In psych*delic therapy and sessions, music isn't background noise, it's a co-therapist. It can amplify the medicine, surface what words can't, and support clients through every stage of the journey.
Be sure to check out our most recent podcast with @mattxavierdj about the power of music and creating playlists for journeys. 🎶🍄
Music isn't just background noise in psychedelic therapy it's also the co-therapist. 🎧🎶
In this conversation, DJ + therapist, @mattxavierdj shares how music becomes a co-therapist in psychedelic work, amplifying the medicine and giving voice to what clients can't express. We dive into:
✨ Why live playlist mixing can transform a session
🎶The "four stages" of music in a psilocybin journey
🎧 How to curate music like medicine (and avoid cookie-cutter playlists)
👨‍🎤 Why supporting artists is essential for the future of healing music
Whether you're a practitioner, musician, or just fascinated by the role of sound in healing, this episode will change how you listen.
Stream it now on Psychedelics Today wherever you get podcasts. 🎙️
In the latest MAPS Bulletin, Matt Xavier shares an excerpt from "The Psychedelic DJ: A Practical Guide to Therapeutic Music Curation and Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy."
Drawing on his background as both a DJ and a counselor, Xavier details how decades of curating sound informed a therapeutic approach in which music supports the regulation of the nervous system, encourages emotional release, and helps clients feel grounded during psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions. Rather than treating music as atmosphere, he positions it as an active tool in the healing process.
Read the full article using the link in our bio!
Stargazer is now archived on @radiozora.fm 's SoundCloud — which means you can find it any time, as many times as you need it.
@mattxavierdj and I go back nearly 30 years through the Moontribe community. This mix landing in the Over the Moon series has felt like a long time coming, and I'm so glad it's now permanent.
He forgot his headphones the day he recorded it. Mixed it anyway — from memory, across four decks, on pure feel. The result is one of my favorite things in this series: beatless, psychedelic ambient, drawn from deep in his archive, dissolving out into the dark of the Arizona desert sky. And knowing that Matt brings all of this as a psychedelic therapist and author — that the healing intention isn't metaphor, it's his actual practice — makes it land differently.
Put it on. Close your eyes. It'll do what it does.
Link in bio.
#ambient #beatless #psychedelic #radiozora #downtempo
Matt Xavier - Stargazer (scroll for tracklisting)
A beatless ambient mixtape for late nights under dark desert skies.
Mixed from memory. No headphones. Just feeling.
Out now on Over The Moon / @radiozora.fm
Link in bio / comments
A lot of people want the playlist, the gear, the formula, the “how-to.”
But the truth is, if you’re sitting with people in psych-del!c spaces and you don’t understand ethics, trauma, counseling skills, or how to actually hold what comes up, you can do real harm, real fast!
This work is not just about music taste. It’s not about curating a vibe.
It’s about knowing how to stay grounded when someone cracks open in front of you and trusting that what you say next actually helps and leans toward healing.
That’s a big part of why I wrote “The Psych-del!c DJ.” Not to hand people a shortcut, but to be clear about the weight of this work and the level of care it really takes.
Good music matters. So does being qualified enough not to screw up a sensitive moment.
One of the wildest things in this space is how often people chase the biggest do$e like that automatically means the deepest healing.
It doesn’t.
Somewhere along the way, a lot of people got sold on the idea that if you didn’t completely blow yourself out of the water, it wasn’t a real experience. That if you weren’t shattered, ego-deathed, and unable to remember what happened, it somehow “didn’t count.”
If someone can’t remember the experience, can’t track what happened, and has no real way to work with it after, we should at least be honest that “intense” and “effective” are not always the same outcome.
Big do$es sell stories.
Presence is what actually changes people.
*** Want to hear more? Join me and @bluemagicalchemy on our recording of @thevitalpointpodcast .
I didn’t come into this work thinking, I’m going to bring DJing into my sessions.
It happened because I recognized the same thing I’d always known on a dance floor: the room matters, the energy matters, and the music can change things.
The difference is, in this setting, the “crowd” is one person. One nervous system. One inner landscape. One real journey unfolding in real time.
That requires way more than pressing play. It requires reading what’s happening, understanding what someone is bringing in, and shaping a soundtrack that actually supports the work and their healing.
I take music in these spaces VERY seriously. Because when it’s done right, it’s not just atmosphere, it’s part of the container.
Music can shape an entire experience. In psych-del!c work, sound can unlock emotion, memory, and deeper layers that would be harder to reach without it.
There’s a reason music gets targeted when people want to flatten culture and suppress expression. It’s because music makes people feel, and feeling deeply has consequences. It creates connection. It creates movement. It creates a kind of remembering that threatens dead systems.
What music has opened something up in you lately?
*** Thank you @bluemagicalchemy for having me on @thevitalpointpodcast . Loved sitting down with you and talking openly about all of these topics. Listen to the whole podcast now for more!
A psych-del!c ambient mixtape featuring 22 compositions curated and mixed into a single continuous journey through spacious atmospheres and elastic soundscapes.
Recorded entirely from memory, without headphones, allowing intuition to guide the flow from beginning to end.
Premiering Sunday 03/15 on the Over the Moon Series — Radiozora.
——
#ambientmusic #spacemusic #soundjourney #ambientmix #radiozura
A new episode of the Over the Moon series on @radiozora.fm is almost here, and this one feels especially close to home.
@mattxavierdj is a veteran DJ with roots in the early 1990s New York underground, a psychedelic therapist, and one of those rare people whose relationship to music goes all the way down — into healing, into the subconscious, into the spaces where sound becomes something more than sound. He and OTM label boss @maggyver (DJ Maggie) have been crossing paths in this community for nearly 30 years, and having him in the Over the Moon series feels like a long time coming.
His mix, Stargazer, is beatless, psychedelic ambient — drawn from deep in his archive, unfolding across vast spatial textures and cosmic atmospheres. The origin story alone is worth the listen: he stepped into the studio, realized he'd forgotten his headphones, and mixed it anyway — from memory, on four decks, on pure feel. What came out the other side is beautifully imperfect. A transmission more than a performance.
Tune in live at radiozora.fm:
Sunday March 15 4pm CET/midnight PDT
Monday March 16 12am CET/Sunday March 15 4pm PDT
Monday March 16 8am CET/12am PDT
Link in bio.
Find your dark sky. Let it play.
@mattxavier #ambient #chillout #psychedelic #trippy #electronic #radiozora #overthemoonmusic #downtempo #beatless
Who you decide to work with matters. Remember that the safety that you feel, and that your clients feel in p$ychedel!c assisted therapy comes from your training.
@mattxavierdj book “The Psychedelic DJ” is not just about music, it goes into ethics, training, preparation and integration.
Listen to the whole podcast now for more. #podcast
