Can you use psychedelics like magic mushrooms, magic truffles, mescaline cacti, and ayahuasca to save your relationship? Maybe. At least, that’s what Jayne Gumpel believes. Gumpel is a licensed clinical social worker with over 25 years of experience as a couples therapist, and works for an organization that trains therapists to incorporate psychedelic integration into their own practices.
In an interesting interview with GQ, the therapist opens up about her work with psychedelics, and as you might expect, it’s packed with fascinating facts! Dutch-Smart wouldn’t be Dutch-Smart if we didn’t tell you all about it, so today we’re taking you into the world of magic mushrooms, love, and relationships!
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Can magic mushrooms save your relationship?
About 40 years ago, in the 1970s, Gumpel herself was crazy about magic mushrooms. She traveled through the mountains of South America with friends and gained a wealth of experience with psychedelic trips. “My God… This would be so good for the world,” she thought as the magic mushrooms began to take effect. Decades later, science seems to agree: psychedelic integration in various settings is becoming increasingly mainstream. For instance, the U.S. state of Oregon legalized psilocybin last fall to facilitate further research.
Gumpel herself now works for Fluence, an organization that trains therapists to incorporate psychedelic integration into their own practices. She cannot recommend MDMA or psilocybin to her clients (nor can she legally administer them), but if they approach her and say they plan to try it, she can help them prepare for this extraordinary journey. Once they’ve finished, they come back and go over their findings during the sessions.
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“There’s always something to learn”
“I can honestly say I’ve never had a failed session. Because even if it’s a difficult psilocybin session, if it’s presented in the right way and you create a safe space for the person to really talk about what happened, there’s always an opportunity to learn something,” Gumpel begins. She tells the story of a couple struggling with relationship issues. They felt very distant from each other and disconnected. “I wouldn’t say they were on the verge of divorce, since they had children, but they felt like they were living as siblings.”
In this couple’s case, the psilocybin trip helped them reconnect. During the trip, they both felt like “different people.” “By giving these people a voice, they can hear their own experience speak, but in a way that is not defensive at all.” She asked the couple to talk to each other as if they were tripping again. “That was very powerful. There were a lot of tears as they processed what it was like to lose each other and find each other again.”
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Unity and Well-being
But she doesn’t just use psilocybin in her therapy. “MDMA is very helpful for people struggling with intimacy. When couples come into therapy, they’re often not on the same page. Usually, it’s about deep misunderstandings and hurt feelings, and they get very stuck in and attached to their story: ‘You did this, and that’s why I feel that way.’
“When you use psilocybin, it evokes a sense of unity and well-being in the world. That’s not to say all trips are pleasant, but even in the ones that aren’t, there’s a sense of ego-disillusionment. Once the drug wears off, you still have that shift in perception, so you can see each other in a completely different light.” Sometimes it’s really hard for me not to say, “Hey, you know what, you should try this or that!”
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Friendlier and more patient
To wrap up, she shares that incorporating psychedelics into her sessions has also helped her personally. “I’ve learned to be a much kinder, more patient person and to let go. I care much less about a lot more. And I care much more about a lot less. When you work with couples, they open up their lives to you in this very intimate way, and that’s very humbling.”
