Carla Mariz: "This combination of feeling and thinking is very exciting."

Dr. Carla Mariz, clinical psychologist at The Clinic of Change, specializing in Psychotherapy and Neuropsychology, talks about Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy and our therapeutic program.

Watch the video with the statements.

Consult our doctors for prior assessment and diagnosis:
218 071 715
geral@theclinicofchange.com

What is Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy?

It is an innovative mental health intervention that allows biological and psychological aspects of human suffering to be addressed. Ketamine [or ketamine] is a drug that has psychedelic effects and properties, in other words, in the original Greek term, it is a substance that allows the workings of the mind to be revealed. And, together with psychotherapy, in a guided way, it allows us to access deeper levels of mental functioning and get to the causes and reasons for suffering.

We have more or less information highways in our brains, and in fact the effect of ketamine, of psychedelics, allows some connections or some links, the more usual highways, to be interrupted for some reason, leading the person to take other routes. Other connections are made, allowing access to information, the emergence of material that is not usually available.

From a psychological point of view, it allows the person's rigid defenses to loosen or soften.

Ketamine speeds up the classic psychotherapeutic processes of change, particularly the person's ability to relate to the therapist.

The capacity for insight or self-understanding, the ability to think about your life, your history, your suffering, is clearly increased.

How does The Clinic of Change program work?

The programs we run here at the clinic, whether for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders or alcohol, have been designed by the world's leading experts in the field.

There are two preparation sessions where the person's therapeutic process with their psychotherapist really begins, where their history is discussed, their way of dealing with things, their problems, their suffering.

There is a set-up preparation afterwards for the ketamine dosing sessions, in which the person is explained the environment in which everything will take place. The set-up is very important, because the person has to feel safe.

They are sessions of great understanding and sometimes wonder at what has happened. They are very useful for the person.

It's a situation in which the person is very vulnerable and very open, so all safety, both medically and psychologically, has to be guaranteed. This is achieved in the right environment, but also with the most qualified technicians and professionals.

Really, when you're dealing with so much suffering and such difficult situations, it's good to have solid background knowledge. Because many things are going to happen.

People are not predictable, their path is not predictable, you never know what's going to happen in a session. It's highly safe, but for that person it's always a path that hasn't yet been explored. With all this, it's best to go as well prepared as possible for this journey and this intervention.

What led you, as a psychologist, to become interested in this type of therapy?

Initially, I disliked this intervention. I have, shall we say, a very classical psychotherapeutic upbringing, which looks askance at suddenly innovative treatments.

But in fact, I've read some things, I've read some articles by people who were unquestionable in their therapeutic, human and scientific quality, and in fact, what interested me is that there are a series of molecules and substances that are now resurfacing that allow the person's mind and its functioning to be revealed. And as someone with a psychoanalytic background, one of the things I find most exciting is how the mind works.

What a person reveals about themselves is a profound knowledge, and it's a very deep connection to the person and to the mind, so to speak, in its sometimes most essential and pure expression.

Here, in this speech, it's always surprising to me, and it still is, how everything happens so quickly.

It's something deeply emotional and profound. It's not a rational or rationalizing treatment. That's what I think is so exciting, this combination of feeling and thinking.

There is a unique combination of a medication and a psychotherapeutic intervention that act simultaneously. This is something I don't know or see in any other type of approach. It's a unified understanding between body and mind.

See other testimonials!