In this episode, Dmitry Repin, PhD joins to discuss the intersection of bodily movement and psychedelics. Dr. Repin is the co-founder of the Institute for Psychedelic Research at Tel Aviv University, holds a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, and is the producer and creative force behind the Everything Else Matters documentary.

In this conversation, Dr. Repin explores how psychedelics may influence movement, proprioception, and motor learning, drawing from his background in neuroscience and his transformative experiences with dance practices like Gaga. He describes his team's innovative clinical study pairing psilocybin with guided movement training to investigate whether altered states can open temporary windows of enhanced plasticity for learning new movement patterns. Throughout the discussion, Dr. Repin reflects on why so many people feel inhibited in their bodies, how psychedelics might soften these constraints, and what traditional movement-based ceremonies can teach modern clinical research about embodiment, healing, and the relationship between perception and action.

In this episode, you'll hear:

How dance and Gaga inspired Dr. Repin's scientific interest in movement during psychedelic states

Kinesiophobia and why many people experience fear, shame, or inhibition around movement

Why Dr. Repin chose psilocybin for his study on psychedelics and movement

How Dr. Repin's study measures movement changes using optical tracking and multi-dimensional metrics

What makes Gaga movement practices unique compared to other approaches to dance and movement

The structure of the psilocybin-plus-movement protocol developed at Tel Aviv University

How psychedelics may temporarily enhance motor learning through shifts in proprioception and neuroplasticity

What ritual and communal dance contexts reveal about the embodied dimensions of psychedelic experiences

Quotes:

"If we understand those [neurological] mechanisms, we can try to influence certain situations where people have deficits related to movement." [4:47]

"For example, when I go to a dance training session [after a recent psychedelic experience], I find that I actually internalize movement patterns much faster than I do otherwise—and it's noticeable to my dance teacher." [8:56]

"Part of the hypothesis that we have is that certain qualities or dimensions of movement might be affected more or less by psychedelics than others and that potentially, will give us some insights into the specific brain mechanisms because certain different types of movement sometimes require different circuits to engage in different parts of the body." [19:47]

"Some initial wisdom, some anecdotes, or some best practices that have been developed within those non-clinical settings may be very useful to inform clinical—and maybe other—areas that use psychedelics." [27:03]

Links:

Everything Else Matters documentary

The Institute for Psychedelic Research at Tel Aviv University

Dr. Repin on LinkedIn

Dr. Repin on X

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode, Psychedelic Medicine Podcast host, Dr. Lynn Marie Morski, provides the latest updates from the field of psychedelic medicine. Dr. Morski discusses the breakthrough therapy designation which a number of psychedelic compounds have received in the past few years, the most recent of which is BPL-003, a nasal spray formulation of 5-MeO-DMT. One of the exciting aspects of this new compound, Dr. Morski notes, is that it is shorter-acting than most serotonergic psychedelics—a feature which may make treatment with this substance less expensive and more accessible.

Another exciting development is the COMPASS Pathways phase 3 trial of COMP360 psilocybin. Dr. Morski shares that the company believes they are nine to twelve months ahead of schedule, which means that if all goes well, this psilocybin compound could be approved for treatment resistant depression as early as sometime in 2027. She also discusses why the US FDA said they rejected MDMA for PTSD and what this governing body would like to see from subsequent research before reconsidering this decision. In closing, Dr. Morski shares excitement about the development of novel psychoplastogens—the non-hallucinogenic psychedelics—which may help bring many of the same healing benefits to populations currently unable to be served by the existing compounds under investigation.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Which psychedelics currently have breakthrough therapy designation and for which indications
• Details of recent ketamine research for inpatient depression care and why these results are not as negative as they may seem
• The current horizons of psychedelic research and what indications may soon be explored
• Sources of hope in the current state of psychedelic research and the legal landscape

Quotes:

"[BPL-003] showed rapid and durable antidepressant outcomes after a single dose. … here we have something that is under an hour [of psychedelic experience] for treatment resistant depression." [7:43]

