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Psychedelics & Trust is a 12-week Substack series created and written by host April Pride, who is microdosing psilocybin while writing. In this episode, she reads her Week Two dispatch, which happened to be the week of her first 5-MeO-DMT experience, which she approached with the intention of exploring where her self-trust broke down, the brain science behind why distrust can feel like knowing, and why distrust is a prediction that can be revised. Topics include how 5-MeO-DMT differs from N,N-DMT, synthetic versus toad-derived 5-MeO-DMT, what the StepWise protocol is, and how fear conditioning, extinction learning, and estrogen may shape the way we trust. Additional Resources Who was Amanda Fielding? From the Mac to the Mystical Bill - from The Pattern Project Read the full Trust Series and show notes on Substack: https://aprilpride.substack.com Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle - 2026-27 Schedule Follow April on Substack Visit aprilpride.com Hosted by April Pride IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates

Can psychedelics help with grief? This is what we explore in the audience Q&A from Psychedelic Salon on grief, recorded live at Town Hall Seattle with Dr. Sunil Aggarwal. It picks up where last week's main conversation left off, and the questions that night ranged far wider than a single loss: grief on scale, watching genocide unfold on a screen, a bereaved parent talking through her own research, a retired nurse asking about her own brain, a psychologist 25 years into practice still figuring out where the guardrails are. Two threads run through the whole hour. The first is that psychedelics don't reduce grief's pain so much as expand someone's capacity to hold it. A mother who traveled to Jamaica for a psilocybin retreat after losing her son put it more precisely than either of us could: she still misses him every day. What changed was room, for meaning and joy alongside the missing, not instead of it. The second is that the details matter enormously: brain injury history, medical risk factors, whether someone is in a clinical setting or a festival, whether the substance under discussion is MDMA, psilocybin, or ayahuasca, and Sunil is careful never to flatten those distinctions into one answer. We also get specific: on dosing, on the early and mostly preclinical evidence for psychedelics and brain injury rehabilitation, on how facilitator training is being built in real time with no single accredited path yet, and on whether grief is something science can actually measure (it is, and researchers like Holly Prigerson at Weill Cornell have built the scales to do it). None of this is medical advice, including the parts where Sunil and I get specific about dosing. If you don't have a Dr. Aggarwal to call, the takeaway that closes this episode is the one to hold onto: start with your hospice's bereavement line if you have one, or a grief-informed therapist if you don't. Subscribe to April Pride on Substack for weekly conversations on psychedelics, nervous system health, and integration. 0:00 Introduction and what this Q&A covers 2:00 Grief witnessed through a screen: genocide and collective loss 4:30 Training the next generation of psychedelic facilitators 8:00 Does psilocybin make grief hurt less, or just more bearable? 9:00 Grief and psychedelics with a brain injury history 15:00 A therapeutic psilocybin dose for grief, and the fear of losing control 18:30 Processing grief with psychedelics outside a clinical setting 21:30 Choosing between MDMA, psilocybin, and ayahuasca 24:30 Is grief scientifically measurable? 🔵 Additional Resources The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, Francis Weller. Referenced by an audience member; lays out the five gates of grief beyond death."Psychedelics for Brain Injury," Dr. Aggarwal's 2023 open-access review in Frontiers in Neurology, for anyone who wants the fuller preclinical picture.

This episode is about psychedelics and grief, and it starts from an unusual place: not death, but everything else grief actually is. Loss of a future you thought you had. Loss of an identity, a marriage, a body that no longer works the way it used to. That's the frame Dr. Sunil Aggarwal and I set for this final Psychedelic Salon of last season, recorded live at Town Hall Seattle. Sunil isn't a hospice tourist to this topic. He's a physician at Seattle's AIMS Institute who has spent years fighting, in federal court, for his own terminally ill patients' right to try psilocybin. He was the first doctor to petition the DEA for Right to Try access on their behalf. We talk about the neurobiology of why a guided psychedelic experience can shift a story you've carried about a loss for years, a bereaved-parent retreat in Jamaica that's now the subject of a real qualitative study, and the distinction Sunil keeps returning to, containment versus integration. Containment is what most of us default to. Put the loss in a box, keep functioning, call it managed. Integration is slower, and it's the only version of the two that actually changes your relationship to what you lost. Not less pain. A different relationship to the pain. We also get into what the research does and doesn't support, from the fast-tracked synthetic psilocybin analogs now moving through the FDA to the early, mostly preclinical evidence on psilocybin and brain injury. And we close on the one resource almost nobody uses: every hospice in the country is legally required to offer 12 months of bereavement support, to anyone in the family, whether or not you were ever a patient there. Subscribe to April Pride on Substack for weekly conversations on psychedelics, nervous system health, and integration. 