Trust Enhancement: Inner Healing Process
Building trust is a highly important aspect of the client’s ‘mindset’ when entering a psychedelic experience that can impact outcomes: trust in health professionals as trustworthy guides, themselves, their inner healing process, their capacity to enter the unknown, the medicine they are ingesting, and the process even when paradoxical or radically unexpected (Fletcher-Tomenius & Vossler, 2009; Phelps, 2017).
To authentically support the client to trust their inner healing process, health professionals must embody trust in this process: within clients, themselves, and the medicine – all of which is gained through their own lived experiences of personal healing and growth. Authentic embodied trust in the client’s inner healing process prevents the health professional from becoming an expert or authority figure in the client’s healing journey and implicitly anchors clients in a sense of security as they surrender into the inherently scary unknown territories of psychedelic experiences.
Activity
What are some ways that you can build trust with clients? Consider how you can expand your current practice of developing trust with your clients given the amount of authentic trust required for psychedelic-assisted therapy. Post your video or text response on Flip.
Inner Healing Process
The notion of an “inner healer,” “inner healing process,” or “inner healing intelligence” is intended to be a metaphor for the natural healing inclination and capacity of our bodies and psyches (Clare, 2018).
In embodiment-oriented psychotherapy approaches, like the Hakomi method, health professionals trust that the unique body-mind of clients contain its own keys to healing, and thus embodied inquiry is utilized to optimally facilitate this process within clients. The concept of inner healing process is introduced during Preparation Sessions to encourage a process of positive self-connection. Introducing the term can lead to a conversation correcting a commonly held yet countertherapeutic belief within this model that the client is going to “be healed” by external forces, such as the psychedelic medicine itself, or via the clinician’s intervention(s).
Learn More
To learn more about the inner healing process, please watch Psychedelics and the Inner Healing Intelligence with Numinus therapists Dr. Reid Robison and Dr. Steven Thayer as they chat with Derick Moody, PA-C.
This ‘victim’ orientation (which is generally reinforced by Western biomedicine emphasis on external experts and passive treatments), when viewed through an attachment lens, may relate to unmet childhood attachment needs particularly in those with insecure attachment styles. Empowering a client’s adult self with trust in their inner healing capacity may support forging intrapersonal attachment healing with their young part(s) that may still wish for rescue.
Explaining Inner Healing
This script can be used to explain the inner healing process to clients.
If you have a cut on your skin, you do not have to think about how the skin will mend back together or invest effort to make it happen—each cell innately knows exactly what job it has to do and carries out its task as a functioning part of a whole toward healing. We can support this natural process by creating the best conditions possible for this to happen, such as by keeping the area clean and dry, and using an antibacterial ointment or poultice. When we talk about the inner healer or ‘innate healing intelligence’ in this work, we trust that this inclination toward healing or coherence operates throughout all aspects of our being: not only the physical, but also mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of us as well. We will work together to create the best conditions for this natural process to come forth and guide much of the work.
Inner-Sourced Transformation
This script can be used to explain the inner-sourced transformation.
Imagine a big caterpillar, slowly crawling along and munching its way through a huge pile of leaves. When the time is right, the caterpillar spins itself a cocoon and surrenders to a process of transformation. From the outside, it looks as if nothing is happening, but the inside is where all the action is. Within the cocoon, the caterpillar is undergoing a remarkable transformation—a metamorphosis; it does not keep track of time or know how long this process will take, it just stays in the process. The caterpillar inside liquifies, and a few cells called ‘imaginal cells’ remain, and these start to form what will come next.... Just when it is ready, what emerges is a beautiful butterfly! No one directs the caterpillar to curl up and become a cocoon. No health professional tells it what to do inside there either. It all happens naturally—organically—and the result is a beautiful, delicate, and transformed creature…”
References
Clare, S. (2018). Cultivating inner growth: The inner healing intelligence in MDMA-assisted therapy. MAPS, 28(3). https://maps.org/news/bulletin/cultivating-inner-growth-the-inner-healing-intelligence-in-mdma-assisted-psychotherapy-winter-2018/
Fletcher-Tomenius, L., & Vossler, A. (2009). Trust in online therapeutic relationships: The therapist's experience. Counselling Psychology Review, 24(2), 24-34. ,
Phelps, J. (2017). Developing Guidelines and Competencies for the Training of Psychedelic Therapists. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 450-487. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817711304