The Integration Session

There’s an ongoing legal fight for access to psychedelics in Canada, including as part of experiential training for psychedelic therapists. But, is it really necessary to have a psychedelic experience in order to be a good psychedelic therapist? What is going on with Health Canada’s confusing response to the issue and where is psychedelic drug policy headed?

In this episode, we are joined by two leading voices in the national conversation: John Gilchrist, Director of Communications at TheraPsil, and Eugene Oscapella, lawyer, professor, and long-time drug policy reform advocate at the University of Ottawa. Together, they help us unpack the recent federal court ruling against Health Canada, the debate over experiential training for psychedelic therapists, and the parallels—and differences—between psychedelic policy today and cannabis reform in the past. Tune in to gain insight into the legal and political forces shaping Canada’s path towards evidence-based psychedelic care, and what a more compassionate, responsible regulatory framework might look like moving forward. 

Eugene Oscapella completed undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Toronto in 1974 and received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa in 1977. He obtained his Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1979. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1980. Mr. Oscapella was associated with the Law Reform Commission of Canada for over 14 years and was the first chairman of that body's Drug Policy Group. Mr. Oscapella was a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, an independent organization created in 1993 to examine Canada’s drug laws and policies. For several years he sat on the policy committee of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association and later sat on the steering and policy committees of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, formed in 2011. He has appeared many times before Canadian parliamentary committees on drug policy issues, including the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs and the House of Commons Special Committee on the Non-medical Use of Drugs. He has lectured on drug policy issues in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa for over a quarter century and has also lectured and been published widely in Canada and abroad about drug policy issues. In April 2011, he received the Kaiser Foundation National Award for Excellence in Public Policy for his drug policy reform work.

John Gilchrist is an ardent supporter of drug policy reform and believes the growing acceptance of psychedelics and psychedelic therapy marks a paradigm shift in the treatment of mental health. John was aware of the healing powers of psilocybin and other psychedelics but was truly blown away by a personal story from a patient in 2021. Since then, John has been focused on doing whatever possible to support the legalization of psychedelic therapy and to help change public perception towards it. He is honoured and privileged to support TheraPsil’s patients alongside such a professional and dedicated team.

What kind of setting is optimal for psychedelic experiences? In research, many contextual factors are underreported, inconsistently reported, or treated like a black box, making it near impossible to answer this question. Thankfully, a recent paper published in Nature Medicine has brought together international experts to advise on how best to solve the issue. 

In this episode of The Integration Session, we’re joined by the paper’s first author Dr. Chloé Pronovost-Morgan who was involved in a global Delphi study to establish the first-ever standardized guidelines for reporting setting in psychedelic trials. Her team talked to 89 experts from 17 countries to come up with a set of 30 important variables, including ones that you probably haven’t even thought about. We discuss why context in psychedelic trials matters, the implications for drug regulation, and how you can use these guidelines to change the way you study and think about psychedelics. 

Chloé Pronovost-Morgan is a first-year psychiatry resident with a strong interest in extra-pharmacological determinants of therapeutic outcomes. She holds an MD from McGill University and an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from Maastricht University. As part of her master’s, she launched The Delphi Study on Setting at Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, under the supervision of Dr. Leor Roseman and Dr. Kyle Greenway – an international expert consensus project that led to the development of the ReSPCT guidelines for reporting setting variables in psychedelic clinical trials. Now back in her hometown of Montreal, she hopes to pursue a career as a clinician-scientist in psychiatry.

Have you ever wondered what happens when psychedelics—specifically MDMA, the substance often associated with rave culture—meets couples therapy? The therapeutic potential of MDMA has made waves in both the scientific community and the media, including its use as a tool to enhance couples therapy in the context of trauma. In this episode of The Integration Session, we are joined by a leading expert in the field—Dr. Anne Wagner—who conducted the first clinical trial of MDMA-assisted couples therapy. We discuss what MDMA really is, its unique effects on the brain and body, and Dr. Wagner’s findings about its promising role for relational healing.

Dr. Anne Wagner, C.Psych. (she/her), is a clinical psychologist, speaker, writer and treatment development researcher living in Toronto, Canada. Anne is the founder of Remedy, a mental health innovation community, and Remedy Institute, Remedy’s home for research. She is the lead investigator of the pilot trial of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD + MDMA and the randomized trial of Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy for PTSD (CBCT) + MDMA, a couples therapy for PTSD. Anne is deeply committed to bridging the worlds of psychotherapy and non-ordinary states of consciousness, and has a passion for its use for relational healing. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology and an Associate Member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the Past-Chair of the Traumatic Stress Section of the Canadian Psychological Association, has served as a Global Ambassador for the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and is a former board member of Casey House, Toronto’s hospital for those living with and at impacted by HIV/AIDS.

For more information on her studies, including to apply, please visit www.remedyinstitute.ca.

For more information on her clinical practice, please visit www.remedycentre.ca.

Microdosing—commonly defined as the regular consumption of small, unimpairing amounts of psychedelics—is a controversial topic in the psychedelic space. Anecdotal reports claim substantial benefits for mood and creativity, but many scientists are skeptical with mixed findings in the research. So, what’s the truth behind microdosing? To help answer this question, Dr. Rotem Retranker conducted the first double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized controlled trial on microdosing psilocybin for depression. In this episode of The Integration Session, I ask Rotem about his findings, the potential mechanisms underlying microdosing, different study designs to help determine safety and effectiveness, and his opinion about the future of microdosing psilocybin for mental health. Tune in for this discussion that covers topics on the cutting edge of psychedelic microdosing work. 

