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:
- [2:54] How the therapist’s role changes during psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
- [9:52] Building trust and safety during preparation
- [16:45] Why somatic tools are valuable in psychedelic-assisted therapy
- [19:53] Dr. Sandy Newes talks about grounding clients through body awareness and sensation
- [23:00] What to do when connecting with the body feels threatening for clients with a history of trauma
- [26:36] The distinction between working with state versus content
- [31:50] How therapists can approach spiritual experiences without expectations
- [36:25] Dr. Newes’ perspective on psychedelic therapy as deep attachment work
In this episode…
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy requires therapists to do more than guide a medicine session — it demands careful preparation, grounded presence, and an ability to follow what emerges without forcing meaning. So how can therapists support deep psychedelic experiences without steering the process?
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy clinician and trainer Dr. Sandy Newes explains that the process begins with safety, curiosity, and resisting the urge to interpret too quickly. Therapists can prepare clients by building trust, understanding developmental history, and helping them notice sensations and nervous system states before the medicine session begins. Dr. Newes also emphasizes accepting that you don’t have all the answers, using body-based prompts to deepen awareness, and helping clients gradually become more comfortable with positive emotional states. These practices create space for insight, self-compassion, and meaningful integration without imposing a predetermined interpretation.
In this episode of Living Medicine, host Chad Franzen of Rise25 talks with Dr. Sandy Newes, Co-founder and Programming Director of Living Medicine Institute, about the therapist’s role in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Newes explains how curiosity, somatic awareness, and preparation support deeper therapeutic work. She also touches on integration, spirituality, and self-compassion.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotable Moments:
- “There’s a lot of respect for the person’s own… inner healing intelligence.”
- “Learning how to stay in curiosity, how to stay in inquiry is actually a really relevant and meaningful life skill.”
- “Each person is the expert on themselves.”
- “We find safety in the body, but it’s a whole process of learning how to do that.”
- “We want to be helpful… and we’re trained in different ways to… be helpful.”
Action Steps:
- Build safety before the medicine session: Taking time to understand a client’s history, goals, and relational patterns creates the trust needed for deeper psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
- Stay curious instead of rushing to interpret: Avoiding premature meaning-making gives clients more space to follow what naturally emerges from their own experience.
- Use the body as a source of information: Helping clients notice sensations can reveal patterns of stress, fear, and safety that may be harder to access cognitively.
- Introduce somatic practices gradually: Starting with simple, external sensations can make body awareness feel more manageable for clients who find it uncomfortable or threatening.
- Help clients practice tolerating well-being: Learning to notice, tolerate, and deepen into positive states can support a more lasting shift beyond the psychedelic session itself.
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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