Even though 40% of patients did not have PTSD when the study ended, this number drops to the same level as that of the control group at the 6 month follow up. This is what we mean when we say you didn't fail therapy, therapy failed you. Our best, state of the art, evidence based treatments have had very high failure rates when it comes to depression and PTSD.
The other reason we don't use CBT at Innate Path is that we know from neuroscience research that while there are parts of the mind that we can see and verbalize (what is known as explicit, declarative memory), there are much larger parts of the mind that are hidden from view and cannot be put into language (implicit and non-declarative memory)…or what is more commonly known as the subconscious mind. CBT and talk therapies work with the part of mind that is visible and can be reasoned with. In this way, these therapies are considered top-down approaches. They use the more recently developed, verbal, rational, conscious parts of the brain to manage the reactions that come from the more primitive, hidden, non-rational, subconscious parts of the brain. Top-down talk therapy and CBT are effective to some degree but largely as workarounds or coping tools to make symptoms more manageable. These treatments provide management tools, but they do not provide a cure.
Symptom management is a necessary and good skill to develop. However, we have the ability to work at a much deeper level with the combination of psychedelic medicines and bottom-up, experience focused therapies. Symptoms like depression, anxiety, panic, compulsions, and addiction are considered bottom-up reactions. They emanate from the hidden, more primitive, non-conscious parts of the mind. There is solid evidence suggesting that these symptoms come from life experiences that have taken place in childhood, in your family of origin, and are most often cloaked in dissociation.
The good news is that psychedelic medicines, such as ketamine, MDMA, cannabis, and psilocybin (mushrooms), are excellent at engaging the subconscious. These medications do not produce random, meaningless displays of color, images or sound. Quite the opposite: they express meaningful manifestations of your mind. The non-rational sensations, emotions, thoughts, and images that are seen in these altered states of consciousness are your body and mind’s way of expressing deep, subconscious truths that have shaped you. Furthermore, they allow for bottom-up processing to take place, which has little to do with insight and understanding and much more to do with the shifts that take place at the level of the subconscious.
We highly recommend viewing this video on how your mental health symptoms are part of your autonomic nervous system’s response.