Former shamans and our current ceremony leaders:
This video is a great summary of the current research being conducted with psychedelics and how therapists are approaching this therapeutical work. Dr. David Nutt perfectly explains some important points when conducting, what he calls the treatment, and what we call the retreats/ceremony.
Working with psychedelics can be quite challenging for the client and therapist, or guide, who is there to support them during this often profound experience. As Dr. Nutt correctly points out, the person having the experience is in a unique space where they can explore their inner worlds. While they are within the psychedelic space, people can gain new perspectives on themselves or their past.
This allows them to reorganise their life experiences in a way that makes sense to them.
Dr. Nutt also makes an important point about the therapist’s role during the experience: the reassurance from the therapist allows people to go deeper into the trip. A psychedelic experience can be very confronting and it is very important to have someone guiding the experience in a way that puts the participant at ease.
Thus, the set and setting is one of the most, if not THE most important aspect of the psychedelic experience. If a person in uncomfortable or does not trust their surroundings, or the people present, they will not be able to surrender to the process.
Surrender is key – when you are able to let go within the psychedelic space, healing can take place.
Within the video the speak about the after process – which according the Dr. Nutt is where the therapist’s role really comes into play. He describes following the psychedelic experience (the next day) the client and therapist discuss the experience itself.
The therapist helps the client to make sense of what the experienced as it relates to their depression or trauma. Indeed we have always emphasised the importance of our ‘sharing’, which occur the morning after each ceremony. This is a crucial aspect which begins the integration process.
The team, with their extensive experience helps to guide anyone who needs it during the sharings, however, listening to other people’s experience is also hugely beneficial.
Intake, preparation, set and setting, and integration are all key factors in creating the perfect space and optimising the potential for healing and transformational growth that is both stable and long lasting.
Commitment on the part of the individual is crucial as often these experiences invite us to implement real change that allows us all to evolve our consciousness and let go of patterns and behaviours that do not serve us.
Although psychedelics is beautiful, transformative work that enables people to be their own therapist, as was mentioned in the video, at Ascauhaya we never advise anyone to do this without a sober guide.
Softy should always be the highest priority and working with psychedelics is unpredictable and should be treated with the proper respect and caution.”
