POD 135: [VIDEO] Listening to psychedelic clinical trial participants with Becca Kacanda
Added 2025-11-22 21:20:49 +0000 UTCIn this episode I talk with MAPS phase III trial participant Becca Kacanda about her experience successfully treating PTSD with MDMA psychotherapy. The conversation covers the complexity of psychedelic psychotherapy, the importance of listening to the participants directly, and what it was like to be manipulated by Psymposia-associate Sasha Sisko who attempted to convince her that the therapy she had received was "whack-a-doodle nonsense ‘therapy.'" We also discuss her involvement with different initiates aimed at solving these problems.
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MAPS Clinical Trial Participant Presentation at PS2025:
Lived Experience in Psychedelics: Insights Beyond the Breakthroughs
Psychedelic Art Therapy Network
How a Leftist Activist Group Helped Torpedo a Psychedelic Therapy
Comments
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Tom Suazo
2025-12-28 22:55:23 +0000 UTCMisrepresenting the therapy model helps bolster their arguments, it’s intentional.
rottogrotto
2025-12-17 15:00:42 +0000 UTCThanks for a great interview. I'm really glad Becca brought up the inner healer issue. It's always baffled me, Psymposia's opposition to this when it is so hugely a part of so many therapeutic methods these days. It really speaks to them being out of touch with reality. My own experience of using psychedelics to heal from complex trauma has very much revolved around learning to connect with and listen to the wisdom that is internal to me. The unconscious parts of us know everything that has happened to us, even the bits we've managed to forget or suppress. And therefore also hold the key to what is required to resolve inner issues. Our inability to "just get over" trauma is not because of some negative thing. It's actually the organism's system for achieving resolution. The difficulty has been put away until we can find the energy to re-engage with it and bring it to a conclusion.
Dave Wright
2025-12-13 11:36:36 +0000 UTCI think the biggest risk right now is companies attempting to cut corners on good standards of therapeutic care in order to make it less expensive and more profitable. we’ll see compromised therapeutic outcomes. As far as psychedelic therapy consumer/patient information being collected for nefarious purposes, these things are possible with a breakdown of existing mental health /medical ethics codes. My point was more to Psymposia explicitly exploiting fears ( specifically of the “mind control” type ) by attempting to convince the public and the FDA that the MAPS trial was something it wasn’t because they are so scared of the worst case scenario coming true (that’s my charitable interpretation). It was insanely fucked up. That kinda bullshit doesn’t help us to address these real issues- it’s just super distracting and confusing and unproductive.
rottogrotto
2025-11-28 20:17:51 +0000 UTCWow! I believe it. There’s also something called post traumatic psychogenic blindness, where people can temporarily lose their eye sight as the result of extreme stress. How scary would that be? My leg pain was so severe and excruciating at first that I thought it was going to kill me. I also developed allergic reactions to things that i previously/subsequently did not have allergic reactions to. Unfortunately in my case this included the medications I was being prescribed to help calm down (klonopin, prozac)… within a few days of taking them I broke out in hives all over my body that didn’t go away for a whole month, and wasnt even able to try taking them again for another year. There’s so much I didn’t even get into. Unaddressed trauma can do some really wild stuff to your body.
rottogrotto
2025-11-28 15:15:24 +0000 UTCWith regards to psychedelics being used to nefarious purposes, I don't think the possibility should be overlooked. Psychedelics have demonstrably been used by f'd up individuals for f'd up purposes (see e.g. G. T. Skinner). I do not see why f'd up people backed up by big money from institutions or corporations couldn't develop ways to exploit psychedelics in a f'd up way on a larger scale. I don't think this point should be used for fear-mongering or spreading paranoia, but as a reminder that where there is power there is the prospect of abusing power. This ties to why people get so worked up over Peter Thiel connection, as he gives of himself the impression of being someone who is not suitable to hold the amount of power he is consolidating for himself. He appears to be someone who seek power & control for their sake, while not having much empathy for his fellow humans (or even worse). The big tech business in general is built on surveillance & psychological manipulation, so just the fact that he's deep in that business makes him a bit suspicious; but what makes him seem outright dangerous is that 1) the marketing strategy for his company Palantir has been to emphasize how the company doesn't have any idealist humanitarian visions for the future & that they don't mind doing dirty work (such as developing tech that is essentially used for assasinations) & 2) their main clients from the start have been intelligence & military institutions. So while Peter Thiel as a person might or might not pose risk for the ethical integrity of psychedelic research, I think he embodies the archetype of someone who you'd rather not want to be participating in the psychedelic research space.
Honey-el
2025-11-28 14:03:53 +0000 UTCBecca's experience with the theraphy sounds really beautiful. I've gotten a really good impression of the method/model of theraphy used in the MDMA theraphy from the people Hamilton has interviewed on this topic. With regards to the PTSD-related leg pain, I was reminded an interview I read from a local newspaper. The woman in question had suddenly began to lose the ability to use her leg. She went through extensive medical examinations but the doctors couldn't find any physical reasons for the loss of function. The condition kept on worsening, spreading to the other leg & making her wheelchair-bound. Eventually someone taking care of her recognized that what she was experiencing was due to the her past psychological traumas. She went into therapy to adress the issues & at the time of the interview, she had already regained control over one leg & was working on to regain the control of the other. The article didn't expand on the nature of her traumas or what kind of therapy was used to treat it. I think Becca's thought that her symptoms were flight-or-fight response was insightful. It could be that the woman interviewed in the paper was experiencing that too, just a step further: if one is unable to flight or fight, the last line of survival response is to freeze. It's heartbreaking to even try imagine the extent of fear & helplesness that would lead to the subsequent loss of crucial motor function! Luckily someone she met had the knowledge that lead her to the path of healing & recovery.
Honey-el
2025-11-28 09:37:42 +0000 UTC
