Insights Into the Inaugural Year of APT
A New Training for Becoming a Psychedelic Therapist
Dieser Beitrag ist auch verfügbar auf: English
Dieser Beitrag ist auch verfügbar auf: English
“Right now, psychedelic therapy is very drug-focused,” said Dr. Henrik Jungaberle, the Executive Director of MIND Foundation and APT faculty member. “We wanted to introduce another model into the field: psychotherapy. Meaning, working with the content of the sessions to create a lasting impact for people, so that they don’t have to redo dosing, dosing, dosing.”
Last November, on a rainy Thursday in Berlin, two dozen healthcare providers from around the world gathered in a studio to experience immersive breathing – a method closely related to holotropic breathwork. It was their second day at the MIND Foundation’s Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT), a two-year professional development program that teaches the skills one needs to practice psychedelic therapy.
The candidates—comprised of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist—were paired off and assigned a mattress and blanket on the floor. One partner laid down on it and put on an eye mask. The other sat next to them, tissue box at the ready. As the breathwork instruction commenced, deep, percussive music started to rumble throughout the room. A few minutes passed. Then, the first cry pierced the air.
Around the studio, the candidates undergoing the 90-minute breathwork session erupted with energy. Some laughed while others screamed; some danced while others coiled. Afterwards, people reported experiencing perception shifts, evocative memories, psychedelic visuals, newly opened emotional spaces, and so on. How to integrate these seemingly ineffable “Aha!” moments into material of psychotherapeutic value would be the focus of the next year’s study. For now, though, the APT candidates had just completed one of the program’s first self-experiences with an altered state of consciousness.
The magnitude of the non-pharmacological method surprised many. “The breathwork session blew everyone’s socks off,” said Kira Regan, an APT candidate and psychotherapist from Canada. “That was the catalytic event that formed our group cohesion. The veneer of professionalism that I think people can adopt in these development spaces was stripped away into authentic human connection.” Eugen Secară, a psychotherapist from Romania, said, “It was amazing. I didn’t think you could have such a similar experience to a psychedelic state. I was fascinated.”
Night had fallen and APT’s second day came to a close. From here, Regan and Secară were about to begin two years of training to become certified psychedelic therapists. They were part of APT’s inaugural cohort. Combining four on-site intensive trainings in Berlin, and continuous remote learning sessions every week, APT consists of 400 hours of instruction. To date, it is likely the most comprehensive curriculum for psychedelic therapy in the world.
Trainings in psychedelic therapy are increasing in number. When Secară was searching for the right program, one thing mattered above all else: quality of science. Not only did this fit his research-oriented personality—Secară is psychotherapist with two Master’s degrees, who is currently working on a doctorate and teaching university seminars — but it was also tactically necessary to support his professional goals. Secară wants to help develop a foundation for psychedelic research in his home country, Romania. “The stigma is huge and change is slow,” he told me.
To legitimize psychedelics in the eyes of his government and academic colleagues, Secară knew that he needed to join a network of fellow scientists who worked with rigorous, ethical, and reproducible data. He liked that APT taught a clearly defined medical approach. He liked that the program’s psychotherapeutic model was not based on transpersonal psychology or spirituality, but rather focuses on evidence-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The APT model of psychedelic psychotherapy takes into account research-informed concepts of “common factors”: general change mechanisms that are shared by all effective psychotherapies, including cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, or humanistic-experiential therapies.
Perhaps most of all, though, Secară knew that the MIND Foundation’s science and clinical teams had already gained internationally recognized legitimacy. As official study partners in the EPIsoDE Study, the first medical psilocybin study to ever be funded by the German government, their research and protocols had already met the highest standards in safety and health. When building his own case for psychedelics in Romania, Secară’s APT certification would connect him to one of the most reputable psychedelic science communities in Europe.
Secară was also drawn to APT for its broad and psychotherapeutic exploration of altered states of consciousness. Often, when people think of psychedelic therapy, they think of the drug first: ketamine, LSD, MDMA, psilocybin. Some programs specifically train using one of these substances. By contrast, APT’s philosophy prioritizes psychotherapy over drug. “Right now, psychedelic therapy is very drug-focused,” said Dr. Henrik Jungaberle, the Executive Director of MIND Foundation and APT faculty member. “We wanted to introduce another model into the field: psychotherapy. Meaning, working with the content of the sessions to create a lasting impact for people, so that they don’t have to redo dosing, dosing, dosing.”
While psychedelic experiences have played a big role in Secară’s personal journey, one thing that surprised him as a professional psychotherapist is how good therapy, meditation, and working with the body could elicit similar kinds of altered states as psychedelics. At APT, candidates learn both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods for accessing these states. “The training gives you a toolbox and an understanding of what altered states of consciousness are, and how you can work with them in therapy,” Secară said. “Psychedelics are just one of many options.”
This gives more treatment options for psychotherapists, as well as for patients—not everyone can induce an altered state of consciousness using drugs. “Therapists who have gone through the training will be well prepared to use almost any substance or method in the psychotherapeutic process,” said Dr. Jungaberle. “We are not teaching ketamine therapy, or psilocybin therapy, or breathwork therapy—we are teaching how to augment the psychotherapeutic process with altered states of consciousness.”
