Ignite Presentation - 5 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

Post-psychedelic growth? mental healthcare providers' beliefs about personal growth after psychedelic-assisted therapy and naturalistic psychedelic use (#234)

Maya Atlas 1 , Hera E Schlagintweit 2 , Anne C Wagner 1
  1. Toronto Metropolitan University & Remedy, Toronto, ON, Canada
  2. Remedy, Toronto, ON, Canada

Background

Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PaT) and psychedelic use can facilitate personal growth1. Therapists’ attitudes may impact PaT delivery1,2. Little is known about Canadian mental healthcare providers’ beliefs about personal growth following PaT and psychedelic use, and what predicts these beliefs.

Aims

1. Do Canadian mental healthcare providers believe PaT and naturalistic psychedelic use can foster personal growth?
2. What individual factors (i.e., spirituality, political orientation, past psychedelic experiences, self-reported knowledge) predict beliefs regarding personal growth with psychedelic use?

Method

A cross-sectional, anonymous online REDCap survey (15 – 30 minutes) was conducted between 2021 and 2023. Inclusion criteria were being an adult, English-speaking, Canadian mental healthcare provider or trainee. Recruitment occurred via email, social media, and listservs.

Results

52.5% (N = 207) of the sample had personally taken psychedelics, 41.1% (N = 162) were psychedelic-naïve and 6.3% (N = 25) did not disclose (therefore removed from further analyses; N = 369). Most providers believed PaT (69.6%) and naturalistic psychedelic use (69.3%) could foster personal growth. Linear regressions demonstrated that greater self-reported knowledge about psychedelics (p<.05) and prior psychedelic use (p<.01) predicted personal growth beliefs for PaT. Younger age (p<.05) and prior psychedelic use (p<.01) predicted personal growth beliefs for naturalistic use. Psychedelic use history did not moderate findings above. For providers with prior psychedelic use only, additional analyses found that those who believed their past use had positive impacts were more likely (p<.05) to believe personal growth could occur following PaT and naturalistic use. 

Conclusion

Most providers believed PaT and psychedelic use could foster personal growth. Knowledge about psychedelics influenced personal growth beliefs about PaT, but not naturalistic use. Extant research has focused on benefits of PaT, potentially explaining this finding. Providers’ positive perceptions of their own psychedelic use predicted beliefs that PaT and naturalistic use could foster personal growth, perhaps suggesting the value of lived experience, bias, or projection. Our study highlights the need for further research to understand providers’ beliefs.

  1. Rochester, J., Vallely, A., Grof, P., Williams, M. T., Chang, H., & Caldwell, K. (2022). Entheogens and psychedelics in Canada: Proposal for a new paradigm. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie Canadienne, 63(3), 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap00002852.
  2. Nielson, E. M., & Guss, J. (2018). The influence of therapists’ first-hand experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2(2), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2018.009
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