The Integration Session

The Centre for Psychedelics Health and Research
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Science
  • Biweekly

The Integration Session is for staying up-to-date on all things psychedelic science, with the experts themselves. This podcast takes an integrative approach—sharing research findings, their clinical relevance, and reaching towards solutions to key challenges in the field today. Hosted by Dr. Elena Koning, this show is where scientists connect to discuss anything from mechanisms and study design to ethics and policy. If you’re a scientist, trainee, or simply someone who wants to dig deeper, tune in for engaging discussions about psychedelics and their promising future in healthcare and beyond.

  1. 13h ago

    After Psychedelic Therapy: Why Patients’ Social Environments Need Attention with Dr. Edward Jacobs & Ian Roullier

    As psychedelic treatments move closer to broader clinical use, treatment protocols are being trimmed down in the name of cost and scale. Integration sessions in particular are being reduced, though they importantly give patients space to process the psychedelic experience and turn what they learned into lasting therapeutic change. When these sessions are cut short, how might that work fall to partners, family members, and friends instead? And how can we make sure patients are adequately supported? In this episode, we are joined by two co-authors of a recent Perspective in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, “As Psychedelic Treatments Get Leaner, Patients’ Social Environments Deserve Attention,” which takes up these questions. Ian Roullier is the co-founder of the Psychedelic Participant Advocacy Network (PsyPAN). Ian’s participation in clinical trials run by Imperial College (2015) and King’s College/Compass Pathways (2019) inspired his dedication to helping bring these treatments safely to all who may benefit from them. His advocacy work has included giving public talks alongside Dr. Rosalind Watts (Imperial College/ACER Integration), speaking at international conferences such as ICPR, Borealis and Breaking Convention, addressing policy makers at the European Parliament and at the European Medicines Agency and having his journey featured by Oprah, the BBC and in Michael Pollan's bestseller 'How To Change Your Mind'. Ian is also an ACER Integration sharing circle facilitator and was part of the King's College PsiDeR trial steering committee. PsyPAN works with organisations to ensure participant wellbeing is placed at the heart of their trials and treatments, feeds the participant voice into scientific research to help improve psychedelic safeguarding and fosters community and connection for people who have received psychedelic-assisted therapy. Dr Edward Jacobs is a postdoctoral fellow in psychedelic science at Johns Hopkins, and the associate director of HOPE, the Hub at Oxford for Psychedelic Ethics. Following his PhD in the ethics of psychedelic therapies, his current research spans the influence of worldview on psychedelic experiences, stakeholder perceptions of psychedelic science, and the ethics of AI in psychedelic care. Through HOPE, he has contributed to US congressional and federal inquiries on the rollout of clinical psychedelics. Learn more at https://psychedelicethics.com If you’re listening to this podcast in November 2026, you’re invited to contribute to the Psychedelic Stakeholder Survey. Go to https://psychedelicsurvey2026.com Jacobs, E., Roullier, I., Watts, R., & Wells, H. (2026). As Psychedelic Treatments Get Leaner, Patients' Social Environments Deserve Attention. Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 7067437261479491. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437261479491

  2. Oct 29

    Alberta’s Act & Ketamine Therapy, Redefined with Dr. Jennifer Swainson

    Alberta is Canada’s first province to regulate psychedelic treatments, but when this change took effect in early 2023, it classified ketamine in the same category as psilocybin, MDMA, and LSD, under one “psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy” framework. So, what are the risks of lumping different psychedelic treatment models together? And what is the solution moving forward? In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Swainson, a psychiatrist and Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta, explains why terminology matters in psychedelic science, how we should be defining ketamine treatments, where the role of psychotherapy fits in, and key considerations for patients, clinicians, regulators, and researchers moving forward. More About Dr. Swainson: Jennifer N. Swainson, MD, FRCPC, DABOM is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta, Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, and a psychiatrist at the Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Swainson specializes in the management of difficult to treat mood disorders and their common comorbid conditions. She is a nationally recognized expert in the use of ketamine for depression and a leader in the development and update of Canadian guideline statements on this topic. Dr. Swainson is a clinical researcher with numerous publications related to ketamine for depression, with a focus on nomenclature for treatment models with ketamine and psychotherapy, and the use of oral or sublingual ketamine at home in order to improve patient access, while balancing concerns for safety. Dr. Swainson’s expertise has informed development of Alberta’s provincial Intravenous ketamine protocol, and she has provided consultation to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta regarding accreditation standards for safe prescribing of ketamine, both as pharmacotherapy and in psychotherapy-based treatment models.

