Welcome to Back from the Abyss. This is Dr. Craig Ecock.

As we are now coming to realize the impressive potential of psychedelics to treat trauma and depression,

we also have to face the fact that they're still illegal.

This reality has led to an explosion of underground therapy.

A Wild West where anyone can set up shop as a shaman or therapist or healer, and the buyer must be

wearer. Some people are finding healing in the underground psychedelic world, while others,

well, they're encountering ethically challenged and or naive underground practitioners

who are causing more harm than good.

I wanted to spotlight an underground therapist who's actually doing this important work

in a mindful, ethical, harm-avoiding way.

And I'm so excited for all of you to hear from Sarah.

Sarah's been doing underground psilocybin work for the last seven years, and she comes from a place of her own severe childhood trauma.

A journey where she found healing with psilocybin and then felt compelled to offer this path to others.

Sarah and I explore whom she works with and why,

how she thinks about psilocybin in the therapeutic toolkit, how other underground therapists

get themselves into trouble, and finally, she offers wisdom about how one might enter

into underground therapy in a thoughtful and careful way.

I was so impressed by Sarah's warmth and insight, her sense of mission,

tempered by her insistence on both safety and judiciousness.

I think she serves as a model for both today's underground psychedelic

therapists and the soon-to-arrived world of medicalized psychedelics. This is such a special treat,

a perspective that we almost never get to hear. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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