By Dr. T, The Truth Fairy
5
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The podcast currently has 36 episodes available.
Content Warning: Talk of death by suicide, suicidal ideation, and sexual abuse
Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome former NHL hockey player Corey Hirsch to the podcast to talk about medicine and mental health. Corey was drafted by the New York Rangers and played many seasons for the Vancouver Canucks but after retiring from playing hockey and becoming a coach and Sportsnet analyst, he turned his life and his focus to mental health. Corey is a firm believer in psychedelic medicine and wants to remove the stigma of its use in sports communities.
Corey shares his mental health journey and his battle with OCD with Dr. T and Truth Fairy and describes how he ventured into psychedelics two years ago after not finding the right therapeutic fit in other modalities. He found his way “back to his life”, as he puts it, and ascribes a great sense of hope and relief to psychedelics. The different perspective he gained and his positive experience led him to his fight against stigma today. Corey also talks openly about how death by suicide has impacted him personally and the peace medicine gave him around that trauma.
Truth Fairy describes how she met Corey and Corey shares the story behind that meeting, in which he experienced an intense journey into self-love after some medicine. One of the things Corey stresses is how working with medicine has opened him up and given him compassion and more love in life. Dr. T, Truth Fairy, and Corey discuss the intricacies of OCD and where it stems from, examine the emotional abuse inherent in a hockey player’s career, and examine Corey’s newfound purpose in life. This episode shines a light on how useful psychedelic medicine can be as applied to mental health and how the stigma only hurts people’s opportunities to experience this type of healing for themselves.
“It gives me a different perspective. You know, it's amazing when you sit with psychedelics and you think, oh, this person screwed me over or this happened or that happened, and it shows you a different angle of it. And it's like, wow, I did not even think of that perspective, right? And it's taught me to venture into things with kindness and love.” - Corey Hirsch
About Corey Hirsch:
By the time he was 21 years old Corey Hirsch had drunk from the Stanley Cup and won a silver medal at the Winter Olympics, but these accomplishments no longer mattered to him. Born in Medicine Hat and raised in Calgary, he was drafted by the New York Rangers and played for many seasons with the Vancouver Canucks. After retiring from play, Hirsch became an NHL coach for elite goaltenders and prospects, and later an analyst with Sportsnet. Dedicated to ending the stigma of mental health, he is also a co-host of The Players’ Tribune podcast, Blindsided. In October 2022 Corey released his first book—The Save of My Life—a compelling look behind the mask of a professional hockey player that offers both understanding and hope to anyone living with mental illness.
Website: CoreyHirsch.com
Book: “The Save of My Life” by Corey Hirsch
Podcast: Blindsided
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Website: PunkTherapy.com
Email: [email protected]
Dr. T and Truth Fairy are delighted to welcome a very special guest to the show in this episode. Rachel Harris, PhD, the author of Swimming in the Sacred, joins them for an intimate conversation about what led her to write the book and what it contains. She details how wise women are largely left out of the larger conversation on psychedelic potential and shares knowledge from the women guides she talked with who had never been interviewed before.
One of the points Rachel makes is that the women guides are not therapists and do not refer to themselves as therapists. They will refer to therapists outside themselves. We tend to be the ones who have conflated psychedelic guides with therapists. Rachel talks about how long traditional indigenously trained shamans will be considered apprentices and some of the ceremonies around the work they do. Rachel’s own experiences touch on many ancient wisdoms and draw from years of study and research beyond physical work with medicines and awareness.
Rachel describes lifelong learning and an unending search through experiences, a continuous exploration of self and spirituality, of being alive in the work of medicine. She expresses the need to talk about not exactly adverse experiences but about the reality of what can be experienced, of the truths of the challenges the medicine presents. Rachel’s wisdom ignites strong memories and insight from both Dr. T and Truth Fairy and what evolves is a conversation so deep and honest that it is not to be missed.
“Well, you know, these women are self-selected in a way that they've had unusual spiritual experiences, many of them, in their lives, often from childhood on. And... I write about this in the book because, to me, it's just very fascinating. Because I had this qualification, I had unusual spiritual experiences. I was missing a few other pieces, but that one I had. And so in that way I was similar to them. And I think because they have these unusual spiritual experiences, which, by the way, they don't mention to anybody ... They often say, I have never told anyone this and then they report an unusual spiritual experience, because our culture doesn't support this.” - Rachel Harris
About Rachel Harris:
Psychologist Rachel Harris, PhD is the author of Swimming in the Sacred: Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground. She was in private practice for thirty-five years working with people interested in psychospiritual development. During a decade working in research, Rachel received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award and published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals. She has also consulted with Fortune 500 companies.
