Executive Director Of The American Psychedelic Practitioners Association Explains How Psychedelic Therapy Will Work

In this episode of Trade To Black, retired Brigadier Dr. Stephen Xenakis, Executive Director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association (APPA), joins us at the mic. We’re talking about the possible future of mental health, coming one step closer to reality with a recent announcement that will bring some much-needed structure to the fledgeling industry.

For a while now, psychedelic assisted psychotherapy has been looking like an inevitable progression in the search for better mental health. In these early, nebulous stages, there have been questions about what exactly that would look like. Answers are starting to finally come as APPA and BrainFutures – a nonprofit organization with a mission to assess and advance the understanding of the brain and the practical applications that might result – jointly announced professional practice guidelines for psychedelic-assisted therapy in the US.

Dr. Xenakis is a board-certified psychiatrist and former Commanding General of the Southeast Regional Medical Command and Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center. He brought 28 years of experience in the military and 50 years of experience in the US healthcare system with him to APPA.

Dr. Xenakis shares his valuable insights regarding psychedelic therapy and PTSD which remains a widespread challenge among veterans and an ongoing struggle for mental health providers. Together, we dive deeper into the new guidelines introduced on August 8thwhich are the first-ever created for psychedelic assisted therapy. Dr. Xenakis also describes how medicine isn’t just raw science… it’s also an art.

We explore the structure of therapy and its implementation, plus the qualifications that licensed trained psychedelic assisted therapists will need under these new guidelines. It is important that patients seeking this new therapy feel both comfortable and safe. Dr. Xenakis explains why, sharing how important it is that veterans especially receive PTSD-related care from doctors who can truly empathize with their experiences.

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