragedy, or deep in the throws of addiction, I found that some common themes and energies emerge during life’s major highs, lows, and transitions. In this sense, we are all walking each other home; down the same paths, through the same struggles, and past the same opportunities to make meaning and turn pain into beauty. I now work full-time as an interfaith hospice chaplain, providing spiritual guidance, deep listening, and yes, integration support to people on the cusp of the ultimate “psychedelic” experience—death.

Anthony Pleetanino's approach to integration

The foundation of my work is set on the belief that every part of life is sacred and therefore meaningful; especially your direct experience. We, therefore, begin with your story, which may centre on a recent or upcoming psychedelic experience, but undoubtedly begins far before. 

As we sift through the bright points and dark valleys of your life, we will work together to identify themes, explore personality structures, and utilize the wisdom and spiritual resources that are already within you. As a wider map of your inner landscape begins to emerge, we will also work to notice both the presence and the absence of the sacred–whether you refer to that essential aspect of reality as God(s), Goddess, Truth, Source, or something else.

I will then help you cultivate practices consistent with your own spiritual lineage and perspectives in order to forge a more consistent relationship with the Sacred–both within you and without. It is from this more expansive place that deeper meaning and a more enduring sense of direction can emerge. It is from this place that even the most challenging experiences and confounding contradictions can exist within a world that feels vital, connective, and holy. It is from this place that you may find yourself ready to embark on a new or deeper chapter of your life’s journey and to contribute the best of yourself to this world.

In addition to offering preparation and integration services surrounding psychedelic experiences, I offer longer-term Spiritual Counseling for anyone navigating past psychedelic or spiritual experiences or seeking support around religious questions or beliefs. 

Credentials

• Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Philosophy (University of North Carolina, Asheville)
• Master of Divinity (Starr King School for the Ministry)

Trainings

• Certificate in Spiritual Direction (Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute)
• Certificate in Psychedelic Therapy and Research (California Institute of Integral Studies)
• 4.5 Units of Clinical Pastoral Education (Kaiser Foundation Hospital and University of California, San Fransisco)

Anthony Pleetanino's offerings

• Single Session — $150
• Short-Term Integration Package — 3 sessions for $400
• Long-Term Integration Package — 6 sessions for $800
• Preparation and Integration Package — 2 prep sessions and 3 integration sessions — $700