Kira Regan was apprehensive at the start of APT’s first on-site intensive week. She had just spent 24 hours traveling from central Canada to Berlin, a city she had never stepped foot in. On the first morning of the training, many of her new colleagues introduced themselves as medical doctors. Regan, a counselor and therapist, thought, What am I doing in this room?
Fortunately, Regan’s worry quickly subsided. As the first theoretical discussion began on how psychedelic therapy works, it became clear that the group shared more similarities than differences. They all aspired to move the needle on psychedelic-assisted therapy. They all were passionate about discussing altered states of consciousness through a scientific lens.
Plus, given that APT is a psychotherapy-based training, Regan, who specializes in trauma and EMDR therapy, had some of the most applicable expertise in the room. The future of psychedelic therapy will be an interdisciplinary treatment. Healthcare professionals across specialties—from physicians to counselors—will need to come together to provide the full spectrum of safety and care. At APT, candidates prepare for this with numerous case studies and patient-provider roleplay exercises. “For surgeons or medical doctors, who may have never done a counseling session,” said Regan, “this is a really great and important opportunity to learn a little bit of those basic counseling dynamics.”
In APT’s first year, Regan and her colleagues worked towards receiving a certificate in integration-focused psychotherapy. Integration is psychedelic therapy’s key part, according to MIND Foundation philosophy. The method builds a trustworthy context in which clients can explore what to do with their psychedelic experience, whether it transpired in an underground, recreational, or clinical setting. Often, psychedelic experiences leave people with feelings of fascination, revelation, or sometimes simply confusion. Integration is the psychotherapeutic process that helps patients incorporate those insights into their everyday lives. And cut through the bewilderment.
Integration relates to the meaning-making process of talk therapy. First, Regan learned, an integration therapist helps the client remember their experience and identify important moments. Next, they assist clients in giving language and form to what many describe as an experience that transcends words. Finally, integration therapists work on getting to a deeper level with the client to pick apart the meaning of the experience, using principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. “The idea is to figure out how the psychedelic experience relates to the patient’s values and what’s important to them,” said Regan. “And then figuring out how they can commit to actually doing something or making a change in their lives.”
APT candidates must also attend a week-long integration retreat during their first year called Beyond Experience. Earlier this year, Regan did so in Portugal. Shortly after, she had a psychedelic experience in her personal time. Already, Regan felt that her integration training had profoundly affected her ability to intellectually navigate her trip. “I had major shifts in my self-understanding and a deepening of my self-worth, which has translated into positive behavior changes,” she said. “It’s been authentic. I’m not just giving it lip service. It’s actually changed my life.”
At the time of speaking, Regan and Secară were two weeks away from beginning their third on-site intensive training, marking the start of the APT’s second year. Upon arriving in Berlin, they would begin working towards the program’s second goal: a certificate in psychedelic-augmented psychotherapy.
Augmented psychotherapy is therapy that is both enabled and enhanced by altered states of consciousness. While integration therapy may be used to help a patient process a psychedelic experience done on their own time, augmented psychotherapy includes the end-to-end treatment of carefully preparing for, inducing, supporting, and integrating one or several psychedelic experiences in a clinical setting. This relates to another goal of APT: deepening psychotherapy with altered states of consciousness while preventing psychedelics-induced harm.
This year, the on-site intensives will mainly cover augmented psychotherapy with ketamine and immersive breathwork, including self-experience, dosing, and patient-provider role play. They will also teach the psilocybin protocols used in international studies, but no substance trainings will be given yet due to its legal status. Even though serotonergic psychedelic substances have not yet been approved for therapeutic use, the MIND Foundation believes it is the right time to train psychotherapists in psychedelics. “People are doing it anyway on their own or in underground environments,” said Dr. Jungaberle. “And we believe that’s not the setting that people should undergo psychedelic therapies in.”
Another focus of APT’s second year is implementation: how candidates can move forward with their training after the program. Providers will have the skills they need to conduct integration therapy and use different methods of inducing altered states of consciousness for augmenting their psychotherapy, depending on the regulations in their state. Dr. Jungaberle also imagines that some APT candidates will network and form clinics. “One of the main concepts of this training is that people should learn treatment in well-trained and multi-professional teams so that they can help each other. Psychotherapists have a big role in psychedelic therapy, and so do medical doctors,” he said.
At the halfway point of her APT journey, Regan was already looking forward to the next year and beyond. Before returning to Berlin for the next on-site intensive week, she was heading to a psychedelic psychotherapy forum in Canada. It would be a collection of healthcare professionals who were actively working towards enabling psychedelic psychotherapy at a national level. Regan now felt part of this group. “APT has been very high-quality in my opinion. You learn the content and the material and the topic so deeply that you can dissect it from all angles. The program has prepared me very well to be able to confidently enter that space and say, I know a lot, and I still have one more year of training to go.”
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