Journal of Psychedelic Support

The Flexibility Index Test (FIT-60) is a validated, reliable questionnaire that assesses your psychological flexibility across the six domains of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): — Acceptance — Defusion — Self-as-context — Present Moment — Values — CommitmentIn a 10-minute video, G. Scott Graham and Andrea Brown discuss how to use the Flexibility Index Test to improve the outcomes of psychedelic experiences.Graham then outlines a step-by-step process for triaging the Flexibility Index Test results and finding suggested interventions on the Internet. Graham and Brown wrap up their discussion by exploring why coaching might be an important choice instead of DIY-ing your preparation for a psychedelic experience.Watch […]

It has been three months since I took MDMA and did a deep dive into grief.ThingsIt feels like yesterday that I took the MDMA and opened the time capsules.The things ignited on that day, three months ago, continue to evolve.Things.I know that is vague. Let me clarify.“Things” include the feelings of grief, the concepts of what I do, the premise of who I am, the priorities of how I focus, and the values of why I continue.I often think about the MDMA and if there is any sort of ripple effect on feelings of grief since that day. The truth is that if […]

The Mystical Experience Questionnaire is a validated self-report survey that has been used in research settings to measure mystical-type experiences, including experiences on psychedelics.In a 10-minute video, G. Scott Graham and Andrea Brown discuss ways to use the Mystical Experience Questionnaire outside the laboratory to make psychedelic experiences more “mystical.”Graham suggests using the Mystical Experience Questionnaire to reverse-engineer a mystical psychedelic experience. Together, Graham and Brown exemplify how to do this using two questions from the Mystical Experience Questionnaire.Watch the video:https://medium.com/media/e69a53cb58fcd485b383df04f4b8e4c2/hrefTake the Mystical Experience Questionnaire online here: https://psychedelicsupportcoach.com/mystical-experience-questionnaire-meq-30/Learn more about G. Scott Graham here: https://gscottgraham.comMake your Psychedelic Experience Mystical was originally […]

Sometimes this plant medicine is described as having a ‘trickster’ energy, but what does this really mean? And how can you learn from it?Fox is a classic trickster from Western European folkloreWhenever someone works with psychedelics there is a potential risk involved. We as humans desire things to be as safe as possible, but it’s an upfront and apparent thing we must face when working with certain medicines. Plant medicines bring a whole lineage of ancient wisdom and energy that cannot be put into a box and must be encountered and embraced for what it is. We must learn to come closer […]

Considering the limitations of ketamine for depressionPhoto by Taylor Deas-Melesh on UnsplashClearly, I’m not a medical professional. This isn’t medical advice. I am a writer and lab rat exploring alternative mental health therapies in self-interest and for survival.If you’re like me (roughly 50% of the population who responds positively), you’ll find that ketamine truly is a miracle molecule for the treatment of chronic depression. Especially compared with things like SSRIs, benzos, and therapy alone, it’s remarkable how rapidly the stuff works. When I take it, I notice about a 90% total reduction of symptoms for my bipolar depression and roughly a […]

The dissociative experience of ketamine is often described as a side effect. For me, it’s experiential psychotherapy.This is not medical advice, and I’m not a physician. Do not do what I did, as described below.Ketamine lozenges being prepared at a compounding pharmacy. Image via OsmindAn afternoon in eternityEven as an experienced psychonaut, nothing could have prepared me for the dissociative drug experience.When I took my first few doses of legally prescribed oral ketamine, written off-label via telehealth and shipped discreetly to my doorstoop, I was often alone in my living room. During the early treatments, with my dog tucked under the couch […]

(Part 5 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health)My ketamine session had been wildly successful at helping me understand the origins of my sense of shame and the underlying trauma. Just a minute or so after the ketamine had started flowing into my bloodstream, I had become cognitively aware of patterns of events that had eluded me during several months of therapy. But nearly a third of the ketamine session had involved another issue entirely, one which was completely unexpected and which I had never addressed in therapy with David.As I explained in the last chapter, remembering an event […]

(Part 4 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health)I met David, my therapist, at the ketamine clinic. Because of COVID, it was the first time I had met him in person. All of our prior therapy sessions had been via tele-health. I had feared that meeting in person might be awkward, but it wasn’t. He looked and sounded the same as on the computer screen, and I was immediately comfortable with him.We were at the ketamine clinic to try to find my childhood trauma — assuming there had been one. David believed that my sense of shame and obsessive personality suggest […]

(Part 3 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health)Andrea and I had mutually decided to switch to a different couples counselor, but we had no one in particular in mind. After some internet research, we contacted a therapist named David, and he arranged an “intake call” with us to check each other out.The call lasted maybe fifteen minutes, and we both liked David immediately — for different reasons. Andrea liked his well-organized interview, his explanation of the three-therapist approach, and that her individual therapist would be a woman. I liked how intelligent and articulate he was, that he liked the idea […]

(Part 2 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health)I was energized after my therapist had helped me to discover that my life had been dominated by a sense of shamefulness that I had believed unquestioningly but was really a fiction that I had invented as a young boy. I had spent much of the last few days reformulating the narrative of my life, seeing for the first time the role that my shame had played in my younger self’s actions and decisions. I wasn’t inherently a curmudgeon! It was my false sense of shame that caused me to […]