Integrative Psychiatry: Remembering the Soul of Our Work
The word psychiatry carries a history that most of us rarely pause to consider. Its roots trace back to the Medieval Latin psychiatria, which itself is woven from two Greek words: psykhē, meaning mind or soul, and iatreia, meaning healing or care. Built into the very language is an ancient understanding that this field was always meant to tend to the soul. And yet, somewhere along the long arc of scientific progress, we drifted from that. For decades—and in some ways, centuries—we leaned heavily into models that viewed human beings primarily as biological systems, fascinating and intricate, yes, but too often stripped of meaning, history, and inner life. My hope is that we are now in a season of returning. Returning to a recognition [...]
Summer Communitas
As the summer rolls along and I spend time gathering with others I have reflected on how good it feels. It conjures up thoughts from a book by anthropologist Victor Turner discussing the value of communitas. Here’s a definition: Communitas is a Latin noun that means "community" and can refer to a feeling of shared humanity, intimacy, and solidarity that develops among people who experience liminality as a group. And another definition: Liminality is a state of being in between two stages or places, or on the verge of transitioning to something new. That is a particularly potent concept now on a macro level and always has value on the micro level. Turner is an anthropologist and writes about the experience of discomfort within a [...]
Addiction and Spirituality
What is addiction? My philosophy is that addiction is a behavioral response to feel better, to avoid pain or discomfort. Our society has driven us to become less tolerant of discomfort so one part of an addiction treatment model would be distress tolerance education. There is often a deeper wound that Carl Jung and William James explored, they viewed addiction as spiritual thirst for wholeness– a misguided search for spiritual connection. Alcohol was referred to as spirits originally and was seen as a way to relax into making a spiritual connection; kind of ironic because addiction has become something we often see when people are lacking in spiritual connection. As I write this I find myself not completely comfortable with word ‘spiritual’ as it is [...]
Paradigm Shift. Addiction, Mental health and Transformational Healing
Addiction is not the core problem, it is an invitation to look deeper. The abstinence only model keeps us bound to a model where relapse and shame become barriers to getting help. Psychedelic therapies invites a broader scope of contemplation around the driving forces behind our behaviors and allow us to see ourselves with a greater sense of compassion and curiosity. Therapeutic use of psychedelics can allow us to change the way we view addiction and recovery and help us come up with language that better suits the process. Neglect and developmental trauma are present in a significant number of adolescents and adults struggling with addiction. These lead to the development of survival skills that are maladaptive in adult society as we know it. [...]
Paradigm Shift. Mental Health and Transformational Healing Opportunities.
We are in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance exploring transformational healing with different tools. Western psychopharmacology has developed to reduce symptomatology— as we minimize and mask symptoms we become less connected from the messages the symptoms are trying to share with us. Our progress driven society encourages striving for peak performance-but at what cost? It seems we have lost our sense of connection to culture, to body, to nature and our own innate healing wisdom. The art and science of psychedelic healing is being integrated into our current mental health system through the use of psychotherapy and integration with MDMA, Ketamine, psilocybin. The most prominently researched diagnoses that have been addressed are PTSD, addiction, major depressive disorder and reactive anxiety [...]
Therapeutic Use of Ketamine, Psilocybin, and MDMA Lecture
Dr. Altobelli presents her lecture on the therapeutic use of psychedelics for the Frontiers in Addiction Lecture Series– a free lecture series held by the Thelma McMillen Recovery Center
ARTICLES:
Analysis of the concept of Psychedelic Integration and its practice. (15-20 min read)
https://www.frontiersin.org/