Taking a Journey - Why Preparation Matters
When was the last time you went on an adventure? When was the last time you gathered a few essential belongings, put your affairs in order, and left home to visit new and distant lands?
When I am training psychotherapists and we are exploring a new element of theory or practice, I like to begin by inviting them to recognise “what they already know”. This helps to ground the new learning in their embodied wisdom drawn from lived-experience. As such, when therapists start thinking about the preparation phase of psychedelic psychotherapy, l suggest starting here: by reflecting upon past experiences of preparing - successfully or otherwise - for an adventure. What did you do that helped? What do you wish you’d done to prepare better? How would you approach it next time? What qualities would you want in a guide?
Back in 2013, I travelled to Spain with my two young sons - Moses and Elijah, 5 & 6 years old - and their mother. We hired a donkey in France - Simon - and walked for 40 days across northern Spain on the pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago.
The seed of this idea had travelled with me for years before it began to take concrete shape. Once it moved from a dream to a plan, I remember researching different possible routes we might take, and wildlife encounters we might have. I remember making list after list of things like camping gear and types of food we could carry and cook. I remember taking the boys on local walks to toughen up their little legs, and wondering about their capacity to last the 700km walk. And, comically, I remember spending a lot of time on Skype, in my Melbourne lounge room, trying to buy donkey from various French farmers.
Beyond the practical preparation, there was a lot of emotional sorting out to do. The boys’ mother and I had separated a year prior, and it’d been tough on everyone. Part of our intention was a collective healing - getting on a good footing for the rest of our separated lives. We were determined not to let the separation get in the way of sharing our love of adventure with the boys, but we needed to get clear on our intentions and roles. Beyond the practical and emotional preparation, there was what you might call the spiritual. It was a pilgrimage after all, an adventure wrapped in a prayer.
It was the trip of a lifetime.
Psychedelics: An Inward Adventure
Adventure - inward or outward - means leaving the comfort and safety of home and taking ourselves into new and unknown territory in search of new experiences, growth and learning. Our Camino de Santiago adventure took forty days, but the dreaming and planning phase took far longer. I am certain that having clarity with regard to the practical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the adventure before setting out meant that we could avoid disasters, and confidently meet the challenges and opportunities that arose along the way. Similarly, the way in which we support a client to prepare for a psychedelic journey will have a profound impact on their capacity to avoid pitfalls, distress and harm, and increase the likelihood that they will have a rich and growthful experience.
The Preparation Sessions
While there are broad parallels to be drawn between outward and inward adventures, it is also the case that the skills, knowledge, and understanding required to successfully venture into the psychedelic realm are highly specific. It is a wild, wonderful, and potentially dangerous landscape.
What follows is a brief outline of some of the specific bases we want cover during preparations sessions in a psychedelic psychotherapy research trial. Most trials allow for participants to meet with their two therapists, three times, before the dosing session, for a total of 3-5 hours. Below I share just some of the aims and objectives of preparation sessions:
(Note: this is shared for general interest only and not intended as a manual or a substitute for training)
To build trust and rapport between journeyer and guides
To become familiar with the physical space in which the journey will unfold
To discuss important physical safety measures
To establish and commit to agreements (such as not leaving the space)
To discuss the role/type of music
To watch for any “red-flags” - contraindications that were missed in the screening phase
To learn about journeyer’s understanding and of psychedelics, explore their expectations, and clear up misconceptions
To identify personal themes, contexts and struggles that might impact the session
To help establish the journeyer’s clear intention for the dosing session
To prepare the journeyer with regard to some of the kinds of experiences they may have:
Aesthetic
Somatic/sensory
Emotional
Imaginal/Fantastical
Autobiographical/Memories
Perinatal (birth) experiences
Transpersonal
To coach participants in helpful ways to navigate the dosing session:
Encouraging an attitude of openness and curiosity
Sharing effective ways to “ground” through use of the body, breath, and music
Encouraging participants to say “yes” and move toward whatever emerges
Other ways to work with fear and difficult experiences
To answer any questions the participant may have…
* * *
The overall aim and intention of the preparation sessions is that by the time the participant takes the medicine, they feel safe and comfortable, familiar with their guides, and well prepared to navigate whatever experiences may arise.
In a future article I will look at these elements in more detail and also explore what happens in both the dosing and integration sessions.