Myriah MacIntyre is a Ph.D. candidate studying clinical psychology at the University of Ottawa, focusing her research on the impact of traditional medicines and psychedelics on healing racial trauma. In our conversation, Myriah shares about her own lived experience as a Black Caribbean-Indigenous lesbian woman, and how her identities have intersected with her research choices, but also with her own personal psychedelic unfolding. Growing up in a small Canadian city and attending a Lutheran private school, she felt isolated due to her race and sexuality. As she shares in this episode, what carried her through then-- and continues to now-- is her connection to spirituality and to music, which is a special relationship she talks about with us, both as a musician and as someone who has experienced chromesthesia from a very young age.

Shownotes

• Info about Chromosthesia: https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/
• Girls/Womxn skate group in Ottawa (Instagram @): girlsskate613
• Calm/comforting frequencies: 528 Hz Spotify playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWTvEFX6xtoQd
• Information on racial trauma: Racial Trauma resources http://www.racialtraumahealing.com/client-worksheets.php
• The Lab for Culture and Mental Health Disparities website: https://www.mentalhealthdisparities.org/
• Myriah's personal links
  • LinkedIn: Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-myriah-macintyre-106bb2197/
  • Instagram: Myriah MacIntyre IG https://www.instagram.com/myriahmacintyre/
  • Research Gate: Myriah MacIntyre Publications https://www.researchgate.net/profile/M-Macintyre

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Bonney Elliott is a dual-licensed registered psychotherapist and nurse practitioner based in Ottawa, Canada. Working in private practice and group retreat settings, she has a decades-long career supporting people grieving loss and chronic illness, people recovering from trauma and those navigating significant life transitions. As we will hear in this episode, Bonney is also a person learning to caretake herself and find her own joy. After a childhood peppered with references to psychedelics in the 70’s and 80s, and a difficult first encounter with mushrooms in her early 20s, Bonney’s interest in psychedelics lay dormant but was eventually reignited by a CBC radio piece a few years ago about the connection between end of life distress and psilocybin mushrooms. From there she made her way to her first supported experience with psychedelics, and was able to experience some of the care and joy that she had been providing others throughout her life.

Shownotes

• Bonney's professional website: bonneyelliott.ca 
• A link to the CBC Tapestry podcast on psychedelics and end of life that inspired her re-engagement with psychedelic curiosity: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/can-psychedelic-drugs-help-ease-the-fear-of-death-1.2992608

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Doris is a neuroscientist who has over 25 years of experience working in the field of substance use and addiction. She has worn many hats over the years - from rave kid and community harm reduction advocate in the 90s, to becoming an academic research scientist using brain imaging to understand addiction, to serving as knowledge mobilizer supporting evidence-informed policies, programs, and decisions. However in our conversation together, we dive deeply into her personal journey with psychedelic substances, and how her evolving relationship to them has impacted not just her career choices, but perhaps more importantly, her relationship to herself, her psyche and her spirit.

Shownotes

• DanceSafe, a community dedicated to promoting safety within the rave and nightlife community, where Doris started and led a chapter in her early years: https://dancesafe.org/
• The Beckley Foundation: https://www.beckleyfoundation.org/
• Two of Doris' favourite raver songs: 'Knights of the Jaguar' by the Aztec Mystic (https://youtu.be/lLq8c2xuL6E?si=RrhrJUSYgseUgFMc); and 'Revolution 909' by Daft Punk (https://youtu.be/Wtd6DvLoCsU?si=dEmujAYAa0-LHyao)
• And a shout out to the Arboretum crew and the Konfused? Krew, which she didn't do by name in the podcast episode but wished she had!

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Yamina Abassi is a lover of life, a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, and she makes sense of the how's and why's of life through relationship and connection. Her journey with psychedelics began as a young adult in recreational settings, and she quickly became fascinated with its potential to offer new ways of understanding herself, others, and the world around her. This curiosity and love for people, along with a near-death experience at the age of 25, led her to pursue academic avenues of connection and support to be able to continue to engage in this space in professional settings. In this episode, Yamina shares her early childhood experiences trying to make sense of herself in relation to the rest of the world, her first psychedelic experience, as well as her near-death experience at age 25 and the mystical spiritual opening she went through after the accident, which factored prominently in her psychedelic unfolding.

Shownotes

• Flow State, the clinic where Yamina works in Ottawa: https://www.flowstatetherapy.ca/
• Finding the 'others' with the Ottawa Psychedelic Education Network: https://www.ottpsychedelic.ca/

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Judith is a New York-born-and-bred naturalized Canadian mother of two young adults. She is a technical writer and trainer, and like many folks curious about psychedelics, also a life-long learner. She came to the psychedelic community in 2018 as she was seeking relief from overwhelming grief, depression, and anxiety. As we hear in this episode, Judith took a measured approach to her entry into the psychedelic space, coming to psychedelics seeking healing, and ultimately finding that and much more. Our chat wends its way through her childhood in Brooklyn and how her family played a role in her eventual first psychedelic encounters, and takes us into her first solo and supported experiences, all of which played an important role in shaping some of the guiding values that she continues to embody in her life.

