Sarah Merritt MD is board certified in anesthesiology, pain medicine, and addiction medicine.  She is a clinician in private practice in Bowie, Maryland.  She advocates for patients and empowers them to get the most from their relationship with their pain physicians, other doctors, and healthcare providers.  She works with patients to find small, practical changes in their daily lives that empower them to help better manage pain and improve their overall health. As part of her journey as a doctor, several years ago Dr. Merritt began offering ketamine infusions for pain and depression.  She has seen excellent results and loves to discuss this treatment, the evidence for it, and some of the patient experiences. Dr. Merritt has extensive experience in the management of acute and chronic pain, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of opioid use disorder.  She is a mom of 2 boys, a german shepherd, and a private practice owner.

“My life been a journey of pain, and making sense of that.”

Currently a Spiritual Counselor at Hospice of New Mexico, Jeremy has a rich educational history in Religious Studies + Political Science. As a queer, non-christian person, Jeremy has a Masters in Divinity AND a Master in Sacred Theology with a concentration in chaplaincy that allowed them to consider spiritual care for the LGBTQIA+ survivors of sexual, domestic, and intimate partner violence.

They are particularly interested in ways that individuals engage with the divine non-traditionally. Enter, psychedelics.

From seeking out psychedelics as trauma survival support to spiritual exploration, Jeremy vulnerably puts words to the profundity of their experiences in the psychedelic realm.

This is a special one. Thank you for being here.

As mentioned:

The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku:

https://www.brianmuraresku.com/the-immortality-key

Elle’s podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sacred-vortex-podcast/id1602878134

https://open.spotify.com/show/5TNozpjOc2G3gqTVrgQVes?si=61ff0125447b4c87

“We’re so fortunate to be in this time, in this country, pursuing psychedelic research.”

This is rich one, listener.

Dr. Lawrence Leeman received his degree from University of California, San Francisco in 1988 and completed residency training in Family Medicine at UNM. He practiced rural Family Medicine at the Zuni/Ramah Indian Health Service Hospital for six years. He subsequently earned a fellowship in Obstetrics. He is board certified in Family and Addiction Medicine. He directs the Family Medicine Maternal and Child Health service and fellowship and co-medical director of the UNM Hospital Mother-Baby Unit. Dr. Leeman practices family medicine with a special interest in the care of pregnant women and newborns. He is Medical Director of the Milagro Program that provides prenatal care and maternity care services to women with substance abuse problems. Dr. Leeman is a Professor in the Departments of Family & Community Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is currently the Medical Editor for the nationwide Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) program. Current areas of research include rural maternity care, perinatal opioid use disorder, neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome, and the use of psychedelic assisted therapies for trauma and addiction. He is the site PI for three NIH grants in the involving opioid use disorder in pregnancy and neonatal effects.

Dr. Leeman amplifies the honor and indigenous reciprocity that psychedelic research and utilization demands. We hold the ironic truth of psychedelics as “ancient novel therapeutics.”

Music by Shervin Hajipour, a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from Tehran called, “Baraye.”

He was arrested two days after the song's release by Iranian intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY_U5QfeQQc&ab_channel=PirouzShamekh

“The world is looking to women as an emerging power capable of shifting the paradigm of war, violence, and nationalist hostility. The divine feminine is capable of writing a new story for humanity.” 

- Deepak Chopra

This week, Dr. Fatemi speaks on the revolution and evolution of consciousness that is happening in her homeland, Iran.

We touch on:

Thank you for holding this.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-support-trauma-training-for-iranians

https://cmbm.org/our-work/

This week on Conscious Physician: Medicine + Psychedelics, we have the pleasure of chatting with Sharon Fekete.  

Sharon Fekete is the Founder of The Doctor Whisperer and has been whispering strategies to physicians for almost 20 years. As a firm believer in advocating toward improved mental health, she published ‘The Broken Road to Mental Health, in Life & in Business on her 25th sober anniversary. She now speaks to corporate about the importance of mental health in the workplace and shares her own previous struggles with addiction, depression, and recovery.

In this episode, we hold Sharon's profound sobriety journey. Her lived experience includes crippling depression, houselessness, suicidality, several treatment centers, and multiple years of radio silence toward her family. We relish in Sharon's strength and amplify her story. 

