Over the past year, I completed a certification training for Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy through PSI (https://www.psychedelicsomatic.org/). If you are on any news site or social media these days you are probably seeing the surge in popularity and coverage that Psychedelic Assisted Therapy is getting. The research fascinates me and the potential implications of how this can help people is so hopeful! I wish I could sit down with each of you and tell you all about it. The training began with 5 days of experiential therapy in Victoria, BC (meaning that I was the client and watched the other two members of my group in their process as well). I have told many people that I really had no clue what I was getting myself into. And no clue the journey that this would take me on.
I consider myself to be a well-processed, well-resourced person who has done oodles of my own therapy (in many forms: EMDR, EFT, AEDP, SE) but what I found is that in many ways I had learned to dance around therapy rooms to avoid getting to the heart of things. And PSIP no longer allowed me to do this.
A lot of people are thinking Psychedelic Therapy is either Ketamine infusions or full blown mushrooms journeys. PSIP is neither of these. PSIP is not a sitter model, this therapy is highly interactive, relational and somatic. The difference in the relational aspect is what really sealed the deal for me. Being able to see in real time how I (and my clients) map relationships; ie how they show up in the world, gives us the chance to work through some of that material.
Since I began as a therapist, Attachment Theory has always resonated with me. The fact that we are wounded in relationships and it is the relationship that heals has always felt like the truest thing. And this therapy adds a new depth to this truth. There are so many parts of ourselves and our attachment system hidden to us. As we follow the body and allow our body to feel through these things, we are able to uncover and recover these parts that have been hidden.
Why does it matter that we uncover these hidden parts?
You can’t do anything about something you can’t see.
You can’t heal something you don’t know is there.
There was a lot of unprocessed and undiscovered material in my nervous system causing me to feel activated and overwhelmed. Since doing my own work, I have felt so much more grounded, present, and less activation. It didn’t change my personality but it gave me perspective that I didn’t have before to see what I was doing, how I was coping…and how I can do some things differently.
I am so thankful for this work and so inspired by the possibilities that lie ahead for people to heal and grow. I have been trained in many modalities over the years and feel more at home in this model and in sessions than in any other therapy I have learned.
Please reach out if you would be interested in hearing more or to see if you might be a good fit for this work.