  3. Oct 15

    DMT-Harmine, Shame & Gaps in Therapist Training with Dr. Helena Aicher

    What are the biggest gaps between psychedelic trials and what actually happens in the dosing room? And how might an Ayahuasca-inspired drug formulation affect shame and self-referential thinking? In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Helena Aicher, a research associate at the University of Zurich and Basel, where she is involved in clinical trials investigating psychedelic interventions. Alongside her research, she works as a psychotherapist within Switzerland’s limited medical use pathway and trains clinicians preparing to work in this field. In this conversation, we discuss her recent work on a combined DMT-harmine formulation inspired by Ayahuasca, including its effects on self-referential emotions like shame and embarrassment. Helena also shares her opinions on clinical aspects of psychedelic therapy, including the role of touch, the risks and benefits of group-based protocols, and gaps in facilitator training. More About Dr. Helena Aicher: Helena is a research associate at the Universities of Zurich and Basel, where she is involved in clinical trials investigating psychedelics. Alongside her research role, she works as a psychotherapist including the limited medical use of psychedelics in Switzerland, primarily in group settings. Bridging scientific research and frontline practice, she contributes to the development and safe implementation of psychedelic-assisted therapies. Helena is also active as a trainer in therapist training programs and serves as an advisor to several institutions.

  4. Oct 1

    Therapeutic Touch with Psychedelics: Two Perspectives with Dr. Rachel Ham

    Therapeutic touch is often used in psychedelic therapy, but what ethical guidelines and boundaries should researchers and therapists follow? What can we learn from patient perspectives about consent, and where to draw the line? In this episode, Dr. Rachel Ham joins us from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia to discuss two companion studies from her research group: one capturing experiences of therapeutic touch from participants in a psilocybin trial, and the other capturing how researchers and therapists think through consent, boundaries, and the discomfort of getting it wrong. We discuss the gap between what participants expect touch to feel like and what it turns out to mean to them, the ethical tension around withholding contact from someone in genuine distress, and what a truly individualized consent process for psychedelic medicine might look like.

  5. Sep 17

    Key Brain Regions for Psychedelic Drug Action with Dr. Tanner Anderson

    Psychedelics are often described as capable of “rewiring the brain,” but this leaves out a more complex and elegant series of mechanisms beneath the cortex. This episode goes a layer deeper to explore specific brain regions and receptors that are less often talked about in psychedelic science, despite their critical role in psychedelic drug action. Dr. Tanner Anderson, a postdoctoral neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine, takes us on a tour through his research career so far, including his research on the claustrum (the brain's so-called "conductor" of consciousness) where he showed that the psychedelic DOI can reverse synaptic plasticity at claustrum-cortical synapses and the importance of serotonin receptors beyond 5-HT2A. We also discuss his work linking cocaine, claustrum function, and cognitive flexibility, and his current research at Yale on how MDMA affects fear circuits implicated in PTSD. Finally, Tanner helps us answer broader questions: Are psilocybin, DOI, MDMA, and ketamine converging on some shared mechanism of "reopening" plasticity in the brain, or are they doing genuinely different things in different circuits? What would it take for the field to move from compelling mechanistic stories to something clinicians can actually rely on? More About Tanner: Tanner L. Anderson, PhD, is a postdoctoral neuroscientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. His research examines how psychedelics and entactogens alter neuronal activity and synaptic plasticity in brain circuits involved in cognition, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. He combines slice patch-clamp electrophysiology, Neuropixels recordings, optogenetics, viral circuit tracing, and behavioral neuroscience to study how these compounds produce both immediate and lasting changes in the brain. Tanner earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Kentucky, where his research focused on psychedelic modulation of neuronal signaling and plasticity in the claustrum. Tanner is a recipient of an NIH NRSA F31 Fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and is interested in the intersection of psychedelic science, drug policy, and the development of more effective treatments for psychiatric diseases. Tanner’s Socials: linkedin.com/in/tanner-anderson-uky https://x.com/EphysTanner @tanner-anderson.bsky.social

  6. Sep 3

    What is Consciousness? A Psychedelic & Panpsychist Perspective with Dr. Adam Barrett