0:00 Welcome, disclaimer, and the topic of this Salon: grief 0:45 Meet Dr. Sunil Aggarwal: hospice, palliative medicine, and medical geography 2:20 The Right to Try fight to get psilocybin to dying patients 5:00 Who controls psilocybin's Schedule I status, and why the FDA's fast-tracked analogs won't change access for most people 6:30 April's own experience with grief, and the parents who come to her after losing a child 8:30 How Sunil recognizes grief in a clinical setting, and what anticipatory grief looks like 11:30 Containment versus integration 12:20 Inside the Jamaica grief retreats for bereaved parents 17:20 The neurobiology of psilocybin, the default mode network, and reframing a loss 19:10 How to integrate a psychedelic experience afterward 22:20 The bereavement benefit almost no one uses 23:40 Key takeaways and what's ahead this season Dr. Sunil Aggarwal is a physician at Seattle's AIMS Institute, where he leads an integrative oncology and palliative care practice and directs the clinic's psychedelic-assisted work with ketamine and psilocybin. He holds an MD and PhD from the University of Washington School of Medicine, where his doctoral work was in medical geography. Aggarwal was the first physician to petition the DEA for Right to Try access to psilocybin for terminally ill patients, litigation that produced a Ninth Circuit ruling finding the DEA had erred in denying that petition, a first for the agency. His clinical and legal work sits at the center of the current fight over who gets access to psychedelic medicine, and under what conditions, before federal rescheduling catches up. @sunil1007 @aimsinstituteseattle 🔵 Additional Resources Jamaica Grief Retreats, led by Dr. Dingle Spence, the group retreat program for bereaved parents discussed in this episode. Findings published as "Relief for Grief: Report from a Psychedelic Retreat for Bereaved Parents in Jamaica," Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2022. The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, Francis Weller. AIMS Institute, Dr. Aggarwal's Seattle clinic.

133. What If Nothing Happened During Your Trip? Someone in the room had done everything right. Careful preparation, a trained guide, two booster doses of psilocybin. Nothing happened. No altered state. In this episode, learn what that means and what to do next. This is the audience Q&A from the Psychedelics and Seniors Salon at Town Hall Seattle, the companion to episode 129, with Abbie Rosner, Scott Paul Wright, and Dr. Emily Whinkin. What you'll learn - What a session that produces no visible shift does and does not tell you - Why expectation is treated as a clinical variable in psychedelic medicine, not a soft one- Why microdosing protocols build in days off, and what those days are for - How much psilocybin content varies between mushroom varieties and within a single grow - What a legal psilocybin session in Oregon costs and what the price actually covers- What Seattle's 2021 psilocybin resolution protects, and what it does not About the guests Abbie Rosner is the author of Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging, based on interviews with 36 older adults, and writes ELDEREVOLUTION on Substack. Scott Paul Wright is a filmmaker and screenwriter and the director of the documentary The Next Chapter, who took his first psychedelic journey at 68. Dr. Emily Whinkin is a naturopathic physician and integrative mental health specialist licensed in Oregon and Washington, and a board-certified Fellow of the Psychiatric Association of Naturopathic Physicians, who runs a monthly virtual integration circle for older adults. 0:00 Introduction 1:30 Should family members journey together 2:20 Medical disqualifiers and cardiovascular risk 3:30 Intergenerational trauma and encounters with ancestors 5:30 Grief that does not resolve in one session 8:00 What microdosing does, and how many Americans are doing it 9:40 Microdosing for creativity, and the pause 10:40 Psilocybin research for Alzheimer's and dementia 11:40 Microdosing, decision making, and why protocols include days off 13:40 Adjusting a microdose for mushroom potency 14:50 Cardiac conditions, atrial fibrillation, and valve issues 17:50 When a journey feels unimpactful, even with booster doses 19:00 Expectations as a clinical variable 20:00 What a legal psilocybin session costs and what it covers 23:00 Seattle, cultivation, and what decriminalization means 24:00 Integration circles and the isolation data 25:20 LSD compared with psilocybin, and the MM-120 anxiety trial 27:00 Mental health contraindications 28:20 SSRIs, SNRIs, and psilocybin 30:00 Ketamine compared with psilocybin 31:00 Cognitive benefits, neuroinflammation, and telomeres Follow April Pride for trusted information on psychedelics for women Substack Instagram YouTube Psychedelic Salon Learn more about April's services, events, and more at aprilpride.com

Rosemary Woodruff Leary sat in a jail cell for a month rather than testify against her husband. While she was inside, Timothy Leary gave a ten page interview to Playboy about what LSD does to a woman's body and did not mention her once. She was his editor, his translator, the person who read the room for him, and the organizer who coordinated his 1970 prison escape across the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. She called herself The Computer. Then he turned on her, pointed the FBI in her direction, and she spent twenty four years underground as Sarah Woodruff, running an inn in Provincetown with a go bag by the bed. Susannah Cahalan found her the way forgotten people usually get found. She was working through four hundred boxes of Timothy Leary's papers at the New York Public Library when she noticed a much smaller collection almost nobody had opened. Key Takeaways Rosemary Woodruff Leary served a month in jail rather than testify against Timothy Leary before a grand jury investigating Millbrook, and the Playboy interview that made him famous ran while she was inside. She was the coordinating point between the factions who organized Leary's 1970 prison escape, working with the attorney who also represented the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. She called herself The Computer. Leary later decoded their letters for investigators and offered her mother money for her location. She spent twenty four years underground and could not hold any job requiring a Social Security number. She died at 66. Cahalan connects that directly to going without health insurance for the years she was a fugitive, which is the harm reduction point of the episode and has nothing to do with the drugs. Rosemary told students explicitly that psychedelics are not for everyone and that there is a shadow side, a position Cahalan argues is more relevant to the current renaissance than anything Leary said. LSD remains a Schedule I substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The April 2026 executive order directs faster federal review of psychedelic research; it does not reschedule anything. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 2:38 Ketamine, the NMDA receptor, and the sense of self 3:18 Humphry Osmond, asylum architects, and where set and setting came from 4:38 Finding Rosemary in the New York Public Library archive 5:38 Signs, synchronicity, and the I Ching 6:38 What Rosemary changed in Susannah 9:26 The women who carried the archives while the men made headlines 10:26 Millbrook, the grand jury, and a month in jail 13:06 The Playboy interview she was in jail for 14:41 The prison escape, the FBI, and the letter that ended it 16:05 Twenty four years underground and what it actually cost 18:47 Cape Cod, a new name, and a secret affair 20:47 Invisibility after a certain age 22:32 A contradictory woman 24:32 The warning Rosemary gave about psychedelics 27:32 The Robot, overuse, and why integration matters Guest Spotlight Susannah Cahalan is a journalist and the number one New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness and The Great Pretender. Her third book, The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, was published by Viking in 2025 and named a Best Biography of 2025 by The Guardian. She spent years in archives at the New York Public Library and in Rosemary's family's hands to reconstruct a life that survived mostly in other people's footnotes. Additional Resources The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary by Susannah Cahalan (Viking, 2025). [LINK] The 2026 to 2027 Psychedelic Salon season [LINK] April on Substack: https://aprilpride.substack.com Visit April Pride: https://aprilpride.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/aprilpridecreates YouTube: https://youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates

131. Can psilocybin help with menopause? A live audience of 300 at Town Hall Seattle asked Dr. Trish Singh and Kelly McGinty, C-FNP, co-authors of Mycelopause: Uncovering the Magic of Menopause with Psilocybin, the questions that don't come up in a doctor's office: whether psilocybin is safe after hormone-positive cancer, how it interacts with SSRIs, whether hormone therapy can start after 60, what's actually legal in Seattle in 2026, and where a sensitive beginner should start. This is the full audience Q&A from the Psychedelic Salon on psychedelics and menopause, with host April Pride adding current research, legal updates, and corrections throughout, including New Mexico's first-in-the-nation psilocybin treatment equity fund and King County's 2026 entheogen motion. The expanded written answers, with sources, are on Substack: aprilpride.substack.com The Psychedelic Salon returns to Town Hall Seattle October 8. Tickets and all resources mentioned are in the show notes at the Substack link. This episode is for listeners 21+ and is not medical advice. Questions about your own medications or medical history belong with your provider. What you'll learn:Why psilocybin's serotonin mechanism matters for women with hormone-positive cancer histories, and what hasn't been studiedWhat decriminalization actually permits in Seattle and King County in 2026, and where regulated legal access existsWhat current research says about combining psilocybin with SSRIs and how often high-dose sessions are spacedWhether hormone therapy can start after 60, and why psilocybin can't replace HRTWhy a quality dose sometimes does nothing, and where sensitive beginners should startAbout the guests: Kelly McGinty is a certified family nurse practitioner and Dr. Trish Singh is a licensed psilocybin facilitator in Colorado's regulated program. They guide therapeutic psilocybin experiences together and co-authored Mycelopause: Uncovering the Magic of Menopause with Psilocybin.Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:00 Psilocybin after hormone-positive cancer 4:00 Legal access in Seattle at any age 6:30 Psilocybin, menopause, and the restructuring metaphor 9:00 Access, equity, and who research leaves out 13:00 SSRIs, dose frequency, and serotonin syndrome 16:30 Fear of a first psychedelic experience 18:45 HRT after 60 and whether psilocybin replaces it 21:00 When mushrooms don't seem to work 23:30 Developmental trauma in guided journeys 28:00 Beginner varieties for sensitive systemsResourcesMycelopause: Uncovering the Magic of Menopause with Psilocybin by Dr. Trish Singh and Kelly McGinty.The Next Chapter, September 13. A thirty-minute documentary following men and women over sixty through a psilocybin retreat in Mexico, with a panel afterward featuring Kelly McGinty and Dr. Trish Singh. RSVP here: https://kinema.com/events/The-Next-Chapter-jaazqeWomen in the Wild, April’s micro- and low-dose gatherings. Apply here:https://form.typeform.com/to/ZW4Pq1ikListen on Substack: https://aprilpride.substack.com Visit April Pride: https://aprilpride.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/aprilpridecreates Psychedelic Salon: https://www.aprilpride.com/psychedelic-events-for-women/psychedelic-salonSubscribe to April Pride on Substack for weekly conversations on women, midlife, psychedelics, nervous system health, and integration: https://aprilpride.substack.com

