PSYCHEDELIC ASSISTED THERAPY TRAINING

We will be learning from both the first generation of LSD research and the current wave of psychedelic therapeutic research that have employed different approaches and substances for various clinical conditions. Research and understandings from neuroscience, psychopharmacology and clinical outcomes have supported the current psychedelic renaissance, reviving the potential of these substances and experiences to contribute to the existing frameworks of psychotherapy and psychiatry. How does the clinical setting differ from a therapeutic setting and what can we learn from research findings to optimise short term psychotherapy for lasting change?

A practitioner that opens the space for such a journey, must, first and foremost, be well equipped for their responsibility to prepare their participants for the experience and to support them as they emerge from deep psyche, and their subsequent re-integration into the everyday world of ordinary consciousness. The field of psychedelic integration is rapidly developing alongside familiar and novel psychotherapeutic frameworks. We will support practitioners to cultivate their own wisdom and broad perspectives through lectures, group discussions and supervision.

While we may rely on our containers and systems of knowing during the preparation, setting and integration process, during the psychedelic experience itself our task as facilitators is to be fully present to what is ready to emerge in support of the participant’s process. In the session itself the participants and their inner healing intelligence are the experts of their own experience.  For many of us this involves a substantial paradigm shift where we are no longer ‘the expert’ dealing with ‘the patient’; we meet them on a human-to-human/soul to soul level, as we bring every fibre of our being to the participatory encounter. This presence is supported by becoming deeply acquainted with ourselves and our own inner worlds, cultivating our capacity to discern what belongs to us and what belongs to the process. Through personal therapy and collaborative group processes that support growth and accountability, practitioners will strengthen and deepen their capacity for authentic presence.

The relational aspect of work in expanded states cannot be overstated. Attachment theory shows how the deeply ingrained relational patterns that develop in early infancy and childhood continue to operate in adult life, mostly on an unconscious level. Experiences in expanded states may reinforce or radically disrupt our early relational patterns. From a psychodynamic perspective, such patterns can be highlighted in expanded states through transferential dynamics and re-enactments. A sensitive holding and metabolising of projections is a fundamental part of facilitator presence. The quality of therapeutic attunement with people in deeply vulnerable expanded states may also support resolution of early attachment disruptions.

Our bodies are centres of consciousness, holding deep knowing and our storylines in a somatic form, and experiences in expanded states can facilitate the release of emotional and/or traumatic contents long-held in the body. Working in the intensity and sensitivity of expanded states requires trauma aware practitioners that can support the regulation and processing capacity of their clients. Participants might encounter traumas to which they can attach narratives and memories, or mutative developmental traumas that lie beneath conscious memory. Some of it may be rooted in their individual stories, while some of it might arise from wider collective and socio-political experiences. When working in deep psyche we need to know how to support resolution and healing while avoiding re-traumatisation. Supporting a safe resolution of such deep process requires familiarity with somatic methods of support. The facilitator’s self-regulatory capacity, embodied presence, their in-depth understanding of trauma and their ability to utilise embodied techniques are essential elements of holding a skilful space for such work. Supporting the facilitators own embodiment alongside their capacity to work in a somatic way will be supported through experiential modules of family constellations and holotropic breathwork.

If different schools of psychology address different levels of the spectrum of consciousness then transpersonal psychology builds on our existing models and adds those higher aspects of human experience to address the entire spectrum of consciousness.  Drawing from Grof’s map of consciousness and his work on birth perinatal matrices as well as Jung’s understanding of the symbolic, mythic and archetypal representations of the deep psyche we can develop a deeper understanding and processing of the transpersonal nature of life that these experiences bring to the surface of consciousness. Here we move from the individual unconscious to the wider expansive space of the collective unconscious. These territories are also the ground of wisdom of eastern philosophy and the Buddhist and Hindu traditions which were influential for the first generation of psychedelic explores in their attempts to metabolise the LSD induced flashes of illumination into the abiding light of spiritual practice. Mindfulness and meditation practices have become important containers for psychedelic practice and can support facilitators’ inner and outer presence.

The model of spiritual emergence provides strategies for working with and resolving problematic manifestations of the deep psyche that may emerge after psychedelic use, spiritual practice or arising spontaneously. It supports a purposeful engagement with the unfolding ego death / rebirth process and provides an important framework for understanding the teleology of a challenging and overwhelming psychedelic experience. As a framework it poses significant implications for the prevailing psychiatric and psychotherapeutic paradigms.

The sacred medicine path was practiced in the ancient cultures of the Americas, Greece and India. Today, practices from North and South America and Africa are at the forefront of indigenous psychedelic shamanic practices, becoming a part of many people’s healing journeys.  At the heart of these ancient medicine practices lies the initiatory journey from a tribal perspective, held through ritual frameworks that animate all aspects of our internal and external world, supporting conscious relating with the unseen dimensions and forces of life. We will hear the perspective of traditional healers, honouring the richness of indigenous voices and their relational stance toward their native plants and their associated experiences.

We will be deepening our understanding of systemic intergenerational and ancestral material that can emerge in expanded states and are deep in the heart of indigenous practices. We aim to combine indigenous understanding of such experiences alongside current western epigenetic research as well as understand ancestral work in ways that can resource the practitioner in holding deep heart-centred space. Experiential modules in family constellations will enrich practitioners’ understanding of the emotional vitality of such work.

Systemic approaches offer us a deeper understanding of the underlying and often hidden relational dynamics that are part of our inner web of impactful stories and events, our symptoms and resources. As we emerge from the pandemic and address the primary task of our relationship with the environment; psychedelic states tap into the deeper processes we witness in nature, moving us away from ego-centric and ethno-centric positions towards an eco-centric perspective. A deep appreciation of the interconnectedness that permeates our inner and outer worlds brings fertile resources in service of the growthful journey.