Shownotes

• Kelley Brogan (https://www.kellybroganmd.com/) and her book on gut health for mental health (https://www.kellybroganmd.com/books/a-mind-of-your-own)
• Ayelet Waldman (https://www.ayeletwaldman.com/) and her microdosing book ‘A Really Good Day’ (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30212082-a-really-good-day)
• Adam Strauss (https://adamstrauss.com/) and his play “The Mushroom Cure” (https://www.themushroomcure.com/)
• A link to the Fadiman microdosing protocol (https://microdosinginstitute.com/how-to/microdosing-protocols/#fadiman-protocol)

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Raymond Feng is a breakdancer, writer, appreciator of life, and a self-described life-long learner. He discovered his passion for psychonautics through psychedelic medicine and spirituality, and has brought that passion into his life in a variety of ways. Academically, he has finished two Bachelor degrees at University of Ottawa, one in Biomedical Sciences and the other in Psychology, and recently completed a Master’s in Mental Health Counselling & Behavioral Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Raymond ‘s balanced nature is on full display as he shares about his first psychedelic experience, which challenged him to trust his connection to self and others in some life-changing ways.

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Manzar Zare is a Muslim woman, mother, legal professional and PhD student who is conducting research on psychedelics and the mental health of people of color, with a particular focus on support to Muslim women. This research naturally played a big role in her decision to have her own experience with psychedelics, which she recently undertook in a well supported psychedelic retreat centre in Jamaica. This decision to have her own healing experience with psychedelics also came out of becoming a mother and navigating her own mental health struggles with postpartum depression. Manzar embodies thoughtfulness in all senses of the word: both in her caring for the lived experience of others, and in her long-standing desire to explore and understand the human experience with her whole mind, body and spirit-- all of which is on full display in this episode.

Shownotes

Manzar's most recent publication:

• Zare, M., & Williams, M. T. (2024). Muslim Women and Psychedelics: a Look at the Past, Present, and Future. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 22(2), 897–912. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-023-01108-9

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Joe La Torre is a psychedelic enthusiast and researcher, currently serving as Lead Research Psychologist at the Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry (NTAP) at the University of Washington, where he co-leads a variety of research including a three-year Phase 2 psilocybin safety clinical trial funded by the state of Washington. In our conversation together in this episode, Joe shares his path towards psychedelics which includes being confronted with his academic pursuits in Buddhist studies, learning what it takes to navigate the shifting of his friendships and relationships, and ultimately being encouraged to reimagine what he thought his life’s path might look like.

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Laura Ritzie is a counsellor with over 20 years of experience supporting clients in both the public and private sectors. She is also a PhD student with a passion for researching psilocybin in ceremony and contributing to conversations about loss, grief and our relationship with death. She is curious about people's experiences of connection in relation to resilience, meaning making and flourishing.    

In our chat together, Laura shares about her own brushes with serious illness and her own mortality, her discovery of cannabis to help heal, and how this curiosity about alternate healing modalities led to her first psychedelic experience in her 40s.

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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Trigger Warning: discussions of suicide and suicidality

Kellen Saxberg is a self-proclaimed queer history nerd, psychedelic enthusiast, and student researcher on the intersection of queerness, psychedelics and healing. In our conversation together, Kellen and I talk about navigating conservativism and queerness in their youth, their experiences of losing a sense of self, experiencing awe and cultivating trust, and eventually moving towards finding their way back home, both literally and figuratively, in their first psychedelic experience.

A reminder that this episode contains explicit discussion of suicide. This warning is meant to empower you with the knowledge you need to make healthy decisions about how and if you should consume this podcast content. We invite you to practice self-care and do what feels right for you. And if you need support, please connect with someone who can help: family and friends, professionals, or a crisis line. There are both Canadian and international recommendations in the show notes below. You are not alone-- not in your pain, nor in your healing.

Shownotes

Links to

• Kellen’s grandfather, Donald Ross, served as one of Canada’s first openly gay ordained ministers: https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/article/id-323/Minister,_advocate,_dad,_hero
• The quote “A book is a suicide postponed” is from Emil M. Cioran’s The Trouble With Being Born (1973)  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117564.The_Trouble_With_Being_Born

Below are some Canadian and international mental health resources to access if you are in distress or need support:

• Crisis Services Canada: https://988.ca/
• Befrienders Worldwide (crisis lines serving 32 countries): https://befrienders.org/ 
• International Directory of Mental Health Helplines: https://www.helpguide.org/find-help.htm
• The Fireside Project (US-only psychedelic-specific support): https://firesideproject.org/ 
• Psychology Today (to find a therapist in North America): https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/therapists

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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