Scoring the Journey Part One: Building Playlists for Neurodivergent Psychedelic Healing
Music in psychedelic therapy does more than fill silence. It shapes how emotions, memories, and meanings move through the session. For some, listening to music in psychedelic states feels like being carried. For others, it can feel like being cracked open. For neurodivergent participants, whose sensory systems and emotional rhythms often run differently, the same music that soothes one person may overwhelm another. Learning how sound interacts with inner experience is a crucial aspect of the art of facilitation.
Across this five-part series, we follow how music moves from philosophy to practice, from the ethics of listening to the sensory and technical craft of sound. The articles explore how playlists can mirror the phases of a journey, how texture and tone support regulation, and how facilitators develop the sensitivity to listen with the whole body. They also walk you through the practical steps of building a playlist from scratch—selecting tracks, organizing your library, and using music apps. Together, the series provides a grounded framework for creating music experiences that cater to neurodivergent nervous systems with clarity, responsiveness, and care.
Music as Co-Therapist
Some have suggested that when music sits in the chair beside you, it listens as much as it speaks. While the metaphor is poetic rather than literal, Kaelen (2018) described music as a ‘hidden therapist,’ a nonverbal presence that guides and responds. Patients in psilocybin studies spoke of being held by the music, carried, reassured, or challenged by it. Outcomes in their study were more closely linked to how participants experienced the music than to the drug’s intensity itself (Kaelen et al., 2018); in other words, sound matters as a potential relationship with the client.
For facilitators, this invites a shift in orientation. Rather than curating playlists as a blank slate or mood-setters, we can engage them as active companions in the healing process. However, the goal is resonance, not control. The music becomes part of the dialogue between medicine, body, and psyche, so it’s worth being intentional about the playlist.
Roots of Practice
Modern psychedelic music programming draws from the early frameworks of Helen Bonny and Walter Pahnke (1972), and contemporary refinements by Richards (2015) and others. Bonny’s Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) method treated music as an active participant within the therapeutic triad of therapist, client, and sound. This lineage continues today, as evidenced by the Copenhagen Music Program (CMP), which has mapped session phases that music can help navigate, ranging from opening and ascent to peak and return (Messell, Summer, et al., 2022). Kaelen’s (2015) research confirmed that music’s emotional tone-color directly shapes a client’s relationship to the music during a journey.
Across these traditions, music is both structure and catalyst. It provides continuity, regulates arousal, and helps translate ineffable experiences into felt meaning. When well-matched, it opens pathways toward safety, release, and integration.
Neurodivergent Principles in Sound
Many neurodivergent people experience sound in heightened detail. A slight change in volume, frequency, or instrumentation can alter the entire emotional landscape. For some, layered or dissonant music evokes wonder; for others, it becomes unbearable. Predictability, texture, and tone color are particularly important for neurodivergent listeners.
Playlist design for neurodivergent participants calls for collaborative curiosity. It begins by asking: What sounds evoke a sense of safety? What textures signal a feeling of overwhelm? Facilitators can use tools like a Sound Intake Worksheet to document soothing and triggering tones, volume preferences, and grounding cues. This information becomes part of the preparation process, not as a rigid prescription but as a shared language for co-regulation.
The same flexibility that defines neurodivergent experience also invites innovation. Rhythmic stimming, vocalization, or spontaneous movement may become natural expressions resonating with the musical field. By treating sound as a sensory ecosystem rather than a fixed script, facilitators make room for authentic regulation and creative unfolding.
The Ethics of Attunement
Music carries cultural, emotional, and spiritual weight. A choral piece may feel sacred to one person and oppressive to another. For participants with trauma linked to religion, authority, or abuse, music can unexpectedly reanimate those trauma imprints. Inclusive practice means taking nothing for granted. Ask, listen, and frame each playlist as a collaborative hypothesis or as something that can be adjusted in real time.
When we invite music into the therapeutic space, we also invite its lineage. Each song or soundscape carries human intention: grief, devotion, longing, protest. Curating music for healing asks us to hold that lineage with respect and informed consent. We are not merely choosing songs but shaping a relational field where artist, listener, and medicine meet.
From Curation to Collaboration
Designing a playlist for neurodivergent psychedelic work is less about mastery and more about sensitivity. It’s an act of continuous listening—before, during, and after the journey. As Kaelen (2022) reminds us, the right question isn’t “What is the perfect playlist?” but “What does this person’s nervous system need to feel safe enough to open?”
Sound, in this context, becomes both mirror and bridge. It translates between the sensory and symbolic, the regulated and the ecstatic, the self and the collective. When approached with care, music becomes a map and a companion, guiding each traveler toward a deeper sense of belonging within their own experience.
Next: Part Two: Mapping the Arc — Designing the Playlist by Journey Phase will explore how musical phases mirror the inner movement of a psychedelic session, and how facilitators can pace intensity and texture to support neurodivergent nervous systems through each stage of the arc.
References
Bonny, H., & Pahnke, N. (1972). The use of music in psychedelic (LSD) psychotherapy. Journal of Music Therapy, 9(2), 64–87. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/9.2.64
Grof, S. (2006). When the impossible happens: Adventures in non-ordinary realities. Sounds True. https://tinyurl.com/GrofImpossible
Kaelen, M., Barrett, F. S., Roseman, L., Lorenz, R., Family, N., Bolstridge, M., Curran, H. V., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2015). LSD enhances the emotional response to music. Psychopharmacology, 232(19), 3607–3614.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4014-y
Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Raine, J., Evans, L., Timmerman, C., Rodriguez, N., Roseman, L., Feilding, A., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2018). The hidden therapist: Evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy. Psychopharmacology, 235, 505–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4820-5
Kaelen, M. (2022). Music for Psychedelic Therapy – Mendel Kaelen, Founder and CEO of Wavepaths [Podcast interview with Brom Rector, Human 3 with Brom and Sam]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcHe8LZ99uk
Messell, C., Summer, L., Bonde, L. O., Beck, B. D., & Stenbæk, D. S. (2022). Music programming for psilocybin-assisted therapy: Guided imagery and music-informed perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.873455
Richards, W. A. (2015). Sacred knowledge: Psychedelics and religious experiences. Columbia University Press. https://tinyurl.com/Sacred-Knowledge