Preparation

A significant aspect of the preparation phase, prior to the ingestion of the psychedelic medicine, is to create a harm reduction and preparation plan.

This is to protect both the client and the health professional offering PHRI services.

Health Professional Tip

The health professional should be aware of potential legal and ethical issues and consider risks to themselves in delivering PHRI (Jade, 2018).

A Harm Reduction Approach

A harm reduction approach generally refers to a shift in perspective away from viewing substance use as criminal, immoral, or a disease. Rather, substance use is seen as a complex process consisting of multiple variables including psychosocial and biological elements.

Please ensure that you read through all slides before proceeding by using the arrow keys on your keyboard or using the navigation buttons at the bottom of each slide.

As developed by Tatarsky (2002), psychotherapy and treatment of the substance use includes harm reduction principles and individualized treatment, consisting of psychotherapeutic modalities derived from a variety of sources.

According to Tatarsky there are seven tasks for the health professional to embrace who is engaged in Integrated Harm Reduction Psychotherapy:

Developing the therapeutic alliance
Develop the client/health professional relationship as an agent of healing
Enhancing client self-regulation and self-management
Assessment as part of the treatment
Helping the client to accept ambivalence about the process or wanting change
Engaging the client in harm reduction goal setting
Individualizing a client plan for positive change

While PHRI is not, in the context of psychedelic assisted therapy, being applied to substance use, Tatarsky’s approach is applicable. Integral to PHRI is the fostering of client self-efficacy, amplifying collaboration with the health professional, and concretizing the plans for the psychedelic journey during preparation. This can be supported by encouraging the client to use a journal throughout the psychedelic assisted therapeutic process. Recording the preparation plans externalizes them, thus making them substantive. It also assists the client to keep these plans in mind, providing a way to make them personally accountable for their self-care prior to, during, and after the session. The health professional may suggest the client keep a few important notes available to support them as needed.

Video: Trauma-Informed Therapy with Atira Tan

3:52

Trauma impacts both physical and mental health than most people typically consider. It is highly likely that clients who seek out psychedelic-assisted therapy have some type of trauma–whether or not they realize. A history of trauma is a transdiagnostic factor for mental and physical wellbeing. As a result, it is important to learn about how trauma can show up in the body and mind. As a brief introduction, please watch this video.

Resource

To help you remember what tasks to complete during Preparation Sessions, please download this Preparation Session Checklist.

References

Jade, R (2018) Integrating Underground Psychedelic Use: A Cautionary Note for Licensed Health Care Provider.

Tatarsky, A., (2002) Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Fluence (2020). Psychedelics 101 & 102 Harm Reduction Informed Preparation & Integration. Liberty Psychological Services, PLLC.