Intervention (counseling)

Psychotherapist

Clinical psychology

Biology

Psychopathology

Psychiatry

Engineering

Cognition

Paleontology

Psychology

Parallels

Experiential avoidance

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Context (archaeology)

Acceptance and commitment therapy

Anxiety

Mechanical engineering

Frontiers in Psychiatry

The efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental disorders has been attributed to the lasting change from experiential avoidance to acceptance that these treatments appear to facilitate. This article presents a conceptual model that specifies the psychological mechanisms underlying such change, and that shows substantial parallels between psychedelic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy: We propose that under the carefully controlled conditions of psychedelic therapy as applied in contemporary clinical research, psychedelic-induced belief relaxation can increase motivation for acceptance via operant conditioning, thus engendering episodes of relatively avoidance-free exposure to greatly intensified private events. Under these unique learning conditions, relaxed avoidance-related beliefs can be exposed to corrective experiences and become revised accordingly, which may explain to long-term increases in acceptance and corresponding reductions in psychopathology. Open research questions and implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance