Psychotherapy at a Crossroads: The Promise of Psychedelics and Plant Medicines

Shamanic practices employing psychedelic plants have been used as healing modalities in traditional cultures for hundreds of years and are now increasingly popularized in the industrialized advanced countries as well. In recent times, there has been a resurgence of interest in such work, as well as in the use of human-made psychedelics such as MDMA, LSD, and other compounds.

The principles on which such modalities are based have now been validated by Western scientific approaches such as psychoneuroimmunology and interpersonal neurobiology. While no panacea, psychedelic treatments can offer an important and, frequently, transformative, approaches to working with chronic conditions of both mind and body in the face of which Western medicine is often stymied.

This keynote will provide an introduction to and a summary of psychedelic approaches to healing, and a rationale for their inclusion in the healing armamentarium in the treatment of various mental and physical illnesses.