Awe

as a Healing Resource

Awe is increasingly understood as a transformative emotional and spiritual experience that fosters self-transcendence, connection, and meaning. Recently, research on psychedelic-assisted therapy has identified awe and self-transcendent experiences as possible pathways through which individuals report shifts in self-understanding, perspective, meaning, and connection to others, nature, spirituality, and existence itself (Hendricks, 2018; Monroy & Keltner, 2023)  Drawing on neuroscience and somatic mindfulness, this presentation details how awe quiets stress-driven rumination, resets the default mode network, and supports healing from anxiety, depression, and trauma. Practically, therapists can intentionally cultivate awe through supporting clients’ integration of experiences with a psychedelic medicine, guided imagery, storytelling, “awe walks” in nature, creative arts, and music, while using here-and-now somatic mindfulness to help clients anchor and integrate awe as it arises in the counseling session.

For 25+ years, Amy C. Davis has dedicated her career to the field of mental health, holding positions from a relief counselor for victims of intimate partner violence to her current position as the clinical director of a large, outpatient group practice. Amy C. Davis is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Approved Clinical Supervisor committed to training the next generation of counselors through the lens of trauma-informed care and somatic psychotherapy.  In 2020, she co-founded a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) clinic, which she continues to oversee and provides KAP to a small caseload of clients. She has recently co-authored a book titled Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Treatment Companion: How to Optimize Your Treatment Sessions, Improve Your Mental Health and Make Lasting Positive Change, scheduled for publication with New Harbinger Press in May 2026. Amy is now in her second year as a doctoral student in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at the University of Arizona. Her research agenda focuses on the role of the therapeutic alliance and experiences of awe in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). An important aim of her research is to support health organizations in developing frameworks for ethical practice within the burgeoning field of psychedelic-assisted care.