The Use of Touch in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Tricky Topic

Dr. Sandra (Sandy) Newes, PhD, is a licensed psychiatrist and the Co-founder and Programming Director of Living Medicine Institute. With over 25 years of clinical experience as a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, she specializes in anxiety, chronic stress, trauma, and recovery. Dr. Newes has provided ketamine-assisted psychotherapy through Concierge Medicine and Psychiatry since 2019. She is also an educator and speaker offering workshops, events, and education on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and the intersection of nature connection, trauma, and mental health.

Touch in therapy is a complex and often controversial topic, especially in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, where clients are in highly vulnerable states. While some therapists fear the ethical risks of using touch, avoiding it altogether can mean missing a critical tool for grounding and healing. How can practitioners navigate this delicate balance while ensuring client safety and trust?

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy trainers Dr. Signi Goldman and Dr. Sandy Newes emphasize the importance of clear consent, ethical considerations, and trauma awareness. While some clients — particularly women with trauma histories — may be more cautious about physical contact, others may seek out safe, grounding touch from male therapists as part of their healing process, so therapists should balance masculine and feminine energy accordingly. For clients who are hesitant about direct touch, Dr. Goldman and Dr. Newes suggest allowing them to place a hand on their own body first, with the option for the therapist to add gentle contact on top if desired.

In today’s episode of Living Medicine, Dr. Signi Goldman and Dr. Sandy Newes of Living Medicine Institute discuss the ethical use of touch in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy sessions. Together, they talk about somatic touch interventions, strategies for working with veterans and first responders, and how to match touch intensity to emotional distress.

This episode is brought to you by the Living Medicine Institute.

LMI is a training, resource, and membership program educating providers about the legal and safe use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

To learn more or participate, visit https://livingmedicineinstitute.com.

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Living Medicine podcast, where we talk about ethical medical use of psychedelic psychotherapy, teaching skills, examining the issues and interviewing interesting people. Now let’s start today’s show. 

Dr. Signi Goldman 0:19

Hi everyone. This is Signi, one of your hosts, this is the Living Medicine podcast where we talk to clinicians who are training in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy or ketamine assisted psychotherapy, or medical or mental health professionals who are just interested in getting into this work and want to hear more about it. Today’s topic is on the use of touch, a pretty tricky topic. And why is it tricky? Well, we know that touch can be harmful, both in regular psychotherapy, but also and maybe even in particular, in psychedelic work, where clients are vulnerable and boundaries should be even more tightly held at the same time, we also know that appropriate use of touch and other somatic interventions is critical for doing this work well, and you really can’t not do it. In fact, sometimes a somatic intervention, using touch is the very thing that is necessary in a psychedelic session. So given this complexity, it’s a topic we talk about a lot in trainings at The Living Medicine Institute. We run training cohorts pretty much year round, and so we have a lot of class discussions on a lot of different topics. And what you’re about to hear is an excerpt from a recent class where one of our current cohorts is discussing this very subject. We’re using this as an example because we think it’s an interesting conversation, and it also gives you a good sense of what these live classes often sound like, and the types of discussions that we often have. We intend to continue to have further podcasts on the topic of touch, and it continues to be an evolving conversation in our trainee community, as it should be. One of the modules we teach to our advanced trainees is nuances of the use of touch. We have a video of a role play of how we discuss touch with a client during the preparation phase, with a lot of nuance, specifics about how that conversation should be held, and a demonstration of the use of touch. So at this point in the class, this class has just finished watching that video, and we’re moving into a discussion about it. The first voice you will hear is my co facilitator, Dr Sandy Newes and you will also hear my voice frequently during this clip, as well as that of some other trainees, which we have used with their permission. So without further ado, let’s listen to this clip, and we’ll touch base at the end.

Dr. Sandy Newes 3:00

No just against the take home messages, don’t shy away from it. It’s really powerful. And also don’t not do it because you don’t know how to do it in the most expert of ways. The biggest issue is consent, placement pressure, kind of talking it through and managing your own energy as you do.

Dr. Signi Goldman 3:18

One other thing that’s in that video that you do want to do is the consent to say no, that’s just creating a language where the person can just kind of like, go like that, and know that you can release without them having to more that having to be a thing. I won’t repeat that, because it’s in the video, but just it’s really important, because you guys all noticed, all of you have already, a lot of you have experienced when you’re in a session, you’re caretaking your sitter or your peers, and you’re like, I don’t want to upset them. Are they bored? Are they annoyed? Are they so clients do that they don’t want to, like, upset the therapist or do it wrong or say the wrong thing. So if you’ve got your hand on their shoulder and they it’s bothering them, they don’t want to, even if they’re altered, they’re going to feel like they so you really have to front load that permission. So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, re watch that video. Don’t leave that part out. I won’t repeat with it. I guess

Guest Speaker 1 4:09

I add something to that. So when I talk about the content, when I talk about touch, because sometimes words escape us as a when we’re on the client side, and I just do a little spiel on how I’m really asking them to not worry about taking care of me, that this is their time, and if they just want to, you know, they don’t have to be polite. I make that really clear, though, this is not, you know, my ego is at the door. I leave it out there. And so if they just want to move my hand or release my like, you know that’s all well and good, they don’t have to say, like, Could you please remove your hand from my shoulder? Like, they can also just be like that. We can practice that as well. Because. Sometimes the words don’t come and don’t need to come in that way.

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