08 - Family Constellations with special guest Lara

06/16/22 • 53 min

PUNK Therapy | Psychedelic Underground Neural Kindness

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

Content Warning: Sensitive topics and trauma memories

Resources mentioned in this episode:

---

Punk Therapy: website |email

Previous Episode

07 - The Therapist and Substance

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

Next Episode

09 - Life Partnership Teamwork Makes the Psychedelic Co-Therapy Dream Work

Content Warning: Sensitive topics

Dr. T and The Truth Fairy welcome special guests “Sid” and “Nancy”, two life partners who work as a co-therapy team in the underground psychedelic assisted therapy space. Dr. T and The Truth Fairy delve into what qualities Sid and Nancy possess that help them attune to the work and what advantages and disadvantages come from being life partners in psychedelics.

Sid and Nancy found each other through a dating app and together continued their individual experiences by working with plant medicines on a deep dive. The co-therapy work came to them rather naturally and was not necessarily something they pursued. The pair sat with a growing number of friends, guiding them through medicinal experiences, and they truly enjoyed the work. The feedback regarding their intuitive energy and supportive abilities was encouraging and positive.

The Truth Fairy and Dr. T learn how advantageous Sid and Nancy find their life partnership during ceremonies. They speak to each other’s calm connected strengths and how they rely on each other’s empathetic sense of what is needed for clients. They do not assign roles but work off intuition in each ceremony. Sid and Nancy report very few disadvantages to being life partners in the work and they offer some real life examples of how they pushed through difficult situations and had rewarding sessions partnering with therapists for client breakthroughs.

“And it was something that I just felt, it was just really natural, like attuning to what was helpful and what wasn't helpful, and how to let someone have an experience and be in some really dark places and just see that they are absolutely okay, that they could trust psychedelic medicine. And not telling them that but just being near them, and helping them feel safe and helping them feel just really okay. And so that kind of lit this fire in me of holding space for people in this way.” - Nancy

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Punk Therapy: website |email