Experience of Treatment with Ayahuasca for Drug Addiction in the Brazilian Amazon
This article presents the experience of the Institute of Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology (IDEAA), which was created by a group of Spaniards in the Brazilian Amazon in order to study and implement the use of ayahuasca in processes of personal growth and
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Experience of Treatment with Ayahuasca for Drug Addiction in the Brazilian Amazon Xavier Fernández and Josep María Fábregas
Abstract This article presents the experience of the Institute of Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology (IDEAA), which was created by a group of Spaniards in the Brazilian Amazon in order to study and implement the use of ayahuasca in processes of personal growth and addiction treatment. It begins with a brief description of their basic assumptions, as well as the sources of knowledge underlying the practice, such as transpersonal psychology, Santo Daime, shamanism, and Eastern disciplines. The following section shows the relationship of activities carried out in the rituals, then goes more deeply into the healing process, through a therapeutic model based on minimal accompanying intervention. Through an analysis of the content, we are introduced to the fundamental themes of ayahuasca sessions with addicts, which are discussed and related to the dynamics of transformation. The text concludes with clinical field observations that have emerged after years of practice.
Translated by Gayle Highpine and revised by Clancy Cavnar. This chapter is a translation from the original Spanish published in 2013 as, ‘‘Experiencia de un tratamiento con ayahuasca para las drogodependencias en la Amazonia brasileña,’’ in B. C. Labate and J. C. Bouso (Eds.), Ayahuasca y Salud (pp. 392–423). Barcelona: Los Libros de La Liebre de Marzo. X. Fernández—Deceased X. Fernández Instituto de Etnopsicología Amazónica Aplicada (IDEAA), Amazonas, Brazil J. M. Fábregas (&) Instituto de Etnopsicología Amazónica Aplicada (IDEAA) and Centro de Investigación y Tratamiento de las Adicciones (CITA), CITA Clínica, Mas Mia s/n 08319 Dosrius Barcelona, Spain e-mail: [email protected]
B. C. Labate and C. Cavnar (eds.), The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-40426-9_10, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
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X. Fernández and J. M. Fábregas
Introduction In the year 2000, the IDEAA Institute was created by Barcelona psychiatrist Josep María Fábregas in order to study and implement the structured use of ayahuasca in the development of processes of self-knowledge and personal development, as well as in the treatment of various disorders, mainly addiction and its associated problems. The first stage took place in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. That served as a pilot project for IDEAA prior to its final location in the interior of the Amazon jungle. In 2002, it moved to Prato Satin, which takes its name from the stream on whose banks it stands. That stream joins the Mapiá River, the same river that, several kilometers downstream, leads to the Vila Céu do Mapiá; the Mapiá River is, in turn, a tributary of the Purus River. All this land is within the protected space of La Floresta Pauni, in the state of Amazonas. IDEAA is defined as a place where traditional or ancestral knowledge lives together with advances in contemporary psychology, using a pluralistic approach that allows the convergence of differe
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