Sharon’s Podcast Episode with Lida:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tdw-show-feat-dr-lida-fatemi-is-the-conscious-physician/id1353818377?i=1000582884829

Connect with Sharon:

https://linktr.ee/sharonfekete

Connect with Dr. Fatemi:

This week, our very own podcast producer, Elle Knowlton, joins Lida at the mic to share her vulnerable sobriety story. After a traumatic event in 2019, Elle turned to alcohol as a means of self-soothing. More than a year of daily drinking later, she bravely asked her mom for help, who directed her to a local psychiatrist offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy treatments for mental health and addiction. She completed 6 treatments, spanning 3 months, and hasn't touched a drink since. Although an inherently miraculous tale, Elle paints a realistic picture of the positives and the negatives Ketamine inflicted: it shook her out of her rhythm and made sobriety feel possible (can't wait for you to hear one particular visual she experienced while under the medicine) but it also imposed a mild dissociation from her life - something that took months of integrations to shake. 

Lida puts word to the profundity of watching Elle on this sobriety journey and the two amplify the Medicine + Psychedelic mantra of INTENTION around every aspect of the psychedelic experience. 

This is a special one. Thank you for listening. 

Checkout Elle's Podcast, to hear her sobriety story in depth:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sacred-vortex-podcast/id1602878134?i=1000547957039

https://open.spotify.com/episode/08gpUyRkJeHbDZMi4JRwrE?si=af0313b510ee4924

Connect with Dr. Fatemi:

https://drlida.family

Dr. Fatemi's upcoming retreat: Psilocybin Assisted Coaching 

https://www.consciousphysician.org/get-started/p/psilocybin-assisted-coaching-retreat 

Welcome to part two of our conversation with Dr. Brandon Warrick.

In this second half of our episode, we discuss the correlation between mental health and physical health - and the way DIS-EASE manifests in the body. We mention Gabor Mate and his juicy offerings:

https://drgabormate.com/book/the-myth-of-normal/

We touch on modern psychedelic intervention for addiction, focusing on alcohol research.

Brandon reminds us that this is not a new phenomenon - psychedelics have realistically been used in this way for thousands of years, all around the globe.

We hold the vision for a future where psychedelic intervention is remarkably available, especially for addiction intervention and end-of-life care.

As always, we recognize the NEED for psychotherapy and life/spiritual practices before, during, and after psychedelic treatment!

Thank you for being here. Chat soon.

Connect with Dr. Fatemi: https://drlida.family

This week the Conscious Physician Podcast shares the mic with Dr. Fatemi’s colleague and mentor Brandon Warrick, MD. Warrick was born and raised in South Dakota where he entered the medical field as a nurse before attending medical school. He then completed his residency in emergency medicine, worked in private practice, pursued a fellowship in medical toxicology, was boarded in addiction medicine, became teaching faculty in emergency medicine at UNM, and so much more.

In part one of this episode, we take in Dr. Warrick’s expertise in the realm of addiction, discussing New Mexico and the US at large’s upward-trending addiction rates. We learn about fentanyl, the trauma of substance abuse, and the complexity of medical intervention.

Connect with Dr. Fatemi: https://drlida.family

“How do you have a more spiritual psychedelic experience? Well, you live a more spiritual life.”

This week on the Conscious Physician Podcast we chat with Dr. Rick Strassman, the first American psychiatrist to conduct psychedelic research on a human control group following the Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

Dr. Strassman shares his wealth of psychedelic wisdom ranging from the necessity of intention in psychedelic pursuit (why are you called to this modality?) to the importance of integration.

May your ears delight in this rich conversation.

Invest in Dr. Strassman’s book: The Psychedelic Handbook: https://www.rickstrassman.com/store/the-psychedelic-handbook/

Connect with Dr. Fatemi: https://drlida.family

Welcome, beloved listener, to Medicine + Psychedelics, a podcast where we discuss science, spirituality, and psychedelic medicine as healing modalities to optimize human life. In this space, we’ll hear from experts in the field, share personal stories, and put words to the profundity of this work.

In the premiere episode, cohosts Dr. Lida Fatemi and Elle Knowlton introduce themselves, their stories, and the vision for this educational offering. 

Connect with us here: https://drlida.family

End Child Torture interview with Dr. Fatemi: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VBnlgl1EzqXhLZrVCPFyP?si=tVfqZaeATsuOhRm9_cUzVQ