Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Ayahuasca
Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic, Laurel Hulley
February 26, 2024 DOI: 10.4324/9781003231431-15 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study Case report |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | A 29-year-old woman with complicated bereavement and depression |
| Intervention | Ayahuasca |
| Topics | Ayahuasca Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Psychotherapist |
| Key findings | Ayahuasca-induced experiences in therapy can fulfill the therapeutic reconsolidation process by specifically disconfirming symptom-generating schemas, leading to permanent unlearning and symptom elimination. |
Abstract
It is well established that psychedelic experiences can result in potent therapeutic change when induced within a program of psychotherapy that skillfully provides preparation of mindset, an environment of accompaniment, safety, and supportiveness during the experience(s), and a subsequent process of review, reflection, and integration. The question addressed in this chapter is whether psychedelic experiences that produce transformational change—the complete and lasting elimination of a problematic state of mind and/or behavior—do so by creating experiences that fulfill the therapeutic reconsolidation process (TRP). We examine a well-documented, peer-reviewed report of therapeutically facilitated ayahuasca experiences that permanently ended a 29-year-old woman's intensely distressed condition of complicated bereavement and depression stemming from her mother's suicide. It is apparent in the client's account of her ayahuasca experiences that the critical, specific steps of the TRP occurred repeatedly, that is, pre-existing, symptom-generating schemas were disconfirmed with high specificity by the ayahuasca-induced subjective experiences, as required for driving the unlearning and nullification of those schemas at the level of their neural encoding through memory reconsolidation. In such unlearning, the revised neural encoding completes the reconsolidation process, which is a fundamentally different mechanism of change than the pharmacological aborting of the reconsolidation process.
Comparable studies
Other case reports and case series on ayahuasca, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| A fatal intoxication following the ingestion of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine in an ayahuasca preparation. 25-year-old white male | 2005 | Case study | n = 1 |
| The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions | 2013 | Ethnographic case studies | |
| EEG Gamma Coherence and Other Correlates of Subjective Reports During Ayahuasca Experiences Experienced ayahuasca users | 2005 | Exploratory case series | n = 2 |
| Reply to “Ayahuasca turned on my mind’s eye”: A case of acquired versus congenital aphantasia, as evidenced with DMT use? Individual with apparent congenital aphantasia | 2018 | Case study | n = 1 |
| “Ayahuasca turned on my mind’s eye”: Enhanced visual imagery after ayahuasca intake in a man with “blind imagination” (aphantasia) A man self-diagnosed with long-lasting aphantasia | 2018 | Case study | n = 1 |