Rachel was in the 1968 Esalen Residential Program, Big Sur, CA. This intensive six-month program focused on meditation and bodywork. In the early 1970s, Rachel studied with Dorothy Nolte in the movement system, Structural Awareness, based on Dr. Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration (Rolfing). Rachel also co-edited the Journal of the American Dance Therapy Association for three years. Awareness of how people live and move in their bodies has always been an aspect of Rachel’s approach to psychotherapy.
In 2005 Rachel traveled to a retreat center in Costa Rica and serendipitously found herself with the opportunity to drink ayahuasca with Ecuadorian shamans. The morning after her first ceremony, Rachel began asking questions about the therapeutic potential of this medicine. She conducted a three-year research project with Lee Gurel, PhD that resulted in “A Study of Ayahuasca Use in North America,” published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (Summer, 2012). Rachel is the author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD and Anxiety.
Rachel Harris Website: SwimmingInTheSacred.com
Book: “Swimming in the Sacred: Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground” by Rachel Harris
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Resources discussed in this episode:
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Website: PunkTherapy.com
Email: [email protected]
In this episode, Dr. T hosts an interview between author Rita Bozi and guest interviewer Matt Russell, as Truth Fairy is unfortunately absent. Rita Bozi is a highly experienced trauma-informed facilitator, psychedelic therapist, author, and director of Brilliant Healing, In. Matt Russell is a private practice psychotherapist and scholar with a background in Spanish Literature and intergenerational trauma studies. Matt interviews Rita about her novel “When I Was Better” which is based on her parents' experiences during and after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, blending personal and historical narratives to explore themes of trauma, survival, and healing.
Rita shares her journey in writing the novel, describing it as a complex and healing process that took nine years and ten drafts to complete. Initially, she was loyal to the real-life events of her family's history, struggling to fictionalize the story, but eventually embraced creative freedom which allowed her to deepen her characters and more fully explore their experiences. The process also involved confronting and processing her own anger and trauma, facilitated by psychedelic therapies with ayahuasca and ketamine. Through these experiences, Rita was able to soften her portrayal of her parents, bringing a more nuanced and empathetic view to their characters in her novel.
Matt, Rita, and Dr. T delve into the significance of the Hungarian Revolution and Rita explains the profound impact of these events on her family and her need to understand and portray this historical and emotional landscape accurately. The interview touches on broader themes of intergenerational trauma and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of oppression, highlighting the importance of kindness and empathy in healing. Through the novel, Rita aims to honor her parents' struggles while exploring the broader human capacity for both cruelty and compassion.
“But it wasn't until I sat with ketamine that I felt into my essential nature and that my essential nature was kindness. And from there I started to build a practice around kindness and I started to decolonize. I started to understand what does it mean to decolonize this brutality, so that then I could, instead of commanding people or … demanding change and demanding that people heal or demand that people behave a certain way, I started to understand more deeply that we behave the way we do because of what's happened to us. In understanding that and understanding, you know, what really happened to my parents, what really happened to my brother, what really happened to my ancestors, and embodying that… then I could start developing a sense of kindness, you know?” - Rita Bozi
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About Rita Bozi:
Raised by Hungarian refugees, Rita is a Somatic Relational trauma and psychedelic-informed Facilitator, a multidisciplinary creator, playwright, and retired professional actor and dancer. For 25 years, her co-written play ‘52 Pick Up’ was staged in Canada, the US, England, Australia, France, Iceland and New Zealand and translated into French and Icelandic.
Rita has been published in The New Quarterly, FFWD Weekly, WritingRaw.com, and Unlikely 2.0. THIS Magazine awarded her 3rd Prize in their Great Canadian Literary Hunt in 2012. Her travel stories have been broadcast on CBC Radio Calgary. She is an Alumna of The Humber School for Writers and a graduate of The National Ballet School. Her life practice is kindness and her life partner is Ken Cameron.
Website: BrilliantHealingSystems.com
Book: “When I Was Better” by Rita Bozi
About Matt Russell:
Matt Russell is a graduate of the MAPS MDMA Assisted Therapy Training. As a certified Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner, he trained with world renowned addiction and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté. He is also part of the facilitation team supporting Dr. Maté in the year-long Compassionate Inquiry training for therapists.
Matt has trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), and Buddhist Chaplaincy. He teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and his therapeutic work incorporates mindfulness and somatic/body-based methods of inquiry. Prior to becoming certified as a psychotherapist, Matt earned a PhD in Spanish Literature from UC Davis, where he researched intergenerational trauma, and taught at various universities.
Contact Matt Russell
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Website: PunkTherapy.com
Email: [email protected]
CW: This episode contains talk of sex and genital touching.
