Can microdosing psilocybin help the psychotherapy process? An interview with Victoria Sterkin, PhD
Psychotherapy dates back to the Middle East and the 9th century. Back then, it had a form of counselling and reassurance. At the same time, mental disorders were considered demonic until the 19th century and Freud's approach to psychoanalysis.
We talked to Victoria Sterkin, PhD, a behaviour analyst focused on therapeutic learning with individuals, couples, families and organizations. Currently, she is focused on helping people integrate their experience with the therapeutic process while microdosing psilocybin.
Today, when we widely accept psychotherapy as a tool for dealing with our mental states, we are witnessing the evolution of the therapeutic process by including microdosing psilocybin as one of the steps.
Psilocybin is an active component of so-called magic mushrooms. There are 200 species of psilocybin-containing mushrooms all over the world. Microdosing means we are ingesting a tiny amount of psilocybin-containing mushrooms, usually 1/10 of a standard dose, depending on the person. Even though larger macro doses are taken so that one can experience altered states of consciousness, microdoses should not be felt. As Fadiman, the father of microdosing said about microdosing: If you are feeling it, you are taking too much.
How does your therapeutic work overlap with the psychedelic industry? Can you tell us what your psychotherapy process looks like?
I am a trained behaviour analyst and consider myself a therapeutic teacher. Integrating intrapersonal and interpersonal natures has always been a part of the therapeutic teaching process with my clients. About a year ago, Mycology Psychology was born, and I began to utilize this powerful tool of microdosing to catalyze learning such that the therapeutic work that sometimes was left stuck in my mind quite quickly became embodied. My process has always been to help people identify their patterns, the roots of the pattern, and the various antecedents that trigger the successive reaction to the pattern. I teach people how to slow down, find choice, and somatically tap into new sensations, thereby expanding their sense of self. It has always been important to me to feel into the experiences of the people I work with, a process that sometimes brings me to tears. I find healing happens in connection, and my overall goal is to allow my clients to feel more connected to themselves and my heart.
Can you explain the difference between the therapy for patients who microdose psilocybin and those for patients who don't?
As I stated above, microdosing is a catalyst for embodied learning. Many of my clients who have begun this process have had an accelerated but gentle healing process, creating more of an opportunity to observe their patterns, more ease in finding choices in how to respond to those patterns, and an easier time tapping into the heart space rather than getting too stuck in ruminative thinking.
Linking thought to emotion, aka integrating! Using such a powerful medicinal tool is 100% the choice of the individual I'm working with. Not everyone gravitates to this choice. Healing looks different for everyone, and I'm about individuating learning environments!
When should people stop microdosing? Is there someone who should not use psilocybin for therapeutic purposes?
We recommend a 3-month protocol followed by at least a 2-week pause. The pause is meant to offer people time to further integrate what they've learned and experienced on their 3-month journey and feel the changes. This pause is vital to help people not build up a tolerance to the medicine as we don't want to continue taking higher doses successively. People on lithium or who have manic episodes in their history are not recommended to microdose.
We also ensure that our clients have enough resourcing and support, as microdosing can bring up some truths. You got to be ready to accept and create a new relationship. For example, if you're in an abusive relationship, the medicine will make this very clear to you. You have to be in a position where you're ready to take sometimes significant scary steps. Otherwise, you can feel trapped.
Victoria Sterkin
What is the most interesting aspect for you as a therapist working with clients using micro-dosing?
The comment I often hear from people is, "I feel more of myself," and I get the chills every time. To feel more of yourself, that's the goal! That's powerful.
Many of our clients come to us with treatment-resistant depression or mental health conditions that have left them hopeless. These conditions often leave people feeling controlled by limited parts of the nervous system that have overtime, taking the wheel, gripping with white knuckles.
They've felt disappointed in the mainstream mental health systems. More and more, we're seeing people not only feeling more of themselves but feeling like they're saving their own lives. It's incredible to witness. This medicine doesn't set up a traditional doctor/patient hierarchy. The quality of this plant medicine is one of reciprocity, sustainability, and collaboration. As practitioners, we hold space, hold up mirrors, and offer a container where the clients can find new ways of existing.
May we all have access to empowerment, feeling more of our magical natures, allowing more parts of us to join the conversation, and find the capacity to move through the very stressful lives that most of us lead.
Are there other considerations you would like to share with our audience?
I would love for us to hold more openness to new systems that MUST be created if we want to start healing from the damage that many of our old systems have generated. We have the research proving mushroom medicine's power and safety, and it's a crime to withhold these tools from society. It's time to reform our way of thinking about mental health. It's time to tap into the power that our connection to Earth can offer. It's time. It's time to heal collectively.
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Victoria Sterkin, PhD, is a behaviour analyst focused on therapeutic learning with individuals, couples, families and organizations. Currently, she is focused on helping people integrate their experience from macro dosing psilocybin.
As we see it, using microdosing psilocybin mushrooms in the therapeutic process will be one of the most essential additions to psychotherapy. Of course, further research is needed to prove this statement. Still, judging by the psychedelic therapist impressions, we are on an excellent track!
Victoria will also discuss microdosing integration in on September 21st during the Trip integration slot.