TW: Suicide

David Heilpern was appointed as a Magistrate in 1998, and was at the time the youngest magistrate in Australia. He ‘retired’ in May 2020. He sat in the criminal, mining, family, industrial, coronial and children’s jurisdictions of the Local Court, and was the Senior Civil Magistrate for five years. During his time on the bench, David was the principal educator for new magistrates throughout Australia and the Pacific and made several important reported decisions on criminal, environmental and evidence law.

Prior to his appointment, David was a litigation lawyer on the North Coast where he co-founded the law school at Southern Cross University, rising to becoming the Acting Dean in 1996. He maintained a litigation practice throughout this time, representing a wide range of defendants including high profile clients North East Forrest Alliance and Nimbin Hemp. During this time David graduated with a Masters in Law and was pronounced the Alumni of the Decade for the University in 2005. David has written four published books, three of which have now had multiple editions, dozens of refereed journal articles, and is a prize-winning short story writer and poet.

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

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Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Sabrina Santa Clara

In this episode, Sabrina Santa Clara speaks on mindfulness, connection and cultural identity, drawing on her own history of trauma and pathways of healing. She has worn many hats in the past, with a background spanning roles such as yoga instructor, massage therapist, and somatic psychedelic therapist, among others. Her focus has since shifted toward training and educating others in the healing professions. Sabrina has developed a refined version of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, which she calls the Neoshamanic Internal Family Systems (NIFS). While IFS excels at addressing and healing the inner life of individuals, it falls short in acknowledging the profound healing potential of community, nature, and the Spirit world. In this approach, healing transcends traditional psychotherapy; it involves calling upon guides and community as essential agents of healing.

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Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Cathy Burke

For 20 years Cathy Burke was the CEO for The Hunger Project Australia, and then Global Vice President, working to end hunger across South Asia and Africa. She was an integral member of a visionary team who developed leadership at scale in villages all over the world. Through her work, millions of the world’s poorest people stepped into their leadership and were able to feed themselves and their families.

Now a speaker, coach, and leadership developer, Cathy coaches and trains executives, leaders and committed humans to develop the mindsets and skills needed to address 21st Century challenges.

Her clients include Amazon, eBay, Barings, Northcott, and Achieve.

Cathy is a winner of the Australian Davos leadership award, and AFR Women of Influence award. She is the author of Lead In: Mindsets to Lead, Live and Work Differently (2022), and Unlikely Leaders: Lessons in Leadership from the Village Classroom (2015).

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Steve Ball

Steve is a New Zealander who lived in Sydney before relocating to Amsterdam. He’s a Chief Technology Officer working in software development. As someone with Complex-PTSD since the age of nineteen, he pursued all conventional options for treatment within the health system but found that talk therapy was re-traumatising and antidepressants exacerbated his dissociative symptoms. In 2020, after reading the research results of MAPS’ clinical trials for treating PTSD with MDMA and similar studies with psilocybin for depression by Imperial College London, John Hopkins Medicine and Harvard Medical, he decided to undertake psychedelic-assisted therapy with MDMA. Over two sessions, he experienced a life-changing resolution of his childhood trauma and a full cessation of the debilitating PTSD symptoms that he had carried for 34 years. He no longer meets the diagnostic criteria for PTSD and has become an impassioned advocate for making these powerful healing life-saving medicines available to other sufferers.

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Annie Mason

Annie is an educator with a wide range of experiences including classroom teaching K-12, Special Education and Student Wellbeing. She was a Principal for over 15 years, worked as an Educational Consultant and lectured at a leading Australian university. Annie has travelled extensively, working in Hong Kong, the UK and Middle East and has a special interest in Gender Equity, Social Justice and Women in Leadership. Annie has been volunteering in Thailand and Cambodia for a number of years, working to support educators and establish schools.

Annie also offers support to other mothers who are trying to come to terms with mental illness in their families. She is lobbying for a new approach to Mental Health admissions in public hospitals and is a strong advocate for the legal and ethical rights of those with mental health issues.

From her extensive study, Annie believes that MDMA assisted therapy gives hope to her daughter and is astounded that this treatment is not available in Australia. She is aware that with current treatment in Australia her daughter has only a 5% chance of recovery.

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Dr Ruth Gawler

Dr Gawler is a General Practitioner with a specialised interest in Mind-Body Medicine and Psychology. She is the President of the Meditation Association of Australia (MAA), a Medical Practitioner and Meditation Teacher at The Gawler Foundation Managing Director of Insight Health Services

She worked at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and was Medical Director of the Family Planning Association of Central Australia from 1991-1997 and worked for most of this period as a GP in Alice Springs.

Ruth is a doctor and therapist at The Gawler Foundation - working in residential programs, where she led and presented in the cancer retreats, multiple sclerosis programs, Health Practitioner retreats, conferences and meditation teacher’s trainings.

Ruth currently works with her husband leading meditation retreats and trainings, and integrative medicine cancer programs in Australia and New Zealand.

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TW: Suicide

Dr Eli Kotler

Dr Eli Kotler is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychodynamic Psychotherapist. He is the Medical Director of Malvern Private Hospital, an addiction and trauma hospital in Melbourne. Eli completed the inaugural Mind Medicine Australia Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies (CPAT)™ course, and has since been on its Faculty. He's currently the Australian course Director.

Due to his interest in trauma, Eli has been appointed an Independent Medical Examiner by WorkSafe Victoria. He has been appointed by the Minister for Workplace Safety to sit on the Victorian Medical Panels, and is an expert witness in historical abuse cases.

Clinically, Eli works in a psychodynamic framework, and attempts to help his patients find freedom from their addictions and trauma through relational experiences, and experiential self-awareness. He is part of the AFL Player’s Association referral network for addiction issues, and his interests in depth-psychology and neuroscience led him to found the Melbourne Neuropsychoanalytic Group. Eli is a Board Director of Mind Medicine Australia.

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

--

Your Host

Dr Deb Roberts, PhD is the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast host for Season 2 and has been a MMA volunteer, guides the weekly staff meditation, on the MMA Lived Experience Panel and has a life-long relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She is deeply passionate about conversations related to wellbeing. She uses her own lived experience as well as the reality of having two family members who ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who tried countless medicine combinations, therapies and facilities over 30 years.

--

Mind Medicine Australia exists to help alleviate the suffering and suicides caused by mental illness in Australia through expanding the treatment options available to medical practitioners and their patients. We will establish safe and effective psychedelic-assisted treatments to treat a range of mental illnesses.

In furtherance of this mission, The Mind Medicine Australia Podcast ‘Season 2’ aims to connect, listen and share the power of lived experience stories of mental health challenges and altered states that cultivate wellbeing and utilise the collective voices to inform research directions, policy and system change. This podcast will explore modalities including but not limited to altered states from the use of psychedelics, breath work, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, nutrition, sleep and exercise.

TW: Suicide

Dr Bill Richards

Dr William A. Richards (Bill), author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, is Director of Therapy at Sunstone Therapies in Rockville, Maryland (USA), currently focused on the implementation of psychedelic-assisted therapy in palliative care.

Bill also is a psychologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research in Baltimore, where he and his colleagues have been pursuing research with psilocybin since 1999, and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies and for MMA’s Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies. Bill’s graduate degrees encompass the psychology of religion, theology, comparative religion and clinical psychology.

Bill’s involvement with psychedelic research originated in Germany at the University of Göttingen in 1963. From 1967 to 1977, he pursued research with LSD, DPT, MDA and psilocybin at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

--

Thank you for listening to the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast.

You can support Mind Medicine’s work by making a tax deductible donation to us and more specifically you can support the Patient Support Fund. Your donation will support research, access and affordability for psychedelic medicine.

The information provided in this podcast is for general information purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional health care services including the giving of medical advice.

The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional and medical recommendation, diagnosis or treatment. The use of information in this podcast is at one’s own discretion and is not an endorsement of use given the complexity inherent in this medicine under the current viable widespread illegality of their usage.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/mind-medicine-australia.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/mind-medicine-australia.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.