The Integration Chronicles - Stephanie Sheng
From Brand Strategy to Body Wisdom: How One Facilitator Found Her Voice Through Vision Quest
Welcome back to The Integration Chronicles đâyour go-to source for stories, insights, and inspiration from the world of psychedelic facilitation .
What happens after the profound experience ends? That question led me to create The Integration Chronicles.
Every week, I sit down with the trailblazers, healers, and guides whoâve figured out how to turn peak experiences into lasting change.
Youâll find raw stories, practical tools, and insights that bridge the sacred and everyday. Whether youâre curious about integration practices, fascinated by facilitatorsâ journeys, or seeking tools for your own path, this is for you.
The real magic happens in the integration.
This month, weâre diving deep into body-based integration practices, and Iâm thrilled to share this conversation with Stephanie, an entheogenic integration facilitator based in Berlin who weaves together somatic movement, non-dual Tantra, and compassionate inquiry in her work.
Stephanieâs path to facilitation is as unique as it is inspiringâfrom corporate brand strategy to psychedelic integration, with a transformative vision quest that literally helped her find her voice. Click the link above to watch the full interview.
The Conversation
Olivia Eden: Stephanie, your journey into this work has such an interesting origin story. Can you share what led you from brand strategy to psychedelic integration?
Stephanie: It really started with a spontaneous invitation from a friend in 2012. I had just moved to New York and was working as a brand strategist, and she invited me to volunteer at Horizonsâthe psychedelic conference. I didnât know anything about the space beyond college experimentation.
Volunteering there completely blew my mind. Seeing the researchers, scientists, anthropologists, and the vast array of realms that psychedelics touchesâarts, legal, cultural, social, scientific, spiritual. It opened this whole new world for me.
But the real âahaâ moment came later when I was freelancing for the Drug Policy Alliance, conducting focus groups in the psychedelic community. I kept hearing the same thing: âThe part thatâs so challenging is afterwardsâwhat do we do?â This was 2012, when integration wasnât talked about nearly as much as today. With my coaching background, I saw this beautiful connectionâways to support people in making these experiences truly impactful.
Olivia Eden: Thatâs such a beautiful example of skill stacking. But I know thereâs another foundational experience that shaped your pathâcan you share about your fatherâs illness and how that influenced your spiritual journey?
Stephanie: From ages 9 to 20, I watched my father battle cancer for ten yearsâhalf the time I had with him. Being witness to that process during such formative years really led me to spirituality and this path. Itâs the reason I have this fascination with understanding: what is life, whatâs death? What does it mean to be alive? What is real and what lies beyond? That experience is at the core and foundation of my work.
Olivia Eden: Thatâs profound. Now, you mentioned a vision quest experience that was particularly transformative. Can you share about that journey?
Stephanie: My first vision quest was in 2019 when I was 32, in the Spanish Pyrenees through the School of Lost Borders. It was a 10-day experienceâthree days of preparation with the group, four days and three nights of solo fasting in nature, then three days of integration.
For me, this became a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood. One of the things that marked my growing up was this pattern of getting smaller, being small. I felt comfortable doing that, even though deep down it didnât feel authentic to who I wanted to be.
During the solo portion, this song came to me spontaneouslyâcomplete with lyrics and rhythm. I was using my fist on my chest as the beat. Despite my lifelong fear of speaking in public, I knew I had to share this song with the group during our integration circle. Even talking about it now makes me shake a little, but that moment was such a huge full-body, full-being integration of finding my voice.
Olivia Eden: That gives me chills. How has that experience of literally finding your voice influenced how you work with clients now?
Stephanie: Since integrating my own experiences and finding what works for me, Iâve realized how varied and multifaceted integration can be. What I bring to my approach are all the things that really worked for meâthe non-dual Tantra path, hatha yoga, meditation, and somatic movement. Thatâs how I make all these experiences part of my actual life and lifestyle.
Iâve also incorporated Gabor MatĂ©âs compassionate inquiry approach, which is trauma-informed and somatically grounded. Itâs been a total game changer for the depth I can go with clientsâreally getting to the roots of things and healing at much deeper levels.
Olivia Eden: Speaking of somatic approaches, can you share a practical integration tool that someone could use if theyâre experiencing a trigger or need to reset their nervous system?
Stephanie: The most helpful thing for me is the simplest: feeling my feet on the ground, really noticing where I am, the things around me. Then coming back to the breathâtaking a few deep breaths where I exhale longer than the inhale. Sometimes I do this even when Iâm on the move and feel a subtle trigger. Just those few breaths where I can exhale longer start to calm my system again.
Once Iâve calmed down, then I can inquire: âWhatâs happening for me right now?â Maybe Iâm feeling shortness of breath or sick in my stomach. Just naming what I notice, because that awareness is so helpful.
Olivia Eden: And if someone wanted to take that inquiry deeper?
Stephanie: I always start with: what am I feeling? Whatâs present? What am I experiencing right now? This comes from compassionate inquiryâjust staying with whatâs happening in your body in this present moment. Instead of jumping to the head, stay with the sensation, the feeling, the emotion.
Sometimes people find it hard to name what theyâre feeling, and thatâs okay. Maybe itâs a color, maybe a texture, maybe an image comes to mind. I might ask a client: do you feel like a blue, sticky substance in your stomach? Those sensory descriptions are all helpful and keep us embodied rather than going back up to the head.
Olivia Eden: I can feel how grounded and present you are just talking to you, which speaks to how well youâve mastered these techniques. For anyone interested in working with you, do you have any special offerings for our readers?
Stephanie: Absolutely. Itâs been such a gift to be part of this community youâre building. For anyone who mentions The Integration Chronicles when they reach out, Iâd love to offer 10% off sessions.
Olivia Eden: Thatâs so generous. Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing your story and these practical tools with us. Your journey from staying small to finding your voice is such a powerful example of what integration can look like when we truly embody the work.
Stephanie facilitates entheogenic integration, non-dual Tantra meditation, hatha yoga, and somatic movement practices from Berlin. Her approach weaves together spirituality, trauma-informed healing, and somatic exploration. To connect with Stephanie and learn more about her 10% discount for Integration Chronicles readers, her contact info is: Email, Instagram, and Website!
The Integration Chronicles is on a mission to simplify integration by providing accessible tools for transformation. Each month, we focus on different aspects of integrationâthis August, weâre exploring everything related to the body, somatic practices, and nervous system regulation.