Healing and Integration with Plant Medicines at Retreat Centers
by Ben Scott-Brandt, RCC Program Director
You’ve likely seen the topic of psychedelic-assisted therapy in the news lately. I’ve been thinking about how these transformative treatments, and the inner journeys that participants embark upon, have the potential to become deeply connected to the work of retreat centers in the future.
Here are some of my observations, and a warm invitation to continuing conversations within and across the RCC network, as retreat centers respond to this quickly-changing field.
What are plant medicines, and what is psychedelic-assisted therapy?
If you aren’t familiar, psychedelic-assisted therapy involves supervised use of one of a range of substances that either come from natural sources like ayahuasca vines (DMT) and mushrooms (psilocybin), or are created synthetically (MDMA, ketamine). There are many terms for these substances, and you may have heard them referred to as psychedelics, entheogens, hallucinogens, or plant medicines, depending on one’s scientific, spiritual, ceremonial, recreational, or pharmacological approach to the topic.
There are social and cultural stigmas, taboos, and biases associated with the use of mind-altering substances. For several decades, the use of these substances has been illegal in the U.S. and Canada. But the public’s perceptions are changing. Today, there are opportunities for critical dialogue and engagement around how we relate to these substances, as well as a new awareness of their healing properties.
There is a growing collection of modern scientific evidence and ongoing research (see Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine’s Healthy Mind Lab) that strongly supports the healing impacts of these treatments. In a healthcare setting, these treatments require informed and compassionate supervision, as well as safe, well-designed spaces that provide supportive privacy for sensitive experiences. Supervised treatments involve specific dosing, coupled with talk therapy to support the participant in preparing for the experience and integrating learning afterward. These treatments offer the potential for healing of depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and more.
Imagining the role of retreat centers
The use of these substances requires legalization, and the administration of psychedelic-assisted therapies requires trainings and certifications that vary by region, so this is a forward-looking article for most of our readers in the United States and Canada. RCC does not endorse any specific treatment approach, and we recommend that all retreat centers pay close attention to the applicable laws, and maintain safe and legal operations.
As we observe the potential for these treatments or the use of these substances to become legal, however, it will become important to envision what the appropriate role for retreat centers might be. Retreat centers are spaces that have been specially-designed to facilitate deep contemplation, reflection and discovery. In a co-facilitative relationship with the land and the community, retreat centers hold space for healing, growing, and learning. In this way, they could be uniquely suited to the concept of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
As sites of sacred hospitality and transformation, how might retreat centers relate to these forms of programming, treatment, or ceremony? What will be important for us to communicate to our guests and our communities about our work and our values in light of shifting treatment options and approaches? Where do we draw the line to ensure safety and health for us and our guests?
Highlighting our core values
Movements toward legalization and decriminalization are already underway in some parts of the U.S. and Canada. Although this legalization trend has differed from region to region, there are strong indications that it will continue.
It is highly likely that this trend will also continue to 1) colonize, marginalize, and extract from the indigenous communities where traditional, medicinal, and sacred relationships with many of these plants originate, and 2) compound social stigmas for people of color whose communities were already deeply impacted by the federal drug policies of recent decades. This raises important questions of justice, equity, and access around these treatments.
In light of the Retreat Center Collaboration’s core values, what might our role be as a peer community that includes retreat centers who choose to legally host these therapies? My hope is that RCC can identify ways to prioritize our core values in our community’s response to this trend, with the same attention to equity and best practices that we apply across all of our work.
What retreat centers are already doing
In my role as program director for the Retreat Center Collaboration, I’ve learned firsthand that a growing number of retreat center leaders are interested in how psychedelic therapy could become an important program offering within retreat center settings.
This isn’t a distant, hazy future.
Some nonprofit organizations have already converted to be retreat centers specializing in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Take, for example, Reconsider’s luxury estate Lundy Farm in upstate New York. When legalization occurs, they will be ready. Other centers have begun to host legal gatherings. This summer in British Columbia, Hollyhock will host the 2023 Canadian Psychedelic Summit at their retreat center, with an intention to “create shared agreements about how we wish to shape the psychedelic industry, with equity at its core.” In Washington State, the Whidbey Institute has hosted retreats for people using psychedelics as part of a research study by the University of Washington. In California, the New School at Commonweal has hosted talks on the use of plant medicine with cancer treatment and end of life.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a leading non-profit doing the majority of research on psychedelics, and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) started the first psychedelic-assisted therapy certification program in the U.S.
Among others, Naropa University is currently providing a psychedelic-assisted therapy certification program for its second cohort of students. These student cohorts include doctors, physicians, physician assistants, and recent seminary graduates looking to expand their practices. I am learning that there is a chaplaincy side of this work, and psychedelic-assisted therapy is not fully separated from religious spaces, particularly as it applies to end-of-life and mental health care.
What happens next?
Many questions remain.
After legalization, as some retreat centers begin to offer these treatments, how will they address important concerns such as training, certification, insurance, staffing, liability, confidentiality, etc.? What community partnerships will be beneficial for them to cultivate? How will retreat centers balance the potential risks to their brand and organizational reputation, and communicate clearly to their stakeholders, funders and communities as different perspectives on these medicines intersect at their centers?
How will various levels of government and the pharmaceutical industry ensure that this legalization process creates opportunities for therapy and treatment to serve people equitably? How will people with marginalized identities gain access to these kinds of treatments in ways that value belonging, affordability, and the culturally rich heritage of the plants themselves?
I hope these questions can be part of a larger conversation we share together in the RCC over the coming months, and I look forward to learning with you.