Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP)
Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) is a psychedelic psychotherapy developed by Saj Razvi in 2016. Its core mechanism: as theorized by its developer and not yet tested: cannabis or ketamine induces a primary consciousness state, active therapist relational engagement with the somatic defense cascade and completion of truncated survival responses is said to reorganize autonomic patterning. No link in that chain has been examined outside the training institute's own materials. This catalogue links it to PTSD, depression and attachment and relational patterns, typically in individual format, medium-term.
Related condition topics
These links support exploration. They do not establish that PSIP is effective or recommended for each condition.
How Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy works
As theorized by its developer and not yet tested: cannabis or ketamine induces a primary consciousness state + active therapist relational engagement with the somatic defense cascade + completion of truncated survival responses is said to reorganize autonomic patterning. No link in that chain has been examined outside the training institute's own materials.
Ontology
Complex trauma is stored in autonomic nervous system defense patterns inaccessible to ordinary consciousness; psychedelic medicine provides access while relational attunement provides corrective experience
Therapeutic Voice
"You just turned your head away from me. Don't correct it, let the movement keep going. Where does it want to take you? I'm not going anywhere, and I'd like you to keep coming back to my face while it happens."
View of the Person
A body-organized self whose trauma lives in autonomic defense patterns below narrative consciousness, accessible through medicine-facilitated primary states and relational attunement
Epistemology
Evidence
Assessment not yet completed
An overall effectiveness assessment has not been completed. This describes the state of our review, not whether the approach works.
Recorded material under review
The existing notes below are retained separately from assessment records. These recorded claims await source checking, including study design, recommendations and numerical estimates.
No guideline recognition. Not included in APA, NICE, or VA/DoD guidelines.
A 2023 published case report describes cannabis-assisted PSIP combined with CBT integration for one patient with dissociative PTSD. This uncontrolled combined treatment cannot establish PSIP’s independent effect. The bounded source search on 8 September 2026 did not verify a randomized PSIP trial.
Sources for the corrected statements:
None. No independent meta-analytic data.
Emerging modality with no independent outcome research. Published theory paper but no controlled trials. Founder voluntarily forfeited Colorado therapy license in 2015 following involvement in underground psychedelic session. Training uses proprietary apprenticeship model (cohorts of 3) requiring trainees to undergo their own medicine sessions: raises dual-relationship and informed consent questions.
Training and certification
Licensed mental health professional. PSI Apprentice program: cohorts of 3, receiving own medicine sessions + observing live sessions + integration work.
PSI certificate (proprietary: no external accrediting body)
Estimated 200+ hrs across apprentice levels
$15K-30K+
Find a trained therapist
Clinical cautions and blind spots
Assessment and precautions
Active psychosis, severe dissociation without stabilization, clients unable to engage with somatic-affective experiencing, acute crisis requiring immediate intervention
Blind spots
No controlled outcome research; proprietary training model without external accreditation; requires the therapist to have their own embodied practice training and is not safely improvised without it; reliance on cannabis as primary medicine complicates legal and clinical standards; apprenticeship structure creates potential dual-relationship concerns; strong theoretical claims outpace empirical evidence
Philosophical roots
Merleau-Ponty (embodied consciousness); Porges (polyvagal theory: autonomic defense states); Levine (somatic experiencing: completing survival responses); van der Kolk (body keeps the score); Bowlby (attachment as organizing principle); psychodynamic transference theory
Compared with other approaches
Controversies
No independent outcome research; founder forfeited license (2015); proprietary training model with high cost and no external accreditation; cannabis as primary medicine lacks regulatory framework; apprenticeship model requires trainees to undergo medicine sessions raising boundary concerns; recent organizational controversy (2025) regarding discriminatory admissions practices
Razvi voluntarily forfeited his therapy license in Colorado following what he describes as an unsuccessful ‘harm reduction effort’ involving underground psychedelic work. License forfeiture carries the same effect as state revocation.
Razvi stated he forfeited voluntarily to protect MAPS MDMA research from political fallout. He continues to operate PSI as a training organization.
PSI denied an Israeli applicant admission, citing ‘apartheid, ethnic cleansing and credible accusations of genocide.’ The email was sent under a staff member’s name, but Razvi later admitted authorship. Faculty published a joint letter distancing themselves.
Razvi published a public apology acknowledging he was ‘completely in the wrong’ and made the decision from a ‘reactive, emotion-filled’ state following his father’s death.
Structural concerns: proprietary apprenticeship with no external accreditor; trainees must undergo medicine sessions with PSI trainers (dual-relationship questions); cannabis as primary medicine lacks regulatory framework; no controlled outcome research beyond a white paper.
Test Yourself
What distinguishes PSIP from other psychedelic therapy models?
Show answer
PSIP emphasizes active therapist engagement in the medicine state rather than a non-directive sitter model, working directly with somatic defense responses and relational transference.