transpersonal psychotherapy
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An overview of Transpersonal Psychotherapy and ResearchTRANSCRIPT
Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Induced Mystical Experiences, and Treatment of Psychopathology with Psychedelics
Why Present on Psychedelic Therapy?!?
Utter lack of knowledge of the field in graduate training We are supposed to be open to all experience and our curricula has
been virtually censored by governing institutions without empirical evidence against it
Duty to present such a potentially powerful therapeutic tool that may be life-changing for many clients
To broaden perspectives and dispel myths by presenting the qualitative and quantitative clinical research
This is a History and Systems class therefore deserves mention
It goes part and parcel with Transpersonal Psychology and its connection with reaching a higher state of being Many of the pioneers of transpersonal psychotherapy used
psychedelics to enhance therapy. Cf. Grof
What is Psilocybin?
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid with actions mediated primarily at serotonin 5-HT2A/C receptor sites
Principal psychoactive component of a genus of mushrooms (Psilocybe) found all over the world
Psychological effects similar to other classical serotonergically-mediated hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT or “The Spirit Molecule”), MDMA (Ecstacy) and PCP (Angel Dust), include significant alterations in Perceptual, cognitive, affective, volitional, and somatesthetic
fxns, including visual and auditory sensory changes, difficulty in thinking, mood fluctuations, and dissociative phenomena
History of Entheogens An entheogen ("generating the divine within”). Used therapeutically for centuries or perhaps
millennia throughout the globe Psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual contexts and in psychedelic and
transpersonal psychotherapies. Evidence for the first use of entheogens may come from Tassili, Algeria, with a cave painting of a
mushroom-man, dating to 8000 BC Ancient substances with names such as Soma (India), Kykeon (Greece), and Teonanacatl (South
America) served for thousands of years as psychopharmacological catalysts in a variety of sacred religious and magical rituals
Peyote, the ceremonial use of which is now thought by anthropologists to date back at least 5,000 years, is revered as a sacrament by the Native American Church.
Ayahuasca, a decoction made from plants that grow in the Amazon basin, is a sacrament used by a syncretic church in Brazil. Small following in the US that has just received a favorable decision by the US Supreme Court allowing them
continued use of this material. The parallel between mystical states and the effects of psychedelic drugs is well-known among those
familiar with the literature. Aldous Huxley, in his classic but controversial 1954 book, The Doors of Perception, noted the similarity of his
own mescaline-induced state to experiences described by mystics and visionaries from a variety of cultures. Perhaps it is not surprising then that the name “entheogen,” with the connotation that these materials reveal god within, is becoming increasingly popular among those who continue to use these substances for purposes that are neither medical nor “recreational.”
The “Good Friday Experiment,” carried out by Walter Pahnke for his 1963 Ph.D. dissertation was titled Drugs and Mysticism. Analysis of the relationship between psychedelic drugs and the mystical consciousness. He described in an
experiment with 20 student volunteers from a local Christian theological seminary. Subjects were given either 30 mg of psilocybin or 200 mg of nicotinic acid as a “placebo.” The experiment was carried out in a religious setting during a Good Friday service. Pahnke concluded, “Under the conditions of this experiment, those subjects who received psilocybin experienced phenomena which were indistinguishable from, if not identical with certain categories defined by our typology of mysticism.
Early Clinical Use
Early clinical research with psilocybin in the 1950s and early 1960s attempted to study the effects of psilocybin without recognition of the powerful influences of set and setting
Hoffman (Inventor of LSD), Wasson (mescalin) etc
Subsequent research by Timothy Leary et al., included more preparation and interpersonal support during the period of drug action, found fewer adverse psychological effects, such as panic reactions and paranoid episodes, and increased reports of positively valued experiences
Affective character of subjective experiences often varied from positive to negative, and highly valued personal or mystical-type experiences were rare
Those with higher doses that were provided more preparation and interpersonal support reported a higher rate of affectively positive experiences, sometimes of a mystical nature, that were rated as being of personal significance
In response to the epidemic of hallucinogen abuse that occurred in the 1960s, clinical research with psilocybin and other hallucinogens largely ceased and has resumed only recently
Controversy/Challenges In 1970 , psychedelics were made a Schedule 1 drug by the federal government
Schedule I compounds are claimed to possess "significant potential for abuse and dependence" and have "no recognized medicinal value", effectively rendering them illegal for any purpose without special difficult-to-obtain approvals.
