Two part programme in Psychedelic-assisted Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
£4,000.00
Part – 1
Expanded ACT for Psychedelic-assisted Therapy: Integrating trauma-focused ‘parts’ work with systemic change
2024 Dates:
- Online: 12-13th Sept
- Catalonia, Spain: 22-27th Sept
Places are limited to 16.
Location:
Contribution:
£1800 (inclusive of accommodation and meals)
- Early bird discount of £1600 if fully paid by June 15th
Facilitators:
with support from colleagues
Dr. Robert Krause
and
Dr. Larry Leeman
A two + five day training experience to learn a new integral model of psychedelic-assisted therapy on the Catalonian coast
A view of the sea from the grounds of the retreat/training venue in Catalonia, Spain
This training captures the ‘sweet spot’ between ACT, IFS and TIR, tailored to a wide range of psychedelic therapy challenges (see https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.727572/full) to enable a trauma-focussed ACT-consistent approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Informed with high-density data collected from over 50 participants attending our retreats (a study designed to reduce relapse and deepen gains in psychedelic-assisted therapy), this training highlights what we know has been helpful in producing stable psychedelic therapy gains (post 6-12 months). It integrates parts work (including Internal Family Systems perspectives) and Traumatic Incident Reduction with ACT as a core theoretical modal, to offer versatile, multi-modal framework, including a broad pallet of varying degrees of directive/non-directiveness. Using such a pallet context-sensitively, we can resolve the directive/non-directive debate.
TIR is a precise imaginal exposure methodology with supporting repetitive focusing protocols that can be adapted to amplify all ACT processes such as: awareness of the cues and motivations for any behaviour, directing presence/undivided awareness to any inner experience, intensifying client-led willingness to face challenging feelings, defusion/disentangling from any unhelpful habitual thinking, awareness of the function of any self-story or role.
ACT brings the overarching framework of evolutionary and behavioural science principles, as well as a shortcut to accessing hidden fears. Within this framework, TIR and IFS offer additional ‘vehicles’ for implementing Contextual Behavioural Science principles thoroughly and compassionately.
You will learn multiple interventions that align precisely with the Spectrum of Selves as described in Henry’s recent publication in Frontiers in Psychiatry, adapted throughout the three phases of Psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Programme overview
Days 1-2 (online Sept 12-13th*, 1 pm – 9 pm GMT): Engineering a new psychedelic therapy of the future. TIR for re-accessing and processing psychedelic experiences and related traumatic memories. * Other online options for this session may be available.
Invitation to exchange sessions with peers before arriving in Spain.
In Catalonia, Spain (22-27th Sept) Arrive 6 pm for dinner on 22nd, leave by 6 pm on 27th.
Days 3-4: ACT and the Spectrum of Selves – from shame to the ‘reverse compass’ for accessing our deeper fears, exploring the voices and behaviours of our different parts. Understanding the ACT core processes from a ‘parts’ point of view.
Day 5: Inner work aligned with outer systemic behaviour change. Getting ready to bring the barriers into the work.
Days 6-7: Practicum of ACT expanded with trauma and parts work through the three phases of psychedelic therapy. Your chance to practice with feedback the protocols and principles that you personally need the most feedback on.
Monthly supervision included for 3months
With insight and support from
Rob Krause was a co-therapist and co-facilitator during the development of this approach, gave input on peak states to the Spectrum of Selves paper and will share his perspectives as well as his professional and research experience with psychedelics
Larry Leeman gave input on archetypes to the Spectrum of Selves paper and will continue to share his perspectives including from his training in Hakomi mindful somatic psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems level one training for psychedelic therapy and as MDMA therapist (MAPS trained) points of view.
The curriculum includes:
- A 150 page bound manual to support you during and after the training.
- This training includes methods from TIR, a structured approach to Trauma/PTSD comparable to EMDR in its thoroughness, yet more precise and consistent with mindfulness and ACT.
- ACT-informed Parts work to address inner conflict between your different selves
- A protocol for differentiating between healthy and unhealthy self-story/narcissism
- A protocol for processing intense psychedelic experiences and re-accessing perspectives and insights from the trip.
