Foundations in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Social Workers
In spring of 2023 we hosted a 10-part learning series titled Foundations in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Social Workers, consisting of a series of lectures from leaders in the field and a live discussion featuring panelists whose personal healing journeys have been impacted by psychedelics.
Dr. Jeffrey Zabinski, MD, MSW of the Columbia Department of Psychiatry provides a thorough overview of common psychedelic compounds, clinical applications, and supporting research.
Jeffrey Zabinski, MD, MSW is a psychiatrist and medical educator at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where he specializes in medication management and psychotherapy for patients with treatment resistant and medically complex psychiatric illnesses. With Dr. Joshua Berman, he has helped launch and expand the clinical programs for intranasal esketamine and IV ketamine, with the intent to help develop and implement psychedelic clinical services once FDA clearance is granted.
Dr. Zabinski's unique multidisciplinary background started with his undergraduate training in biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, followed by an MSW at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and a Master's in bioethics. Following medical school, he completed adult psychiatry residency training at Johns Hopkins where he was a Chief Resident in his final year. He then completed additional fellowship training in consultation-liaison psychiatry, a specialty dedicated to understanding and integrating psychiatric care for the medically ill. Dr. Zabinski joined Columbia in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, working on the hospital consultation-liaison psychiatry teaching service and serving as the liaison to neurology.
MAPS trainer and JEDI consultant Jennifer Jones, PhD, MSW is joined by her Rising Caps Collective co-founder Aisha Mohammed, LMFT. Together they offer an overview of the psychedelic-assisted therapy process, while exploring themes of identity, social location, and safety.
Jennifer C. Jones, PhD, LCSW is a multiracial Black, queer, fairly able-bodied, cisgender woman in her 50’s living with citizenship in the US. Jennifer incorporates an economics human rights perspective, a harm reduction framework, and Gestalt Therapy principles in her work and engagement with others. For the past 2 years, Jennifer has collaborated with Aisha Mohammed to develop the Rising Caps Collective with the mission to heal the collective trauma caused by legacies of colonization, slavery and capitalism by using expansive healing methods including plant-based medicines.
After being trained in MDMA-assisted therapy in 2019, Jennifer began working with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as a Justice, Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) consultant and MDMA-assisted Therapy Training Assistant. Since 1998, Jennifer has worked with individuals in psychotherapy who identify as: lgbqa; transgender or gender non-binary; people of color; sex workers; substance users; struggling with class oppression; living with a positive HIV status; and/or healing from physical, sexual and/or emotional pain.
In addition to supporting people in therapy, Jennifer has served as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer of Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health Centers and a faculty member and the Executive Director of The Gestalt Therapy Training Institute of Philadelphia (GTIP). She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, and her PhD. from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. As a parent of a teenager and someone who believes a just world is possible, Jennifer is committed to organizing across color lines creating unity among poor and dispossessed people around the world to fight for all of our economic human rights.
Aisha Mohammed, LMFT is a cisgender, queer, Pakistani-American woman who immigrated from Karachi to Los Angeles as a child. She has been working in harm reduction for a decade with Project SAFE, providing direct services and advocating for the human and labor rights of people who trade sex and use substances. Aisha trained as a family therapist at Drexel University and has worked primarily with low-income families of color, immigrants and people who use substances in community mental health and educational settings.
Session recording unavailable at this time.
Mary Cosimano, LMSW has been with the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research since 2000 when they began research with psilocybin. She is currently a psychedelic session guide and has served as Director of Clinical Services and a research coordinator. She has been involved with all the psilocybin studies and has conducted over 500 study sessions including Club Drug studies with Salvia Divinorum and Dextromethorphan.
Mary has trained post doctorate fellows, faculty, clinicians, and research assistants as guides and taught individual and group meditation to breast cancer patients in a Johns Hopkins research study. She is a teacher and mentor at California Institute of Integral Studies for their Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research (CPTR) and conducts trainings for therapists in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. In 2003 she started a meditation group for employees in her department. She also has 15 years of experience with direct patient care as a hospice volunteer.