In this episode, Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome guest Caffyn Jesse to the show. Caffyn is an author, queer elder, and teacher of somatic sexual wellness. In their latest book, Caffyn describes an ongoing inquiry into somatics, the erotic, and psychedelic medicine. Caffyn refers to themselves as an outlaw who cherishes other outlaws. They are a queer person who was born in the days when “it was illegal to be one,” who is involved in the outlaw realms of sex work and psychedelic medicine. They find belonging in intimacies outside the rules and expectations of the ordinary world.
The conversation around sex and sex education explores the sacred contract between a client’s voice and the practitioner. Understanding the neuroendocrine system helps the world of somatic sex education and opens the door to empowering the client to request wanted touch rather than submitting to touch they think the practitioner requires. Caffyn feels called to bring a more sophisticated understanding of ethical practices involving the erotic and sexual body touch to practitioners.
Dr. T and Truth Fairy both discuss the concept of slowing down and welcoming asking for something over demanding it while exploring the openness of Caffyn’s work. Caffyn encourages bodies to manifest superpowers and for a deeper connection to the soma, the body, by way of sensation, breath, and massage. The themes of somatic sexual understanding that Caffyn studies and teaches lean towards the natural and ecstatic, they can encompass psychedelic work and trauma healing, and focus on alignment of being. There is so much queer exploration, sexual navigation, and ecstatic understanding touched on and talked about with openness and care in this episode. Caffyn provides a caring and studied perspective on topics not often discussed openly enough.
“... this rhythm of going, like going for ecstasy, going for the ecstatic, finding that place that's as far as possible from equilibrium and then experiencing the orgasmic return to equilibrium, that is actually a practice that we're constantly doing. We can tune in to doing it with every breath where we go into this arousal, this aliveness.” - Caffyn Jesse
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About Caffyn Jesse:
Caffyn Jesse is a queer elder, sacred intimate, teacher and writer who revels in the power and pleasures of the erotic. They are a renowned teacher of sex, intimacy and healing trauma with pleasure. Encouraging neuroplastic change to support sexual healing and expanded pleasure, unwinding sexual trauma, exploring the intersection of sex and spirit, creating erotic community are all core to their work and play. Caffyn is a tireless advocate of embodied love.
Caffyn offers an online program on The Art and Science of Sacred Intimacy. They host regular “office hours” where you can meet, connect and ask questions. They also offer a program on psychedelic medicine integration.
Caffyn explores a weave of Psychedelic Medicine, Somatic Sexual Wellness, Queer Ecology and Transformative Justice. Their many books include Ecstatic Belonging, Love and Death in a Queer Universe, Elements of Intimacy, Sensual Man, Science for Sexual Happiness, Intimacy Educator: Teaching with Touch, Orientation: Mapping Queer Meanings and Pelvic Pain Clinic.
Caffyn taught for many years at the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education, as well as offering workshops on topics ranging from pelvic pain to sex in long-term relationships, and a trauma training for professionals who touch.
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Contact Caffyn Jesse:
Content Warning: Graphic discussions of pornography, sexual situations, male genitalia, and masturbation.
In this episode, Dr. T and Truth Fairy delve into the world of using psychedelics in a deliberate process for healing pornography-related trauma. Their guest, Tyson, a trauma-informed men's coach, somatic bodyworker, and psychedelic facilitator, shares his personal journey from a 20-year addiction to pornography to his current passion for helping men master their life force energy. The conversation takes listeners through Tyson's personal story and explores shame, sexuality, and the impact of traumatic experiences.
Tyson reveals his commitment to assisting others in overcoming challenges related to intimacy. His determination emerged from his story of the influence of early exposure to pornography and the subsequent struggles he faced. The dark aspects of Tyson's journey, including his experience with violent and non-consensual content, shaped his perception of sexuality. Dr. T and Truth Fairy talk through Tyson's insights, shedding light on the broader themes of psychedelic healing and overcoming addiction.
The conversation explores Tyson's journey in adulthood after he uncovered the trauma embedded in his early experiences and his ultimate transformation away from addiction. Tyson's expertise and openness create a platform for listeners to gain valuable insights into psychedelic healing on a sexual level, trauma and addiction recovery, and mastering life force energy. This is a very frank discussion of deeply personal experiences and subjects usually pushed away from public discourse. Tyson provides Dr. T and Truth Fairy with his unique perspective on using psychedelics for intimate healing and healthy sexual growth.
