PhD Aaron D. Cherniak

Aaron D. Cherniak, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Israel Center on Addiction and Mental Health (ICAMH) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He earned a BA in Psychology and Rabbinic Ordination at Yeshiva University, MA in Clinical Psychology at Reichman University, and a PhD in Psychology at Stockholm University. His research examines the intersection of spirituality/religion and mental health, using a mixed-methods approach that goes beyond descriptive questions to investigate specific causal mechanisms. This interest includes transcendent emotions in everyday life, contemplative exercises, psychedelics, and intense spiritual experiences, and deals with both favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Since completing his clinical residency at the outset of the Israel-Hamas war, Aaron has been treating trauma and depression among soldiers, first responders, and civilians in Shaare Zedek Medical Center. 

Recent years have seen a revival of psychedelic research, however evidence-based explanatory models are still nascent, and there is a need for comprehensive, widely agreed-upon theoretical frameworks to explain the underlying processes and mechanisms of change. This presentation describes a relational psychedelic science informed by attachment theory, one of the most enduring and influential psychological theories that “reaches from the biological depths of our being to its furthest spiritual reaches” (Holmes, 2014, p. 83). Decades of research support the role of attachment to the many fields relevant to psychedelics, including lifespan development, self-regulation and related cognitive processes, interpersonal relationships, psychotherapy, and neuroscience, not to mention the religious, spiritual, or mystical experiences that often characterize psychedelic phenomenology. I outline how an attachment theory framework may help integrate key findings and concepts from the growing body of psychedelic literature, generate testable hypotheses, and inform clinical implementation.