Addressing Abuse within the “Psychedelic Renaissance”

This weblog submit was once initially printed right here. 

Header symbol description: A small lit candle rests on a vaguely hourglass-shaped ceramic candleholder crafted in sun shades of brown glaze and sea glass inexperienced. Leaf-shaped cutouts decorate the ground part of the candleholder. The background is blurry and low-lit with a unmarried wood submit visual. [Photo by Hans Vivek from Unsplash.] The handwritten identify at the picture reads, “addressing abuse within the ‘psychedelic renaissance.'”

Content material comprises discussions of abuse, psychedelic treatment abuse, and sexual violence with out main points.

They’re calling it the psychedelic renaissance: new waves of plentiful analysis are claiming psychedelic medicine to be one of the best and transformative remedies for psychological sickness we’ve ever noticed. “It’s like ten years of treatment in one consultation.” Ketamine will treatment treatment-resistant melancholy; ibogaine will loose you from dependancy. MDMA will in any case permit warfare veterans and their family members to revel in reduction from the debilitating signs of PTSD. Psychedelic (or psychedelic-assisted) treatment is blazing the way in which ahead with a apparently flawless monitor file and compelling guarantees of cathartic therapeutic.

There are essential questions that want to be requested. What are the structural stipulations which are contributing to other people’s struggling within the first position — what’s permitting power melancholy, dependancy, and warfare trauma to persist? Why is the focal point on pushing for extra types of medicalization slightly than bettering those stipulations? Who will get to get right of entry to those dear remedies? Why have we exceptionalized positive medicine and stigmatized others? Who’s benefitting — and at the price of whom?

The psychedelic renaissance is solely colonialism and capitalism’s newest undertaking. 

It’s led by way of (rich) white individuals who can find the money for to go back and forth, attend ceremonies, and procure levels and certifications. Who take pleasure in associating with medicine slightly than be arrested for it. Who claim themselves professionals and pioneers of this rising awareness. The ones keen to benefit off of the greater call for are developing and advertising psychedelic coaching techniques, private use merchandise, and clinics. Indigenous peoples who’ve labored with their sacred crops for standard, cultural, and ceremonial use over generations have been persecuted and killed by way of colonizers for doing so, whilst their drugs and rituals have since been taken and repackaged into more than a few types of New Age spirituality that perpetuate colonial and capitalist violence.

And for colonialism and capitalism to paintings effectively, there will have to be people who find themselves excluded and exploited. Abuse of energy and in particular sexual abuse is an important worry in psychedelic areas.

The folks and firms on the head of the psychedelic motion are failing to take severely and to take duty for individuals who had been sexually assaulted, abused, and harmed in or because of psychedelic treatment. They’re failing to talk to the a couple of realities of drug-induced altered states of awareness: sure, those ingredients can catalyze powerfully significant, transformative, and therapeutic reports, and they are able to additionally make other people extra disoriented and suggestible. Other people with trauma histories — who search psychedelic treatment as a result of analysis has informed them it could actually heal their trauma — in addition to BIPOC, neurodivergent, queer, and trans other people will also be particularly prone to retraumatization and victimization within the palms of the flawed therapist.

Sexual abuse has been reported throughout quite a few psychedelic settings together with treatment, underground areas, retreat facilities, and analysis trials. Survivors have come ahead to bravely percentage their reports of attack and abuse in psychedelic areas, steadily to have their tales brushed aside, denied, and retaliated in opposition to by way of their abusers. Some have been informed that in the event that they spoke up about their abuse, they’d be singlehandedly destroying the psychedelic motion and its efforts to deliver therapeutic to all other people. Establishments have additionally been complicit by way of withholding details about and failing to correctly take motion in opposition to moral transgressions. 

To be told extra about survivors’ tales, see beneath for additional studying.

Survivors don’t seem to be disposable and their struggling will have to no longer be discarded as outlier reports. 

What’s the promise within the psychedelic renaissance if there’s a chance of abuse that’s unaccounted for and unaddressed in public discourse? If the motion in point of fact cared about therapeutic, why are survivors being silenced slightly than being supported and targeted in an duty procedure? The unwillingness of the motion to halt, significantly read about the stipulations that permit those transgressions to proceed, and make vital adjustments to take duty and heart survivors’ wishes obviously demonstrates their schedule as upholding present hierarchies of energy.

