Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome guest Dr. Emily Tunks, Founder of Embody Being and Research Trial Psychedelics Assisted Psychotherapist, to the podcast to explore her work in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for first responders and her passion for understanding potential somatic implications of psychedelic medicines. Dr. Tunks shares her experience and knowledge regarding therapist support and well-being, and discusses the need for integrating Indigenous wisdom into psychedelic research.   

The conversation explores somatic and relational foundations in psychedelic therapy, and Dr. Tonks emphasizes the importance of somatic psychotherapy and relational depth in supporting clients through expanded states of consciousness. She advocates for an approach where nervous system regulation, co-regulation, and attachment repair are key components, especially when working with medicines like MDMA and psilocybin. Dr. Tunks questions the fixation on mystical experiences as therapeutic benchmarks. Instead, she proposes measuring success through the quality of the relational field, the client’s safety, and their capacity to experience nourishment and trust.

Dr. T and Truth Fairy discuss the therapist's experience with Dr. Tunks, especially in the areas of burnout, well-being, and regulation. They highlight the need for therapist preparation, including their own embodiment practices, peer support, and supervised exposure to non-ordinary states. Dr. Tunks identifies something called the “trough of disillusionment,” which she explains as the time where hype around psychedelics comes face-to-face with the reality of systemic limitations and poor trial design. There is a need to mature the movement and deepen ethics, which Dr. T and Truth Fairy address with Dr. Tunks.

“You know you have contact highs, as you said, if you've done a work… if you have some neurodiversion in there. If you've got some, hopefully, some intuition. We are going to feel stuff. We are going to have contact highs and we're going to have trauma lows, and being able to hold relationships, you know, in a way that will also meet regulatory standards. Let's not forget that when we're working above ground, we have to always be able to justify our behavior to sometimes people who have never had a therapy session in their life, like our medical boards, our registration boards. They are in an old paradigm.” - Dr. Emily Tunks
 

About Dr. Emily Tunks:

Emily aims to support individuals understand their whole selves, body and mind, so that their health, relationships and life purpose may thrive, in spite of physical set-backs and ongoing challenges.

Emily co-majored in Psychology and Psychophysiology at Swinburne University, and after obtaining first class honours, she was awarded a full scholarship to complete a Doctorate of Psychology (Health) at Deakin University. Her doctoral qualitative research investigated Australian specialists' attitudes and practices of end-of-life care and organ donation, which was published in a high impact, international SAGE scientific journal: Journal of Health Psychology (under previous name: E. Macvean). 

Emily is a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc. and is endorsed in Health Psychology (AHPRA). She maintains a commitment to excellence through researching best-practice techniques and her strong understanding of health psychology, clinical psychology, attachment, physiology, somatic (body) psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, ecotherapy and psychoneuroimmunology. Both in session and outside, Emily draws on her modern practice of Eastern contemplation traditions and is a graduate of Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy professional training.

Emily is honoured to be a co-therapist in several local and international clinical research trials for Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (psilocybin with depression at Swinburne University and MDMA with PTSD at Monash University, collaborating with MAPS). In preparation for this humbling work, Emily continues to train extensively with several leading international PAP and trauma experts, local PAP integration and somatic psychotherapists. She deeply respects the healing potential of “non-ordinary” states of consciousness but most importantly, their safe, ethical, and practical integration.

In addition to private clinical work, Emily has over a decade of multidisciplinary team experience in world-leading pain management and chronic illness hospital units, rehabilitation units, community health settings and university lecturing.

Contact Dr. Emily Tunks:

Website: EmbodyBeing.com.au

LinkedIn: DrEmilyTunks

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• Ram Dass
• “Becoming Somebody Before Becoming Nobody: Somatic and Relational Approaches to MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy”

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Contact Punk Therapy:

Patreon: Patreon.com/PunkTherapy

Website: PunkTherapy.com

Email: [email protected]

 

Contact Truth Fairy: 

Email: [email protected]

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