Our Mission

At Entheogration we aim to provide trauma-attuned support, somatic-based, and Spirit-led guidance through our various wellness offerings to create space for and support the activation and sustainability of our client's innate inner healer. Our main work is supporting the preparation, experiences, and integration of altered states of consciousness while prioritizing safety, consent, cultural humility, and ecological responsibility.

About Entheogration

At Entheogration, we provide in-person and virtual support and guidance in connecting with and learning from and with psychedelics and entheogens; sacred plant, fungi and animal medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and beyond. In doing this, we use various healing modalities such as yoga, nervous system care, ancestral work, somatic practices, shadow work/play, sound healing, and more. We strive to hold ourselves in integrity as we create a mutually beneficial and consensual container together to integrate what you experience, learn, and sense in sacred connection to the medicine and to support you in integrating, remembering, and embodying that wisdom into your daily human life. Our mission is to support you in a deep process of unraveling, of remembering your authentic being, and encountering and cultivating sacredness in your daily life through learning to be in right relationship with or human and more-than-human kin.

Values

-sovereignty-

Under the current system, we witness ample power disparities. Top-down and power-over approaches create a divide between those who have the knowledge and those who do not. At Entheogration, we believe that all beings have the ability to re-member and re-connect to their innate wisdom and personal power. Through our support and guidance, we aim to create a container where you activate this power and wisdom within you through somatic awareness, yoga traditions including breathwork and meditation, plant medicine ceremony, and more. Furthermore, the tools we teach you are all things you can do with and for yourself. Our hope is to work ourselves out of a job! You are your own medicine and when applied with intention and persistent love you become your own healer.

-trauma-attunement-

Let's face it. The majority of the population has experienced some kind of trauma, whether they are conscious of it or not. In shadow work, in yoga practice, in plant medicine ceremonies, these traumatic experiences are bound to show up. These healing modalities involve consistent support and attentive care with various important goals, including not re-traumatizing you, feeling safe enough to be with your thoughts and emotions, moving through them with compassion, and diving deeper into your personal path of healing. We are trained in nervous system care, in maneuvering triggering experiences, and, of course, in being fully present and responsive to what is needed at the moment. We also recognize that working with plant medicine is an incredibly vulnerable space that requires transparency and authenticity. At Entheogration, we strive to move at the speed of trust.

-reciprocity-

Many indigenous cultures believe in and commit to sacred reciprocity as a way of life; that there exists a mutual exchange of attention and care between all beings in the material and spiritual realms. When we take part in this communion and ceremony, we always put forth an offering as part of that mutual exchange. Regarding sacred plant medicine and the protection of our planet, we owe unfathomable support to indigenous people, tribes, and leaders of all kinds who carry the wisdom of the planet and who continue to risk their lives to protect their cultures, lands, and traditions not just for themselves but for all of humanity. Much of what I teach and share in containers comes from my lived experience living and studying alongside indigenous lineage keepers, and is cited as such. At Entheogration, we commit to financially supporting specific indigenous tribes and indigenous-led organizations with at least 15% of our annual profit. We do so with deep gratitude and committed responsibility.

-regeneration-

While western culture is fueled by extraction, we aim to expand and evolve ourselves sustainably. A deep connection to the land in which we reside, our ancestors, and local caring economies fuels regenerative connection for the physical, energetic, and spiritual body. We work to renew and restore the severed relationship between humans and more-than-human kin by embodying the basic and inherent understanding that we are nature. With this understanding, our work together is like that of a closed loop system that regenerates the body, mind, and spirit.

-accessibility-

We strive to provide accessible services. Financially, all of our offerings are available on a sliding scale basis, where we have a standard price, typically for an hour or per session. On one end of the scale is the scholarship price which offers our service at a reduced rate. On the other end of the scale is our abundant price for those that can afford the standard price AND would like to support someone receiving the scholarship price. If the scholarship price on our sliding scale is still inaccessible for you, please consider sending us a message to work out a more appropriate exchange for you. We truly believe in this work and hope to share it with all those willing to answer the call to dive deeper into themselves. Geographically and physically, virtual sessions can be offered for non-ceremony days, and I am willing and able to travel to meet you where you're at.

-commitment-

Engaging in Entheogenic integration work is hard. There's no way to sugarcoat it- nor would we want to. At Entheogration, we have committed to the process and journey that this work requires and entails for ourselves, which is ever-evolving. It does not always happen in the way that we want it, nor the timeline that we hope for. We ask those who decide to work with Entheogration to commit to themselves and their own process, allowing the time and space necessary to face themselves, as we commit to supporting you in your journey.

~do no harm~

We are committed to ahimsa, or non-violence in Sanskrit. This principle is deeply intertwined with the harm reduction that is integrated into our preparation work together, whether that be for a yoga class or a ceremony. We prioritize safety, transparency, informed consent, and ethical boundaries.

Why Entheogration?

