The Five Intentions of Psychedelic Therapy

So these observations, these predictions, how did it all come to pass? What led to the development of the Pentabelt™ Program?

Many of these observations have come from my time in Northern California, interacting with clients who have engaged in psychedelic therapy. For quite a few years, individuals in San Francisco, Sacramento would work with an underground therapist and then seek me out for therapy to help process what they learned. I never used the substances directly, I was simply chosen because, well, I wouldn’t judge their use. I would simply help them process the experience as if I was helping them process a dream, or a weekend at a sweat lodge.

 But as I would speak with them after their experience, I really started to notice what makes the psychedelic experience beneficial as well as the steps needed so that the benefits could be sustained. These substances can be very powerful but they aren’t magic agents of change that do the work for you. There really needs to be preparation and integration. During the pandemic when there was very little to do, I’ve did a deep dive into text books, documentaries, and interacting with some of the old school clinicians, who engaged in psychedelic therapy way back when it was legal.

More recently, down in San Diego, I’ve had the training to work with ketamine for some more direct experience. And it was through all of that that I’ve noticed that certain intentions going into the psychedelic experience would result in some really impressive growth. And those intentions can be divided into 5 categories.

 First: the really open ended questions. What is my purpose, what’s my next challenge? After a divorce, after a retirement. You’ve just learned you’re gonna be a father. What sort of father do I want to be? The best questions here related to values. Who you want to be. What’s meaningful to me. 

Second: The self-care questions. What sort of healthy habits will help me along the way? What’s keeping me tired? Lethargic? And the responses can be, well, kind of mundane. “I should meal prep to ensure I’m getting enough vegetables. I really felt great when I went out jogging each morning, I should get back on that.”

Third: What meaningful actions should I take in service of these new goals? To get to where I want to be, what sort of boundaries do I need to place for myself? For others? What limiting beliefs are keeping me from who I want to be? Who do I need to forgive? What do I need to process? And so part of the psychedelic process may involve practicing these boundaries, talking through any limiting beliefs. Having a cathartic experience of forgiveness, of saying “yes,” or saying “no.”

Forth: Who in my community should I seek out? How can I best serve my community, keep it healthy, and help it grow? Can I use this sense of connection with others, this sense of love, to guide me? Heal me? Restore me?

Fifth: the basic questions of consent. Do I want to continue with these substances? Or take a break? Or try something new? What are the risks and benefits of psilocybin? Ayauasca? What are the legal options?

And so, based upon my training, observations, and research, I designed the Pentabelt program so that in the end, the participant is able to pick and choose the best type of questions, the right theme for the psychedelic therapy session. But even more than that, I wanted the program to really explore the five processes of consent, self-care, guiding values, assertive action, and community connection.

In the future, I plan to get some feedback work with my clients and colleagues. And with the rise of large language models, really put this into practice.

So if you have questions, if you’re available to conduct a peer-review of the Pentabelt™ program, please get in touch through the contact button. Thanks for reading! Up next, let’s explore the processes of psychedelic therapy, and my argument for their being three distinct processes that subsume this therapy.  

On to Section 7