Inquiry is used to recognize and track experience as it is unfolding in the moment, and this is how it is more frequently used during an actual psychedelic Medicine Session. You may encounter the lead therapist applying an embodied inquiry approach when working with clients. This brief introduction will help you recognize when embodied inquiry is being used.
Clients may be invited to bring up a challenging experience (often during Preparation or Integration) that occurred in the past or that is ongoing, and inquiry can be used to investigate how this shows up for the client somatically, emotionally, and cognitively.
As you learned in the reading, there are three layers of inquiry that leverage one’s ability to bring attention to experience, contrast ways of attending, tracking experience and integrating learning to increase well-being:
What did you notice?
How might this way of paying attention be different? And then what happened? And then?
How might this relate to preventing depressive relapse, managing difficult mind and mood states, or staying well?
As a summary of what you learned, please review the three layers of inquiry and the intended outcomes.
Please ensure that you read through all items before proceeding by selecting each title.
In the first layer of inquiry, clients are asked “What did you notice about this experience”? It is common for clients to default to analyzing their experience instead of describing the various aspects of their experience. Health professionals facilitating inquiry should gently direct clients back to focusing on their direct experience (Woods, Rockman, & Collins, 2019).
During the second layer of inquiry (early on in the process), the question should shift to “how might this way of paying attention be different?” to shift the focus to the deepening of their mindfulness. The health professional facilitating the inquiry session should also focus on the sequential and unfolding nature of each moment by asking “and then what happened?”. This approach encourages the client to stay with the present moment experience and focus on their thoughts, emotions, body sensations, impulses to act, and behaviours (Woods, Rockman, & Collins, 2019).
Finally, the third layer of inquiry focuses on integrating the experiences and what has been learned to everyday life. Clients are able to apply and generalize the skills they learned using this layer to assist that process (Woods, Rockman, & Collins, 2019).
It is important to remember the layers provide a foundation and structure for inquiry. However, remember that one does not want to be rigidly adherent to them and that ultimately, the priority is to follow the client’s process.