- Expanding and reinforcing new behavioural repertoires that flow from newly gained perspectives – seamlessly interconnecting the three phases of psychedelic therapy.
- Overcoming complex/long-term trauma (often more accessible post psychedelic)
- Working Somato-cognitively – reawakening feeling in the body
- Mapping and reinforcing systemic change.
- Predictors of long-lasting benefits in psychedelic therapy and how to implement them.
- ‘Inner healing intelligence’ versus varying degrees of person-centredness/ active-directiveness (and when to do which)
- Parts work for malevolent and benevolent parts/entities
- A defusion protocol for when the mind gets in the way during a dosing session.
- Shame work as a shortcut to our deeper self-concept issues
- Perspective switching exercise for transcending the polarities of the mind
- Behaviour change coaching for increasing alignment in a person’s life.
Early bird discount of 10% on booking for both parts together, if fully paid by June 30th
Part – 2
Psychedelic Retreat for Mental Health Professionals, informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Location:
The Netherlands
2024 Dates:
- 21-25th Oct
- Only 14 places – book early to avoid disappointment.
Contribution:
£2300 (accommodation and meals included, excluding cost of psilocybin truffles (approx £80 – provided by a trusted legal third party).
Two low-income places of £1500 are available.
- Early bird discount of £2100 if fully paid by June 15th
Facilitators:
Henry Whitfield, Robert Krause, Tamara Slock & Karlie Shelley
In the Special issue for Psychedelics in the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2020, multiple leading researchers illustrate how ACT and psychedelics can be interwoven to create what may become new era of breakthrough therapies. This retreat has been developed in a very similar vein and following the daily data of 62 single cases that we already collected during these retreats.
(See New Atlas FDA Breakthrough therapy, or Wired for more depth). The purpose of this retreat is to prepare and connect those interested in such developments. If you are interested in collaborating on future retreats like this, you are especially welcome.
The Programme: This four and a half day retreat + two month (average length) integration programme consists of:
Day 1: Arrival (in the afternoon) and preparation: approaching the psychedelic experience as an opportunity for personal growth, leaning into challenging emotions and opening to a flexible sense of self.
Day 2: Self-as-context meditation breath and bodywork – you are not your programming. Afternoon ceremony with Psilocybin Truffles, you embark on your psychedelic journey with the support of sober mental health professionals and a “reverse compass” to help you open up to any challenges.
Day 3: Integration through verbal and nonverbal expression. Allow your more vulnerable selves to emerge during relational group work. Safely access your more avoidant personality structures and connect in our common humanity.
Day 4: A scale of selves or ‘parts’ to integrate: fostering a transcendent self. Increasing willingness and noticing the barriers of mind. Breathwork preparation for the second psychedelic ceremony – an opportunity to go deeper.
Day 5: Further integration – Is any of your inner or outer behaviour changing? What new paths do you feel invited to follow? Is a new view emerging of the kind of life you want to live? Balancing the head with the heart: Awareness practices coupled with intending a new alignment in your life.
Each day will include experiential practices to help us get into our direct experiencing. Through sharing circles we will learn from each other.
Integration therapy: Then each participant is then offered four x 60-90min integration sessions via Zoom. These sessions further support the unfolding of awareness that opened during the retreat and help translate this awareness into multiple domains of your life. It may also be a critical learning period to take advantage of. Our current integration model brings together evolutionary science, ACT and ‘parts work’ in psychedelic context as described in Henry’s Spectrum of Selves publication, integrating behaviour change to find a new balance between self-care, relationships, community and environment.
In preparation you may consider your personal challenges in terms of ‘willingness’ (how open are you to certain discomforts?), ‘experiential avoidance’ (what are the obvious or subtle ways you avoid those inner discomforts?), your motivations (what impulses behind your inner and outer behaviours are keeping you from what you truly want). Simple metaphors such as the ‘reverse compass’ may guide us on our way: where is your mind telling you not to go?
To integrate your psilocybin experience into a life better lived, you may also consider if your old thought patterns take you where you really want to go. What new behaviours do our insights invite? How might our old patterns get in the way of what we really want?
As well as offering these latter perspectives, the ACT model also invites its own integration with other models and traditions, into a behaviourally aware eclecticism. Some of these modalities of integration include breathwork, art therapy, shame work and Internal Family Systems therapy.