130. Psilocybin and Menopause: Two Clinicians Reframe Midlife for Women Episode Summary Estrogen regulates the serotonin system, and psilocybin reaches the same receptor. That is where this Salon starts, and it is the most specific version of the psilocybin and menopause conversation I have heard in public. Kelly McGinty, a nurse practitioner, told a full room at Town Hall Seattle that the drop women feel in perimenopause is physiological rather than imagined. I asked whether that means psilocybin replaces estrogen. She said no, and that she would like more research. Her co-author, Dr. Trish Singh, added that research on menopausal women barely exists at any phase of the transition. Two clinicians describe what they see in their patients, then draw a line at the point where the evidence ends. Most people selling a reframe of midlife will not draw that line on a microphone. What sits on the other side of it: anxiety as a knock on the door rather than a malfunction, why women microdose intuitively instead of on a protocol, and the archetypes we inherit about aging women. Kelly's oldest client is 85, and she says the younger generation is watching to see how the older one heals. A woman in perimenopause deserves an explanation for what is happening in her body. Psilocybin is not what delivers that. A provider who knows the full symptom list is. 🔵 Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 2:15 Why these clinicians reframe menopause as a rite of passage 6:20 Estrogen, serotonin, and what psilocybin cannot replace 10:10 Anxiety and brain fog in perimenopause 14:55 Why women microdose intuitively instead of on a protocol 18:10 What the microdosing research actually shows 19:20 Consciousness, unnaming, and identity in midlife 21:35 Ending the shame around menopause 24:25 The FDA hormone therapy warning change, explained 25:30 Goddess, crone, and the archetypes of aging women 30:35 Elders, psychedelics, and the wellness industry problem 🔵 Guests Kelly McGinty, C-FNP, MSN is a family nurse practitioner accredited by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, with a master's in nursing from Gonzaga University. She spent more than a decade as an emergency department NP before training in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and she now works with first responders, people at end of life, and patients with treatment-resistant conditions. She is the clinician in this conversation who names the physiology and then names its limits. Kelly's website Dr. Trish Singh, PhD, LPCC is a licensed mental health counselor in New Mexico and California with twenty-five years in behavioral health. Her doctorate is in mind-body medicine with a specialization in integrative mental health, she is certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy through CIIS, and she founded A New Awakening Counseling, which serves people reentering society after incarceration. Her current research is on holistic weight strategies for menopausal women, and she is the reason this episode ends up talking about archetypes rather than symptoms. Trish's website Together they co-authored Mycelopause: Uncovering the Magic of Menopause with Psilocybin. Original Substack post: ⁠⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/psilocybin-and-perimenopause 🔵 Resources Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle - ⁠2026-27 Schedule⁠ ⁠⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Women in the Wild application⁠⁠ The Next Chapter virtual live screening - RSVP here More about Mycelopause on Substack + Instagram Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates⁠ / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

129. Psychedelics for Seniors: Aging & What's Next Episode Summary The psychedelic renaissance gets covered like a young person's story: executives microdosing before board meetings, twenty-somethings on retreats. But the fastest-growing population interested in this medicine right now is confronting retirement, widowhood, the death of parents, the question of legacy. This episode is a live Salon recording built around psychedelics for seniors, with filmmaker Scott Paul Wright, writer Abbie Rosner, and naturopathic physician Dr. Emily Whinkin. We get into set and setting, medication contraindications, ketamine versus psilocybin, and what integration actually looks like once the journey is over. Abbie's research on 36 older adults turns up something worth sitting with: most of them called later life the happiest, most meaningful stretch they've had. 🔵 Key Takeaways Set and setting, not age, is the biggest predictor of a safe psychedelic experience. Older adults often prepare better than younger users because they're less inclined to wing it. If you're on an SSRI or SNRI, expect a blunted psychedelic experience. The evidence on whether that blunting reduces therapeutic benefit is still mixed. Ketamine and psilocybin are distinct molecules with different legal statuses and safety histories. Neither is automatically the safer choice for an older nervous system. Integration circles are the antidote to isolation, which among older adults carries measurable health costs, including a documented rise in dementia risk. The questions shift with age. Younger clients tend to ask what can I fix. Older clients tend to ask what my legacy is and how I can give back. 