Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is Making Waves in Psychedelic Science

In case you missed it, a renaissance in psychedelic science is happening! In January, the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science published a special issue in the area of psychedelic medicine.  Many of studies in this issue made the case for why Acceptance and Commitment Therapy provides such an appropriate therapeutic framework for conducting psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Namely, it seems that when used in safe and supportive settings, psychedelics may enhance psychological flexibility and therefore be useful in treating a wide variety of psychological problems including anxiety and depression. In addition, ACT is being used as the therapeutic framework in clinical trials of psychedelic assisted therapy at The Imperial College in the UK and at Yale/NYU in New York. ACBS members can download all these articles by logging into their member account at contextualscience.org first.

For a summary of the research on psychedelic assisted therapy, we just published the most comprehensive meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials to date. This will give you a good overview of the research evidence so far and why people are excited about the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy for a range of psychological problems.

While it will still be several years before psychedelics can be legally administered, it is currently possible for people to meet with a therapist to discuss psychedelic experiences they may have had on their own. These services are often called psychedelic integration and safety services and refer to the use of a harm reduction approach where clients can have a safe non-judgmental space to talk about their interests in psychedelics, receive support in learning about the risks and benefits of psychedelic use, and process any prior experiences. We offer these services at Portland Psychotherapy and while we do not facilitate access to psychedelic experiences in any way, clients are welcome to discuss their interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelics with a trained professional. We’ve also begun offering training on the topic as well.

Portland Psychotherapy is currently planning what we believe will be the first trial of psychedelic assisted therapy in the Pacific NW. The study will be a randomized trial studying MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of adults with severe social anxiety. We are currently preparing our submission to the FDA for approval to run the trial and hope to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of action of MDMA-assisted therapy, which to this point has mostly been used in treating PTSD.

Finally, this year’s ACBS virtual world conference will include a workshop on psychedelic integration and harm reduction therapy, as well as a symposium with several recent papers related to psychedelic-assisted therapy. If you are a member of ACBS, please also consider joining the Psychedelic and Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness Special Interest Group (SIG) to find more ways to connect with like-minded peers and stay up-to-date with the latest in psychedelic science.

Written by Brian Pilecki, PhD & Jason B. Luoma, PhD

Jason is a psychologist who researches ways to help people with chronic shame and stigma and also works clinically with people struggling with those same problems.