The Triple Gem: Plant Medicine, Somatic Work, and Internal Family Systems

Somatics is having a moment.

Everyone seems to be talking about nervous system regulation, breathwork, embodiment. Including myself - ha! And yes—those tools are important. They help us slow down, feel more, soften the grip of survival mode.

But I’ve also noticed something.

So often, we stop there.

We confuse awareness with transformation. We confuse release with resolution. A sigh with integration.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years—through trainings, ceremonies, and just living a messy, beautiful life—it’s that true healing doesn’t happen through one technique. At least not for me.

Instead, there’s been a kind of trinity that keeps showing up in the past few years. A combination that, together, has opened doors nothing else could. I call it my Triple Gem:

Somatic work. Sacred plant medicine. Internal Family Systems.

Let me pause here and give a little context—because not everyone reading this may be familiar with these modalities.

Ayahuasca is a sacred plant brew from the Amazon, used for centuries by Indigenous peoples for healing, spiritual insight, and connection with the unseen. It’s not a recreational drug. It’s a teacher—and sometimes a tough one. Ayahuasca has shown me parts of myself I didn’t even know were there, reconnected me with the Earth, my mother (both literally and figuratively) and helped me feel truths my mind couldn’t access and/or my heart couldn’t digest.

Bufo alvarius, also called “the toad” or simply Bufo, is a powerful entheogen made from the secretion of the Sonoran Desert toad. Its active ingredient, 5-MeO-DMT, can dissolve the ego entirely in seconds, often leading to a direct experience of unity or Source. For me, Bufo has been like being shot out of a cannon into the heart of everything—and then slowly stitching myself back together with more love and awareness than before. An absolutely overwhelming experience, shattering the entire framework I had of the world, and myself. It sounds terrifying when I write it like this, but actually there was no “I” to be terrified. I was being shot out of the cannon, but also I WAS the cannon. I was in the heart of everything, but also I WAS the heart of everything. It was a non-dual experience, in the truest sense of the word.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic model that changed everything for me. It sees the psyche as made up of different “parts”—each with their own fears, roles, and desires. The part of you that self-sabotages? That procrastinates? That panics in relationships? It’s not broken. It’s protecting something. IFS teaches us to meet these parts not with force, but with curiosity and compassion. 

And Somatic work, at its core, is about attuning to the language of the body. It’s not just about calming down—it’s about becoming curious. What is this tension saying? What is this symptom trying to protect me from? What is the wisdom encoded in my contraction?

Now, why am I calling this combination the triple gem?

Because when I look back at the most meaningful shifts in my life—when things truly began to feel different, not just temporarily better—they came from a dance between these three.

Plant medicine opened the portal.

Somatic work helped me stay with what surfaced.

IFS gave me the tools to relate to it with kindness, clarity, and self-leadership.

And if I could add a fourth, it would be Curiosity. 

Curiosity is such a gentle, spacious energy. It’s what I extend toward a person I’m drawn to, a creature I want to understand, or a phenomenon I don’t yet grasp. It opens me. It expands me. And I think that’s exactly what makes it such a powerful ally in inner work. When I meet my inner world with curiosity—not judgment, not urgency—it softens the terrain. I become more available to what’s there.

But curiosity isn’t just a therapeutic tool. For me, it’s a kind of compass. I've noticed that when something sparks my curiosity, it usually means something. It’s like a subtle invitation from life—a little trail marker. And when I’ve followed it, it has almost always led to something meaningful: a conversation that changed me, a book that opened a door, a new practice (a new career, even!), a new person, or a new piece of myself.

Tears, trembles, deep exhales in somatic work don’t necessarily mean much. It’s a release of tension, yes, and can be better than nothing. But if the source of tension isn’t addressed, we are just scratching the surface. The patterns stay rooted. Because release and awareness are not enough. It’s just the first step. Then comes curiosity—but most people don’t get there. Because curiosity means facing discomfort, and our instinct is to push it away. That’s where IFS Therapy comes in. It helps you build a relationship with the Parts of you that resist change—the ones afraid to let go of what’s familiar. It creates enough inner safety to step into new ways of relating to oneself in daily life.

We live in a culture addicted to quick fixes and “aha” moments. No wonder ayahuasca has become so hyped in the last years. Just take the magic potion and mama aya will solve it all for you. We want the one ceremony that changes everything. The one book. The one practice. But the real medicine is in how we prepare, how we show up, and how we integrate. Despite the plant medicine afterglow, which perhaps would make one think otherwise: Change still requires taking a decision and then acting upon it. 

And when I don’t take action…well, the universe just serves up the same lesson. I’ve had ceremonies that showed me the same lesson multiple times before I finally decided to do something about it. Ugh.

Again, this is where IFS has been so helpful.

It’s helped me speak with the parts of me that resist change—the ones afraid of letting go, even when something better is trying to come in. It creates enough inner safety to try something new.

And that’s what it all comes down to for me.

Not the cosmic downloads.

Not the fireworks.

But the quiet ways we start to live differently—because something inside us feels safer, softer, more seen.

That’s healing.

That’s integration.

That’s the triple gem.

And together, they bridge the gap between science and spirituality, giving us both the understanding and the experience of healing.

photo: me taking in the experience after my first Bufo trip in 2022.

Have you ever tried Plant Medicine, Somatic Work, or Internal Family Systems therapy? If yes, what did you learn and in what way has it changed your life? If not, are you curious about them? You know what my take is on curiosity... ;-)