“I realized that I needed to go back in and I needed to start doing some psychedelic work around watching pornography. So what I've learned through this process is that we're not just watching something on the screen. We are absorbing the energies of whoever it is we're watching. So whatever their journey is, whoever it is we're watching, and the things that they carry, their beliefs, their traumas, their wounding, even though there's a buffer, which is technology, there still is a porousness of energy that gets transmitted through this technology that comes into us. And it's not just a program, psychological, but it's also an actual energenic that we take on.” - Tyson
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Truth Fairy and Dr. T welcome Brett to the podcast to talk about his journey in “coming out from under the rocks”, which is to say emerging from the underground. Brett has studied, refined, and used a broad range of substances and practices and he helps people find a framework for holding their experience in both the mind and body. Dr. T, Truth Fairy, and Brett have a very open discussion about the path of a psychedelic therapist.
Brett shares how he approaches working with a client and what medicines he recommends to open their journey with a calm headspace and a clear mind. He encourages time in nature during the treatment and describes walking close to a beautiful river. He has spent almost twenty years, ten of which have been with his wife and partner, developing a framework for working with various medicines that is uniquely suited to each client's needs. This methodical yet flexible approach allows for slowing thoughts down and opening consciousness to true understanding.
The conversation includes breaking down the different consciousness states, child consciousness, adult consciousness, and somatic consciousness, how to translate experiences had on medicine into daily non-medicated life, and how to stabilize clients. Brett approaches his psychedelic therapy practices from a Buddhist-influenced perspective with a focus on sourcing his own medicines. Truth Fairy, Dr. T and Brett connect in very real ways over shared theories and beliefs about healing.
“I have actually asked [my trusted peers] if this gets off the rails, if I look like I'm not being authentic and acting with integrity, I expect you to tell me. I think there's a chance if you don't have that structure, that safety net, then it can get weird. We can create ideas that are just not helpful for ourselves and our clients. I think that there's a real opportunity when we're self-taught and self-directed to cultivate our own personal strengths and really to find that approach, that unique gift that we bring to the table.” - Brett
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Truth Fairy and Dr. T welcome Cami Barton, author and practitioner dedicated to social change through embodied practices, to the show. Truth Fairy reads a poem on pain by Kahlil Gibran that emphasizes the intertwining of pain and joy, suggesting that embracing pain can lead to a deeper understanding of life, which highlights many of the themes of Cami’s work.
Cami discusses their work in psychedelic therapy, grief, pleasure, and drug policy, rooted in black feminism and harm reduction. They share personal experiences, including an abortion in 2017 that sparked the project for their upcoming book, "Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community". The book explores grief and healing rituals, drawing from Cami's journey and broader societal patterns.
The conversation delves into Cami's work in designing a master's program, teaching psychedelic therapy, and collaborating with MAPS to ensure accessibility to MDMA psychotherapy for marginalized communities. Truth Fairy and Dr. T discuss various aspects of Cami's expertise and personal journey, including childhood trauma and the surfacing of dissociated memories during their healing process. It is a meditation on grief and healing that holds deep insight to benefit all listeners.
“And so the Dagara people are indigenous to what we now call Burkina Faso in West Africa. And they have a very specific relationship to communal grief tending, where everyone in the community is expected to tend their grief in the communal ritual once a month because there's an understanding in their cosmology that unattended grief will actually become harm in the society. So rather than being taboo as it is in the West to grieve publicly and be with that, it's actually taboo to avoid your grief in the Dagara context.” - Cami
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome guest Sapha to the show to talk about healing through ayahuasca. When Sapha reached out via email, Truth Fairy realized she has friends in common with him, and, being touched by his email and story, invited him to be on the show. The details of his advocacy and journey are inspiring to hear.
Sapha shares his father's story of emigrating to Canada from Tehran, Iran, during the Islamic Revolution. Pain, abandonment, and confusion that went with Sapha’s story led to a need for escapism through substance abuse. The addiction lasted through Sapha’s career in the oil and gas industry until age 29 when he realized he needed help. But after being denied assistance from the BC government, Sapha’s salvation came from an aunt who connected him with the Leipzig Serenity Retreat, a holistic recovery centre in Saskatchewan.
Dr. T and Truth Fairy talk with Sapha about how he found ayahuasca and his early psychedelic experiences, the need to really heal the underlying causes of addiction and not simply the addiction itself, and the benefits of small group work that Sapha embarked upon. Sapha also addresses how he now does a lot of work with men who have suffered at the hands of the patriarchal system and through the expectations placed on men. This episode reveals a lot about the benefits of working with ayahuasca and the healing possibilities of being on a psychedelic-assisted recovery journey.
“And that's a big part of the teaching here with what we do and the way that we work with men, it's like ayahuasca is a tool. You know, psychedelics are tools. They're not a cure for addiction. They're an opportunity to get a really close look from a different lens. How to uncover and unravel this bundle of emotions and these layers of pain that as men or as people we've been born with,” - Sapha
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Punk Therapy: website |email
The podcast currently has 36 episodes available.
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