Another challenge of psychedelic therapy was the greatly variable effects produced by the drugs. According to Stanislov Grof, "The major obstacle to their systematic utilization for therapeutic purposes was the fact that they tended to occur in an elemental fashion, without a recognizable pattern, and frequently to the surprise of both the patient and the therapist. Since the variables determining such reactions were not understood, therapeutic transformations of this kind were not readily replicable.” Attempts to produce these experiences in a controlled, non-arbitrary, predictable way resulted in several methods of psychedelic therapy.
Timothy Leary felt psychedelics could alter the fundamental personality structure or subjective value-system of an individual, to beneficial effect. His experiments with prison inmates were an attempt to reduce recidivism through a few
short, intense sessions of psilocybin administered weeks apart with biweekly group therapy sessions in between.
Psychedelic therapy was used in a number of other specific patient populations, including alcoholics, children with autism, and people with terminal illness. Video: Male Cancer Patient's Experience at the John's Hopkins Psilocybin Project
Video: Female Cancer Patient at the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Project
Types and Variations of Use in Psychotherapy
Psycholytic—low doses over about 2 weeks for “soul-dissolving”
Psychedelic—high doses to induce peak or mystical experience
Anaclitic- (Joyce Martin and Paul McCririck) Enhance pychoanalysis and aid in regression to primitive and infantile states. Analysts become closely engaged and play the "mother" role who would enter into close physical contact with the patients by rocking them, giving them milk from a bottle, etc.
Hypnodelic- Combined hypnosis and psychedelic
The Grofs and Holotropic Breathing
Because of the criminalization of psychedelic substances, the Grofs aimed to find a more accessible way to connect with the spiritual/mystical without using psychoactive substances
Holotropic ("moving toward wholeness”) Breathwork is a practice that uses breathing and other elements to allow access to non-ordinary states for the purpose of self-exploration.
Intended as an approach to self-exploration and healing that integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world
Holotropic Breathwork cont’d
Five elements Group process Intensified breathing (hyperventilation) Evocative music Focused body work Expressive drawing.
The method's general effect is advocated as a non-specific amplification of a person's psychic process, which facilitates the psyche's natural capacity for healing.
Holotropic Breathwork is usually done in groups, although individual sessions are done. Within the groups, people work in pairs and alternate in the roles of experiencer ("breather") and "sitter". The sitter's primary responsibility is to focus compassionate attention on
the bre Secondarily, the sitter is available to assist the breather, but not to
interfere or interrupt the process. Trained facilitators are available as helpers if necessary
Video:Holotropic Breathwork
Psychotherapeutic Tool, Pharmacotherapy or
Both?Leary, Grof, and others believed psychedelics
enhanced the therapeutic alliance and allowed therapy to take place in those who would not normally benefit from psychotherapy such as those with dissociative, psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders
Today research shows that psychedelics have a therapeutic effect on these clients with or without the aid of psychotherapy but those who received both treatments reported having a more powerful and meaningful experience
The Return to Clinical Trials
Vollenweider and colleagues from Switzerland and Gouzoulis-Mayfrank from Germany have reported a series of studies that have characterized the acute subjective, physiological, and perceptual effects of psilocybin and pooled their clinical research from 1998-2011.
Conclusions Induced profound changes in mood, perception, thought and self-experience Most subjects described the experience as pleasurable, enriching and non-
threatening. Acute adverse drug reactions, characterized by strong dysphoria and/or
anxiety/panic, occurred only in the two highest dose conditions in a relatively small proportion of subjects.
All acute adverse drug reactions were successfully managed by providing interpersonal support and did not need psychopharmacological intervention.
Follow-up questionnaires indicated no subsequent drug abuse, persisting perception disorders, prolonged psychosis or other long-term impairment of functioning in any of our subjects.
The results suggest that the administration of moderate doses of psilocybin to healthy, high-functioning and well-prepared subjects in the context of a carefully monitored research environment is associated with an acceptable level of risk.
