“Culture and psychedelic psychotherapy: Ethnic and racial themes from three black women therapists”
Journal of Psychedelic Studies November 12, 2020 Anne Vallely 2 citations
Psychedelic medicine's potential to transform healthcare depends not only on novel treatments but also on new explanations of illness. Non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by psychedelics challenge the notion of an ontologically distinct self, revealing it as an anthropocentric fiction at the root of individual, social, and ecological malaise. Based on the testimonies of three African American women therapists who served as clients, psychedelic healing is an embodied process shaped by historical, social, and cultural factors, tied to community. Healing occurs through reconnecting personal narrative with collective narrative, including embodied collective trauma. The self is not unchanging but constituted by history, culture, and racialized oppression. Psychedelics strip away protective shields, creating radical vulnerability that grounds healing.