01/30/2023
Post by Is there really a right way to use psychedelics?
My latest for explores that question, with ’s experience in the desert as the guiding story.
On one side of the spectrum of aboveground offerings, there are clinics where a visit to the spa-like space is similar to a therapist’s office, with the addition of ketamine-assisted therapy. There are holistic treatment centers offering longer-term stays. There are international retreats, which offer experiences only limited by a participant’s proclivity for adventure, be it purging on a yoga mat in the depths of the Amazon to pristine ocean-front properties—and a person's willingness or ability to spend. Prices vary, on average, from $5,000 to $10,000 for a week or longer (some retreats offer reduced-fee scholarship programs).
And then there's the psychedelic underground.
“We start in a circle, set the ground rules around safety and boundaries, and then everybody just walks about the park or apartment,” says Charley Wininger, licensed psychotherapist and author, who led M**A sessions with his wife Shelly in a Brooklyn park. From the outside, it looks like a bunch of adults having a nice day.
One area where underground practitioners might consider themselves at an advantage is their ability to dose how they see fit and mix medicine—a consideration that makes many classically-trained psychiatrists and newly-credentialed therapists cringe. Does it help to have some academic knowledge, including the history of the medicine and an understanding of physiological reactions? Yes, says one underground practitioner I interviewed—and after a brief pause—but being a good facilitator comes with embodied experience, not intellect. “You’ll only be able to go deep with someone if you’ve gone deep yourself.” The idea that someone who is certified with no real-world experience is more qualified than a facilitator who has been working with psychedelics for years, doesn’t seem accurate, she adds.
Link in bio for an in-depth exploration that includes many-many-many perspectives.
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