Modern Experimentation
Griffiths et al. (2006) showed that psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences and, sometimes, significant fear. The mystical-type experiences were rated as having substantial and persisting personal meaning and spiritual significance to which volunteers attributed sustained positive changes in attitudes, moods, and behavior
Griffiths et al. (2011) performed a similar procedure to study the ascending and descending sequence effects of drug dose exposure and found that under supportive conditions, 20 and 30 mg/70 kg psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences having persisting positive effects on attitudes, mood, and behavior.
Current Studies and Applications
The only published pilot study (and Phase I FDA safety study) so far is one that showed that Psilocybin could be safely given to those with OCD and showed trends for improvement of symptoms but the study did not clearly establish whether or not the patients were helped by the treatment.
There are also several ongoing or recently finished clinical trials that have not yet published their results. A study by Charles Grob, sponsored by the Heffler Research Institute, used psilocybin with cancer patients, with the intention of helping them come to terms with their condition, and for pain relief. Roland Griffiths and colleagues at Johns Hopkins are also studying if people with anxiety or poor mood due to current or past cancer can benefit from psilocybin. Unlike the Grob study, the Griffiths study does not require participants be terminally ill.
John Halpern at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital study of cancer patients using MDMA.
MDMA is also being investigated as a possible adjunct to psychotherapy for PTSD in people who did not benefit from available PTSD treatments.
Research conducted by Torsten Passie has shown that patients who also suffer from anxiety and depression can especially benefit and make significant progress in healing when given doses of MDMA and other entactogens that stimulate social and emotional effects.[Studies of MDMA and PTSD are currently underway in the United States (South Carolina), Switzerland, and Israel, all sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
MAPS has a twelve-person study in Switzerland to see whether a moderately large dose of LSD (200 mcg) is more helpful as part of psychotherapy for patients with life-threatening illnesses than a lower dose (20 mcg).
The Substance:Male Cancer Patient Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Cancer Project
The Substance: Female Cancer Patient at the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Cancer Project
References
Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., Mccann, U., & Jesse, R. (2011). Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: Immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Psychopharmacology, 218(4), 649-65. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2358-5
Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268-83; discussion 284-92. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5
Grof,, S. (1980). LSD Psychotherapy. Alameda, CA: Hunter House Publishing.
Keeler, M. F. (1965). CONSISTENCY OF PSILOCYBIN INDUCED CHANGES IN THE MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY. Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 21(3), 284.
Lyvers, M., & Meester, M. (2012). Illicit Use of LSD or Psilocybin, but not MDMA or Nonpsychedelic Drugs, is Associated with Mystical Experiences in a Dose-Dependent Manner. Journal Of Psychoactive Drugs, 44(5), 410-417. doi:10.1080/02791072.2012.736842
MacLean, K. A., Leoutsakos, J. S., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2012). Factor analysis of the mystical experience questionnaire: A study of experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(4), 721. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1223839416?accountid=34899
MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11), 1453. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/912996217?accountid=34899
Psilocybin for anxiety in patients with advanced-stage cancer. (2011). Brown University Psychopharmacology Update, 22(4), 7.
Studerus, E., Kometer, M., Hasler, F., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2011). Acute, subacute and long-term subjective effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: A pooled analysis of experimental studies. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11), 1434. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/912996216?accountid=34899
Timothy, L., Ralph, M., Madison, P., Gunther, W., Ralph, S., & Sara, K. (1965). A new behavior change program using psilocybin. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 2(2), 61-72. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0088612
Brief History of LSD Therapy
1943The Swiss chemist Albert Hofman accidentally discovers the mind-altering qualities of LSD when he absorbs some through his fingertips.
1950-1960sMore than a thousand clinical papers are published on psychedelic drug therapy involving 40,000 patients.
1963The author Aldous Huxley, who is dying of laryngeal cancer, asks for 100 micrograms of LSD.
1966Three years after being fired from Harvard, Timothy Leary founds a new religion, the League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD).
1970The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies psychedelics like LSD as Schedule I drugs --prohibiting their medical use.
Questions for the Class
Anyone have an mystical experience they care to share whether induced by psychedelics or not?
What do you think about the renewed research?
Would you ever use psychedelics in your therapy if they were acceptable? Why or why not?