Trauma & PTSD
Trauma can have lasting effects on emotion regulation, relationships, and overall well-being.
Traumatic experiences may lock people into habitual ways of interpreting events and themselves, limiting perspective and reinforcing ongoing symptoms. Psychedelic therapy aims to disrupt this rigid framework, and can impact the fear response and defensive tendencies, allowing for an increased capacity to process trauma.
Our approach emphasizes safety, stabilization, and pacing. Treatment plans are individualized and may include talk therapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, or participation in clinical trials, depending on clinical appropriateness and patient preference.
Disrupting Fear and Avoidance
Trauma responses are maintained by maladaptive coping strategies like avoidance, dissociation, and hypervigilance. Psychedelic therapy may mitigate experiential avoidance and help patients process previously avoided material through emotional breakthroughs.
Re-organizing Self-Narratives
Treatment aims to interrupt harmful, rigid self-narratives and implicit trauma identities. Through enhanced cognitive flexibility and perspective shifts, patients may develop more adaptive beliefs about themselves, others, and the world.
Restoring Trust
Trauma survivors often struggle with relational distrust and betrayal, Sunstone’s organizational commitment to transparency, safety, and a trustworthy care experience can act as a reparative process itself.
We prioritize long-term healing and functional improvement, recognizing that recovery from trauma is not linear and requires ongoing support.
Our Trauma-Informed Care Includes:
- Careful assessment and screening
- Emphasis on psychological safety
- Building trust that meets the patients needs
- Evidence-based therapeutic approaches
- Integration and continuity of care over time
Current and Upcoming Clinical Research Opportunities in
Trauma and PTSD:
Sunstone Therapies has opened recruitment for a Phase II, open-label clinical trial investigating psilocybin therapy for women with sexual assault–related PTSD. The study integrates a trauma-informed, shared decision-making framework that prioritizes participant agency over a traditional medicalized model, advancing more responsive and empowering care for survivors.
Sunstone Therapies will soon open a phase II, open label clinical trial investigating MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans living in Maryland with PTSD.
Despite the prevalence of PTSD in the veteran population, there remains a significant need to develop treatments that effectively address the complexity of PTSD. This study is specifically designed with a veteran-informed therapy approach and explores individual vs. group therapy with ongoing support.
Reshaping Trauma-Informed Care
Explore our open clinical trials and learn how Sunstone is advancing innovative, patient-centered models of mental health research.