Perspectives on Healing

Within an integrative and transformative approach, healing is broadly conceptualized as a journey, rather than a destination.

The Healing Journey

Many clients may present with fixed ideas about specific outcomes and expectations for their psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment, as mentioned earlier when talking about managing client expectations. It is important to manage these expectations using this concept of a ‘journey’ wherein they may certainly make great strides toward their therapeutic goals but that the journey will continue beyond the completion of their psychedelic-assisted therapy program with:

  • Challenges that surface which may feel like setbacks

  • Continued opportunities to integrate and anchor the progress they make

Health Professional Tip

How do we help clients differentiate between expectations and intentions?

An expectation is generally about something specific that a client believes is necessary or likely to happen as part of their experience, for example, specific types of visions or other specific content. This creates a bias in their perception and can reduce openness to a broader spectrum of useful or helpful experiences.

An intention is more like a guidance system that helps to orient the client in the purpose for their experience and the types of answers and information they are hoping to find. It still leaves the how and what of the experience very broad. Intentions allow for openness to experience, whereas expectations tend to come with a need or desire to control outcomes and experiences.

Guiding Maxims of the Healing Journey

There are several maxims of the healing journey that can be useful psychoeducation points to share with clients during Preparation Sessions.

The healing journey is non-linear, and it is often cyclical. Sometimes it may feel like it’s moving quickly, and other times slowly, and sometimes things may feel like they are moving backwards instead of forwards.

Repetition is helpful, even though it may be experienced as distressing, because it allows for practice which is necessary for new neural connections to take root.

Assist the client to pay particular attention to what feels different this time when something cycles which can help to reassure them that they are not on a dead-end and are making progress.

Consider a labyrinth. For part of the journey to the center, it can feel as though you are walking away from, rather than towards, the center. Yet, you will inevitably arrive at the center they continue to put one foot in front of the other on the labyrinth path.

A welcome document introducing clients to what to expect from psychedelic-assisted therapy is one example of how to outline the notion of a healing journey so that clients are exposed to this idea before meeting with a health professional.