In a traumatised world, is psychedelic therapy our best hope for change?
*worldwide PTSD rates per 100,000 (2002) [Age-standardised disability-adjusted life year ]
“I studied social work for my master’s degree and worked in a lot of highly traumatised communities as a therapist; I worked in a middle-school in the South Bronx with children with really high rates of trauma, with women arrested for sex work, and I started to get frustrated with the systems and policies that I saw were at fault for what my clients were going through. I was frustrated at the approach to mental health that was focused on the individual and their pathology and through that I was launched into policy work.”
When you start to look through the lens of trauma, you see that it’s actually a part of many other disorders, as well as societal challenges or problems like racism or discrimination, and you realise that trauma is actually at the root of many of the negative things in our society. And I also think that that lens, the trauma lens, is so valuable because it allows you to see that there is no such thing as an evil person – people are acting from their own pain. That’s a really important lens to have, one of compassion, because so much of our society is about ‘othering’ other people and blaming other people, but understanding trauma lets us see that everyone has a reason for how they’re acting. The harm people are causing others is not necessarily intentional or, even if it is intentional, it comes from a place of their own hurt. Any way that we can break that cycle is so valuable on an individual level and will hopefully impact a broader understanding and consciousness.
Original Article (Voltfaceme):
In a Traumatised World, is Psychedelic Therapy our Best Hope for Change?
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