Evolving Earth Podcast

This week we dive into Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with Craig Salerno of the Boulder Wellness Ketamine Collective!

If you’ve wondered about ketamine, what it is, and how it works this episode is for you. I’ve been trying to get a luminary in ketamine space on the show for a while, and I’m so glad that Craig accepted our invitation. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you will, too.

Craig Salerno is a Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with over a decade of experience working in the field of addiction.

Craig is passionate about exploring psychedelic medicine work as it pertains to individuals in active addiction and recovery. Craig is the former Clinical Director of NorthStar Transitions, a treatment program offering both inpatient and outpatient services for individuals seeking recovery. Craig now works in private practice in Boulder offering psychotherapy, psychedelic integration services, and ketamine therapy for a range of mental health concerns, including addiction.

In this episode we talk about recent events in the United States, and what we as individuals can do to help the societal transition happening right now.

We live in a really crazy world right now, with COVID and all the protests happening, it can be hard to cope. Craig has a little reminder for all of us: “Keep your eyes open, stay awake to what you’re thinking and feeling; come inside and pay attention.”

Craig spreads wisdom about ketamine and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and we discuss depression and addiction and how Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy can help. Craig addresses sensitive people and how they are the leaders we need right now.
This episode was brought to you by Fundraising Mastery (www.foundersgetfunded.com), our accelerator program that we run a few times a year for mission-driven entrepreneurs to help them raise money. In the light of recent events in the United States, we set a goal to enroll at least 50% founders of color into our next cohort that is launching on July 15th. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, please refer them to our website.
Thanks,
Will
Episode Links:

Boulder Wellness Ketamine Collective: https://boulderketaminecollective.com/
Craig’s website: https://craigsalernocounseling.com/

My guest in this episode of the podcast is Daniel McQueen, a psychedelic activist, community organizer, innovator, teacher, and author. Daniel is a founder of the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness which was established in 2012. The center was among the first legal psychedelic plant medicine therapy clinics in North America.

At the clinic, Daniel and his team have developed some groundbreaking, effective and innovative modalities, including cannabis-assisted psychedelic therapy and cannabis-assisted psychotherapy. They also host regular breathwork sessions and community teaching around the safe and ethical use of psychedelics.

More recently Daniel and his team have started offering training for those wanting to become involved in psychedelic healing. In 2019 Daniel published a book based on his work titled ‘Psychedelic Cannabis: Breaking the Gate’.

The Center for Medicinal Mindfulness is a clinic and a community promoting safe and intentional medicine use practices for personal and global healing and transformation.

Daniel is a leader, pioneer in psychedelic therapy and specifically using cannabis as psychedelic medicine and I’m grateful to have him on show.

Hope you enjoy this episode. If you like it please share it with your friends and leave a review so more people can join these types of conversations.

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This episode is brought to you by Fulcrum Venture Accelerator, the fundraising accelerator for mission-driven entrepreneurs. Every 3 months Fulcrum scours the globe for the most impressive entrepreneurs building impactful companies and takes them through a 3-month accelerator program focused 100% around helping them close seed financing.

Our process has already been used to close more than USD $22 million in seed capital and we're just getting started. If you or someone you know is creating something impactful and is raising seed capital please visit Fulcrum to download free resources and get free pitch feedback.

Read the full show notes here.

My guests on this episode of the podcast are Tyler Chandler, Nick Meyers and Adrianne who are director, writer & cinematographer, and star of ‘Dosed’ respectively, an incredible documentary film about psychedelics and their role in treating substance abuse disorder and helping stop addiction. Learn more at www.dosedmovie.com

‘Dosed’ has won numerous awards so far including audience reward at the Santa Cruz film festival, audience award at Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, and the documentary feature award at the Knoxville Film Festival.

Tyler Chandler is a Canadian documentary producer and director and ‘Dosed’ was his documentary debut. Nick Meyers is a writer and a cinematographer, and Adrianne is the protagonist. The film tells a story of Adrianne’s journey from heroin addiction to sobriety.

In this episode, we also discuss Iboga treatment for heroin addiction, and the combined use of psilocybin and other psychedelics to help people transition from addiction to sobriety.