"Keeping patients blinded to whether or not they got the placebo or MDMA is a big focus that [the FDA] wanted to emphasize for these future phase 3 trials." [19:07]

"I know we had a big setback last year. I think a lot of us thought by this time we'd be a year into MDMA being approved and we're not. However, there are so many things on the horizon that are worth being excited about." [23:48]

Links:

Psychedelic Medicine Podcast on Instagram

Psychedelic Medicine Podcast on YouTube

Jelovac A, McCaffrey C, Terao M, et al. "Serial Ketamine Infusions as Adjunctive Therapy to Inpatient Care for Depression: The KARMA-Dep 2 Randomized Clinical Trial" JAMA Psychiatry, 2025.

Beckley Psytech Limited Phase 2 Trial: BPL-003 Efficacy and Safety in Treatment Resistant Depression

COMPASS Pathways Phase 3 Trial: Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of COMP360 in Participants With TRD

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Complete Response Letter (CRL) to Lykos Therapeutics, declining to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Psychedelic Alpha Psychedelic Drug Development Bullseye Chart

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode Matthew Hicks, ND, MS joins to dive into the topic of psilocybin-assisted group therapy for depression. Dr. Hicks is a research Investigator at the National University of Natural Medicine as well as a Naturopathic doctor and licensed psilocybin facilitator at Synaptic Institute.

In this conversation, Dr. Hicks shares findings from one of the first studies investigating psilocybin-assisted group therapy for depression, conducted in Oregon's new legal psilocybin framework. He explains how the high cost and labor-intensive nature of psychedelic therapy inspired him to explore a group model that could make treatment more financially accessible while preserving - and even enhancing - its therapeutic potential. Dr. Hicks describes the structure of the study and discusses how initial participant hesitancy about group work transformed into deep connection and shared healing. He also highlights the study's significant reductions in depression scores, improvements across quality-of-life measures, and the potential for group-based approaches to pave the way toward insurance reimbursement and broader access to psychedelic care.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why affordability and accessibility were central motivations for developing a group-based psilocybin protocol
• The benefits and challenges of conducting psilocybin sessions in a shared group setting
• How Dr. Hicks' study balanced inclusion of low-income participants with safety and stability criteria
• The details of the group treatment structure for Dr. Hicks' study
• Why Dr. Hicks believes group formats may be inherently therapeutic in addition to their economic efficiency
• Dr. Hicks's vision for future efficacy and cost-effectiveness studies that could enable insurance coverage

Quotes:

"In terms of the group dynamic, almost everyone in the intake process was very reluctant. They were trepidatious. They were a little worried about the group part of it. And almost everybody at the end of it, when we did the follow ups at the group, was amazing. People made friends. They felt really supported. They felt really seen by the process of hearing other people's journeys and the growth that they went through—and seeing some other examples of transformation was really powerful and was really encouraging to me." [10:29]

"So [there are] really positive aspects to doing this in a group format that's not just economic—it's not just cheaper to do this in group, it actually has therapeutic benefits that you miss out on when you only do this one on one." [11:12]

"That was always my question in the follow up sessions: 'did your participation in this study change the way you engaged in psychotherapy? Did it change the relationship with your therapist?' And a lot of people reported that it did. They felt they were able to open up and engage more deeply, be more introspective. And it did, in many cases, not all, improve their psychotherapy outcomes as well." [18:24]

"Some people reported that hearing someone else in the group crying for a bit really opened up something in them and they almost felt grateful for that. This other person is having a meaningful experience over there, and that's something they wouldn't have gotten on their own if they hadn't heard that person crying." [22:45]

Links:

Dr. Hicks on LinkedIn

Synaptic Institute website

Dr. Hicks' research at Synaptic Institute

National University of Natural Medicine website

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode Rotem Petranker, PhD joins to discuss the current state of research on microdosing psilocybin. Dr. Petranker is the co-founder of the Psychedelic Studies Research Program at the University of Toronto and the Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science. He recently ran the world's largest randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of microdosing psilocybin on Major Depressive Disorder.