🔵 Timestamps [00:00] Welcome and introductions at Town Hall Seattle [00:01] Scott Wright on his first journey at 68 and how the documentary began [00:02] Why older adults report fewer bad trips: preparation and set and setting [00:04] Contraindications, health history, and working with SSRIs and SNRIs [00:06] Ketamine versus psilocybin: different molecules, different legal paths [00:08] Meaning making in later life and what psychedelics surface [00:10] What integration actually is, and why the work starts after the journey [00:13] Integration circles as community and clinical infrastructure [00:17] The questions older adults ask that younger clients don't [00:18] Aging, elderhood, and the Buddhist "three messengers" [00:20] Intergenerational journeys and psychedelics within families 🔵 Guest Abbie Rosner is a writer and cultural observer exploring how the modern psychedelic renaissance is reshaping our understanding of aging—individually and collectively. Psychedelics and the Counter Culture of Aging | website ELDEREVOLUTION on Substack Dr. Emily Whinkin (she/they) is a naturopathic physician and integrative mental health specialist blending psychedelic and entheogenic medicine with mental, reproductive, and generative health. Dr. Whinkin is licensed in Oregon and Washington, provides global consultation, and is dedicated to research, education, and individualized integrative mental health. emilywhinkin.com Scott Paul Wright is a filmmaker and screenwriter based in Paris and New Orleans. He took his first psychedelic journey at age 68 – resulting in his new documentary – The Next Chapter, which is now in post-production and scheduled for release in June 2026. The Next Chapter documentary Original Substack post: ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/psychedelics-for-seniors-aging-salon 🔵 Resources Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle - 2026-27 Schedule ⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

128. Ancestral Trauma & Psychedelic Integration A 45-year psychedelic guide on ancestral trauma, Internal Family Systems, and why integration, not the ceremony, is the real medicine. Episode Summary Most conversations about psychedelics stay at the level of the ceremony: the dose, the visions, the breakthrough. This episode goes somewhere else. Sand Symes has spent 45 years supporting women, first as a social worker, then as what she calls a modern medicine woman, and she doesn't talk about psychedelics as a fix. She talks about them as a way back to parts of yourself that got buried decades ago and never fully addressed. In this live recording from Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle, Sand walks through Internal Family Systems, the neuroscience of fear memory, the "trauma of overdoing" that hides inside high-functioning women, and why psychedelic integration for women is the part almost everyone underestimates. If you've ever wondered what actually happens after the journey ends, this is that conversation. 🔵 Key Takeaways Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by therapist Richard Schwartz, treats the mind as made up of protector parts, exiled parts carrying old pain, and a calm core self underneath. It's a mainstream therapy model, not something invented by the psychedelic space, though psychedelics often make those parts easier to access directly. The amygdala stores fear memory and drives the fight, flight, or freeze response before conscious thought catches up. Sand's description of medicine "lulling it to sleep" tracks with established neuroscience on how old memories can be revisited without the same emotional charge. The "trauma of overdoing" doesn't look like trauma. It looks like competence: the woman managing her career, her household, her aging parents, and everyone else's emotional temperature, who gets praised the entire way for never stopping. Integration, not the ceremony itself, is where the actual change takes root. Early research on post-psychedelic neuroplasticity is strongest in animal studies so far, but the pattern across integration therapists is consistent: the days and weeks after a journey are when new behavior is easiest to install. Community and ancestral wisdom show up as recurring threads for women in this work, both as ways of processing suppression carried across generations and as safeguards against re-entering ceremony without adequate support afterward. 🔵 Guest Sand Symes is a psychedelic guide and integration therapist who has spent 45 years supporting women, first as a social worker and now as what she calls a modern medicine woman. She has sat in over 150 ceremonies, assisted in 70, and facilitated more than 60, working primarily with psilocybin and her own ancestral Celtic lineage rather than ayahuasca, MDMA, or LSD. Follow Sand Symes: website | Instagram 🔵 Resources Ask April: How Do I Find a Psychedelic Guide? — column on legal access, licensed facilitators, and the Oregon versus Colorado distinction Internal Family Systems Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle Women in the Wild | small in-person gatherings in Seattle on September 12th, October 3rd, and November 7th Follow April on Substack Visit aprilpride.com Original Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/sand-symes-ancestral-trauma-psychedelic-integration Hosted by April Pride IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates

127. Psilocybin for Anorexia: Inside UCSF's Trial Dr. Amanda Downey on UCSF's psilocybin trial for anorexia, why caregivers enroll, and what the medicine can and can't reach in eating disorders. Episode Summary Eating disorders are the deadliest psychiatric illness we have. Someone in the United States dies of one every 52 seconds, and two of every three people who get conventional treatment never fully recover. Anorexia nervosa has had no new FDA-approved treatment since the 1990s. That is the ground this conversation stands on, and it is why I sat down with Dr. Amanda Downey at Town Hall Seattle. Dr. Downey is a pediatrician and psychiatrist at UCSF and a lead investigator on an active Phase 2 trial studying psilocybin for anorexia in young adults. We talk about why her trial enrolls caregivers as participants, what psilocybin might reach that decades of treatment have not, and where the science is still honestly uncertain. This one is close to me. I recovered from anorexia myself, and I know how little the map has changed. 🔵 Key Takeaways Psilocybin is being studied as the first potential breakthrough for anorexia in a generation, but every honest researcher in the room is holding equipoise, not hype. The molecule is one component of a system, not a cure. The trial's design is unusually intensive because the population is unusually vulnerable. Two high-dose sessions, three preparation sessions before each, real-time heart monitoring, and blood draws throughout. Between 8 and 20 weeks of contact per participant. Families are part of the treatment. Young people rarely get better if they return to the same system in which the illness grew, so caregivers enroll and prepare too. Improving cognitive flexibility does not guarantee behavior change. People report expanded thinking and a better quality of life. Whether that translates to weight restoration is the open question this trial is built to answer. Access without support is the real risk. Psilocybin floods the body with sensation, and people with anorexia are often profoundly disconnected from the body. Unsupported, that experience can compound harm rather than heal it. 🔵 Guest Dr. Amanda Downey is a pediatrician and psychiatrist specializing in adolescents and young adults with eating disorders. She is the assistant medical director of the UCSF Eating Disorders Program, a member of UCSF’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program, and a lead investigator on an active Phase 2 trial of psilocybin therapy for young adults with anorexia nervosa, ages 18 to 25. Learn more about UCSF psilocybin and anorexia trial @ clinicaltrials.ucsf.edu 🔵 Resources Ask April: How Do I Find a Psychedelic Guide? — column on legal access, licensed facilitators, and the Oregon versus Colorado distinction Original Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/psilocybin-for-anorexia-ucsf-trial Hosted by April Pride ⁠Follow ⁠⁠April on Substack⁠ IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at aprilpride.com

126. Psychedelics & Addiction: What the Research Shows Addiction psychiatrist Dr. Nathan Sackett on psilocybin, ibogaine, MDMA, ketamine, and what psychedelic-assisted therapy can and cannot do for substance use disorder. Episode Summary The conversation about psychedelics as addiction treatment is moving faster than the research. Dr. Nathan Sackett is trying to close that gap. Founding director of the Center for Novel Therapeutics at the University of Washington, Sackett is an addiction psychiatrist who still sees patients — which matters, because every study his center runs is rooted in clinical reality, not advocacy optics. In this live recording from the Psychedelic Salon at Town Hall Seattle, we cover what the evidence actually supports, what compounds carry genuine risk, and why the most important variable in treatment outcomes may not be the drug at all. If you've been following psychedelic news and want a clearer picture of what's real, this is the conversation. 🔵 Key Takeaways Psilocybin works as an accelerant, not a cure. It amplifies therapeutic work already in progress — which means the therapeutic work has to be there first. Ibogaine's cardiac risk is real and cannot be fully predicted even in pre-screened patients. Clinical monitoring with a cardiologist present is not optional — it is the protocol. Ketamine is habit-forming in a way classic psychedelics are not. Since the pandemic, Dr. Sackett has seen a meaningful rise in ketamine use disorder in his clinical practice. The variation in long-term outcomes across psilocybin trials may have more to do with integration therapy than with the drug. The field does not yet have standardized integration protocols. Kratom is available at corner stores and gas stations nationwide and contains a compound with opiate-like properties roughly ten times more potent than morphine. It is undersupported in the research literature and underrecognized as a dependence risk. 🔵 Guest Dr. Nathan Sackett is an addiction psychiatrist and the founding director of the Center for Novel Therapeutics at the University of Washington, where he leads clinical research at the intersection of psychedelic-assisted therapy, trauma, and substance use disorder. He sees patients in both an addictions clinic and UW's Psychedelic Education and Harm Reduction Clinic. Dr. Sackett on LinkedIn Center for Novel Therapeutics, University of Washington 🔵 Resources #46 Cultivating the Witness with Natasha Lannerd — on metacognition, integration, and the internal observer that makes psychedelic work stick #117 Ibogaine Treatment at Beond — a conversation with the co-founders of the Mexico-based clinic whose cardiac data Dr. Sackett is currently studying Ask April: Q: Does the president's executive order legalize psychedelics? — on the executive order, fast-tracked FDA review, and what access will actually cost patients ⁠Original Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/psychedelics-addiction-research-nathan-sackett SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

