AUTHOR=Wolff Max , Evens Ricarda , Mertens Lea J. , Koslowski Michael , Betzler Felix , Gründer Gerhard , Jungaberle Henrik TITLE=Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry VOLUME=11 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00005 DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00005 ISSN=1664-0640 ABSTRACT=

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 potential psychological mechanisms underlying such change, and that shows substantial parallels between psychedelic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy: We propose that in the carefully controlled context 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 information and become revised accordingly, which may explain long-term increases in acceptance and corresponding reductions in psychopathology. Open research questions and implications for clinical practice are discussed.