Dr. Sandra (Sandy) Newes, PhD, is a licensed psychiatrist and the Co-founder and Programming Director of Living Medicine Institute, which offers psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy training programs. With over 25 years of clinical experience as a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, she specializes in anxiety, chronic stress, trauma, and recovery. Dr. Newes 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.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [1:14] Dick Schwartz talks about working with protective parts before psychedelic experiences
- [2:55] How to work within a client’s own language and worldview
- [4:49] Healing exiled parts in IFS work
- [6:25] The importance of trauma-informed psychedelic care
In this episode…
Internal Family Systems offers a powerful way to understand the protective patterns, wounded parts, and inner conflicts that can surface during psychedelic therapy. How can clinicians use IFS in a way that supports healing while respecting each client’s unique internal system?
Four IFS experts offer practical ways to bring greater care, curiosity, and skill into the therapeutic process. Dick Schwartz suggests working with clients’ protective parts before a psychedelic experience and gaining their permission rather than bypassing them. Robert Falconer encourages clinicians to learn each client’s language and worldview instead of imposing their own framework. Ted Riskin recommends helping clients reconnect with exiled parts, so unresolved trauma can be witnessed and healed. Karen Sprinkel emphasizes developing trauma-informed skills and knowing when active intervention may be more appropriate than trusting the inner healing process. These approaches offer clinicians concrete ways to make IFS-informed psychedelic work safer, responsive, and more effective.
In this episode of Living Medicine, Dr. Sandy Newes looks back on her most insightful IFS episodes. Dr. Dick Schwartz, Robert Falconer, Ted Riskin, LCSW, and Karen Sprinkel discuss working with protective and exiled parts, meeting clients with curiosity rather than imposing a therapeutic framework, and applying trauma-informed principles to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotable Moments:
- “There is no need whatsoever for us to impose our ideology on anyone.”
- “We need to have the basic respect to learn people’s language and mythology.”
- “When they’re burdened… that means that they’re in some way stuck in the past and trauma.”
- “We really have to kind of know when to intervene and not only say it’s the inner healer that will help.”
- “We learned all the protective fears, and we learned how to address those fears and how to get permission.”
Action Steps:
- Check in with protective parts before psychedelic work: Getting permission from protectors can reduce backlash and help create a calmer, deeper therapeutic experience.
- Use the client’s own language and worldview: Staying curious about how clients understand their inner experience helps avoid imposing the therapist’s beliefs or framework.
- Help clients reconnect with exiled parts: Bringing attention to parts that remain stuck in past trauma can support greater wholeness and Self-leadership.
- Build trauma-informed skills before facilitating psychedelic sessions: Experiential training helps clinicians recognize when a client needs more support than simply trusting the inner healing process.
- Know when to intervene and when to step back: Recognizing the role of managers, firefighters, and other protective responses helps clinicians respond more intentionally during difficult moments.
Sponsor for this episode…
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.
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