    What does it actually mean, physically, for a brain to be conscious, and what can psychedelics teach us about it? Can consciousness extend beyond living things, including artificial intelligence? In this episode of The Integration Session, we're joined by Dr. Adam Barrett, Associate Professor in Machine Learning and Data Science and Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex. Trained in mathematics and theoretical physics, Adam has spent his career developing and testing measures of brain complexity and information integration, and was involved in the discovery of increased neural complexity in the psychedelic state. In this episode, Adam walks us through what integrated information theory does and doesn't claim about consciousness, research insights from Robin Carhart-Harris and others about brain signal diversity associated with ketamine, LSD, and psilocybin, and what the gap between elegant theory and messy real-world data means for the future of consciousness science. We also venture into larger questions, including the scientific basis for panpsychism (the idea that consciousness may be a property of matter itself) and how this may offer spiritual comfort. Finally, we discuss the growing public fascination with consciousness and psychedelics, including Michael Pollan's new book, and whether artificial intelligence could ever be conscious. More About Adam: Dr. Adam Barrett is Associate Professor at the University of Sussex, where he is Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. He researches the neural basis of consciousness using methods from mathematics, physics and data science. He is known for his critical and constructive engagement with the integrated information theory of consciousness. He has analysed brain imaging data from diverse states of consciousness, and was involved in the discovery of increased neural complexity in the psychedelic state. Ongoing work with Prof Robin Carhart-Harris explores how different measures of neural complexity relate to aspects of the psychedelic experience and changes in wellbeing.

  7. Aug 20

    Does Psilocybin Work for OCD? Two Decades of Research Insights with Dr. Francisco Moreno

    What can two decades of clinical research teach us about psilocybin's potential for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Francisco Moreno, a pioneer in psychedelic-assisted treatment research, to trace the arc of his work - from his landmark 2006 trial, one of the first modern investigations of psilocybin for OCD, to his newly published 2026 randomized clinical trial testing repeated psilocybin doses in a larger patient sample. We discuss the design, safety, and efficacy findings from both studies; what changed methodologically between them; and what the data suggests about the durability of psilocybin's effects for OCD specifically. Dr. Moreno also unpacks the mechanistic rationale for why psilocybin may interrupt obsessive-compulsive cycles, what neurobiological and biomarker evidence exists to support this, and where psychotherapy fits alongside pharmacological treatment. We close by looking ahead to what the next twenty years of this research might look like. More About Dr. Moreno: Francisco A. Moreno, M.D. is Tenured Professor of Psychiatry, and Associate Vice President at the University of Arizona Health Science, Office of Student Engagement and Career Advancement. As part of his academic efforts he serves as Corresponding Principal Investigator and Engagement Lead for the NIH-Precision Medicine Initiative’s “All of Us Research Program”; Multiple Principal Investigator for Az-PRIME, an NIH-NHLBI grant to enhance the research skill and academic advancement of early career faculty; Principal Investigator of the Arizona Biomedical Research Development program, which is geared to support early career researchers; and Principal Investigator and Director of “Arizona HOPE” a HRSA- Health Career Opportunities Program which works to enhance the health professions workforce. Dr. Moreno grew up in Mexico, where he attended medical school. He completed residency in general adult psychiatry, fellowship training in Neuropsychopharmacology, and career development training in Quantitative Genetics at the University of Arizona. He has been conducting research in biology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, geared to improve our understanding of the brain and molecular basis for mental illness and the underlying mechanism of action of antidepressants / antianxiety drugs, and treatment resistance. His team is conducting transdisciplinary collaborative research in the use of psilocybin for the treatment of OCD and exploring putative biomarkers of treatment response.

  8. Aug 6

    Research Recap 2: Recent Papers in Psychedelic Science Explained

    Want to stay updated on the latest advancements in psychedelic science without reading lengthy scientific papers? Welcome back to Research Recap, where Elena breaks down three recent studies in psychedelic science, in a digestible format. This episode covers a phase IIa trial of short-acting intravenous DMT for depression, a multimodal neuroimaging study of a first psilocybin experience, and an international mega-analysis that informs our understanding of how psychedelics alter brain function. Elena provides a clear breakdown of what the researchers did, why it matters, and the critical details often missed by mainstream media.

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About

The Integration Session is for staying up-to-date on all things psychedelic science, with the experts themselves. This podcast takes an integrative approach—sharing research findings, their clinical relevance, and reaching towards solutions to key challenges in the field today. Hosted by Dr. Elena Koning, this show is where scientists connect to discuss anything from mechanisms and study design to ethics and policy. If you’re a scientist, trainee, or simply someone who wants to dig deeper, tune in for engaging discussions about psychedelics and their promising future in healthcare and beyond.

Information

  • Creator
    The Centre for Psychedelics Health and Research
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Centre for Psychedelics Health and Research
  • Show Website
    The Integration Session

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