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Integrative Psychiatry

Lost in Transition: How Reviving Rites of Passage Might Support Mental Health- Part 2 of 2

By December 26, 2024No Comments

The Role of Rites of Passage in Supporting Mental Health

The reintroduction or adaptation of rites of passage into therapeutic settings can be transformative. 

Rites of passage can support mental health by:

  1. Providing Structure: When we are stepping into a new phase of life, there is often a lot of uncertainty. Structured rituals can create a safe space for folks to process their experiences and emotions, reducing anxiety and increasing a sense of groundedness.
  2. Fostering Community: One of the key benefits of ancient rituals was their emphasis on community, and often, the Earth. Being in connection with other beings (both human and nonhuman) who bear witness to and honor our transitions with support and compassion can help cultivate collective safety and resilience. Sharing our experiences of being alive helps everyone to know that we are not alone.
  3. Encouraging Reflection and Growth: Rites of passage offer a designated time for introspection. This pause is crucial in modern Western society, where many are focused on “getting ahead” and checking off the daily to-do lists. Acknowledging our emotional and psychological needs helps us remain in contact with our aliveness, particularly during times of grief and loss.
  4. Honoring Age: Aging and loss are inevitable, yet the Western world often avoids confronting these realities. Rituals that honor aging can help individuals accept these stages with grace and a sense of fulfillment. While birthdays are one way of recognizing age, I wonder what it would look like to facilitate gatherings that are meant to pass on the wisdom of elders and celebrate connection with spirit, given that death is a universal truth.

Reintegrating Rites of Passage

Rites of passage can be reintegrated into our lives. From a therapeutic point of view, groups of adolescents transitioning into adulthood can be appreciated by guided reflection, sharing of personal challenges and goals, and a symbolic gesture that signifies their readiness to take on new responsibilities. For folks who are facing significant loss, whether a loved one has passed or a relationship has ended, we might support the process of writing a letter or holding a small gathering to share memories— something that could help in processing grief and fostering emotional healing. Similarly, life transitions related to aging can be marked through rituals that commemorate achievements and open up space to pass down legacies. Mindfulness practices, storytelling, and symbolic acts, such as planting a seed to signify growth or lighting a candle to represent hope, can also be incorporated. 

Rites of passage don’t need to look a certain way; in fact, it is important to be mindful of cultural appropriation. There is no need to reenact a ceremony from another time or place. I encourage us all to get curious about what kinds of activities or events might feel symbolic and significant for our unique transition and felt experience of the changes occurring. If creating a ceremony in a group, draw on the collective wisdom of the group, understanding why certain experiences might be supportive. We might ask ourselves, Is this just something that I saw, or is this something that feels meaningful to me?

Conclusion

While rites of passage might sound frivolous, their absence in modern life is deeply felt, even if only on the unconscious level. Recognizing the power of these ceremonies allows us to support friends, family, and clients in powerful ways as they navigate life’s many transitions. Whether through reviving community practices or crafting personal rituals, bringing the essence of rites of passage back into our culture offers the potential for a more connected and resourced society.

Sara Reed, MS, LMFT

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and CEO of Mind’s iHealth Solutions, a digital health company that provides evidence based and culturally responsible mental health services for underserved groups. As a mental health futurist and clinical researcher, Sara examines the ways culture informs the way we diagnose and treat mental illness. Sara’s prior research work includes participation as a study therapist in psychedelic therapy research at Yale University and the University of Connecticut’s Health Center. Sara was the first Black therapist to provide MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical trial and continues to engage in ongoing advocacy work around health equity in psychedelic medicine.

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Jeffrey Guss, MD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher with specializations in psychoanalytic therapy and the treatment of substance use disorders. He was Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Therapy Training for the NYU School of Medicine’s study on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of cancer-related existential distress, which was published in Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016. He currently is a study therapist in the NYU study on Psychedelic-Assisted therapy in the treatment of Alcoholism, a collaborator with Yale University’s study on psychedelic-assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder and a study therapist with the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) study on treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. 

Dr. Guss is interested in the integration of psychedelic therapies with contemporary psychoanalytic theory and has published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. He has published (with Elizabeth Nielson, PhD) a paper on “the influence of therapists’ first had experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training” in The Journal of Psychedelic Studies, August, 2018. He is an Instructor and Mentor with the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Supervisor in NYU’s Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry. 

Dr. Guss maintains a private practice in New York City.

Will Van Derveer, MD

Will Van Derveer, MD is Co-Founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute and Integrative Psychiatry Centers. Dr. Van Derveer was co-investigator on a phase 2 MAPS study of Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant PTSD, and co-authored the publication of this study in 2018. He has also provided Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in two MAPS training studies. An active provider of KAP at his clinic in Boulder, CO, he has been teaching others KAP therapy for several years. Dr. Van Derveer contributed a chapter on mescaline in the 2021 "Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens" (edited by Charles Grob and Jim Grigsby). He is co-host of the Higher Practice Podcast.

Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant under-recognized root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass.


Scott has been a student of consciousness since his honors thesis on that topic at the University of Arizona in the 1970s under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Weil. Following medical school, Scott studied Jungian therapy and acupuncture while working as a primary care physician in a rural area for four years. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy became a facet of his practice before this medicine was scheduled in 1985. He then completed a psychiatry residency at Columbia program in New York. Scott studied cross-cultural psychiatry and completed a child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of New Mexico.

In 2010 he founded Wholeness Center in Fort Collins. This innovative clinic provides cross-disciplinary evaluation and care for all mental health concerns. Scott serves as a site Principal Investigator and therapist for the Phase III trial of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD sponsored by (MAPS). He has also published numerous articles about his research on (CBD) in mental health. Currently, Scott works extensively with psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy. He lectures all over the world to professional groups interested in a deeper look at mental health issues, safer tools, and a paradigm-shifting perspective about transformative care.

Will Van Derveer, MD is co-founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI), along with friend and colleague Keith Kurlander, MA. He co-created IPI as an expression of what he stands for. First, that anyone can heal, and second that we medical providers must embrace our own healing journeys in order to fully command our potency as healers.

Dr. Van Derveer spent the last 20 years innovating and testing a comprehensive approach to addressing psychiatric challenges which transcends the conventional model he learned in medical school at Vanderbilt University and residency at University of Colorado, while deeply engaging his own healing path.

He founded the Integrative Psychiatric Healing Center in in 2001 in Boulder, CO, where he currently practices. Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass. In addition to his clinical work and teaching, he was co-investigator in 2016 a Phase II randomized clinical trial, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He continues to support this protocol, now in a Phase III clinical trial under break-through designation by FDA.

Dr. Van Derveer is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine (ABoIHM) since 2013, and he was board certified in the first wave of diplomates of the new American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABIM) in 2016.