125. The Wise Body: What Women's Hormones, Cycles, and Lived Experience Have to Teach Psychedelic Medicine Stephanie Karzon Abrams of Galilea on why psychedelic care must account for women's cycles, life stage, and the knowledge that predates clinical trials. Episode Summary The research on psychedelics was built around male bodies. Women were treated as a confounding variable — their cycles, hormones, and life stages filtered out of study designs rather than centered in them. The result is a clinical landscape where practitioners are guessing, women are underserved, and the knowledge that has existed for generations in women's bodies and lineages is treated as anecdote rather than data. Stephanie Karzon Abrams is the co-creator of Galilea and founder of Beyond Consulting, a practice focused on psychedelic-informed female care: what it requires, what the research does and doesn't tell us, and what women's lived experience is already teaching practitioners who are paying attention. 🔵 Key Takeaways Hormonal landscape will influence a woman's psychedelic experience — but the research is contradictory enough that we cannot yet say with certainty in what direction. GLP-1 medications slow gastric emptying and interfere with the onset of prodrugs like psilocybin, which must be metabolized into active psilocin in the gut. The distinction between knowledge and knowing is the foundation of the Wise Body framework. Knowledge can be published and replicated. Knowing is generational, intuitive, lived. Psychedelic therapy is more like surgery than a prescription. It requires preparation, skilled practitioners, and mandatory aftercare. We don't yet have adequate data on how diversity, culture, comorbidities, and socioeconomic background affect outcomes. And the ecosystems and communities that hold these medicines are not ready to be scaled. 🔵 Timestamps - 0:01 Intro & Disclaimer - 0:18 Welcome & Guest Introduction - 1:46 Shulgin Farm Event Preview - 3:09 The Research Gap: Hormones & Psychedelics - 4:44 Explainer: Serotonin & Glutamate - 5:58 Contradictory Research Findings - 8:18 The Structural Problem: Women Excluded from Trials - 9:51 GALILEA Toolkit & Practitioner Resources - 11:01 GLP-1 Drugs & Psilocybin Interactions - 15:35 Explainer: Pro-Drugs & Psilocybin Metabolism - 17:18 Lived Experience & Cyclical Awareness - 21:22 The Wise Body: Knowing vs Knowledge - 29:10 Root Cause, Ketamine & Expectations - 33:28 Ketamine for Postpartum Depression - 35:12 Reframing Treatment as Surgery - 37:51 Access, Equity & Slowing the Rollout - 44:48 Closing Reflections - 46:33 Where to Find Steph's Work 🔵 Resources Stephanie Karzon Abrams | Galilea, Beyond Consulting Psychedelics & the Whole Self: A Gathering for Womxn Ep. 33 | Therapeutic Psilocybin Use: Tea, Lemon Tek, and Healing Original Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/women-hormones-psychedelics-practitioner-education SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

124. Psychedelic Integration and Intuition: What Actually Changes After Ayahuasca Explore psychedelic integration and intuition through ayahuasca, grief, and leadership. What really changes after plant medicine? Episode Summary What actually happens after the ceremony ends? In this episode, April sits down with Lizzi Cutler to explore psychedelic integration and intuition beyond the peak experience. From ayahuasca to 5-MeO-DMT, Lizzi shares how plant medicine didn’t “fix” her but instead revealed who she already was. The conversation moves through grief and identity, including the emotional reality of not becoming a mother, and expands into how intuition can be applied in unexpected places like business and leadership. This episode will help you understand how to integrate psychedelic experiences into daily life, trust your intuition, rethink personal growth as an ongoing, nonlinear process. 🔵 Key Takeaways Psychedelics don’t fix you—they reveal patterns you’re already living inside True ayahuasca integration happens over years, not days or weeks Intuition isn’t mystical—it’s a skill that can be applied to leadership and hiring Grief and identity are deeply intertwined, especially around missed life paths Intuitive leadership may be the missing link in building aligned teams and cultures 🔵 Timestamps [00:00] Intro, disclaimer, and April’s context on consciousness + intuition[01:00] Introducing Lizzi Cutler and the theme of integration[02:00] Psychedelics and grief + upcoming salon context[03:00] Lizzi’s early work: yoga, meditation, and intuitive sensing[04:00] Naming subconscious patterns and how change begins[05:00] April’s narration: awareness, observation, and the double slit experiment[06:00] Applying intuition to business, hiring, and leadership[08:00] First ayahuasca invitation and entering ceremony work[09:00] Ayahuasca + San Pedro explained (context + risks)[10:00] First ceremonies: “feeling nothing” and frustration[10:30] Dieta explained: preparation, digestion, and intuition[12:00] First breakthrough experience and community bonding[13:00] Divorce, feeling “broken,” and seeking transformation[14:00] 30–40 ceremonies later: what ayahuasca actually revealed[15:00] “Own your power” and letting go of imitation[16:00] The apprenticeship dynamic + April’s ethical commentary[18:00] Surrendering to intuition and first real validation[19:00] Bringing intuitive work into real-world practice[20:00] Shifting from personal coaching to