When psychedelic-assisted therapy is discussed as a potential pathway for veteran healing, much of the attention understandably centers on the treatment itself. People want to know what the experience is like, how different compounds work, what someone might see or feel, and whether treatments can create the kind of change they may have spent years searching for.
Those questions represent only one part of a much longer process.
At VETS, years of working alongside veterans and their families have reinforced the importance of looking at healing more holistically. The experience of psychedelic-assisted therapy does not begin when a veteran arrives at a treatment center, nor does it end when they leave. Preparation, education, medical screening, family support, integration, community, and the practices someone builds into daily life afterward all play a role in shaping the larger healing journey.
Dr. Lori Camper has seen that process from nearly every angle. As Programs Director at VETS, Lori works directly with veterans receiving Foundational Healing Grants, supporting them as they prepare for treatment and helping them understand what may come afterward. She holds a PhD in psychology with a concentration in trauma and crisis counseling and first became involved with VETS while completing her doctoral work.
After working with hundreds of veterans, Lori has seen dramatic transformation, gradual changes that only become obvious with time, difficult transitions home, unexpected insights, and experiences that remain difficult to understand. We spoke with her about readiness, expectations, preparation, integration, family dynamics, and what she wishes more people understood before beginning psychedelic-assisted therapy.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: When you first begin working with a veteran who has received a VETS grant, what do those early conversations look like?
Lori: By the time I have my first intake call with someone, I have already reviewed their application, so I have a sense of what they have been struggling with and what brought them to VETS. From there, a lot of the conversation is educational. We talk about the treatment options available to them, what those different experiences may involve, and what they need to understand before making decisions about their care.
A lot of veterans have already done their homework by the time we talk. They have researched the compounds, spoken with friends, listened to other veterans, or heard stories from people who have gone through treatment before them. I am sure there are times when I repeat things they already know, but I would rather someone hear something twice than leave an important part of the process unexplained.
One of the biggest things I want people to understand from the beginning is that this is not simply a matter of showing up for treatment and expecting everything else to take care of itself. There is work before treatment, there is the experience itself, and then there is everything that happens afterward.
I think a lot of people come into psychedelic-assisted therapy hoping that it will be the thing that finally changes everything, which is understandable. Many of the veterans we work with have already spent years trying different approaches. But sometimes that hope turns into the expectation that the treatment itself is going to do all the work. Preparation and showing up are important, but the integration work that follows is just as important, and in many ways that is where the longer process really begins.
Q: When you talk about someone being ready for treatment, what does readiness actually mean?
Lori: The first thing I tell people is that they have to want to do it themselves. A spouse can encourage them, a family member can support them, and the people around them can absolutely help create the conditions for healing, but they cannot want it for the veteran. If somebody is only going because they were given an ultimatum or because everyone around them is telling them they have to go, that is a very different starting point.
There is also the medical side of readiness, which is incredibly important. These are powerful treatments, and different medicines come with different health considerations. With ibogaine, for example, there are cardiac risks that have to be taken seriously, which is why medical screening is part of the process. Veterans may have bloodwork, an EKG, medication reviews, and additional screening at the treatment facility because safety has to come first.
Medication and supplement use also has to be evaluated carefully, and this is an area where the field continues to evolve. We are still learning. There are things practitioners understand differently now than they did several years ago, and recommendations can change as more evidence and clinical experience become available.
I think that is important for people to hear because psychedelic therapy is sometimes discussed as though everything about it has already been figured out. It has not. There is promising research, increasing real-world experience, and acknowledgment that there is still much to learn. Responsible treatment means being honest about all three of those things.
Q: Preparation is a major part of the VETS model. What does good preparation look like to you?
Lori: Coaching is a very important part of preparation because it gives someone space to think through why they are doing this in the first place. We work a lot with intentions, because an intention can help give direction to the experience. It might be something someone wants to understand, something they are ready to look at more honestly, or a pattern they know they want to change.
At the same time, I spend a lot of time talking about the difference between an intention and an expectation because those are not the same thing.
You can go into treatment with a very clear sense of what you hope to work on without deciding in advance what the experience is supposed to look like. That distinction becomes especially important when someone knows another veteran who has already gone through treatment. Maybe their friend had an extraordinary experience, came home feeling completely different, and told them every detail about what happened. It is very easy to start carrying that story into your own treatment and assuming your experience should look the same.
It probably will not.
No two people have exactly the same experience, and good preparation includes becoming comfortable with the fact that there is a certain amount you cannot predict. You can educate yourself, you can understand the treatment setting, you can know who will be caring for you and what the days surrounding treatment will generally look like, and you can make sure you feel safe with the people and environment around you. All of that matters because trust becomes particularly important when you are going into an altered and vulnerable state.