In this conversation, Dr. Petranker shares insights from running the world's largest randomized controlled trial on psilocybin microdosing for major depressive disorder. He explains the origins of microdosing research, from early anecdotes and surveys to his team's carefully designed clinical study comparing psilocybin to placebo across different environments. While participants in both groups reported significant improvements, the findings point to the powerful role of expectancy and placebo effects, alongside nuanced signals of cognitive shifts on measures like dysfunctional attitudes. Dr. Petranker emphasizes the importance of rigorous methodology, open science, and transparency in psychedelic research, while also acknowledging the stories of participants whose lives were positively impacted by study participation itself.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What early microdosing research suggested, and its limitations in anecdotal and survey-based designs
• Why psilocybin was chosen over LSD for the study design
• What motivates people to try microdosing a psychedelic
• Key results from Dr. Petranker's study, including reports of both positive and adverse events
• How placebo effects—and simply being part of a trial—can powerfully shape outcomes
• Reflections on how psychedelics may work by increasing connectedness

Quotes:

"There's no real rigorous definition [of microdosing]. People say, 'oh, I'm just going to microdose some mushrooms,' and then they often take a random amount. I think what people mean is 'I'm going to take an amount that will not knock me out, won't cause serious hallucinations,' but they still use an amount that they often feel. Now, this is in contrast to what people in the [academic] literature define it as, which is more like a sub-perceptual dose, a sub-hallucinogenic dose." [2:17]

"If you microdose and go to work, just to sit under the flickering lights for eight hours in your cubicle versus, say, if you're going to microdose and then go on a walk, or do art, or do as you wish because it's the weekend, you're going to have very different impacts on your anxiety." [15:26]

"[In our study] there were three other self-report measures of depression. There is only a significant difference on one of them, where people who were microdosing were doing better. And that was on the dysfunctional attitude scale, which measures more cognitive assumptions about life." [26:2]

"people who microdose—regardless of why they microdose—they more or less all said that they got to what they wanted through an increased sense of meaning." [35:05]

Links:

Psychedelic Studies Research Program at the University of Toronto

Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science website

Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science on X

Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science on Instagram

Previous episode: Microdosing and the Placebo Effect with Balazs Szigeti, PhD

Previous episode: James Fadiman answers your Microdosing Questions!

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, Rick Strassman, MD joins to discuss the topic of endogenous DMT. Dr. Strassman is adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule and The Psychedelic Handbook. His DMT and psilocybin studies in the early 1990s initiated the renewal of human research with psychedelics in the U.S.

In this conversation, Dr. Strassman discusses the finer details of DMT, from endogenous production in humans and animals, to visionary experiences and theological implications. Dr. Strassman also covers the research that's been done regarding endogenous DMT, clarifying what we do and don't know about the role of the pineal gland and how this might relate to what is reported during near-death experiences. He also discusses the personal and relational quality of psychedelic experiences induced by DMT, mentioning that unitive mystical experiences were actually rare in the trials he conducted, with more experiences having a personal quality, drawing upon the life experiences and interests of the participants. In closing, Dr. Strassman shares his thoughts on the origins of the visions that many report during DMT use.

In this episode you'll hear:

• The overlap between psychedelic experiences and meditation techniques
• The relationship between fear, self-awareness, and difficult DMT experiences
• The placebo effect and psychedelic research
• Dr. Strassman's thoughts on non-hallucinogenic psychedelics
• DMT as a possible treatment for strokes to prevent damage and speed recovery
• Effects of microdosing in animals and humans

Quotes:

"I think the best term for these compounds is psychedelic, which means mind manifesting or mind disclosing, because only one of our fifty-five or so normal volunteers had what one might call a mystical unitive state. … Everybody basically had an experience that was totally dependent on them. It was not inherent in the drug." [9:45]

"You could still speculate that to the extent that non-drug states resemble those brought on by giving DMT… that DMT plays a role in the production of those states. But the data aren't there yet. That's why we need more people doing this research." [24:16]

