Exercise 6 - Responding to relational ruptures

In psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), the intensity and vulnerability of the psychedelic experience makes it especially important that the client feels safe with their therapist. Like all forms of therapy, in PAT clients can experience ruptures in the therapeutic relationship. Ruptures can be caused by miscommunication, misattunement, or many other reasons. The goal of responding to a rupture is to help re-create safety within the therapeutic relationship. In terms of a process to navigate ruptures, and to facilitate relational repair, nonviolent communication is a well-vetted framework that helps reestablish connection through empathy and creating connection around four aspects of awareness. These include articulating observations, identifying feelings, identifying universal human needs, and making requests. This exercise employs empathic engagement through compassionate witnessing. It focuses on responding to observations with acknowledgment of the client's perceptions and further inviting expression of feelings by inviting the client to share their subjective experience of the event. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)