stress + behavior change[21:00] Breakthrough moment: intuition applied to business[22:00] Alignment, investing, and intuitive due diligence[23:00] Oneness, source, and early 5-MeO insights[24:00] Psychedelics don’t give gifts—they reveal them[25:00] Intuition as a natural ability vs learned skill[26:00] 5-MeO-DMT explained + non-dual awareness[26:30] “I am enough”: the end of the “I’m broken” narrative[27:00] Embodiment, love, and kintsugi (wholeness through integration)[28:00] Integration over time + relationships and emotional growth[29:00] Building an intuitive business model (CEO-focused work)[30:00] “Intuitive analysis” and reading organizational culture[31:00] AI vs intuition: human pattern recognition[32:00] Leadership decisions, restructuring, and team alignment[33:00] Working with investors, philanthropy, and impact[34:00] Money as energy + alignment in giving[35:00] Closing reflections + where this work is going[36:00] Outro + resources + psychedelic grief salon 🔵 Resources Original Microdosing for Midlife Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/p/psychedelic-integration-and-intuition-ayahuasca-leadership ⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

123. Microdosing for Midlife: Emotional Resilience(Week 6) Week 6 explores extinction learning, emotional resilience, and how microdosing may support gradual rewiring of fear-based patterns in midlife. Episode Summary This episode is part Week 6 of Microdosing for Midlife—a 12-part audio companion to the original Substack series. In this conversation, April explores emotional resilience not as toughness or avoidance, but as the ability to update old responses in real time. Using entrepreneurship as metaphor, she reflects on how repeated attempts, setbacks, and recalibration build resilience—and how microdosing psilocybin intersects with that process. The episode introduces the neuroscience concept of extinction learning—the brain’s ability to replace outdated fear responses with more informed ones. Rather than positioning microdosing as a cure or shortcut, April frames it as a catalyst for noticing habitual reactions, pausing before reenactment, and building new neural pathways through integration. If the written post focused on the science and story, this episode explores how resilience is practiced—not performed—especially in midlife when old coping strategies no longer serve. 🔵 Key Takeaways What extinction learning means in practical terms How emotional resilience differs from emotional suppression Why microdosing is described as a catalyst—not a quick fix The role of integration in reinforcing new neural pathways How midlife transitions resurface habitual responses Why subtle shifts often matter more than dramatic breakthroughs One reflection to carry into the week ahead 🔵 Timestamps [00:00] Episode opening[02:00] Entrepreneurship and resilience as metaphor[04:30] Extinction learning explained[07:00] Personal example of breaking habitual responses[10:00] Integration and grounding practices[13:00] Midlife transitions and emotional awareness[16:00] What to carry forward 🔵 Resources Original Microdosing for Midlife Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/p/microdosing-psilocybin-for-emotional-resilience ⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠

122. Microdosing for Midlife: Stability & Nervous System Change (Week 5) Week 5 explores masking, authenticity, the Default Mode Network, and how microdosing may soften rigid self-narratives in midlife. Episode Summary This episode is part Week 5 of Microdosing for Midlife—a 12-part audio companion to the original Substack series. In this conversation, April explores authenticity not as a dramatic revelation, but as a gradual unmasking. Rather than chasing peak experiences or forced breakthroughs, she reflects on how microdosing intersects with identity, ego softening, and the quiet recognition of truths long postponed. The episode examines the difference between escape and exposure—and why midlife often demands something more sustainable than either. Drawing from neuroscience, lived experience, and even a bridge to quantum physics, April considers how the Default Mode Network (DMN) reinforces self-stories—and how gentle disruptions may create space for new ones. This is not about dramatic ego dissolution. It’s about noticing the yes that’s actually a no, the roles we’ve outgrown, and the parts of ourselves we’ve hidden to stay acceptable. If you’ve read the original essay, this episode deepens it. If you haven’t, it stands on its own—and may send you back to read more closely. 🔵 Key Takeaways How “masking” functions psychologically and neurologically The role of the Default Mode Network in identity and self-story Why escape and authenticity are often confused How microdosing may soften rigid self-narratives The difference between forced revelation and sustained alignment What flow actually represents in midlife transition One reflection to carry into the week ahead 🔵 Timestamps [00:00] Episode opening[02:00] Masking, escape, and authenticity[05:00] A personal mask-off moment[07:00] Default Mode Network and ego narratives[10:00] Observation and identity[13:00] Flow and sustained alignment[15:00] What to carry forward 🔵 Resources Original Microdosing for Midlife Substack post: https://aprilpride.substack.com/p/microdosing-for-authenticity ⁠SetSet Psychedelic Cards⁠ ⁠Women in the Wild application⁠ Hosted by April Pride Subscribe for April’s newsletter on Substack at ⁠https://aprilpride.substack.com/subscribe⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@aprilpridecreates / YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@aprilpridecreates ⁠ Get full access to APRIL PRIDE at ⁠aprilpride.com⁠