The Held Space

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Thank you to SouthSeattleEmerald.com for reaching out to talk about mental health and psychelics.

“I think it’s really important to acknowledge that psychedelic healing has a long history in Native and Indigenous practices,” says José F. Mata who does M**A-assisted (M**A is also commonly known as “ecstasy” or “molly”) therapy with MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) — an organization that researches and promotes the benefits of psychedelic therapies.

Mata lives in California where MAPS — a national organization — has FDA approval to conduct such therapy.

He encourages people to research the Indigenous roots and histories of the therapies they use. For example, he told me the story of María Sabina, a Mazatec curandera (medicine woman) from Oaxaca, Mexico, who introduced many westerners to psilocybin in the 1950s and 1960s. When word of her therapies spread, Sabina experienced significant social and legal persecution.

OPINION: Magic Mushrooms for Mental Health — The Complex Future of Psychedelic Therapies by Sarah Stuteville I have experienced mental health challenges for most of my life. My first panic attack was when I was 11 years old, and I found myself paralyzed and hyperventilating in a public…