Minimum facilitator ratio: one to every 3.5 participants minimum. Each participant will also receive one-on-one pre, between and post-ceremony check-ins.
Spaces are highly limited to a maximum of 14.
About our facilitator
Henry J. Whitfield
Henry Whitfield is an Association of Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS) Peer-reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy trainer, an Accredited Advanced TIR (PTSD therapy) Trainer, a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist (MSc – CBT) and Visiting Research Fellow at Regent’s University – School of Psychotherapy and Psychology. For over seven years Henry ran and supervised brief therapy for PTSD projects for Victim Support and Mind in London gun crime hot spots, using CBT and TIR.
Henry has also trained over 1500 psychological therapists since 2003, supervising mental health professionals the NHS for ACT and Trauma work. He is also a passionate integral thinker, publishing journal articles and book chapters on the integration of therapeutic models including, REBT-mindfulness, ACT-TIR-CBT, Person-centred-TIR. His psychedelic plant medicine path has changed how he does psychotherapy especially with self-concept issues. He has written, co-written and edited training manuals for ACT, TIR and FAP (relational psychodynamic). Now he focuses his research on the development of ACT-consistent models for psychedelic preparation and integration, with psychedelic process research for Regents University London. He is also author of a new model of psychological flexibility A Spectrum of Selves, tailored to a psychedelic therapy context published 2021 in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Dr Robert Krause
Robert Krause, DNP APRN-BC is a doctor of nursing practice and is a clinical specialist in psychiatric and mental health nursing. He is currently Visiting Faculty at The Graduate Institute where he is teaching a course in Mind-Body Medicine. For twenty years Robert was a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale University in the schools of Nursing and Medicine.
He has lectured in philosophy at Quinnipiac University and at Western Connecticut State University. Robert has certifications in Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery from Harvard University, in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapies and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and in Sex therapy also from the CIIS. He was a faculty advisor to the Yale Psychedelic Research Group and is currently the lead therapist and co-author of the treatment manual for the Psilocybin – Induced Neuroplasticity in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder at the Yale School of Medicine. He is also a co-author of the recently published ‘Psilocybin-assisted therapy of major depressive disorder using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a therapeutic frame’ Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 15 (2020): 12-19′
Robert’s daily practices include yoga, meditation and tantra. He completed yoga instructor training with Aum Pradesh Guar in Goa, India and was certified in tantra instruction through the Urban Tantra Professional Training Program. He has been practicing zazen meditation for 30 years.
Currently Robert maintains a private integrative psychotherapy practice in New Haven, Connecticut.
Tamara Slock
Tamara has studied plant medicine with a Mestizo Maestro and is currently studying under a Shipibo Maestro from Peru. She is the co-founder and manager of Mother’s House, where she supports research and conducts psychedelic ceremonies. She also works closely with ICEERS, organizing workshops on harm reduction and safety protocols for facilitators working with psychedelics.
As a former nurse, Tamara realized that the compassion she had for her patients was a big part of the healing process. She started following the path of Yoga, became a breathworker, bodyworker and Reiki practitioner, exploring different pathways for holistic wellbeing. During retreats she uses music and various healing practices to help facilitate ceremonies. Over the years, Tamara has witnessed many people heal their trauma with the help of psychedelics. She’s driven to enact a balance between therapeutic practices and indigenous shamanic teachings. For her, it’s not a job—it’s a calling and a way of life.
Dr. Larry Leeman
Larry Leeman MD MPH is a Professor in Family and Community Medicine; Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and board certified in Addiction Medicine. He graduated from the California Institute of Integral Studies Program in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Research in 2021, has been certified in MDMA Assisted Therapy by MAPS and has trained in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with PRATI and Polaris.
During a research sabbatical at the University of Wisconsin he participated in research with MDMA and Psilocybin. His current research focus in psychedelic assisted therapies at the University of New Mexico focuses on trauma and addiction, group psychedelic assisted therapy, and the use of MDMA for postpartum women with PTSD and opioid use disorder. He is currently completing his second year of training in Hakomi, a form of mindfulness certified Somatic psychotherapy and is in the Grof Holotropic Breathwork practitioner training program.