Don’t Go There

Space

Dr Lafrance doesn’t insist that patients ‘surrender to the medicine’ when they’re not up for a challenging experience

By Thomas Houseago now showing with… Nick Cave and Brad Pitt at Sarah Hilden Museum, Tampere, Finland till 15 Jan 2023

In her preparatory sessions with clients, Dr Lafrance asks them what level of intensity they’re prepared to face.

“What if a wariness of some feelings is an expression of the inner healer?” the storied clinical psychologist who “aims to be a steward of reality” asks Vital students, in her lecture on frontline applications of psychedelic therapy.

And she doesn’t insist upon ‘surrender to the medicine.’

“Any opportunity for pro-active shame work we will take,” she points out, “but if someone is expressing reluctance about pushing through, we’ll wait. This contrasts with prevailing psychedelic wisdom/gubbins, which practically demands patients stare directly into the eyes of any monsters: “In the past I would’ve said ‘feel into the space with me’ now I’d just say ‘No, let’s not go there if you’re not sure’,” Dr Lafrance reports.

“What if a wariness of some feelings is an expression of the inner healer?”

This ‘self interrupter’ part that forbids examination of traumatic feelings (especially when tripping balls) “was downloaded for a reason,” says Dr Lafrance, “Let’s respect it and go slow because that in itself can be powerful… by helping them be less afraid in the future.”

So she’s fine with patients telling jokes, “which is awesome for people who have problems expressing joy and flexibility.”

Dr Lafrance even gives a pass to ‘spiritual bypassing’ which as far as I can tell means ‘having any sort of trip that isn’t a clinical healing-type one’. 

Those, as Vital students have been repeatedly told by big dogs like Dr Bill Richards, aren’t ever worth banking on anyway. 

“Therapy comes more from process than outcome in the session”

Indeed be wary of any dramatic, sudden, supposed healing advises Dr Lafrance.

“If they realise they’ll feel bad tomorrow for acting out of the ordinary, that’s a sign it might be time to work with the shame. But if they’re throwing all their clothes off and shouting ‘I’m so sick of hating my body!’ it might be worth asking them what ‘Tomorrow You’ is going to think of all this. They realise you’re not trying to shame them. And they’re very grateful.”

Dr Lafrance even assures patients not to feel they have to talk about things they really don’t want to. This is because “therapy comes more from process than outcome in the session,” she explains, “how did they engage with the parts of themselves and the therapist? That creates a different framework for engaging with the world.”