Afleveringen
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What does healing actually look like in the years after a psychedelic experience? Not a straight line, but a spiral. In this first guest episode, Dr Rosalind Watts is in conversation with Ruth, who took part in a psilocybin-for-depression trial and has spent the years since walking the long, slow road of integration.
Ruth had lived with depression for most of her adult life, and had tried most of the conventional routes, when she joined the trial in 2019. She talks about what brought her to it and the two strikingly different sessions she had: one expansive and full of light, and one that was hours of darkness and fear.
But the heart of this conversation is what came after. Ruth went home weeks before COVID lockdown, with her integration circle cancelled and almost no support around her. She talks about the ACER sharing circles that grew out of that time, the somatic practices she tried (some that worked, some that made her furious), and the slow, spiralling, six-year journey since. It is an honest picture of integration as real work, and of how being witnessed by others, and witnessing them, is part of what makes an opening last.
In this episode:
Why Ruth chose a clinical trial over travelling abroad, and what safety made possible
"This is not where you belong, you are trapped here," and finding meaning in the hard journey
Tree meditations, and reconnecting with the living world
Knowledge versus wisdom, and learning to use what she already had
Trying somatic practices and breathwork, and letting some things not work
Being witnessed, reciprocity, and not carrying the whole load alone
Six years on: the ups, the downs, and the spiralReferences and links:
The trial Ruth took part in: Trial of Psilocybin versus Escitalopram for Depression (Carhart-Harris, Giribaldi, Watts et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2021). Free summary on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33852780. Full paper: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032994
If you're interested in taking part in a clinical trial: search current studies on ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov) or, in the UK, the NHS "Be Part of Research" service (https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk).
"Trust, let go, be open," the trial's guiding phrase, comes from psychedelic pioneer Bill Richards, in his book Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences.
The Watts Connectedness Scale (Watts et al., 2022, open access): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-022-06187-5
If you are living with the kind of heavy depression Ruth describes, you do not have to sit in it alone. Samaritans volunteers are there any time. In the UK, call 116 123. In the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
ACER Integration: https://acerintegration.com/
Submit a question for a future Q&A episode: https://forms.gle/JgJaAjDRbowAcyWZ9Next week: Ros is in conversation with Michelle Baker Jones, the colleague she started those pandemic sharing circles with, a therapist on multiple psychedelic trials, with her own story of disconnection and connection.
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Psychedelic medicines can open a door. But what happens when there's nothing waiting on the other side to help you stay open?
In this episode, Dr. Rosalind Watts tells the story of John, a participant in one of the first psilocybin trials for depression. Through John's story, Ros explores a question that sits at the heart of modern psychedelic care: what happens after the breakthrough?
Along the way, she reflects on a major new U.S. executive order designed to accelerate access to psychedelic medicines, and the mix of hope and ethical tensions it raises.
Ultimately, this episode asks a bigger question than whether we are ready for psychedelic medicines. It asks whether we are ready to build the kinds of communities that can hold all of life's threshold moments: grief, birth, loss, love, transformation, and healing.
References and links:
Watch Magic Medicine (dir. Monty Wates), the documentary following John and the Imperial College London psilocybin trial. Netflix (UK): https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81409016 and Prime Video.
The Watts Connectedness Scale (Watts et al., 2022, Psychopharmacology, open access): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-022-06187-5
The US executive order on accelerating treatments for serious mental illness (White House, April 2026): https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-is-accelerating-medical-treatments-for-serious-mental-illness/
Jules Evans on therapists' safety and ethics concerns in psychedelic trials (Ecstatic Integration): https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/therapists-on-psychedelic-trials
On Gabon protecting iboga (National Geographic): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/ibogaine-pschedelic-drug-root-fair-trade-gabon
Book: María Sabina: Her Life and Chants, by Álvaro Estrada
Sophy Banks and Healthy Human CultureSubmit a question to Ros, to be answered on a future podcast episode: https://forms.gle/JgJaAjDRbowAcyWZ9
If you are struggling:
If you are in the dark place Ros describes, you do not have to sit in it alone. Samaritans volunteers are there any time. In the UK, call 116 123. In the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.Learn more about the ACER community: https://acerintegration.com/
Connect with Dr. Rosalind Watts:
https://www.drrosalindwatts.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rosalind-watts/
https://www.instagram.com/acerintegration
https://medium.com/@DrRosalindWatts
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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There's a lot to be angry about right now. But rage can't be the only thing we feel. This is a place to come for stories of people moving from disconnection to connection, numbness to feeling, isolation to belonging.
In this first episode, clinical psychologist Ros Watts introduces Stand in the Circle. What it is. Where it came from. And the night she walked out in the rain and ended up with her arms around a tree.
Ros tells the story of her years running one of the first clinical trials treating depression with psychedelic therapy, and the truth is: she was publishing research on connectedness while living a deeply disconnected life.The heart of the episode is the difference between the pyramid and the circle. The shape most of us were raised inside, where you climb, perform, and hide what's hard. And the shape we're learning instead, where no one stands above anyone else and the question shifts from "how am I doing" to "how are we doing."
Each month on the podcast will include 4 episodes: a solo episode, a conversation with someone from the ACER community, a thinker or researcher, then your questions answered.
Mentioned in this episode:
ACER Integration. Free live ACER circles: https://acerintegration.com/acer-live-events To try a tree journey, come to the Introduction to ACER Integration.
The Watts Connectedness Scale, on connectedness across self, others, and world: https://bit.ly/3Qe5KJK
bell hooks, on healing as communion, from All About Love: New Visions (2000): https://bit.ly/44261Tb
Dacher Keltner, on human contact and the nervous system: https://bit.ly/3Q8qRgx
Suzanne Simard, on forests, mycorrhizal networks, and mother trees: https://bit.ly/4dZK2SQ
Maria Sabina, the Mazatec medicine woman whose ceremony reached LIFE magazine without her consent.
Michelle Baker Jones, who set up the first online sharing circles with Ros.If you need support: This podcast holds some tender ground, and listening can bring things up. If you are struggling, please reach out. You don't have to carry it alone.
UK and Ireland: call Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123. Or text SHOUT on 85258.
US: call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential, any time, by dialing 988. You can also chat online at 988lifeline.org. Crisis Text Line is available 24/7. Text HOME to 741741.
Elsewhere: please look up your local crisis line. Help is there and asking for it is a choice to stand in the circle.Connect with Dr. Rosalind Watts:
https://www.drrosalindwatts.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rosalind-watts/
https://www.instagram.com/acerintegrationSubmit a question for a future episode: https://forms.gle/jVcGniTN3uS1bjz18
Find out more about ACER, the year-long community Ros founded: www.acerintegration.com
