What happens when the person building the guardrails for psychedelic-assisted therapy is also the person who needed it most?

In this episode, Dr. Sandra Dreisbach talks with Jason Burdge, co-founder and chief business officer of the Psilocybin Assisted Therapy Association, known as PATA, now the largest nonprofit in the country focused on psilocybin and mental health. Jason built PATA with his wife Lisa, a mental health therapist, out of their shared belief in the educated and informed use of psilocybin. 

But before any of that, Jason spent his early twenties as a police officer in Florence, South Carolina, a town once recognized as one of the most economically and systemically challenged in the country. He was involved in shootings and violent altercations, given as little as one day off before returning to duty, and it eventually led him toward the depression and PTSD that psilocybin, alongside years of therapy and community support, helped him work through.

Jason and Dr. Sandra talk about what it actually takes for first responders to get the mental health support they need, why PATA built its First Responder Collective, and how his own healing shaped PATA's three pillars: educate, empower, and heal. 

They also get into the fractures inside the psychedelic community itself, the tension between Oregon's regulated adult use model and the underground and indigenous traditions it grew out of, and what it will take to build the kind of unified community that can actually move legal access forward. 

Jason also previews the Collaborence, PATA's conference now in its third year, built to bring facilitators, therapists, indigenous practitioners, and underground guides into the same room.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to hold space for community healing while doing your own healing work at the same time, this conversation is for you.

Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.innersourcepodcast.com/28