Moving at the pace of relationship: establishing safe and ethical psychedelic-assisted therapy services in the Yukon in the absence of a regulatory framework
Emily J. Hoefs
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography |
|---|---|
| Topics | Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Key findings | Argues that values-aligned, community-rooted psychedelic-assisted therapy is possible and necessary in the absence of formal regulation. Contends that relationship is the foundation of effective service provision, that slowness and trust-building are generative rather than limiting in small and remote communities, and that commercial voices currently dominate the Canadian field, making a non-extractive, relationally grounded, accessible model necessary to document. |
Abstract
This project documents the early days of establishing safe and ethical psychedelic-assisted therapy services in the Yukon, Canada, in the absence of a territorial, regulatory framework. Grounded in an Indigenous relational epistemology and a Celtic pagan animist worldview, the author draws on ethnobiographical narrative to account for the educational, relational, and advocacy work undertaken in co-founding Taproot Wellness, an integrated health collective. The project examines the evidence base for psychedelic-assisted therapy, the Canadian regulatory landscape that leaves most Yukoners without meaningful access to these treatments, and what it means to establish novel services in the community within which one is embedded. Operating within a harm reduction model the project argues that values-aligned, community-rooted practice is both possible and necessary in the absence of formal regulation. Key findings indicate that relationship is the foundation of effective psychedelic-assisted therapy service provision, that slowness and trust-building are generative rather than limiting forces in small and remote communities, and that the loudest voices currently shaping this field in Canada are commercial ones. A different model, non-extractive, relationally grounded, and accessible, needs to be documented and made visible. This project is one contribution to that effort.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on psychedelic-assisted therapy, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patients’ Accounts of Increased “Connectedness” and “Acceptance” After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression Patients with treatment-resistant depression enrolled in an open-label trial of psilocybin | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| LSD-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with a life-threatening disease: A qualitative study of acute and sustained subjective effects Patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases | 2014 | Prospective follow-up with qualitative content analysis | n = 10 |
| Patient Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Adults aged 22 to 69 with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 13 |
| Psychedelic therapy for smoking cessation: Qualitative analysis of participant accounts Participants who completed a psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation pilot study | 2018 | Qualitative follow-up study using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis | n = 12 |
| The hidden therapist: evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy Patients undergoing psychedelic therapy with psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 19 |