Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance
Max Wolff, Ricarda Evens, Lea J. Mertens, Michael Koslowski, Felix Betzler, Gerhard Gründer, Henrik Jungaberle
Frontiers in Psychiatry February 21, 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Anxiety Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Experiential avoidance Context archaeology Cognition Psychotherapist Psychopathology Cognitive behavioral therapy Parallels Clinical psychology |
| Citations | 188 |
| Key points | Proposes that psychedelic-induced belief relaxation enables operant conditioning and corrective learning, leading to lasting increases in acceptance and reductions in psychopathology. |
Abstract
The efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental disorders has been attributed to the lasting change from experiential avoidance to acceptance that these treatments appear to facilitate. This article presents a conceptual model that specifies potential psychological mechanisms underlying such change, and that shows substantial parallels between psychedelic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy: We propose that in the carefully controlled context of psychedelic therapy as applied in contemporary clinical research, psychedelic-induced belief relaxation can increase motivation for acceptance via operant conditioning, thus engendering episodes of relatively avoidance-free exposure to greatly intensified private events. Under these unique learning conditions, relaxed avoidance-related beliefs can be exposed to corrective information and become revised accordingly, which may explain long-term increases in acceptance and corresponding reductions in psychopathology. Open research questions and implications for clinical practice are discussed.