Harnessing the therapeutic potential of challenging psychedelic experience
Abstract
This mixed-methods study seeks to better understand the therapeutic impacts and proper management of so-called “challenging psychedelic experiences”, primarily in the context of intentional use and substance-assisted therapies with “classic” psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybin, ayahuasca, Mescaline, and DMT). The paper first investigates retrospective reports of subjectively challenging states encountered during psychedelic ceremonies, provided by a sample recruited from legal psychedelic retreats. A thematic analysis is conducted with a view to identifying how participants and their therapists (or “guides”) responded to these experiences during the ceremony. This is followed by a quantitative investigation, using a larger sample, exploring which coping behaviours are generally found to be most helpful for resolving challenging psychedelic experiences. This includes testing the association of various coping behaviours with reports of “emotional breakthrough” (cathartic resolution of difficulties) during psychedelic use, and how different coping behaviours might be more or less helpful depending on the nature of the challenge in question. One hypothesis to be tested in the quantitative analysis is pre-registered here with OSF.
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