By Rosalind Watts, Sam Gandy, Alex Evans — 2019
Psychedelics offer a sense of expansive connectedness, just like astronauts have felt looking back to Earth from space.
Read on aeon.co
CLEAR ALL
Like most people of color in the United States, psychotherapist and researcher Monnica Williams has experienced myriad forms of racism. Early in her career, understanding its effects on her mind and body motivated her to help clients address their own racial trauma in therapy.
We’re seeing an explosion of medical research into psychedelics. Psilocybin, or shrooms, to treat major depressive disorder. Ayahuasca, a psychotropic plant medicine from the Amazon, and ibogaine, a potent hallucinogen from Africa, to treat addiction. LSD for anxiety.
Through this treatment plan, the patient was able to “reconceptualize her trauma” and “was able to move through difficult memories and emotions rather than letting them consume her,” explained U of O associate professor, Monnica Williams.
1
These substances are being touted as a game-changing intervention for mental health. But it’s not clear if their promise will be accessible to all.
2
A recent study found that even a single positive psychedelic experience may ease mental health symptoms associated with racial trauma experienced by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
The exuberant “renaissance” of studies researching psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the past twenty years has not sufficiently included the enrollment of racially diverse participants, a problem that psychedelic science and clinical research shares with mainstream psychiatry
For the owners of Magnolia Wellness, LLC, mental health is more than just a brain issue. Rather, say Gizelle Tircuit and her daughter Janelle Posey-Green, emotional wellness goes far beyond what’s inside someone’s head, encompassing their body, their community, their culture and more.
The awe we feel in nature can dramatically reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to UC Berkeley research that tracked psychological and physiological changes in war veterans and at-risk inner-city youth during white-water rafting trips.
“Being...out in nature, it’s just good for the soul. It’s cleansing...it gets you outside of yourself. It’s my...way to decompress.” —Edye Joyner, U.S. Marine Corps and Desert Storm veteran
Military Outdoors (SCMO) is at the forefront of a national movement to ensure every veteran in America has an opportunity to get outdoors when they return home after service.