Guest Host: Christina P. Kantzavelos interviews Rick Doblin, Ph.D
The Trauma Therapist
Guy Crawford Macpherson
4.5 • 581 Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
She specializes in treating clients with chronic health conditions (aka spoonies and medical refugees) and trauma (including medical trauma).
Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the Founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients.
His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner.
His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and puppy, with three empty rooms from his children who have all graduated college and begun their life journeys. Learn more about Rick by listening to his Origin Story, watching his TED Talk, and watching his SSDP talk about lessons for political activism from a series of his psychedelic experiences.
In This Episode
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I want to thank our sponsor today. Arizona Trauma Institute therapists, are you ready to transform the way you help trauma clients? |
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| 0:47.5 | I want to thank our sponsor today, Incummental. Are you struggling with gambling or know someone who is? |
| 0:53.5 | Incummental is a recovery support app that helps you take back control anytime, anywhere. With guided on-demand sessions, personalized tools, and private 24-7 access, Incummental meets you where you are in your recovery. Whether you're managing urges or rebuilding trust, you are not alone. |
| 1:14.3 | Start your journey toward change today. |
| 1:16.7 | Download the app or learn more at incummental.com. |
| 1:20.1 | That's I-N-C-U-M-E-N-T-A-L.com. |
| 1:24.9 | Welcome to the Traum-T-Virist podcast. |
| 1:27.2 | My name is Guy McPherson. I interview incredible people |
| 1:30.2 | who've dedicated their lives to helping those who have been impacted by trauma. Here we go. |
| 1:37.4 | Hey Rick, nice to see you. Oh, great, great to be here. Thank you. Thank you so much. So |
| 1:48.6 | we're going to start, we're going to just get into it and start with the basics, which is what is MDMA? |
| 1:50.8 | And from your perspective, why is it such a powerful healing tool? |
| 1:55.8 | Well, let me start by saying that MDMA is not a plant medicine, which MDMA is a synthetic chemical. |
| 2:04.6 | As far as we know, it does not appear in nature. |
| 2:08.6 | It was invented by Merck in 1912, the pharmaceutical company. |
| 2:14.6 | They found nothing interesting in it in all of their animal studies. |
| 2:17.9 | They never did anything in humans. MDMA is more widely known as ecstasy. And it was a therapy |
... |
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