Cannabis-Assisted Psychotherapy

The plant cannabis satia is known by many names - weed, pot, marijuana, ganja, reefer, grass and so on and son. Just as many are the ways it is used by people all over the world. Though certain aspects of its effects on consciousness are universal, the sheer diversity of its uses is remarkable - for relief from physical and psychological pain, for enjoyment and sensory enhancement, for thinking deeply and for creating freely, for extra energy and for relaxation, for sleeping and for working, for connecting with others and connecting with self. By now, cannabis is legal for recreational use in 19 states and the District of Columbia, and legal for medical use in 38 states. There is a growing consensus that allowing widespread access to this plant and its many helpful qualities is much less dangerous to human health than repressing and criminalizing its possession and use.

The reason most people don’t think of cannabis as a psychedelic plant is that its psychedelic qualities are not as immediately obvious and overpowering as those of other plants. Cannabis requires us to partner with it more consciously to invite forward its psychedelic effects. We do so by bringing ongoing mindful attention to the sensations, feelings, and other inner experiences it brings about. Mindfulness, as the modern definition goes, is simply the act of offering non-judgmental awareness to the present moment. By turning mindfully toward the ways cannabis is interacting with our system, we invite the medicine to help facilitate the physical release or emotional reprocessing that is needed. Sometimes this will involve movement and working with breath, and other times it will be letting the body relax while stuck emotions and new insights flow more freely. As an experienced practitioner of Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy, I will be able to guide and assist you in approaching the cannabis experience in this way.