Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Using a Process Based Therapy Framework
August 23, 2025 Joseph M. Diehl, M. Zachary Rosenthal preprint
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy shows promise for depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders, but evidence for its therapeutic mechanisms and optimal frameworks is still early. This review introduces process-based therapy, which targets core transdiagnostic processes like psychological flexibility, emotion regulation, and decentering, rather than disorder-specific protocols. The authors propose integrating these principles into each phase of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy—preparation, dosing, and integration—using an idiographic, process-driven approach. Treatment strategies are selected based on functional analyses, case conceptualization, patient preferences, and qualitative and quantitative data. This paradigm aims to optimize outcomes by moving away from specific treatment brands toward an empirically grounded, process-based framework.