Psychedelic Medicine

Psychedelic medicine has the potential to visceralize knowledge imprisoned in the mind, helping people progress from knowing to feeling, providing a kind of numinous North Star experience that catalyzes change. These journeys can reconnect us to a deep sense of presence, not unlike the feeling of holding a newborn, falling in love, or seeing stars deep in the desert—an essential part of the human experience, whether we affix secular or spiritual language.

People often feel that they have emerged from socially and personally constructed narratives to see themselves more clearly and honestly. Psychedelic medicine does not inure people from difficulty, but rather, can allow them to face their feelings and challenges with an enhanced sense of openness, flexibility, and perspective. Accompanying these psychological changes are biological effects that enhance the capacity to alter one’s way of living and being, which requires ongoing commitment to enacting lessons learned during psychedelic journeys.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy entails preparation, actively supported dosing, and integration therapy sessions to increase the likelihood of safe and productive experiences that yield durable change. It can be interwoven with various other psychotherapeutic methods in real time, reciprocally enriching each.

  • We will discuss possible benefits and risks including medical and psychological factors affecting how likely psychedelic assisted psychotherapy is to be a safe and effective treatment.

  • We will prime the psyche by setting intentions, developing mutual trust, and framing the enterprise. The duration of this process depends on each person’s unique circumstances, anticipated dose, and how strong the preexisting relationship is, though it is typically a minimum of two to four sessions.

    A carefully considered yet lightly held intention within the context of interpersonal comfort and a sense of preparedness allows people to flow with rather than fight against the psychedelic process.

  • Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be approached in a variety of ways based in part on intention and framework. Low doses permit verbal engagement and facilitate enhanced feelings of safety as well as openness while engaging challenging issues. This mode can resemble a traditional psychotherapy session that is deepened and infused with heightened creativity.

    Higher doses are often best approached with a more internal focus where the therapist is present and attentive but limits verbal engagement, thereby allowing the patient’s psyche to move spontaneously toward issues that can be unpredictable but often prove salient. Experiences may be any combination of challenging, blissful, dreamlike, or surreal, with each quality having its own function.

  • A time to take stock emotionally, cognitively, and physically of the experience, watering the seeds of change. We will explore the felt experience, symbolism, and insights garnered. The fertile period after a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy session provides the opportunity to engrain healthier patterns of thinking, feeling, and being. This typically involves at least two sessions.

    It also presents a window where other psychotherapy techniques can also be combined in close, concentrated sequence to greater effect due to the neurobiological effects of psychedelics on learning.

  • Assistance understanding the potential benefits and risks based on your personal medical and psychological circumstances. Support with preparation and integration to increase the probability of a safe and productive experience.

Trust, let go, be open…