Actual procedure Flashcards
What is a preparatory session in psychedelic therapy?
Depending on the study there are normally 2 to 4 preparatory sessions, one to two hours in length.
Allow for a relationship to develop between participant and researcher. Develop rapport and establish a trusting relationship. Patients discuss their intentions, history, and any concerns. Also it is important to prepare the participant to what to expect during the psilocybin session, including the possibility of encountering difficult emotions and psychological material.
What are flight instructions when it comes to psychedelic therapy? (Bill Richards).
These instructions are meant to guide individuals through their experiences with psychedelics, such as psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA, in a therapeutic setting.
Surrender to the Experience: Participants are encouraged to let go and surrender to the experience, whatever it may bring. This means not fighting or resisting any thoughts, emotions, or images that arise during the session.
Stay Open: Keeping an open mind to whatever experiences come up is crucial. This involves being curious and receptive to new insights, perspectives, or feelings that may emerge.
Trust the Process: Trusting the therapists, the environment, and the psychedelic itself is emphasized. This trust helps participants feel safe and supported, enabling a more profound exploration of their psyche.
Go Inward: Participants are encouraged to focus inwardly and pay attention to their inner experiences. This might involve exploring personal memories, emotions, or symbolic images that arise.
Let Go of Control: Letting go of the need to control the experience is a central theme. This allows for a more natural flow of thoughts and emotions and can lead to significant insights and therapeutic breakthroughs.
Integration: After the psychedelic experience, integrating the insights, emotions, and revelations into one’s life is vital. This often involves discussions with therapists to make sense of the experience and how it can inform one’s life moving forward.
What is a common study protocol?
1-4 dosing sessions spaced between 5 days to 5 weeks apart.
Comfortable room setting.
In the morning the patient would discuss any concerns before dosing.
Lie down with eye shades and headphones with attention inwards.
Unlike MDMA therapy during psilocybin therapy the journey is mostly uninterrupted, the therapist would only check in occasionally to offer support and reassurance.
Session lasts from 6-7 hours.
what are some methods used in JHU studies to support the patient enter a deep experience?
Avoide attempting to guide the participant down any journey. However you can encourage the participant to enter deeper using certain phrases:
If you see a door, what will you do? Encourage to walk through it.
Trust the trajectory, follow your path.
Let go, be open, trust.
If you see a window, what will you do? Encourage the participant to look through it, open it…etc
If you feel like you are dying, exploding, melting …etc go ahead and embrace it.
Climb staircases, open doors or windows, fly, float explore all the landscapes.
What to do if the patient is feeling fear?
Encourage the patient to confront the fear.
The same force that takes you within will also return you to the ever-day world. Look within and comfort it and ask what are you doing in my mind?
What to do if the patient has mild physical pain?
Encourage the patient to investigate the pain.
Look into the pain you are experiencing, visualise it and see it as clearly as you can. where is the source of the pain? Can you embrace the pain or make the pain leave you?
What to do if the patient is feeling nausea?
Part of your being is in discomfort, this will pass.
What is the integration session?
Incorporate insights, discuss difficult emotions, work towards incorporating the psilocybin session forward into their lives.
Conversation about their experiences. May include certain realisations about the illness.
60 - 90 min each session between psilocybin sessions.
