Trust Clinician featured on BBC Radio 4 to discuss Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy

Clinical psychologist Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner, was featured in the BBC Radio 4 series ‘One to One’, to talk about Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy and ways its use could combat the mental health crisis.

The show’s host, Rose Cartwright spoke about her own experience in using psychedelics to manage her mental health and asked Ashleigh, who works in our trauma service, to elaborate on the clinical research she has been involved in at the Imperial College Centre for Psychedelic Research.

Psychedelics can help people to revisit and re-experience emotions that have been cut off

Ashleigh described how, alongside therapy, “psychedelics can help people to revisit and re-experience emotions that have been cut off” and which may otherwise be “absolutely unbearable to visit”. People exploring this trauma through Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy are not alone and constantly have professional help on hand.

She continued to say that methylenedioxy-methylamphetamine (MDMA) is a “catalyst for the therapeutic process and for the relationship between the therapist and the person who is working through their trauma. It is two human beings in a room acknowledging that [trauma] happens to us in life and that we are there for one another. The relationship is the absolute central core of the whole thing”.

We need to deal with psychedelics with humility because we have not been using it for as long as other communities around the world

An interesting topic raised during their discussion was the need for us to stop viewing mental health through a solely Western framework. Ashleigh spoke of the need to “deal with psychedelics with humility because we have not been using it for as long as other communities around the world”.

Looking forward, she said she hopes Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy will be an opportunity for Western clinicians, traditional communities, and indigenous healers to work together and mutually exchange ideas. Additionally, she hopes it will be brought into the NHS to make it more accessible to all in society.

Listen to their discussion here: BBC Radio 4 – One to One, Psychedelics and Mental Health: Rose Cartwright meets Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner