when registered clinical counsellor dave phillips’ legal trip on magic mushrooms ended, and he heard the soothing sounds of louis armstrong’s what a wonderful world, he took off his shades and said: “oh wow that was the most powerful personal experience i’ve ever had in my life, and i’m never doing it again.”
it wasn’t a bad trip, only challenging, and one he says will make him a much more empathetic psychotherapist.
five b.c. health care professionals, including a palliative care physician, an emergency medicine doctor, psychologist, a clinical counsellor, and a nurse were among 19 granted an exemption from health canada in december to test psilocybin for therapy.
they are some of the first health care providers in canada to consume magic mushrooms legally for training purposes since psilocybin was deemed a controlled substance in 1974.
now a couple of them are ready to talk about their trip, and how it has prepared them to treat patients for end of life anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder with what is still considered an illegal substance.
for phillips the experience was both cosmic and grounding.
at one point during the six-hour trip, which was guided by a physician, he saw his father, who died from cancer at home, and he felt his dying dad’s burden of looking back at his life and wondering whether he’d done all he could for his kids.