Participation Information Sheet Psychology Research Ethics Committee
– Regent’s University London
PROJECT TITLE
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as an adjunct to psilocybin-assisted personal growth therapy.
INVESTIGATOR(S)
Dr Rosamond Watling (email: watlingr@regents.ac.uk), and Dr Maria Luca at Regent’s University, London. Henry Whitfield and Robert Krause at Mindfulness Training Ltd.
INVITATION
You are invited to take part in a study on the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (mindfulness for behaviour change) in combination with psilocybin. This will involve you engaging in psilocybin-assisted personal growth therapy at a retreat in Holland.
The project has been approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee at Regent’s University London (reference: 19.23). You must be at least 18 years old to participate.
DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPATION
Once you agree to participate, you will be invited by Mr Henry Whitfield of Mindfulness Training Ltd. in London to take part in four to five personal therapy sessions. Each session will last 50 to 90 minutes and will take place online after the retreat. These sessions will be consistent with the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approach. You will also receive an email with a link to two online surveys.
One is a survey that will ask you to reflect on your worries, thoughts, and feelings. Some of these questions will apply to how you feel right now, and others to how you have felt in the past week. This survey will take about 35-40 minutes to complete. We will ask you to complete this survey four times: 1) Before you go to the retreat in Holland; 2) After the retreat, but before your first therapy session; 3) After your final therapy session; 4) Six months after therapy ends. At these same time points you will be invited for an interview of approximately 20mins that will be audio recorded.
The other survey is a one-minute survey that you will be asked to complete every day. It will ask you how you have been feeling each day until one week after your final therapy session (approx. 2 months)
LENGTH OF PARTICIPATION
To summarise, on four occasions of the longer (online) survey, your participation will take approximately 35-40 minutes, and one minute for the daily survey until a week after your final therapy session. Additionally, your four or five personal therapy sessions will each be 50-90 minutes long and your interviews will be around 20mins.
BENEFITS AND RISKS OF PARTICIPATION
There are no known risks associated with participating in this study. Results of this study may be beneficial to society, in teaching us more about how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can support people during psychedelic integration therapy.
COST, REIMBURSEMENT AND COMPENSATION
Your participation in this study is voluntary. You will receive no remuneration in return for your participation.
PARTICIPANTS’ RIGHTS
Participation in this study is completely voluntary. Even after you agree to participate and begin the study, you are still free to withdraw at any point during your participation and for up to two weeks after the therapy session, without penalty and without having to give a reason. If you would like to withdraw your data, please email watlingr@regents.ac.uk within two weeks of completing your integration therapy.
CONFIDENTIALITY/ANONYMITY
You will be known only to the therapists Henry Whitfield, Robert Krause and Sophie Adler, one of whom will be conducting your personal therapy sessions. When you consent to taking part in the study, you will be given a unique identity code. The data we collect in our online surveys and our face-to-face interviews will not contain any personal information about you except your age and identity code, which will not be linked to the other data you provide. All data you provide will be anonymised and kept confidentially. This anonymised data collected in this study may be published or presented at conferences, usually in aggregate form. In that event, all identifying information you provide will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the principal researcher: Dr Rosamond Watling at watlingr@regents.ac.uk. She will be glad to answer your questions about this study at any time. If you would like to find out about the results of this study, you should email the principal researcher, who can provide the final report when it is completed.