"If psychedelics are super placebos and if we have a psychedelic drug in our brain, it's attempting to speculate that normally the placebo effect could be mediated by endogenous DMT." [27:42]

"If you starve neurons of oxygen they start dying, but if you add DMT they survive much longer. So there seems to be some neuroprotective effect of DMT on ischemic damage to neurons, at least in the test tube." [32:27]

Links:

Dr. Strassman's website

The Psychedelic Handbook by Dr. Strassman

DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Dr. Strassman

DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible by Dr. Strassman

Dr. Strassman on Facebook
Previous episode: Exploring DMT Entities with Matthew Johnson, PhD

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode Steven Zeiler, MD, PhD joins to discuss the promise of psychedelics for stroke healing. Dr. Zeiler is an associate professor and physician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine specializing in cerebrovascular disease, including acute stroke therapy, prevention, and recovery. He is a lead investigator for a Rose Hill Life Sciences research trial, conducted in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, exploring the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy to enhance motor function in patients with neurological injuries.

In this conversation, Dr. Zeiler explains that after a stroke, there is a natural but time-limited critical period during which the brain is highly plastic and capable of repairing motor function. His research, inspired by work on psychedelics reopening critical learning windows, shows in animal models that a single high dose of psychedelics combined with intensive rehabilitation can restore lost motor abilities even after recovery has plateaued. Throughout, Dr. Zeiler emphasizes that psilocybin itself doesn't heal the brain directly but creates a window of heightened neuroplasticity that, when paired with targeted therapy, may dramatically improve recovery outcomes for stroke survivors.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What happens to patients during a stroke
• The critical period of stroke recovery and how psychedelics may reopen this opportunity
• Why conducting a safety and tolerability study of psilocybin for stroke patients is crucial
• What forms of deficits and recoveries Dr. Zeiler's study will measure
• Dr. Zeiler's speculations on what integrating psychedelic treatments into stroke medicine could look like
• The importance of specialized interventions that take advantage of the critical recovery period

Quotes:

"What has been a little forgotten about in a lot of stroke management situations is helping the person get over the deficits with which the stroke has left them. And if you can't move an arm, you can't move a leg, that's a big deal. And we are not quite as good at addressing some of those problems." [5:11]

"[The potential of psychedelics for stroke recovery] is probably less about addressing the injury itself and more about helping the remaining parts of the brain turn on to address what's lost." [7:36]

"We're not suggesting that the psychedelic itself has some sort of magical property that would just repair the brain, but it primes the situation to allow that input that we then provide over the next many days, many weeks, to affect a recovery." [13:31]

"Imagine something as complicated as the brain going through a repair mechanism: could you imagine one molecule acting on one receptor being able to affect a recovery? I couldn't imagine that—it's too complicated a thing. And so having something like a mechanism of action that is acting through multiple pathways, I think has to be the case if we're going to affect something as complicated as brain repair." [17:30]

Links:

Dr. Zeiler on LinkedIn

Super Room for Enriched Neurological Repair at Green Spring (SENRG)

PHATHOM (Psychedelic Healing: Adjunct Therapy Harnessing Opened Malleability)-Stroke Project

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode J. Ashley T. Booth, LCSW, MS joins to discuss the importance of long-term psychedelic integration. Ashley is a Los Angeles-based psychedelic therapist, IFS practitioner, and author of Quieting the Storm Within: An Illustrated Introduction to Your Parts Through Internal Family Systems and Beyond. With a background in research, education, and clinical work—including serving as a co-investigator on the MAPS MDMA trials—she specializes in helping clients integrate psychedelic experiences through compassionate parts work and Self-led healing.

