Laura Mae Northrup – Healing Sexual Trauma with Entheogens & Psychedelics: Understanding Sexual Violence through a spiritual and political lens
Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist and practices ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. She is the producer of the podcast Inside Eyes, a series about survivors of sexual trauma using entheogens and psychedelics in their healing.
Laura frames sexual violence as a form of spiritual abuse and outlines the basic political impact of sexual trauma on the survivor and society. Spirituality is subjective but can be somewhat defined as how we engage with the nature of our humanity and the way our humanity exists in the natural world. Spirituality questions the fundamental questions of life; what’s moral, the meaning of existence and what it means to be human, ultimately it covers all aspects of the human existence. Sexual violence is extreme violence against humanity and hence spirituality, often resulting in feelings of dissociation and disembodiment for the survivor.
Laura discusses how we live in an epidemic of sexual violence that systematically disempowers and disembodies people. Sexual violence exists within a culture that condones this form of extreme violence and therefore the systematic nature to which sexual violence exists, is a political issue.
Sexual violence is particularly challenging to treat clinically, and the nature of sexual trauma is often not fully addressed. However, the inimitable power of entheogens and psychedelics to enable embodiment could offer empowerment and spiritual healing for survivors of sexual trauma.
Laura provides insight into this perspective and explains why entheogens and psychedelics hold promise for the healing of sexual trauma survivors.