Getting to the root: ceremony leader perspectives of the healing potential of ayahuasca drinking for eating disorders

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a plant medicine traditionally used by Indigenous groups in the Amazon. Researchers are now exploring its healing potential for mental illnesses. This qualitative study evaluated the perspective of fifteen ceremonial leaders’ using content analysis on the healing potential of ayahuasca drinking among individuals with eating disorders. Leaders’ theories of eating disorders included the belief that eating disorders: are reflective of a deeper issue, including unprocessed trauma; have an adaptive function; affect health on multiple levels; are similar to addiction. Leaders’ theories on the healing mechanisms of ayahuasca included that ceremonial experiences: support participants to process and integrate underlying causes of the illness; facilitate physical, spiritual, mental and emotional healing; enhance and reorganize relationships with symptoms, self, community and creation; and support healing through a general shamanic approach. From their perspective, ayahuasca offers a potentially new and novel treatment option in the healing of eating disorders.