Psychedelic Hypnotherapy
I have always believed that therapy must evolve in order to remain clinically relevant and in my search for my topic for today I came across an article written about using psychedelic substances with hypnotherapy in order to assist in therapeutic change. I have to admit the notion of this fills me with concern. While the article clearly states that this form of treatment is not legal in the UK, I am concerned that people might well think it an appropriate approach to experiment with.
Indeed, the author of the article talks about how he organised this session in London with “professional psychiatric oversight” from a “top hypnotherapist”. For the purposes of this post, I will not name the person involved, but having researched this individual he is not a psychiatrist nor can I see any other medical or psychological qualifications he may have.
The article in question states that the hypnotherapist was there to “ensure the safety of the participants” and that he and the author were not involved with the supply of illegal drugs. Oh well that’s fine then, let’s pitch a non scientific approach to therapy with a person who is not medically qualified to determine the safety or efficacy of the process. This frankly is shocking to me. There are serious ethical questions that need to be considered here, and quite possibly legal ones as well. Therapy must move forward, but experimenting with psychedelics by unqualified persons is NOT the way forward.
