Psilocybin-Assisted Trauma Treatment, Part III

Written By Ocean Shapiro, MSW

Psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, is probably going to be legalized for therapeutic use in the United States in the next two years, and that’s on trauma treatment progress.1 Post-medical intake and determining your treatment goals with a therapist, psilocybin will help you feel more focused, connected to yourself and others, power and choice over trauma memories, and the ability to relate to those memories (and yourself) with more introspection, acceptance, and compassion.2,3,4,5,6

Can it help you when you’re not tripping in “sessions,” though? You’ve had therapy sessions feel like a canon event until life got even more complicated, right? And you’re willing to do hallucinogenic trauma treatment for the plot at this point, tbh. You just want to know if all those new, shiny connections you make and trust you feel while you “bow to the wisdom of your inner oak tree” or whatever will last. Otherwise, are you supposed to take shrooms every month or something? Wouldn’t that just be your newest, slightly cooler SSRI? 

Yes, psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy can help in the long run without communing with Mother Gaia indefinitely. In a therapeutic setting, psilocybin does a lot more than an SSRI could.1,5

PTSD, Meet Shrooms

Growing research points to a variety of ways psilocybin dosing sessions could affect you well after you’re done “feeling it”:

  • They can increase your cognitive flexibility, restructuring the pathways of old thoughts you get stuck in (hello “I’m the worst,” “you’re the worst,” and “even if we weren’t the worst, everything would still be a dumpster fire about to consume my soul”) in ways that allow you to be more open to different points of view, thoughts about yourself and others, and new experiences overall.2,3,4

  • They can decrease rumination, hopelessness, felt inability to cope, and negative thought patterns.3

  • They can lessen that urge to avoid whatever reminds you of the trauma.3

  • Higher empathy during sessions can lead to a better relationship with your therapist, and more efficient work afterwards.3

Basically, you came to therapy feeling disconnected in ways that you couldn’t capture the depths of, scared of your past, and struggling with the feelings that came up despite how much you avoided said-past. But you can leave psilocybin-assisted therapy with a better relationship to yourself and your healing process, mindful of your past instead of wanting to avoid it, and feeling more capable of managing your life, well beyond the sessions themselves. You could get to explore who you are instead of feel like you’re parsing out which pieces of yourself got scattered where.2,3

What would that even mean?!

Listen: trauma therapy is really hard work you never wanted to do in the first place. In this blog series, we’ve covered how trust, fear of trauma reminders, and trouble opening up are common issues people face, and how psilocybin-assisted therapy could support your healing, in media trip and beyond. 

Hallucinogenic trauma treatment offers a way to make this process feel more like your own in lasting ways. While psychedelic medicine is still viewed by much of the world as a way to avoid the long march through adulthood, the science behind it supports what many communities and individuals have been saying for a long time: it can help you in deeply meaningful ways.1 With psilocybin, you could seriously challenge those thoughts that make you hate yourself, process old pain without thinking it’s happening all over again, settle into the present instead of scanning for threats at all times, and feel more connected to the world around you.4,5

No matter what you do, look into what might support you and work with where you struggle. Define your healing by what you need and feel drawn to. While psilocybin is being approved to be made more accessible, there are still so many paths to take, and I hope you find the one that makes you feel whole–you deserve all that and more.

Next Step: Are you interested in shaping your trauma healing journey to meet your needs? While psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy isn’t legal yet, Ketamine, a dissociative hallucinogen, is available and can help. Check out how Woven does Ketamine-Assisted Therapy at https://woventraumatherapy.com/ketamine-therapy. You can also reach out to Ocean for a free consultation at ocean@gideonpsych.com or (310)361-5538.

Interested in learning more about our unique approach to trauma therapy?

These blogs talk more about the basics of EMDR:

You can read more about Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy here:

References:

1. Averill, L. A., & Abdallah, C. G. (2022). Investigational drugs for assisting psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): emerging approaches and shifting paradigms in the era of psychedelic medicine. Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, 31(2), 133–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/13543784.2022.2035358

2. Smith, F., Neill, J., & Wainwright, V. (2022). An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the use of psilocybin by veterans with symptoms of trauma. Drug Science, Policy and Law, 8, 205032452211241. https://doi.org/10.1177/20503245221124117

3. Biscoe, N., Bonson, A., Slavin, M., Dr Walter Busuttil, MacManus, D., Cox, A., & Murphy, P. (2023). Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD in UK Armed Forces Veterans: A feasibility study protocol. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 100359–100359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2023.100359

4. Smith, W. R., & Sisti, D. (2020). Ethics and ego dissolution: the case of psilocybin. Journal of Medical Ethics, medethics-2020-106070. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-106070

5. Turkia, M. (2022, April 25). Underground small-group therapy of treatment-resistant depression and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) with psilocybin—A retrospective case study. ResearchGate. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.24250.06089
6. Miller, C. (2023). Effects of Psilocybin on Context-Based Fear Learning, Extinction, and Reinstatement. Honors Capstone Enhancement Presentations. https://digitalcommons.onu.edu/honors_presentations/25/

Read more by Ocean

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Ocean Shapiro, MSW

Ocean Shapiro is an Associate Clinical Social Worker at Woven and specializes in Complex PTSD, sexual abuse and exploitation, stalking, intimate partner violence, childhood abuse, and 2SLGBTQIA+ as well as alternative relationship structure issues.

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