Mazateca Healer Doña Eugenia Casimiro and co-facilitator Miguel Mendez share about traditional use of psilocybin mushrooms, colonization of culture and spirituality, reciprocity, and connection to the elements of the Earth.
Doña Eugenia Pineda Casimiro is a Mazateca healer from Huautla de Jiménez, Mexico, a little town in the region of Oaxaca brought to fame by María Sabina and her work with Los Niños Santos, or “the holy children.” Trained in her ancestral lineage by her mother, Abuela Julieta Pineda Casimiro of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, Eugenia worked by her side since childhood, and accompanied her through all of her world travels. Eugenia inherited this altar to carry on the family legacy upon her mother’s passing in 2018.
Eugenia is mother to three beautiful children and resides in her familial home in Huautla. Along with her sisters, the family carries on its traditions of doing exquisite embroidery, harvesting beeswax for candle-making, and cultivating coffee and cacao. Helping other people and following the path of light and God are the deepest expressions of Eugenia’s heart.
Miguel Mendez is a health advisor, known in North and South America for his active role in personal development. His expansive knowledge integrates Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kundalini yoga, meditation, nutrition, and Indigenous plant medicine.
Miguel, who lives in Brooklyn, NY, walks an active path of consciousness and transformation. His offerings and teachings are all derived from the passion of his heart. He believes strongly that through the spreading of ancestral wisdom and the application of simple and grounded technical information, the world is evolving into a more peaceful place each day.
Emma Knighton, MA, LMHC offers practical insights and a deep-dive into consent to treatment and therapeutic touch, boundaries, building trust, and feeling safe in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Emma Knighton, MA, LMHC (she/they) is a white, queer, able-bodied femme with lineage rooted in Celtic Druidry. In their clinical work, Emma works at the intersection of complex PTSD from childhood abuse, queer identity development, and consciousness exploration. Her clinical and leadership approach is grounded in queer, consent, feminist, and anti-oppression/pro-liberation theories. Emma teaches courses on integrating trauma-attuned consent practices into psychedelic-assisted therapy and strives to be in service to the psychedelic space with integrated mind, body, spirit, and community.
Emma does organizing work in the psychedelic ecosystem around equity, access, and integrating liberation practices and the spirit of the medicine into organizational strategy and operations. A lifelong learner, Emma is in sacred relationship with their ancestors, tree elders, plant teachers, and the collective consciousness.
Victor Cabral, LSW of Fluence Training and the documentary We Are The Medicine shares some experiences of personal and community healing with psychedelics, spirituality, therapy, and beyond.
Victor Alfonso Cabral, LSW (he/him) is a collaborative and strategic Afro-Latinx leader who is committed to making an impact in his community and beyond. Victor serves as the Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Fluence Training. Before joining Fluence, Victor served as Deputy Director for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Advocacy and Reform where he co-led the implementation of the Trauma-Informed Pennsylvania Plan, helped establish the first Racial Day of Healing in Pennsylvania history, and developed free trauma training for Pennsylvanians. He is trained in Level 1 Internal Family Systems through Black Therapists Rock, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and psychedelic harm reduction and integration (PHRI).
Victor works to center BIpoc voices in the field of psychedelics by highlighting BIpoc stories in policy & advocacy efforts, art, and science. He is currently working on a documentary film titled ‘We Are The Medicine’ which explores the re-emergence of psychedelics from the perspective of Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Victor is listed on Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s list of “40 Under 40 Outstanding BIPOC Leaders in Drug Policy in the United States” for his work in psychedelic policy and received the 2022 Emerging Social Work Leader Award from the National Association of Social Workers.
Dr. Angela Carter, ND discusses gender-affirming care best-practices, Queer and Trans identities in psychedelic spaces, and the potential benefits of psychedelic healing for these communities.
