07 - The Therapist and Substance

05/16/22 • 46 min

PUNK Therapy | Psychedelic Underground Neural Kindness

Content Warning: Trauma, fear, physical pain memories

Dr. T and The Truth Fairy discuss a book by Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou called “Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Expanded States”, and really dig into two chapters in particular. One of these chapters involves the topic of therapists and substance use in underground psychedelic work: should the therapist take medicine with the client, and if so how much and when?

They address chapter four of the book which involves the excluded and repressed unconscious and how integration, through therapy and medicine, can assist when the unconscious is carrying an immensity of experiences. The Truth Fairy shares insightful stories from her practice and Dr. T refers to what Jung called ‘the transcendent function’. This is a thoughtful and informative episode exploring a very wonderful book.

“I think that it really, as therapists doing psychedelic assisted therapy, I know that there, I'm sure there's some clinical situations where it's an absolute no-no for therapists to do the medicine, a booster dose. And I do think it has its rightful place. But if you're in a period that you're very sensitized, and there's a lot coming up for you, or you've done a lot of your own medicine work recently, and you are quite open and raw, and you're still integrating yourself, I think those are the times to be wise and perhaps hold off and not do any.” - The Truth Fairy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

“Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Expanded States” by Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou
MDMA
5MEO-DMT
4-AcO-DMT
3-MMC
Ketamine
Jung: the ‘transcendent function’

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Punk Therapy: website |email

Content Warning: Trauma, fear, physical pain memories

Resources mentioned in this episode:

“Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Expanded States” by Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou
MDMA
5MEO-DMT
4-AcO-DMT
3-MMC
Ketamine
Jung: the ‘transcendent function’

---

Punk Therapy: website |email

Previous Episode

06 - Interview With The Truth Fairy

Content Warning: Trauma and abuse memories

Dr. T interviews The Truth Fairy as part of his research and together they explore the value of somatic therapy as well as how a therapist must be prepared for the journey when combining somatic with psychedelics.

Dr. T presents The Truth Fairy with some questions he has developed as part of his research, questions she’s not heard ahead of time. What results is a conversation on what somatic means and its importance to the therapeutic process. The Truth Fairy explains the differences between right and left brain tendencies and how somatic healing seeks to tap into the more creative and connective abilities of the right brain.

Dr. T addresses the idea of the relational in therapy and the concept of “relationship over outcome” which leads to questions about including medicine in the work. The Truth Fairy relates experiential stories on how somatic therapy looks very different when working with psychedelics and lays out things the therapist must prepare for themselves and their client before embarking on that journey.

“The body is an extraordinary, complex organism with so many systems, organ systems, all working in synchrony and collaboration on the best of days and working out of synchrony and out of collaboration on more difficult days. We have history inside us.” The Truth Fairy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Somatic therapy explanations and techniques

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Punk Therapy: website |email

Next Episode

08 - Family Constellations with special guest Lara

Content Warning: Sensitive topics and trauma memories

Dr. T and The Truth Fairy welcome their very first guest to the show. Lara is studying to become a systemic integration practitioner and a psychedelic therapist and was The Truth Fairy’s first medicine therapy client. Lara not only shares the story of that first medicine therapy session with The Truth Fairy but takes Dr. T and The Truth Fairy on a journey into what Family Constellations are and the benefits that can arise from such sessions.

Lara explains how Family Constellations derives from the work of Bert Hellinger in Germany, which she calls systemic integration, and lays out the connective tissue of the process for Dr. T and The Truth Fairy. They discuss how all the information comes through the client, through what the group will feel and unravel for the client with assistance from the therapist. Lara shares that she has wondered about the potential for combining psychedelics with constellation work and the benefits that could bring to a client.

The Truth Fairy and Lara both tell versions of the story of how their first medicine therapy session came to be. Lara opens a quite deep glimpse into some of the revelations from that session and what it taught her. They share how the experience sealed their friendship, revealed some profound truths about Lara’s mother and motherhood, and how it set each of them on a specific journey. The three address how medicine therapy is a journey and how revelations must be revisited and worked through after the medicine fades. Much valuable insight and knowledge is shared in this episode.

“And I think it's so important for our listeners to understand that, you know, some of us are coming with high expectations for what the medicine can do, and it may just be opening the window, right?” The Truth Fairy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Punk Therapy: website |email