The set model: a Proposed Transtheoretical Couple Therapy Model with MDMA

Regardless of theoretical perspective or treatment objective, the SET Model (Setting, Structure, and Safety, Exploration and Experience, Template, and Trust) is meant to represent the core elements of MDMA-assisted pair therapy. 

The author’s expertise as an investigator of MDMA-assisted CBCT is combined with the unique MDMA experience and principles from effective pair therapy (Benson et al., 2012) and the unique MDMA experience.

Introduction

While you’re still in a relationship, couple counseling enables you to recover, develop, and change. It creates the backdrop for change in the environment they live in since humans do not exist in a vacuum. The current study explores the rationale behind and potential clinical implications of a transtheoretical model of MDMA-assisted pair therapy. 

This succinct review offers an introduction to mdma therapy near me, as well as information on how it affects people neurochemically, psychologically, and subjectively. It also discusses how MDMA-assisted couple therapy uses these effects to produce therapeutic results. 

The enhancement of these therapy outcomes is made possible by a technique that is also shown along with potential action mechanisms.

Therapy Framework Using a functional approach, practitioners should start by conducting a thorough diagnostic procedure to identify the clients’ commitment levels, level of suffering, history of co-occurring mental health issues, and therapy objectives. 

Following the evaluation, it is suggested that the couple get comments and participate in a collaborative case conceptualization to better understand their unique strengths and problems. 

Then, over the course of multiple psychotherapy sessions (ranging from one extended session to several shorter sessions, depending on the clients’ needs), preparation for the MDMA-assisted sessions would take place. 

In order to prepare for the sessions, one must study and practice empathic communication strategies, with a focus on softening language to increase empathy. 

Planning for practical sessions and setting intentions should be discussed. The MDMA sessions themselves enable an open experience without an agenda, with the therapist(s) acting as a facilitator for dialogues and negotiating both people’s needs to ensuring that both have the opportunity for in-depth introspection and discussion with one another. 

Integrative sessions allow for processing of the MDMA experience, probing for insights, empathy, and shared experiences, as well as application and investigation of lessons learned to the partners’ stated goals and future plans. 

Setting, organization, and safety guidelines for practice

For both people to feel comfortable engaging in intense emotional territory and navigating a non-ordinary state, it is essential to create a safe environment (physically and emotionally). This is also well described in the literature on psychedelic-assisted therapy.

This covers topics like no interpersonal violence and debates about argument safety (encouraging a method of pausing arguments before they get heated and picking them back up afterwards). 

This also includes the framework and safety of discussing the experience together, such as coming up with shared objectives for the sessions and understanding that they will have time to integrate afterward. 

Introducing and using communication skills can help people become more aware of how to communicate successfully as well as build a common language. As there is a scaffold to tether to in terms of how to face what arises, this structure may allow for a more in-depth experience throughout the MDMA session, reducing fear and promoting safety. 

It may be possible to lessen power dynamics and increase opportunities for both people to fully engage by designing a framework in which both people’s experiences are significant (there is no such thing as a “patient” and both people are equal participants in the experience).

Experimentation and Exploration

A full experience of emotions, their expression, and communication are encouraged before, during, and after an MDMA session by fostering an environment of curiosity, openness, and non-avoidance (experientially, emotionally, and behaviorally to support the relationship and prevent difficulties from arising over time). 

Any couple process has a potential to revert to old patterns over time, so it might help to facilitate the process of examining the couple’s insights, shifts, and gains throughout the therapeutic process and reinforce their learnings. 

The conditions for empathy and bonding, as well as feelings of social support, can be created by promoting difficult conversations and highlighting their common experience.

Trust and Model

Through this approach, the couple is creating a manual for how to effectively communicate, reflect together, and handle challenging emotional situations in the future. An attitude of establishing trust and being open to whatever happens during treatment could serve as a good example for their relationship. 

Establishing trust in oneself and one another can be helped by encouraging non-avoidance and highlighting the relationship’s advantages as well as its capacity to handle pressures.