Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: Clinical and Ethical Considerations for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (PAT)
EVENT POSTPONED
Friday 24 March 2023
A live webinar or in-person event with Dr Jonny Martell, Dr Roberta Murphy, Maria Papaspyrou and Dr Tim Read
CPD Credits: 3.5 hours
- Attend live webinar OR in person at Confer’s premises (Please see our FAQ)
- This event will not be recorded.
- Bookings close at 9:00am GMT Tuesday 21 March
Psychedelic assisted therapy has emerged as a new treatment with significant potential to cause transformative change. But for that change to materialise we need to work in novel ways that often-run counter to our current psychiatric and psychotherapeutic systems.
READ MORE...As this work moves forward from research settings and towards potential wider therapeutic use in the future, we face significant difficulties and ethical conundrums. How can we work with expanded states in ways that are safe, ethical, and skilful? What are the potential benefits and adverse effects of such treatments? How can we develop adequate training models in support of this work? What is the paradigm shift that supports the healing potential of expanded states?
The current revival of psychedelic research has been shifting the discourse around psychedelic substances from drugs to medicines, from magic bullets to a relational treatment and from getting high to getting healed. Counsellors and psychotherapists are increasingly working with people seeking integration following psychedelic journeys with ayahuasca in South America, legal psilocybin retreats in the Netherlands, or even underground settings, that may have been poorly supported or integrated. Developing our understanding of expanded states as practitioners can support us in offering adequate containers for processing these experiences in growthful ways.
The approach that we will describe in this event follows the model we have developed at the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy that we have named Depth Relational Process. We will highlight the way in which psychedelic therapy reaches a depth of psyche that engages with early experience, but the therapeutic relationship is of primary importance and proper integration is required to optimise the possibility of transformational change.
FULL PROGRAMME
13.30 GMT
Registration and refreshments (attending in person only)
14.00
Introductions
14.05
Maria Papaspyrou
Ethical considerations in psychedelic psychotherapy
The intensity and complexity of working with people in expanded states call for an even finer attunement to the potential ethical pitfalls along the way. We need a wide enough framework of practitioner accountability to prepare for the fulness and gravity of such work. Alongside practitioner ethics, that relate to awareness of the conditions that might foster the potential for harm and malpractice in this field, we must also consider the ethical challenges that arise in the process of medicalising and mainstreaming psychedelic substances. We need to grapple with issues around indigenous rights and reciprocity, accessibility, equity and sustainability. How can we skilfully engage as practitioners and wider community with the complex realities that shape this work?
14.45
Q&A
15.00
Break
15.20
Dr Tim Read
Deep Psyche – What is it and how to work with it?
The psychedelic experience often leads to decreased rumination, feelings of connection, and wider perspectives that are experienced as helpful. But in psychedelic states we may also traverse some difficult territory as developmental traumas become accessible. Dr Read will discuss the challenging mental states that may arise in psychedelic states, how to understand what emerges, the early wounds that become exposed and how to work with them to promote healing rather than retraumatisation. Dr Read will also describe transpersonal experiences that take us beyond our personal narratives and will illustrate with an exercise and case vignettes.
16.00
Q&A
16.15
Break
16.35
Dr Jonny Martell & Dr Roberta Murphy
Psilocybin Assisted Therapy (PAT)
Drawing on our experience of working in psilocybin assisted psychotherapy trials at Imperial College London- for depression and anorexia- we will explore opportunities and challenges this approach presents for clients, therapists and health services. The emergence of material from the deep psyche in the psychedelic experience needs containing and integration within a therapeutic frame and alliance that are tightly constrained by the demands of clinical research. The intense attachment dynamics stirred by the work add a further layer of complexity to be navigated and worked through, presenting powerful opportunities for growth and healing, as well as risks.
17.15
Q&A
17.30
Discussion and Q&A with speakers
18.00
End / Drinks Reception (attending in person only)