The other pandemic and a call to action: New awareness and new tools for responding to the worsening mental health and substance use crisis
– Dr. Crosbie Watler
The traditional frame where mental distress is viewed as “disorder” or illness is a failed experiment. For most, anxiety and depressive symptoms are a natural and logical adaptation to chronic micro-trauma and disconnection. With so much focus on downstream symptoms, we rarely identify – much less resolve – the root causes of suffering. We are in desperate need of a new paradigm.

Psychedelic Association of Canada (PAC) – updates of psychedelic ecosystem in Canada
– Dr. Pamela Kryskow
The PAC has been uniting Canada’s psychedelic community from coast to coast for 3 years. In this update session we will bring you up to date on the current state of: Research, advocacy, policy, therapy, business, education and training.

Roots to Thrive: Overview, Community of Practice, Snuneymuxw Nation
– Todd Haspect
– Emmy Manson
Founded in 2019, Roots to Thrive is Canada’s first and only multidisciplinary, non-profit healthcare practice to legally offer evidence-informed, multi-week, group therapy programs that use a community of practice model, uniquely designed to address trauma and to promote resilience, and to also include the option of psilocybin-assisted and ketamine-assisted group therapy. In this presentation, Todd Haspect and Emmy Manson provide an overview of the program, as well as share about the program’s collaboration with the Snuneymuxw Nation.

Redefining “Medicine”: Bringing psychedelics into the mainstream for real healing
– Dr. Jean Paul Lim
Dr. Jean Paul Lim will discuss how psychedelics used for mental health need to be taken within a structure rather than as a standalone treatment; that this should be considered as a tool to use within a structured therapy scaffold that incorporates the pillars of set, setting and integration. He will also clarify how psychedelic-assisted therapy works and to dispel the misconceptions that may exist in the public.

Drumming My Way Home: Indigenous knowledges on the Path to Transformation
– Dr.  Georgina Martin
Dr. Martin’s presentation attends to the struggle for reclamation and renewal of culture-based and land-based approaches to support research and Indigenous education. Her Indigenous Knowledge based approaches extends from her 2014 PhD dissertation titled: Drumming my way home: An intergenerational narrative inquiry about Secwepemc identities. Her Indigenous research paradigm combines self-location, storytelling, and community-based protocols which are framed around the hand drum. The hand drum’s voice and cadence draw us inward to value our embodied knowledge premised on the teachings of our Elders. 

Psilocybin and Neurogenesis: A Narrative for the Entourage Effect with Microdosing
– Paul Stamets
With the increasing interest in microdosing, what are the implications for age related neuropathies or neurogenerative diseases? Paul will present compelling evidence that microdosing stacked with other substances may improve neurological health.

Chacruna Canada update
– Dr. Erika Dyck
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines is dedicated to bringing critical cultural perspectives into conversations about a psychedelic future. We seek opportunities to explore diverse histories, work with Indigenous communities to protect traditional practices and knowledge, and work to recognize participants who have diverse perspectives. This presentation will offer a review of some of the Institute’s current initiatives.

Accessing Legal Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy in Canada: The Past, Present and Future
– Yasmeen Sadain
On August 4th, 2020, TheraPsil helped four terminally-ill patients gain legal access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy through precedent-setting exemptions from the Minister of Health. Since then, new pathways have opened up, and advocates continue to push for regulatory change. This presentation will go-over the history of psilocybin-therapy access in Canada, the current pathways and how future regulatory change could help potentially thousands of Canadians in medical need.

Patients Panel: Storytelling of healing journeys with psychedelic-assisted therapies
– Moderator: Tarzie McLean
For the first time, PPF is platforming 4 – 6 patients in a panel at its conference, to hear first-hand experiences of healing journeys with psychedelic medicines. This is also a good opportunity to hear examples of what preparation, integration, set and setting, and therapist and/or community support look like for different patients.

Psychedelics and Schizophrenia – The Untold Story
– Mark Haden
Most current researchers believe that psychedelics are always destabilizing to individuals with schizophrenia but there are those with this disease who report differently. This presentation will report on a “deep dive” into the historical literature with the goal of understanding this apparent contradiction. A framework to understand the relationship between schizophrenia and psychedelics will be offered.

Reducing Harm With Use of Psychedelics
– Bryce Koch
This presentation provides facts for clients or public who may be considering psychedelic-assisted therapy, and information to help orient people who are new to psychedelic use. Learn harm reduction tenets that will inform about the pros and cons of medicine-assisted therapy, including how to select and screen an appropriate therapist.

Psychedelic Ethics & Safety: Moving forward at the highest integrity
– Dr. Pamela Krykow & Tarzie McLean
In every part of life, there a great people and not so great people. We envision a world where the psychedelic medicine will be facilitated only by gold standard folks. Join psychedelic therapists Dr. Pamela Kryskow and Tarzie McLean for a conversation on how we can move toward raising the bar in this field of therapy.

Maximizing psychedelic learning systems: Honoring multiple ways of knowing through standardized education programs in Canada
– Dr. Shannon Dames
With education programs popping up all over North America, universities slow to pick up the education baton, and with a multitude of voices crowding the space, we are challenged with standardizing accredited education that aligns with a relatively socialized education and medical system.

Resources and Pledges
– Dr. Pamela Kryskow
Dr. Pamela Kryskow will share a rich source of resources for the psychedelic community and invite the community to sign on to a pledge to treat these medicines with the respect they deserve, to treat the original knowledge keepers with the respect they deserve and to find a Two Eyed Seeing Approach that honours the best of all worlds for the benefit of all inhabitants of this plan