Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Practices and Human Caring Science: Toward a Care-Informed Model of Treatment
Andrew Penn, Janis Phelps, William E Rosa, Jean Watson
Journal of Humanistic Psychology April 23, 2021 DOI: 10.1177/00221678211011013 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Psilocybin-assisted therapy |
| Topics | Psilocybin Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Psychotherapist Watson Openness to experience Therapeutic touch |
| Citations | 37 |
| Key points | Proposes that nursing theory of human caring science can provide a framework to examine trust, communication, and care in psychedelic therapy. |
Abstract
Psychedelic therapies intentionally combine a caring/healing environment, psychotherapy, and psychedelic medicine as a powerful means of treating intractable conditions of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. This article utilizes the nursing theory of human caring science, as articulated by Jean Watson, to describe the essential and fundamental human caring qualities in psychedelic therapy. By mapping these qualities onto the traits of a psychedelic therapist, articulated by Janis Phelps and illustrating them with qualitative, exemplar data from a psilocybin assisted therapy study, we have created a nursing-informed philosophical theoretical framework with which to begin to examine questions related to trust enhancement between patient and therapist, therapeutic communication of openness to patient experiences, mutual learning between therapist and patient, the influence spiritual or psychedelic practices of the therapist on outcomes, optimizing therapeutic healing environments, and care of the physical body during psychedelic therapy sessions. This article is intended to identify themes and generate hypotheses for future nursing-informed psychedelic psychotherapy research.