Healing With Psychedelics: The Mental Health Revolution

Healing in mental health can sometimes be a difficult journey, some feeling lost in the forest of their minds, unable to discern a path forwards. Traditional forms of mental health treatment have a history of helping many who are struggling, but also of leaving many behind to find a way without the support promised. There is a new tide turning in the field of mental health treatment, it is in some ways a return to the methods of the past, and some ways a forging forwards into unknown territories. The past is a long standing tradition in cultures around the world, of utilizing chemicals, substances, and other means to induce deeply powerful and moving experiences in an individual’s consciousness. Some cultures use meditation, some use breathwork, some will stick you in a mud hut and light fires to smoke and sweat out the bad vibes in your system. One of the most common across cultures is the use of a substance to create radical changes in consciousness which result in profound healing. Mushrooms, cacti, toads, plants, and more recently man made chemical compounds, all have their place in the pantheon of psychedelic medicine. With thousands of years of knowledge and experience, many of these cultures have perfected methods, rituals, and community guidelines for the ingestion of receiving psychedelics to induce altered states of consciousness as sacrament. In the “Western†world, the discovery of psychedelics for mental and physical wellbeing has begun to take strong roots. Attempted in the 1950s-60s, the resurgence of a psychedelic renaissance will likely uproot and disrupt the entirety of mental and physical health care, as the field of psychedelic assisted therapy begins to take cultural roots and promise. For years, research and practitioners have struggled with limited and ineffective methods of treatment, relying on years of arduous work to catalyze change. With a change in cultural mindset, and fatigue from both practitioners and patients, a psychedelic resurgence is well underway in transforming the landscape of mental and emotional healthcare. 

Here now, we will take a brief look at what psychedelics have in store for mental healthcare. Imagine the struggle that a severely depressed person goes through on a daily basis; lack of energy, poor mood, rigidity in thinking, low self esteem, displeasure with life. Ironically, the symptoms are all opposites of the skills often necessary to bring one’s self out of a depression. Years of intensive therapy may not yield any viable results, creating more disillusionment with one’s own ability to heal themselves. Psychedelics have the potential to facilitate healing quicker, where in the span of one to multiple sessions combined with intentional therapeutic work, lasting relief from mental health symptoms can be found.

Sounds too good to be true right? In part it is. These compounds are by no means cure-alls, with which no mental health issues could stand up to. Rather, these are more compounds that create an opportunity to release individuals from the confines of their own mental shackles. It is like giving the prisoner lessons on how to build the exact key needed to escape his exact cell. The key still needs to be forged before being utilized. Most individuals will spend their time in therapy lamenting on the very issues they know are necessary to create change; “I have low self esteemâ€, “I hate my bodyâ€, “My job sucks and drains meâ€. Ask any person experiencing mental health symptoms, and if they are aware enough, they could describe to you the very roadblocks preventing them from continuing down their path. Psychedelics provide the courage to meet those roadblocks, and momentum to power through them towards a more fulfilling path. The feeling of being stuck in an unchanging mental struggle, with no way out, often tends to keep people locked in the battle, not allowing them to access the depths of their own intelligent healing potential. 

This inner healing intelligence is one of the most important aspects of the psychedelic experience; your mind knows how to heal itself the same way your finger heals from a paper cut, without conscious intent. By removing the daily milieu of negative, self absorbed thoughts, we are able to introduce a new perspective that may take years to gain in traditional talk therapy. The great challenge here is to not lose sight of this new perspective and implement it upon returning to normal states of consciousness. Capturing the vitality of the perspective, integrating the lessons learned are important steps towards lasting change. This is facilitated through the process of psychedelic therapy; preparation, medicine session, and integration.

In preparation, an individual will work on identifying the traits, symptoms, or changes they would like to examine in a different state of consciousness. Together with a mental health practitioner, this preparatory work will be conceptualized into a digestible and known format for use in medicine and integration sessions. This may be done through journaling, talk therapy, art, reading, meditating, or any form of preparation that feels good for the individual. Once preparation is finished, we move onto the medicine session.

In a medicine session, the individual ingests whichever form of psychedelic they are working with, and begins their journey. Depending on the substance, this journey will look differently for everyone. It may be filled with joy, horror, excitement, contentment, peace, pain, traumas, laughter, light, mysticism, spiritual or religious tones, or any experience of consciousness that can be had across the human spectrum of life. Sessions may last anywhere from 45 minutes to 8 hours depending on the medicine utilized. A trained individual, or group, should be presiding over the individual as they journey into themselves. This person is present to provide safety and guidance when needed, they are not there to direct the experience or create specific circumstances. We trust in the intelligence of both the individual and the medicine to bring forth exactly what is necessary and precisely what can be handled in that moment.

After returning from the harrowing journey, some may choose to speak, write, or think more about their experience right away. Some may choose to take some time to process and return more completely to the world of normal consciousness. Either way, now the real work begins. After the experience, after the joy, after the rollercoaster of emotions, the individual now must piece together lessons learned and find a way to implement these in their life. This may look differently for everyone; some may return to nature, some may simply return to life, others may forge forwards into more intensive work feeling a rush of motivation to heal. Whatever is chosen is perfectly acceptable, as long as the individual is intentional and can commit to whatever that practice will be.

Safe access to these new forms of treatment is of the upmost importance. Not all substance are cleared for legal use here in the United States, and even some that are may be provided under questionable ethical means. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is currently the most accessible and widely utilized psychedelic therapy, but other forms of medicine are surely to be legalized in the coming years. Awareness and education are important for practitioners and patients alike in this ever growing and changing landscape of new forms of mental health treatment.

Woah! That’s a lot to take in! Good! I want you to pause and consider the information that you just read, understand the implications of this new process of mental healing that the Western world is only now waking up to accept. The wave of psychedelic resurgence is here, may as well get informed and get on board!