Clinical Aspects of Psychedelic Harm Reduction
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Watch The EXCLUSIVE Panel Discussion for Members of The Psychedelic Medicine Association:
Clinical Aspects of Psychedelic Harm Reduction
Panel Moderator:
Lynn Marie Morski, MD, JD
President - Psychedelic Medicine Association
Panelists:
Andrew Tatarsky, PhD
Founder and Director, Center for Optimal Living
Andrew has worked with people who struggle with drugs and their families for over 40 years. Andrew developed Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) for treating the spectrum of risky and addictive behavior as an alternative to traditional abstinence-only substance use treatment. IHRP meets people where ever they are on their positive change journeys and works collaboratively to support people in discovering their truth and what goals and approach to positive change best suit them. The therapy has been described in his book, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems, and a series of papers. The book has been translated into Polish and Spanish and is currently being translated into Russian. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from the City University of New York and is a graduate of New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is Founder and Director of the Center for Optimal Living in NYC, a treatment, education and professional training center based on IHRP. Andrew has trained individuals and organizations in 19 countries. His writing, teaching, clinical work and leadership aim to promote a re-humanized view of problematic substance use and a harm reduction continuum of care that extends help to everyone who needs and wants it where ever they are ready to begin their positive change journeys.
Danielle Marie Herrera, M.A. LMFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist at Sage Integrative Health
Danielle M. Herrera is an Oakland based Psychotherapist providing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (KAT) and psychedelic integration at Sage Integrative Health as well as harm reduction psychotherapy with Jennifer Fernandez & Associates. Danielle has also worked within community mental health with The Harm Reduction Therapy Center. Danielle utilizes a warm and emotion-focused decolonized framework, with attunement to systemic oppressions and violences that impact the individual within a complicated ecosystem and has a special interest in working with folks in their process of healing internalized sexism, racism, and capitalism and integrating their experience with non-ordinary states of consciousness and/or their relationships to drugs.
Erica Siegal, LCSW
Founder, Clinical Director, NEST Harm Reduction
Erica Siegal (she/her) is a licensed clinical social worker, professional harm reductionist, community organizer and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist.
Erica founded NEST Harm Reduction to provide compassionate, trauma-informed services to individuals, groups and organizations. She combines a decade of mental health direct services work with a B.A in Hospitality Administration from Cornell University and a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Southern California, to create a unique, trauma-focused, compassionate care model that brings empathy, understanding and sustainability back into our homes, hearts and communities.
Erica provides tele-health psychotherapy to individuals, couples and teens and virtual harm reduction training and education to the public. She worked in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research from 2014 to 2019 and offers mentorship and supervision to aspiring psychedelic professionals.
We have spent months discussing the promise of different psychedelic medicines, and how many of them are much more efficacious than many of the currently-available therapies at clinicians’ disposal.
However, like with any treatment, psychedelic medicines are not without risk.
In addition to potential physical side effects from psychedelics and possible medication interactions, the therapeutic use of psychedelics can lead to mental health side effects and risks. These risks can even be present with the process of therapy alone.
To try to minimize the likelihood of negative mental outcomes, which in turn bolsters the patients’ opportunity to experience greater healing, there is a concept in the world of psychedelic therapy known as harm reduction.
Harm reduction is a large term that encompasses everything from someone sitting with a friend during a journey outside of the clinical space, to finding culturally attuned support to looking for a psychedelic therapist who is properly qualified to treat (and not inflict) trauma?
We were honored to welcome the panelists on this webinar to cover:
- The many facets of harm reduction
- How to incorporate harm reduction into therapeutic settings
- What harm reduction may look like before and after a patient visit
…and much more!
As always, there was ample time for audience Q & A, so make sure you watch to the end!
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