Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapies

New Tools for Mental Health

Clinicians are rediscovering the benefits of these enigmatic medicines.

The use of psychedelics in mental health treatment has re-emerged in recent years as a promising treatment for a variety of mental health disorders. Unlike most psychiatric medications, psychedelics do not require long term use, but are instead a short term tool to speed up the treatment process. In particular they have shown great promise for treatment resistant depression and severe trauma, although they are used for other purposes, as more research is confirming their benefits in numerous areas of health and wellbeing.

Many clinics will just dispense the psychedelics alone, but at BWC, we combine them with therapy from experienced clinicians, who know how to best use them for therapeutic purposes. It is important to use psychedelic substances medically in a manner different from recreational use, so guidance from a trained professional leads to the greatest benefit.

Popular psychedelics for mental health:

• Ketamine
• MDMA (3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine)
• Psilocybin (from mushrooms)
• Ayahuasca (containing DMT)

Integration Therapy

While we do not encourage illegal drug use, we do offer psychedelic integration therapy for those who have encountered psychedelics outside of a medical environment and need assistance unraveling the journey. We also offer this for people who have had ketamine infusion therapy. It is important to properly process these experiences.

Ketamine

When hearing ketamine, one first might think of a medication used for anesthesia. However it was quickly discovered that ketamine is also a powerful psychedelic, that when used properly in a treatment setting, has therapuetics benefits for those suffering from a variety if disorders, such as suicidiality and depression. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP), is our go to psychedelic treatment at the clinic. It introduces new insights and perceptions, and opens up the mind. Ketamine is safe, legal, and can be offered in person at our clinic under the guidance of trained medical professionals. It is powerful and effective. More about ketamine-assisted therapy at BWC.

MDMA

MDMA is typically thought of as the party drug ecstasy, as MDMA is the main component of this mood and perception altering synthetic drug. Given a bad reputation by its illegal useage, MDMA is actually a powerful drug that fosters feelings of joy, love, and connectedness to ones surroundings. Since MDMA can increase ones connection to the world, it is good for building trusts and fixing relationships, and this can also be useful for individuals with trouble sharing their past with a therapist It has other benefits similar to ketamine such on gaining insights and new perspectives.

Psilocybin

The active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" is psilocybin, which is the ingredient that elicits the powerful emotional and sensory experiences. Psilosybin allows enables one to access memories and emotions, that can be hard to reach during traditional therapy, or at least take many more sessions to do so. One is often able to achieve insights when on psilocybin. These insights can lead to long lasting change, especially when paired with a experienced clinician in a nurturing environment. It shows great promise a numerous avenues, such as OCD, anxiety, emotional trauma and depression. Psyilosybin is also used to process end of life stressors, to come to terms with the anxiety if death.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is an ancient psychedelic medicine, used for many years in central and south America to treat mental health and gain insights, and is also used for religious experinces. While we are not able to offer this treatment in our clinic, we do have an expert in Ecuador we are able to refer to for those wanting to make the pilgrimage to South America. Contact us for more information.