Beckley Academy's Open-Source Psychedelic Therapy Learning Framework Is Out: What's It All About? Authoring Team Shares Insights

The medical psychedelics field stands at a pivotal juncture. With MDMA-assisted therapy close to federal legalization for the treatment of PTSD in the U.S. and other psychedelic substances potentially following suit, these therapies are poised to revolutionize treatment for certain mental health issues. 

And yet the field has some recognizable and potentially conflictive gaps, such as the absence of national training standards and certifications for those providing the therapies. 

To remedy this lack, the educational studio Beckley Academy is moving forward by publishing what's believed to be the first open-source learning framework to advance psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) training standards.

Beckley Academy, co-founded by Beckley Waves and guided by "Queen of Psychedelics" Amanda Feilding, provides expertise and experience in online education, behavioral health training, mental health and psychedelic research from renowned organizations worldwide.

The proposed learning framework aims to bridge the gaps and foster a comprehensive educational paradigm, specifically for behavioral health practitioners.

Insurance coverage remains a question for future PAT providers and clients. Beckley Academy's research aims to become a foundational analysis supporting the creation of training standards. 

The Background Research

The initiative, says author and Beckley Academy's head of education Deborah Gardner, complements other efforts such as the recently published guidelines by the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association (APPA) and nonprofit BrainFutures.

"Our research spanned organizations and medicines, including ethical codes and practice guidelines for ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin. The research reveals that the majority of competencies are shared across medicines," Gardner told Benzinga. 

Because the majority of learning objectives remain the same across medicines, the team hopes the data will be useful for the roll-out of MDMA as well as psilocybin as state-level decriminalization and legalization for therapeutic use increases. 

The team focused on writing learning objectives specifically for behavioral health practitioners by mapping 600 themes from 8 major publications and using the American Psychological Association's writing guidelines. 

They conducted a systematic internet search of digitally published training manuals, codes of ethics and practice guidelines for MDMA-, psilocybin- and ketamine-assisted therapy in 2022 and 2023, plus guidelines for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in psychedelic-assisted therapy.

The criteria for inclusion, Gardner told Benzinga, were public availability, longevity, influence of the associated organization in the field, prominence of thought leadership, diversity of medical and mental health disciplines, non-profit and academic models and governance.

Its open-source modality honors the Open Science practices of Amanda Feilding, and aims to encourage the adoption of this methodology "as it creates a unified way for the field to debate and build upon this baseline set of PAT learning objectives," Gardner explained.

The team says it can extend its influence beyond individual training sessions by informing universities, and professional and training organizations on the training programs, assisting state legislators in their policy decisions and influencing federal policymaking.

Further, "for states and countries still developing standards, or training programs to support standards, the research is an invaluable tool. It is an easily accessible yet comprehensive baseline of training based on current practitioner codes of ethics and practice guidelines. In essence, this work saves organizations working to develop standards months of time," Gardner says. "Our learning framework will help ensure future PAT clinicians are exposed to what matters most and will help usher in mainstream acceptance of psychedelic care."

A Collaborative Mission

The new framework seeks to consolidate disparate efforts, reduce redundancy, prompt dialogue and promote a set of comprehensive behavioral health learning objectives. 

The document is under peer review by APPA's steering committee though available for early access on March 31, 2024. Stakeholders from across the psychedelic therapy landscape are invited to engage with and contribute to the initiative. 

"Clinicians, policy-makers, and educators have been waiting for this type of expert analysis to move forward the important task of setting clinical practice guidelines. By making this research open-source, the team at Beckley Academy is empowering organizations and educators to rapidly advance the creation of training standards" commented Megan Bowers Patterson, APPA's director of operations and business development.

One of the publications cited in the new learning framework is the MDMA-Assisted Therapy Code of Ethics authored by the renowned Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelics Studies (MAPS). 

Rick Doblin, MAPS founder and president, said of the new release, "Therapy is key to patient outcomes. This important research contribution highlights that psychedelic-assisted therapy is essentially about the therapy rather than the psychedelic compound. The work Beckley Academy is doing to understand how therapeutic skills are conceived and taught is essential to enabling millions of people’s healing and minimizing the risk of difficult outcomes that could have been mitigated with proper training."

Gardner pointed to the fact that while the FDA regulates drugs, the agency does not oversee practitioners’ training, nor does any other federal organization. As a result of this lack of federal oversight of mental health modalities and training programs, the responsibility lies on individual licensing boards (operating either at a federal or state level.)

"With 50 states and numerous disciplines, the process of seeking national and state accreditation for a program is cumbersome," she explained. "All of these factors make the national adoption of a psychedelic-assisted therapy training program unlikely."

In addition to specific cases such as the VA’s approval of Spravato for severe depression in 2019, impact on the broader population is yet to come. That's where organizations such as APPA are working toward gaining traction as a national-level regulatory body of psychedelic-assisted therapists. 

"Perhaps that opens up an avenue for organizations to seek accreditation for their training programs. For this avenue to hold meaning beyond the psychedelic field, psychedelics must be accepted in mainstream mental health," Gardner told Benzinga. "We hope that our research helps normalize psychedelic-assisted therapy, as the data reveals therapeutic skills similar to those employed in traditional therapy with an emphasis on teaching the skills necessary to hold space for non-ordinary consciousness."

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by Serrgey75 and fizkes on Shutterstock.