Ibogaine treatment is an immensely powerful process which has the potential to successfully treat a number of serious health problems. Whether you are dealing with a stubborn addiction, a mental health disorder, or are looking to explore your potential for personal and spiritual growth, ibogaine treatment can help. However, ibogaine treatment isn’t a miracle cure or a magic bullet. Taken on its own, it won’t simply erase your problems. In order to maximize its healing power, you’ll need to find a program that offers the support and therapy you require to overcome your affliction. You’ll also need to put in hard work to find the ideal ibogaine treatment provider for your needs, to get yourself physically and mentally prepared for the ibogaine treatment experience, and to manifest the potential for health and happiness that this incredible plant can cultivate within you. Ibogaine treatment isn’t a destination, it’s the beginning of the journey back to your best self. With that in mind, let’s examine 3 questions you’ll need to answer when choosing an ibogaine treatment provider.

1) How Do You Structure Your Treatment?

While not everyone requires the same levels of supplementary care, complementary treatment, and therapy, it is vitally important to ask a prospective treatment center about these options. If they simply offer you ibogaine and claim that it will yield spectacular results, this is a massive red flag. Any reputable ibogaine provider should offer you detailed information on the treatment process which includes their approach to screening clients, pre-care, and after-care.

Ibogaine isn’t going to instantly end your addiction, and you will greatly increase the chance of a positive outcome if you approach it with forethought, caution, and respect. At Tabula Rasa Retreat we have worked with Ibogaine Counselling Services to develop a pre-treatment regimen which will help you create an effective focus for your ibogaine experience, set intentions, and explore the unconscious processes that underpin addictive behavior. We offer a host of complementary treatments which we feel enhance the positive effects of ibogaine after it leaves your system, including yoga, Naikan therapy, equine therapy, and traditional talk therapy. And our industry-leading after-care program includes weekly meetings of the Ibogaine Recovery Movement and trained counselors who are always a phone call away.

We know that every patient enters treatment with different goals and needs. We also recognize that our approach may not be right for everyone. But if a treatment center hasn’t put thought and care into developing complementary therapies and is telling you that ibogaine is a panacea that will immediately end your addiction, they simply aren’t being honest. You need to find an ibogaine center that gives you the tools and skills to deal with the root causes that underlie your addiction.

2) Have You Had Any Adverse Situations? How Did You React To Them?

Ibogaine is an extremely powerful substance. It can cause a host of serious side-effects, including the loss of muscle control, nausea, low blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, anxiety, and other issues. As with most substances, as the dose taken gets larger, the possibility of an adverse reaction grows. But it should also be noted that many ibogaine advocates recommend “flood dosing” as the most effective form of the treatment. With this in mind, it stands to reason that any provider who has a great deal of experience in the field will have experienced an adverse event during treatment.

The answers this question receives are critically important to you for two main reasons. Firstly, a provider who claims they’ve never experienced an adverse reaction is likely to be either inexperienced, dishonest, or both. That’s not what you’re looking for in someone monitoring you for potentially fatal side-effects. Secondly, ibogaine exists in a legal gray area, or is strictly illegal, in a number of jurisdictions around the world, including the UK, the USA, and most of Asia (for a list of regions where the substance can be legally accessed, click here). If a trip to an emergency room could lead to criminal charges or jail time for you or your provider, we’d recommend against seeking treatment in that jurisdiction. You need to know whether your ibogaine provider is prepared to whisk you to the nearest hospital if the need arises. The possibility of fatal outcomes exists, but it can be effectively eliminated if proper precautions are taken.  

3) Do You Follow The Guidelines Of The Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance (GITA)?

The Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance is an organization of medical professionals, treatment centers, and advocates for the responsible use of ibogaine in treating addiction and mental illness. Because of the substance’s murky legal status, there aren’t many regulations or clinical guidelines which govern treatment centers. For prospective patients, the onus is on you to find a provider who takes their duty of care to heart and views patient safety as their fundamental concern. 

GITA’s “Ibogaine Patient’s Bill of Rights” is a good start. GITA was founded by Howard Lotsof, an American who used ibogaine to free himself from the nightmare of heroin addiction and has been a pioneering and prophetic voice in the movement to utilize the unique plant’s addiction fighting capabilities for decades. The Bill of Rights outlines the information and care that a treatment provider owes you, including knowledge of the dose and form of ibogaine you’ll be given, complete information about your treatment, control over decisions taken regarding your treatment, and the rights to safety and complete privacy.  

While you’ll need to discover more information about the safety precautions, emergency planning, health screening, and the experience and expertise of those caring for you, ensuring a facility complies with GITA’s guidelines is a good start. If you get the sense that a treatment center is unfamiliar with, or reluctant to comply with these guidelines, turn around and walk away. Convenience and price are important factors in choosing a provider, but they’re not worth putting your life at risk.

At Tabula Rasa Retreat we take enormous pride in the safety precautions we’ve established, and our track record of maintaining the health and safety of our clients. If you’d like to learn more about the guidelines that govern our treatment, click here. If you’re interested in starting your ibogaine journey with us, get in touch today!