5 Psychedelic Psychotherapy

This chapter will familiarize you with how Psychedelics can be used as a therapeutic adjunct.  The discovery of LSD by Albert Hoffman in 1938 and his intentional use to explore its psychedelic properties on April 19, 1943 (known as Bicycle Day^[1]) opened the door to psychedelic research. The research continued until the Controlled Substances Act took effect in 1970, which placed most of the known Psychedelics into Schedule 1, drugs with no medical use and high potential for abuse.

The Psychedelic renaissance started with Dr. Rick Strassman’s research on DMT in the early 1990’s and continues to this day.  We now have more than 30 years of research in conjunction with early research to begin to explain how these powerful substances can help facilitate healing and wellness. The chapter content includes examining how psychedelics can catalyze therapeutic process in some conditions whose current conventional treatment options leave a lot to be desired.

The MDMA treatment manual that the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has developed as a result of their extensive research is included in this chapter.  Careful reading of this manual will help one better understand how the use of psychedelics in conjunction with therapy, can temporarily modify brain functioning and provide for internal experiences that can result in emotional, cognitive and behavioral changes.  This combination of psychopharmacology with psychotherapy is unique to this novel therapeutic modality.

We have learned much about how to successfully integrate psychedelics into mainstream society.  They are not a magic bullet, but research so far has shown that under the right circumstances in a controlled setting and for approved conditions, psychedelics can provide insight (and relief) in a shorter amount of time than conventional therapy.

Read

1. Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2019). REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics. Pharmacological reviews, 71(3), 316–344. https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.118.017160
2. Emmerich, N. Responding to existential distress at the end of life: Psychedelics and psychedelic experiences and/ as medicine. Neuroethics 17, 37 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-024-09571-4
3. MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 25(11), 1453–1461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881111420188
4. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. (2015). A Manual for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. https://maps.org/research-archive/mdma/MDMA-Assisted-Psychotherapy-Treatment-Manual-Version7-19Aug15-FINAL.pdf
5. Schenberg E. E. (2018). Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Paradigm Shift in Psychiatric Research and Development. Frontiers in pharmacology, 9, 733. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2018.00733
6. Van Eyghen, H. (2023). Psychedelics and the Entropic Brain Beyond the Self. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 33(4), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2023.2192078

Watch

How Psychedelics Change the Brain (4 min)

NIH Workshop on Psychedelics as Therapeutics, Theme Two: Clinical Trials (2 hours, 30 min)

TEDxMidAtlantic – Roland Griffiths (19 min)

Psychedelics in the 21st Century: Breakthroughs in Therapeutics (41 min)

Psilocybin and Cancer Anxiety – Part 1 of 2 (6 min)

Psilocybin and Cancer Anxiety – Part 2 of 2 (6 min)