In this conversation, Ashley explores the nuances of psychedelic integration, discussing how this process can be supported through ongoing self-audits, somatic practices, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) work. She highlights the need to slow down, focus on one insight at a time, and anchor felt experiences into the body so they become lived behaviors rather than fleeting memories. The discussion also addresses challenges such as insufficient integration, psychedelic narcissism, and the pressure to "fix" oneself. In closing, Ashley stresses that even years after a journey, integration is possible if one revisits experiences with intention, and she underscores the central role of supportive communities in sustaining lasting transformation

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What things are important to focus on in long-term integration
• How someone can discern when their integration process has been sufficient to pursue a subsequent psychedelic journey
• An overview of the internal family systems model of the psyche
• The downsides of insufficient integration
• Developing deeper relationships with the parts of one's psyche through IFS
• Why it's never too late to integrate psychedelic experiences from one's past
• What to do when integration seems to come into conflict with feeling well adjusted to society's expectations

Quotes:

"What I encourage clients to do is to take notes on everything that felt important and then separate them out into: 'I'm going to just focus on this one thing for like a month, and then maybe next month will be that second piece of it.' And so you're really allowing yourself to make particular practices and focus on one thing at a time." [6:21]

"So whatever wound we're dealing with in our bodies, whether it's an extreme sort of big T trauma or little T trauma… there's a slowness that needs to happen. And so if there's parts of us that want to speed up that process, we need to be curious about that and see if there are ways that we can tend to that before the next journey." [13:59]

"I think that part of the longer term questions are not just how we change our life but what kind of meaning are we making of our lives and how are we sitting more comfortably in that meaning in a way that is serving us and empowering us?" [25:52]

Links:

Ashley's website

IFS and Beyond on Instagram

IFS and Beyond website

Quieting the Storm Within: An Illustrated Introduction to Your Parts Through Internal Family Systems and Beyond by J. Ashley T. Booth

Aware Project: Southern California Psychedelic Society website

Previous episode: Navigating Psychedelic Narcissism with Adam Aronovich

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode, Dr. Genesee Herzberg joins to discuss the ways ketamine therapy can be combined with other healing modalities. Dr. Herzberg is a clinical psychologist and co-founder and director of Sage Integrative Health, an integrative psychedelic therapy clinic and training center in the SF Bay Area. She worked as a therapist on the MDMA for PTSD clinical trials and co-edited the book Integral Psychedelic Therapy.

In this conversation, Dr. Herzberg explains how somatic therapy, touch therapy, bodywork, and movement support trauma processing. She also highlights the benefits of combining ketamine with acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and functional medicine—including nutritional and hormonal assessments—to address physiological contributors to mental health. In closing, Dr. Herzberg emphasizes trauma-informed, team-based, and individualized approach to psychedelic healing, where ketamine acts as a bridge between psychological, somatic, and biomedical treatments.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How somatic therapy is used within ketamine therapy sessions
• How ketamine helps quiet the default mode network to support therapeutic processing
• Ensuring safety during physical and movement-based therapies
• The importance of establishing boundaries and explicit consent for therapeutic work that involves touch
• Dr. Herzberg's first hand experience of the reciprocal benefits of combining acupuncture and ketamine therapy
• Using functional medicine and nutrition therapy to support the therapeutic process with ketamine

Quotes:

"I see ketamine, especially at lower psychoanalytic doses… as a support in turning down the volume on emotional and physical pain, which can then help us to better experience them. So I think of it as a sort of 're-associative'." [4:08]

"Another aspect of the healing potential of therapy in general has to do with a therapeutic relationship: developing this sense that there's someone who cares about you, who's there to support you, who's going to be right there with you as you're dropping into your scariest and darkest places. And touch is one of the best ways to communicate that." [13:53]

"Acupuncture can help the nervous system to relax and help the system to open to the ketamine such that we are able to more fully receive the benefits of the medicine and feel the effects of it." [25:07]

Links:

Sage Integrative Health website

Dr. Herzberg on LinkedIn

Sage Integrative Health on LinkedIn

Sage Integrative Health on Instagram

Sage Integrative Health on Facebook

Integral Psychedelic Therapy: The Non-Ordinary Art of Psychospiritual Healing edited by Jason A. Butler, Genesee Herzberg, and Richard Louis Miller

Previous episode: Psychedelic Adjunct Series: Somatic Therapy with Jenna Valentine, DACM, LAc

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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