Hope you enjoy this episode. If you like it please share it with your friends and/or leave a review so more people can find these types of conversations.

This episode is brought to you by Fulcrum Venture Accelerator, the fundraising accelerator for mission-driven entrepreneurs. Every 3 months Fulcrum scours the globe for the most impressive entrepreneurs building impactful companies, and we take them through a 3-month accelerator program focused 100% around helping them close seed financing. Our process has already been used to close more than USD $20 million in seed capital and we're just getting started. If you or someone you know is creating something impactful and is raising seed capital please visit Fulcrum to download free resources and get free pitch feedback.

My guest in this episode of the podcast is Michael Stone, the inventor of a new breathwork modality called neurodynamic breathwork and a co-founder of the Train Your Brain, Master Your Life workshop. Michael is one of the leading visionaries in psychedelic healing, and I'm honored and excited to have him with us to share his perspective and wisdom.

Michael is a certified holotropic breathwork facilitator and founder of Holotropic Breathwork LA and Breathwork Online, where he is growing one of the largest psychedelic breathwork communities in the world.

Michael was born and currently resides in LA California, and spent the first decades of his life as a successful executive and businessman. In 2005, he discovered holotropic breathwork and became a certified holotropic breathwork facilitator. The breathwork sessions he is now leading online are some of the largest breathwork workshops ever done.

Over the last few years, Michael has facilitated more than 150,000 breathwork sessions for more than 20,000 people from over 120 countries. And he recently started training breathwork facilitators in neurodynamic breathwork, a training that Will is currently in.

Hope you enjoy this episode. If you like it please share it with your friends and/or leave a review so more people can join these types of conversations.

(Note: Get your first breathwork session free at www.breathworkonline.com)

This episode is brought to you by Fulcrum Venture Accelerator, the fundraising accelerator for mission-driven entrepreneurs. Every 3 months Fulcrum scours the globe for the most impressive entrepreneurs building impactful companies, and we take them through a 3-month accelerator program focused 100% around helping them close seed financing. Our process has already been used to close more than USD $20 million in seed capital and we're just getting started. If you or someone you know is creating something impactful and is raising seed capital please visit Fulcrum to download free resources and get free pitch feedback.
Read the full show notes here.

This week I speak with luminary and early psychedelic pioneer, Marcela Ot’alora.

As a psychotherapist and an installation artist, Marcela has dedicated her life to exploring and understanding trauma through art and through MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. She was the co-therapist in the first government-approved MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study that ever happened in Spain. Marcela is also the principal investigator of phase 2 & 3 MAPS’ MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials in Boulder, CO, USA.

In episode 8 with Rick Doblin of MAPS, we talked a lot about the past, the present, and the future of the Psychedelic Renaissance, but we didn’t really go “into the room”. We never talked about what it actually is like being with people and witnessing the healing happening during an MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session.
In this episode, we get to do just that, Marcela and I discuss what it’s like witnessing the emotions that come up during the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session. What is it like to be in a room filled with sadness, anger, joy, frustration, all at the same time? Marcela describes the preparation and setting of the sessions and gives context for anyone considering MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy.

Lastly, we go down memory lane a bit and Marcella talks about how she met Rick Doblin, and about her view on the last 35 years of progress from when MDMA was first made illegal to now when we’re witnessing it becoming legal again. We also speak about what’s the role of art in healing and in life.

Marcela is a cultural treasure, I hope you enjoy this conversation with her and share it with a friend.

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This episode is brought to you by The Trip Report - a wonderful online newsletter and blog by Zach Haigney about the latest and most exciting psychedelic news and happenings. If you want to be in the know about the psychedelic renaissance, check it out.

This episode is also brought to you by Fulcrum Venture Accelerator, the fundraising accelerator for mission-driven entrepreneurs. Every 3 months Fulcrum scours the globe for the most impressive entrepreneurs building impactful companies, and we take them through a 3-month accelerator program focused 100% around helping them close seed financing. Our process has already been used to close more than USD $20 million in seed capital and we're just getting started. If you or someone you know is creating something impactful and is raising seed capital please visit Fulcrum to download free resources and get free pitch feedback.