Therapeutic Tripod

The treatment in Takiwasi is built on 3 fundamental spaces that are articulated, integrated and give feedback to each other:

1º: Traditional Medicine and Plant Intake

This is one of the main pieces of the treatment. It includes the use of:

• Emetic depurative plants, which can cause unpleasant effects at the time of drinking though are very useful for physical detoxification, emotional discharge and mental enlightenment.
• Containment plants to encourage reconnection with emotions, memories, dreams and the integration of psychological information.
• Master plants traditionally used by local healers and administered in a individualized way, according to the characteristics of each person, so to balance their personality and strengthen psychological and physical structures.

The intake of plants takes place in a ritualized context, as in the case of the dietas (retreat in the jungle) or in ayahuasca ceremonies. The intake of plants is in synergy with the parallel psychotherapeutic work.

2º: Everyday Life and Ergo Therapy

This work has a clear therapeutic orientation. It is not only a matter of assuming productive work, but rather of generating an awareness-raising regarding certain personal attitudes that the addiction process has inadequately strengthened. The activities are designed for the patient to develop or strengthen pro-positive and proactive behaviors, assume personal commitments, stand out for their responsibility, assimilate social and personal values that drug use has disrupted, and, in this way, cultivate healthy habits and life-style that are finally in favor of themself and their family.

This space is where the tools learned in the different workshops and individual and group interventions are put to the test, where simple and fundamental aspects such as habits, tolerance to frustration, problem solving, behavioral characteristics of the personality, are restructured and one can learn how to develop a specific activity or task until the end, offering at the same time a place to rethink and revalue oneself.

3º: Psychotherapy

This is done using several existing approaches: Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy, Psychodynamics, Humanist, Psychodrama, Bioenergetics, Corporal, Gestalt, etc. Given the complexity of the human being, we do not standardize the interventions. Each patient is considered individually, assessing the type of intervention appropriate to their specific problem. Each therapist must articulate the contents of the medicinal plants intake sessiones and daily life with psychotherapy. Therefore, the emotions, thoughts and dream material coming from the intake of master plants, are processed or analyzed in the light of modern psychotherapy.

Here lies one of the most important characteristics of Takiwasi: the integration between traditional healers' medical knowledge, Western medicine, and academic psychology.