Changing Our Minds by Don Lattin

Author:Don Lattin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9780907791676
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2017-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

In 2016, MAPS launched a program to train forty MDMA therapists for its expanding clinical trials for volunteer subjects with PTSD. Students study the MAPS training manual for therapy sessions, review all the screening criteria and watch videos of sessions to get a feel for what the process is like. They learn how to work with difficult clients and to help subjects integrate their insights into their daily lives.

“But that’s not enough,” Rick said, “so we have a protocol with the FDA where we can give MDMA to therapists as part of their training. They take a pill on two different days. One is a placebo and one is MDMA. It’s important for people to do this even if they’ve done MDMA before, so they go through our protocol in our setting.”

Finally, trainees are teamed up with more experienced therapists. “The real way you learn,” Rick said, “is to actually do therapy with real patients.”

The MAPS training program was one of several underway to prepare for an anticipated expansion of drug trials, including the psilocybin research sponsored by the Heffter and Usona research institutes. In the spring of 2016, the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco began teaching its inaugural class for its “Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies & Research.” The program is designed for people who are already licensed therapists, nurses, social workers, physicians or ordained clergy. According to a prospectus, students will use non-drug techniques, such as Holotropic Breathwork, to simulate the altered states of consciousness produced by MDMA and psilocybin. “At no time will the program promote or require the use of psychedelic drugs in any manner,” the prospectus states.

Forty-two students enrolled in the first year of the program, which was created by Janis Phelps, the school’s Director for Psychedelic Therapies and Research. In an address marking the start of the first study period, Bob Jesse urged caution amid all the celebration that a new era of psychedelic therapy has begun. “We are not out of the woods,” Jesse said. “Lots of things can still go wrong.” Among those things, he warned, are the death or serious psychological injury of a patient in a clinical trial, or a therapist who gets swept away by grandiosity or mania—two states of mind that can be fueled by psychedelic drugs.

Citing statistics showing that about a million people take a psychedelic drug for the first time every year, Jesse said many of those people would no doubt be helped by working with a trained guide or therapist. “It’s amazing,” he said, “that we don’t hear more sad stories.”

Graduates of the seven-month, 180-hour training program may or may not be eligible to be hired for the upcoming MAPS, Heffter or Usona-sponsored drug trials. “This is dependent on the unfolding regulatory processes, the attainment of advanced training and the available number of therapist researcher positions,” the prospectus states. The certificate program, which costs $5,545, includes a retreat with Michael and Annie Mithoefer and sessions focusing on pharmacology, shamanism, legal issues, ethics, dealing with adverse effects, and integration.

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