Mitigating Ethical Issues in Training for Psychedelic Therapy
Christopher Poppe, Daniel Villiger, Dimitris Repantis, Manuel Trachsel
Neuroethics April 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s12152-025-09596-3 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractEthical problems in training for psychedelic therapy include the need for comprehensive training due to participant vulnerability, reliance on psychedelic experience without psychotherapeutic training, self-disclosure of personal psychedelic use, and guruism. Mitigation strategies include ethics codes and training, monitoring and control via video recording, requiring professional licensure and psychotherapy training for practitioners, and imposing a cooling-off period after therapists' personal psychedelic experiences to avoid a 'honeymoon' effect.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Neuropsychology Training meteorology Psychotherapist Medical education Engineering ethics |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key finding | Training for psychedelic therapy faces four ethical problems—comprehensive training imperative, psychedelic but not psychotherapeutic experience, self-disclosure, and guruism—which can be mitigated through ethics codes, monitoring, licensure, psychotherapy training, and a cooling-off period after personal psychedelic use. |
Abstract
Abstract In the present paper, we analyze the ethical issues in training for psychedelic therapy and discuss mitigation strategies for these issues. Specifically, after describing models of psychedelic training, we describe four problems of psychedelic training: (1) the imperative for comprehensive training due to vulnerability of participants, (2) psychedelic but not psychotherapeutic experience in training, (3) self-disclosure of psychedelic experience, and (4) guruism. In the following, we will delineate mitigation strategies with regard to these ethical issues: we underline the necessity of ethics codes and training, but also argue for the importance of monitoring and control, also through video recording. For accountability, psychedelic practitioners should hold professional licensure. When they offer psychotherapy, they should be trained in psychotherapy. Furthermore, a cooling off period after therapists’ personal experience with psychedelics (“honeymoon”) is warranted.