About Dr. Rotem Petranker: Rotem obtained his BSc from the University of Toronto, his Master's from York University, and his PhD from McMaster University. He is the director of the Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science and co-founder of the Psychedelic Studies Research Program at the University of Toronto. Rotem's research interests are in areas related to sustained attention, emotional regulation, creativity, and their potential relationship with psychedelics. Rotem is dedicated to promoting open science principles in general, and particularly so in the fledgling field of psychedelics. He is clinically interested in the application of psychedelics to treat certain mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, and OCD. Rotem recently completed the world's first clinical trial on the effects of microdosing psilocybin on symptoms of depression and is excited to further explicate the mechanisms of action behind psychedelics.

What makes a great psychedelic study design? As we saw last year with the US FDA rejection of MDMA, it might not be the ‘gold-standard’ randomized controlled trial (RCT)—psychedelic therapy might demand a new kind of science. In this episode, I’m joined by PhD student Marcus Glennon, first author of a recent publication from top researchers across the UK who have put together their best research recommendations for psychedelic study design. 

This episode is a gold-mine of practical information for researchers and trainees, including answers to the following pressing questions in psychedelic research: Are screening criteria too strict? Why is the gold standard RCT poorly suited for psychedelic research and what are some alternatives? How should we rethink placebo in clinical trials? What important outcome measures are we missing? How can we determine the role of psychotherapy? How do we report adverse events? What can we learn from traditional knowledge systems? 

Marcus is a final year PhD student at University College London studying neuropsychopharmacology. His work looks at the intersection of the mind, brain, and psychoactive drugs. Specifically, his research investigates the effects of DMT on memory, and how we can harness these effects to treat memory-based disorders such as PTSD and substance-use disorders. He has also focused on optimizing methodology in psychedelic science more broadly.
Marcus et al. (2025): https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.22808

What if the future of psychedelic medicine lies in stories that are largely forgotten in society today?

Long before psychedelic therapy became a billion-dollar industry, it was a radical experiment on the Canadian prairies. Long before LSD grabbed headlines, Indigenous communities were practicing plant-based healing grounded in connection and spiritual ceremony. And well before clinical trials standardized “set and setting,” it was lived wisdom passed through generations.

In this episode of The Integration Session, I’m joined by Dr. Erika Dyck—Professor and Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice—to explore the surprising, complex, and often overlooked history of psychedelic medicine. We trace the early origins of psychedelic therapy, the rise and fall (and rise again) of psychedelic psychiatry, and what we can learn from this important history so we don’t repeat its mistakes.

Erika Dyck is a professor and a Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the author or co-author of several books, including Psychedelic Psychiatry (2008); Managing Madness (2017); The Acid Room (2022); and Psychedelics: A Visual Odyssey (2024). She is the co-editor of Women & Psychedelics (2024) and Expanding Mindscapes (2023). She is currently the President of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society. Currently she is working with First Nations communities in Canada on preserving the history of the Native American Church and its associated ceremonies involving peyote.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not reflect legal or medical advice.

Something big is happening: Canadian researchers have recently secured $5M in funding to advance cancer care with psychedelics. In this episode of The Integration Session, Dr. Ron Shore and Dr. Harriet Richardson provide an inside perspective on CAN-PACT—a national collaborative that’s aiming to transform mental health support in cancer care with high-quality research, clinician training, and policy development. We discuss how psychedelics can help people with cancer, CAN-PACT’s research plans for the next 5-10 years, and when we can expect psychedelic therapy to become more widely available. Tune in for this hopeful and evidence-based look at how psychedelic science could transform cancer care in Canada. 

Dr. Harriet Richardson is an epidemiologist who received her PhD in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from McGill University in 2003 where she studied the natural history of human papillomavirus infections and cervical neoplasia. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, at Queen’s University where she teaches in the graduate programs and is the current Graduate Coordinator. She is also a Senior Investigator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and currently oversees the Breast Cancer Prevention portfolio and the Supportive Care Committee. Her research interests include cancer prevention, cancer symptom management and the use of etiological and prognostic biomarkers in population‐based studies. 

Dr. Ronald (Ron) Shore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University and the (Interim) Assistant Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Research in Kingston, Ontario. Ron is the founder of Kingston's Street Health Centre, a community health centre for people facing multiple barriers to health including complex addiction, mental health, trauma and homelessness. He has thirty-five years experience in addictions and mental health. Ron's PhD is specific to the clinical application of psilocybin, he is faculty in the Michener Insititute's Foundations of Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy program, an investigator and clinical trial therapist in psychedelic trials, the co-Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Psilocybin-assisted Cancer Therapy (CAN-PACT) and a consultant advisor to the Centre for Psychedelics Health and Research at Providence Care.

The story of psychedelic science is not like any other field of research. From ancient rituals to the war on drugs to modern clinical trials, psychedelic science has undergone a significant evolution and we are constantly making new discoveries that change not only our understanding of these mysterious substances but also how we think about the human mind and consciousness itself. So how long until these therapies are accessible to all? If that is even what we want, then what science will get us there? In this episode of The Integration Session, psychedelic scientist and knowledge translator Dr. Elena Koning brings you up to speed by providing an overview of the history of psychedelic research, current evidence, and the critical questions that remain unanswered in the field today. 

This podcast is an initiative of the Centre for Psychedelic Health & Research (CPHR), a multi-disciplinary hub and catalyst for psychedelic research, innovation and knowledge translation. CPHR is located in Kingston, ON, Canada, and is supported by the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND), and Providence Care Hospital. 

Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not reflect legal or medical advice.