IPT Members Only Event – Ethics Focus Group – 13 February 2023 7:00pm

Our IPT Ethics Focus Group is chaired by psychologist Meg Spriggs and trainee clinical psychologist Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner.

The IPT ethics special interest group brings forward an emerging ethical issue in psychedelic therapy for discussion each time. In our next session we will discuss the use of therapeutic touch. Touch is often advocated in psychedelic therapy, as an important and unique aspect of the work. This can vary from supportive touch to more active bodywork; but therapeutic touch also polarises opinion among different schools of psychotherapy. Given the lack of ethical or clinical guidelines in most traditional talk therapies around the use of touch, with most excluding it from practice entirely, it’s important we carefully consider what the ethical pitfalls might be and what best practice might look like in psychedelic therapy.

Rather than endorse any particular view, we hope to offer a safe, non-judgmental space for us to openly explore this controversial topic together, considering the ethical implications for us as individual practitioners, and as a collective. Putting the search for simple solutions or easy answers aside, we hope to facilitate a space where we can honestly and compassionately bring the issue into focus in all of its complexity.

This group is facilitated by trainee clinical psychologist Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner and trainee medical psychotherapist Dr. Roberta Murphy. We hope to see you there.