Over the past 13 years, Merryn has been working with entheogenic medicines formally and informally in Central and South America, South East Asia, Europe, and the U.S.A. Their knowledge and experience stem from years of personal exploration and ceremonial experience, which includes studying and sitting at the feet of elders, shamans, guides, curanderos, teachers, and harm reductionists. As a yoga teacher, their work (and existence) is heavily guided by the Ancient Yogic wisdom of the East. They recognize their path as a student will last an entire lifetime, if not longer. And, after over a decade of learning, studying, experiencing medicine and going through their own journeys of remembering, re-connecting, and healing of my mind and body, They continue serving on the medicine path by helping others to re-member, re-connect, and heal themselves through Entheogration.

Meet your guide

Founder and Guide

Merryn Spence

Merryn is an integration specialist, educator, yoga teacher, and harm reduction practitioner with over 15 years of experience working with altered states of consciousness across cultural, ceremonial, clinical, and community contexts. My work and play is based in Pittsburgh, PA, and I travel often for this work.

Their work bridges neuroscience, somatic and ecology psychology, Indigenous‑informed worldviews, and spiritual practice, with a strong emphasis on ethics, humility, and nervous system care. While I have many “certifications,” I truly gained wisdom through the daily practice of lived experience. I often became incredibly interested in a modality for my own healing, and participated in trainings and certifications for my own learning, use, and healing. Then, through embodied practice, I began working with others.

Training & Background

E‑CYT 200, E-CYT 500, YACEP with over 11 years of teaching experience.
Trauma‑informed, trauma-responsive and trauma-attuned trained
Trained in Internal Family Systems
Certified in Trauma Release Exercises
Trained in music and sound healing
Trained in Suicide Prevention, Crisis Intervention, and Mental Health First Aid
Certified Advanced Somatic Practitioner
Reiki Master Practitioner and Teacher
Menstrual Health Guide
Certified Sylvotherapy Practitioner (Shinrin-Yoku)
Ayurvedic Practitioner
Certified in Permaculture Design
Certified Herbalist
BLS Certified
Over 250 hours as a Fireside Project Volunteer
Certified Ordained Minister
~1 year studying and living with a Kichwa tribe
~1 year studying and living with an Aymara elder
Txaná Dieta with the Shanenawá ~ pending completion
Certified in Psychedelic Facilitation from a western institute
B.S. in Global Health and Community & Justice Studies
MSc in Psychology with a focus in Psychedelic Research ~ pending completion

Merryn's Journey

Storytime with Merryn...

I began physically connecting to the psychedelic realm in 2012 when I was 15.
I felt a drastic shift in my perspective and at the same time felt like I had known that this realm existed all along, because I had seen it in my dreams and sensed it through conversations with more-than-human beings.

For several years, I felt like I had to keep my experiences a secret- most certainly from my family and even some of my friends. I had little to no support or guidance, not even from the people who supplied me with various psychedelics.

My connection to nature, and the spirit realm, increased exponentially as I recreationally consumed psychedelics. I definitely felt a deep reverence for the earth and her inhabitants and had small rituals since my experience began, but I did not understand what ceremony was at that time.

It wasn’t until I moved abroad and then attended college that I experienced ceremony in a way that truly resonated with me.

My “dark night of the soul” began in my last year of college when one of my best friends from high school killed himself. I turned inwards, became depressed, and sunk into survival mode.

After graduating and being laid off from a job, I booked a one-way flight to South America. It was there that I understood, felt, and embodied the concept of an Entheogen, of ceremony, of spiritual intention, of Spirit.
I had the privilege of experiencing various earth medicines whose roots run deep all over South America. From Tobacco to Bobinzana, from San Pedro to Coca, I studied both by the book and through practice, ceremonies, and plant dietas.

My first experience drinking Ayahuasca was in the Ecuadorian Amazon with a local Kichwa tribe whom I grew to love and appreciate dearly. Since then I've had the immense privilege of sitting with Aya in over 40 ceremonies within various contexts.

In my experienced studying and learning, I came across people who used psychedelic medicines to harm people. I was astounded. Unfortunately, I also experienced harm from facilitators and other participants in altered states. Through this feeling of pain emerged an even deeper feeling of desire to cultivate systems of care, and thus Entheogration was born. I also recognized that as a white, able-bodied, queer American woman that medicines like Ayahuasca are not mine to carry, even if I may receive my teachers' blessing to serve.

Eventually I returned from my travels to root into the land where I am from, with the conviction to cultivate a deeper more intimate relationship with the medicines of the land I live on, grew up in, and learn from. That path led me head first into Amanita Muscaria, and other plant medicines. I continue to learn more each season as I grow deeper roots in PA, sharing wisdom and knowledge from my journey and teachers with consent and reverence.

Here I stand as a recovering people pleaser, a past church-goer, an ex-spiritual bypasser, and a healing egocentric being who has dived deep into the depths of my own darkness and come out on the other side with my heart still open.

And here I will sit in ceremony with you, to hold non-judgmental and loving space for you as you dive deeper into the crevices of yourself.

I share pieces of my journey with you to illustrate how non-linear life can be, as well as to share some of my personal catalysts for how I got here to this moment.

Thank you for your time and energy.

Let's grow together!

My Offerings