I also think preparation has to include talking about what happens afterward. People spend so much time thinking about going to treatment that they do not always spend enough time thinking about coming home. Some people come out feeling incredibly clear, renewed, and energized. Others may feel emotionally raw, exhausted, confused, or unsure of what just happened. Preparing someone for that range of possibilities can help them give themselves more patience when their experience does not immediately look the way they imagined it would.
Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions you hear about what the psychedelic experience itself is supposed to be like?
Lori: One of the biggest misconceptions is that everybody is supposed to have visions. They are not.
Some people have very visual experiences, but other people may have something much more emotional or physical. Someone may spend a lot of time with grief, anger, fear, memories, or physical sensations. The absence of visions does not mean the treatment is not working. It simply means the experience is taking a different form.
That is something I have learned repeatedly over the years.
Sometimes a veteran finishes treatment and does not understand what happened or why certain things came up. Then weeks later, or even months later, something clicks and they suddenly understand part of the experience differently. Sometimes it unfolds slowly, and sometimes there are pieces that may never make complete intellectual sense.
I also think people hear a lot about how difficult psychedelic experiences can be, especially with a compound like ibogaine. They hear about the hard parts, the emotional intensity, and the experiences where someone feels like they were put through the wringer. What they hear less often is that sometimes an experience is beautiful.
Sometimes people are reminded of the happiest days or parts of their lives. Sometimes they encounter joy or love or memories they have not been able to feel connected to for years. Sometimes the experience is not about being shown painful parts of their lives. Sometimes the person needs to be reminded that something good still exists in them and that they are loved.
I have had veterans tell me afterward, almost surprised, “Nobody told me it could be amazing.”
That is why I tell people to have zero expectations because we do not know what they will get. There is no correct psychedelic experience. The better question is whether they can stay open to what actually arises instead of constantly comparing it to what they thought was supposed to happen.
Q: Do you tend to see changes immediately after treatment, or does it usually take time?
Lori: You see both, and that is another place where expectations can really affect how somebody evaluates their own progress.
Some veterans return home and the change seems dramatic almost immediately. It can feel like a 180-degree-shift, and everyone around them can see it. Other people might experience what I describe as a three-to-five-degree change, which does not sound nearly as dramatic in the beginning.
But if you think about what happens when you change direction by even a few degrees and keep going, eventually you end up somewhere completely different.
That is why I try to encourage people to notice the subtle changes rather than waiting only for something enormous. Maybe your mind is quiet, absent of racing thoughts. Maybe someone cuts you off in traffic and, instead of immediately becoming enraged, you notice that there was a pause before you reacted. Maybe a situation that would normally have escalated suddenly does not. Maybe you catch yourself in a pattern that you never recognized before.
Those things can look very small from the outside, but that pause can be evidence that something is shifting.
Sometimes healing is obvious and immediate, and sometimes it looks much more like a slow turn. Both can be important. What becomes difficult is when someone experiences the slow version while comparing themselves to the friend who had the dramatic version. They can miss what is actually changing because they are looking for the wrong evidence.
Q: Integration is a word people hear constantly in psychedelic therapy, but it can mean different things to different people. What does it mean to you?
Lori: To me, integration is about taking whatever happened during treatment and figuring out how it becomes part of your actual life.
An insight can be incredibly powerful, but the insight itself does not necessarily change your behavior. You still have to decide what you are going to do with it. That is where daily practices, habits, relationships, thought patterns, and lifestyle changes start becoming very important.
For one person, integration might involve breathwork or meditation. For someone else, it may involve changing their relationship with alcohol, continuing to work with a therapist, spending more time in community, developing healthier routines, or learning how to recognize negative thought patterns before they take over.
I use an analogy that I actually borrowed from my preacher. I tell people to think of themselves as the air traffic controller of their mind. Negative thoughts are going to come through. You acknowledge crappy thoughts, but you do not let them land. You redirect with intention.
At first, that kind of awareness can require a lot of conscious effort because someone may be trying to change patterns that have been reinforced for years. By redirecting thoughts and behaviors with intention, the new neuropathways are reinforced. Over time, what we do with intention becomes the new normal, the new response.
The same is true of something like breathwork or meditation. It may feel awkward when somebody first starts doing it, but if they keep practicing, eventually it becomes something they know how to use. Then when a really difficult day comes, they are not trying to learn a completely new skill while they are already overwhelmed. They have something familiar to return to.
That is a big part of integration for me. You are not waiting for life to become easy. You are building the practices that help you meet life differently when it is not.
Understanding the Healing Journey at VETS
VETS approaches psychedelic-assisted therapy with the understanding that treatment is only one component of a much broader healing process. Preparation, education, medical safety, integration, family support, community, and long-term practices all have a role in helping veterans navigate what comes before, during, and after treatment.