An Integrative Somatic Approach to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Biological…

Abstract

Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has demonstrated transdiagnostic efficacy across a range of psychiatric conditions and is increasingly conceptualized through third-wave cognitive–behavioral frameworks. These frameworks, including Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) and the psychological flexibility model, emphasize processes such as cognitive insight, belief revision, and narrative meaning-making as central to therapeutic change in PAT. While valuable, they often under-specify the embodied, autonomic, and relational dynamics that patients and clinicians frequently identify as central to both therapeutic benefit and potential risk

In this paper, we introduce Integrative Somatic Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (ISPAT), a process-based framework that extends psychological flexibility by explicitly centering interoceptive processing, autonomic nervous system regulation, and co-regulated relational presence as core mechanisms of change in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Drawing upon complexity science, trauma-informed somatic psychotherapy, and contemporary neurobiological models of psychedelic action, ISPAT conceptualizes the human psyche as an embodied, relational, and dynamic adaptive system.

Within this framework, psychedelics are understood as controlled perturbations that temporarily relax rigid patterns of cognition, affect, interoceptive-autonomic functioning, and interpersonal relating. ISPAT articulates how somatic awareness, autonomic regulation, and relational safety can scaffold psychological flexibility across preparation, medicine, and integration phases, helping guide psychedelic-induced reorganization toward coherence rather than fragmentation. By expanding PAT beyond cognicentric formulations, ISPAT offers a scientifically grounded and clinically actionable framework for understanding how psychedelic pharmacology interfaces with embodied and relational processes to shape therapeutic outcomes.

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BibTeX

@misc{christie2026integrative,
  title = {{An Integrative Somatic Approach to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Biological Mechanisms}},
  author = {Devon Christie and Manesh Girn},
  howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.31234/osf.io/sywg5_v1},
  url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/sywg5_v1/},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - An Integrative Somatic Approach to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Biological Mechanisms
AU  - Devon Christie
AU  - Manesh Girn
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/20
PB  - PsyArXiv
DO  - 10.31234/osf.io/sywg5_v1
UR  - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/sywg5_v1/
AB  - Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has demonstrated transdiagnostic efficacy across a range of psychiatric conditions and is increasingly conceptualized through third-wave cognitive–behavioral frameworks. These frameworks, including Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) and the psychological flexibility model, emphasize processes such as cognitive insight, belief revision, and narrative meaning-making as central to therapeutic change in PAT. While valuable, they often under-specify the embodied, autonomic, and relational dynamics that patients and clinicians frequently identify as central to both therapeutic benefit and potential risk  In this paper, we introduce Integrative Somatic Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (ISPAT), a process-based framework that extends psychological flexibility by explicitly centering interoceptive processing, autonomic nervous system regulation, and co-regulated relational presence as core mechanisms of change in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Drawing upon complexity science, trauma-informed somatic psychotherapy, and contemporary neurobiological models of psychedelic action, ISPAT conceptualizes the human psyche as an embodied, relational, and dynamic adaptive system.  Within this framework, psychedelics are understood as controlled perturbations that temporarily relax rigid patterns of cognition, affect, interoceptive-autonomic functioning, and interpersonal relating. ISPAT articulates how somatic awareness, autonomic regulation, and relational safety can scaffold psychological flexibility across preparation, medicine, and integration phases, helping guide psychedelic-induced reorganization toward coherence rather than fragmentation. By expanding PAT beyond cognicentric formulations, ISPAT offers a scientifically grounded and clinically actionable framework for understanding how psychedelic pharmacology interfaces with embodied and relational processes to shape therapeutic outcomes.
ER  -

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