To be transparent, I’m no longer contesting the usage of psychedelics nor their doable for private and collective therapeutic. I’m no longer announcing that every one psychedelic therapists nor all white persons are predators or abusers. What I’m maximum involved in is the how the psychedelic motion has been structurally designed to sanction abuse and ongoing oppression. Exploitation is embedded within the stolen international drugs and cultural practices that make up the psychedelic treatment method. Facilitators face little to no penalties for abusing their energy and sexually assaulting contributors. Drug regulations within the nation proceed to disproportionately criminalize Black and brown other people for drug use and ownership whilst white and rich other people experience them prescribed as drugs. Unsurprisingly, I’m intensely skeptical about whether or not psychedelic treatment as working in our present methods will in truth result in private and collective therapeutic. 

I want to be clear in my very own social place as neatly. I’m a psychotherapist who’s curious and hopeful in regards to the collective therapeutic doable of psychedelics out of doors methods of oppression. I’ve gained psychedelic treatment coaching, percentage area with different psychedelic therapists, follow hurt aid, and loved private use of psychedelics. I transfer with the goal of restoring reciprocity, transparency, and integrity to {our relationships} with survivors, shoppers, individuals who use medicine, conventional drugs holders, and the land. I’m open to comments about how I will use my place and privileges to higher fortify the motion by way of centering the wishes of the ones harmed and probably the most systemically marginalized.

We will decide to supporting survivors and difficult hurt in psychedelic areas within the following techniques:

• Imagine survivors. Duration complete forestall.

• Magnify the voices and paintings of survivor-led communities, organizations, and projects. Be informed the histories, learn the names.

• Unfortunately but apparently this needs to be reiterated: Never have sexual contact or relationships with clients. This includes kissing, nudity, and touching private areas. Though charged energy and sexual attraction may be sensed within the therapeutic space and is a feeling that can be enhanced by use of psychedelics, it is our responsibility to never act on sexual urges and to maintain appropriate boundaries. Seek consultation, supervision, and personal therapy to ensure prioritization of client safety.

• Address problematic behaviors in colleagues. If you notice or hear that someone you know is acting coercively, possessively, or otherwise concerningly towards clients, don’t stay silent. Find a way to intervene that centers the needs and safety of clients, and reach out to other trusted colleagues for support. 

• Do not attend or support trainings (or retreats) hosted by or featuring people who have not taken accountability for the harm they caused. Follow up with leadership and organizers about whether they know they’re working with people who have caused harm and what they’re doing about it.

• Be proactive, transparent, and realistic with people interested in psychedelics about the risk of encountering unsafe facilitators.

• Cultivate therapeutic relationships and spaces that prioritize our clients’ self-determination and bodily autonomy. Practice with self-awareness, humility, and respect.

• Stay connected with other therapists to self- and co-reflect on our work, offer and receive constructive feedback and support, and stay actively engaged in the process of unlearning and rebuilding.

• Take accountability when realizing or being alerted that we have caused harm.

• Support indigenous-led initiatives for cultural and religious sovereignty and their right to use and protect their sacred medicines, rituals, and ceremonies. Avoid using and leading cultural practices that are not yours, including smudging, use of rattles and drums, and hosting ceremonies with plant medicines that are not from your lineage.

• Support transformative justice and healing justice initiatives.

• Continue to learn about, explore, and practice ways of supporting survivors and resisting violence as the movement progresses.

References, resources, and further reading

Psychedelic Survivors is “dedicated to supporting survivors of abuse, assault, and/or direct personal harm within the context of psychedelic therapy, sessions or ceremony.”

TELL is a peer support network for victims and survivors of exploitation by psychotherapists and other healthcare providers.

Psymposia’s Psychedelic Sisters In Arms is “a series of personal stories on consent, gender, and sexual violence against women in psychedelic communities.”

“Ending the Silence Around Psychedelic Therapy Abuse” by Will Hall
Content includes abuse, sanism, sexual assault, gaslighting, and mention of rape.

“How the Psychedelic Community Should Respond to Sexual Abuse” by Leia Friedwoman
Content warnings included.

Chacruna’s “Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse”

“A Collective Call for Accountability in Plant Medicine Experiences” by Cash Ahenakew, PhD, Rene Suša, PhD, and Vanessa De Oliveira Andreotti, PhD

“Blinded by the White: Addressing Power and Privilege in Psychedelic Medicine” by Genesee Herzberg, PsyD and Jason Butler, PhD

“Psychedelic Therapy Abuse: My Experience with Aharon Grossbard, Francoise Bourzat… and Their Lawyers” by Will Hall
Content includes sexual assault, gaslighting, sanism, emotional abuse, grooming, and psychological torture.

“Psychedelic therapy has a sexual abuse problem” by Olivia Goldhill
Content includes abusive behavior, sexual assault, and mentions of rape.

Cover Story: Power Trip (podcast)
Content warnings included at the beginning of each episode.

Chacruna’s Sex & Power archives