Angela Carter, ND (they/them) is a white, gender/neuro/queer, disabled, dirt-worshiping witch and naturopathic physician living in Portland, Or. They managed the initial rollout of the Measure 110 Substance Use Decriminalization and Recovery Program at the Oregon Health Authority. They serve as a vice-chair of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board. They are co-founder of The Equi Institute, a queer and trans health access and advocacy organization, and a founding member and chair emeritus of the OHSU Transgender Health Program’s community advisory board.
Dr. Carter has held vigil with thousands of people in sacred transitional spaces as a midwife, a physician offering gender transitional care, and as a peer with people on psychedelic journeys. They have volunteered as a peer with Fireside Project and as a medic and harm reductionist at Black Rock City, festivals, and events for over 10 years. They are Zendo trained and completed the MAPS MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy Training Program. They enjoy the company of cats, crocheting, and getting lost in the woods looking for mushrooms.
Fireside Project co-founder Hanifa Nayo Washington guides us in an opening mediation, followed by a discussion of the importance of community and peer-support in psychedelic spaces and our daily lives.
Hanifa Nayo Washington (she/her) is an award-winning social entrepreneur, healing justice practitioner with 25 years of values-based nonprofit leadership. Hanifa, a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging group facilitator, reiki master practitioner, and sacred activist, works at the intersection of mindfulness, place making, and social justice to cultivate organizations, gatherings, spaces, and experiences rooted in the values of beloved community.
Hanifa, is a Founding Team Member and Advisor on Equity & Training at Fireside Project a nonprofit that is creating systemic change in the field of psychedelics in three key domains: safety, diversity, and equitable access. Through their Psychedelic Peer Support Line, Fireside Project has created a nationwide safety net that has substantially decreased 911 calls and hospitalizations while democratizing access to free high-quality care. The line has received 11,000 calls since launching in April of 2021.
In the winter of 2023 Hanifa joined the newly formed Psychedelic Health Equity Initiative as a co-lead investigator. The goal is to improve the lives of people who have been marginalized in our society by providing equitable access to effective psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT) that can help them lead healthier lives.
Hanifa is also the Co-founder and Organizing Principal of One Village Healing, an online BIPOC centered healing, resilience, and psychedelic wellness space. Hanifa is a public speaker and performing artist. She has been featured in dozens of articles on psychedelics, equity, and sacred activism from Essence to Vice.
Hanifa is a native of Detroit, Michigan. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Kile Ortigo of the Center for Existential Exploration and author of Beyond the narrow life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration helps us understand what integration is, what it looks like in practice, and why it is so important.
Kile Ortigo, PhD is a clinical psychologist, certified psychedelic psychotherapist, and founder of the Center for Existential Exploration, where he offers depth-oriented psychotherapy and integration services in Palo Alto and San Francisco. After completing his training at Emory, Stanford, and UCSF-affiliated hospitals, Dr. Ortigo worked at the National Center for PTSD for five years, where he directed a national implementation program that paired telehealth coaching with web-based mental health interventions.
Dr. Ortigo has authored several articles and chapters on personality, trauma, diversity, and mental health technology. More recently, he has published two books: (1) Treating Survivors of Child Abuse & Interpersonal Trauma: STAIR Narrative Therapy (2nd Edition), as a coauthor, and (2) Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration & Existential Exploration, with a foreword by psychedelic luminary and Johns Hopkins psychologist, Dr. Bill Richards. Beyond the Narrow Life offers a guided journey to explore intersecting interdisciplinary themes involving mythology, existential fears and hopes, and psychospiritual development. The book’s activities and meditations support independent exploration as well as psychedelic psychotherapy.
Dr. Ortigo has served on the advisory board of Psychedelic.Support, a practitioner directory and training platform, and continues to support public education and professional training by being part of the core training team, a moderator, consultant, and faculty member of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies & Research (CPTR) certificate training program.
Four panelists share about the impact of psychedelics on their personal healing journeys, including MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, psilocybin-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder, and ayahuasca for PTSD with veterans.