Ayahuasca and Complex Grief: A Clinical Case Report

The client, a 38-year-old woman, presented with complicated grief (ICD-11 6B42) 4 years after the sudden death of her 6-year-old child. She had completed 18 months of grief-focused therapy with minimal improvement, meeting criteria for prolonged grief disorder with severe impairment. After thorough screening and preparation, she attended two ayahuasca ceremonies in a traditional Amazonian context, followed by structured integration therapy.

In the first ceremony, the client reported a vivid encounter with her child, who communicated 'I am okay, you can live.' In the second, she experienced a visceral release of physical tension in her chest that she described as 'the grief leaving my body.' In the weeks following, her Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) score dropped from 58 to 24, and at 6-month follow-up was 19 (below the clinical threshold of 25).

The case illustrates several clinical points. First, the experiential dimension of the ayahuasca encounter — the felt sense of communication and release — appears to have accomplished what cognitive processing alone could not. Second, the integration phase was essential: the client used the ceremony experiences as reference points for ongoing therapeutic work. Third, the case does not suggest ayahuasca as a standalone treatment; the ceremonies were embedded in a therapeutic framework that gave them meaning and direction.