Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Group-Administered Psychedelic Therapy: Maximizing Healing and Resilience through Communities of Practice
Many individuals have never experienced truly safe and trustworthy relationships, which serve as a primary resilience factor, requirement of human thriving. By creating a peer held trauma- and attachment-informed container, participants can practice relational safety in a structured setting—where authentic, unconditional positive regard is the primary medicine. Psychedelics serve as secondary mediators, softening rigid ego defenses to enable deeper trust and connection. Formal intentions and agreements establish safety and predictability, while carefully curated playlists (musical alchemy) further enhance relational attunement. Finally, we discuss the integration of Indigenous (ancient wisdom) and Western (modern science) ways of knowing, cultivating a consensual third space that honors diverse healing traditions while ensuring cultural appreciation does not cross into appropriation.
Bio:
Shannon Dames comes is a third-generation immigrant to Canada with mixed European ancestry. She serves as a mom of two, a Health Professional Investigator, a registered nurse for the last 20 years with a doctorate in education (with a focus on resilience development curriculum) and a master's in public health. She is a Professor of Nursing and Chair of VIU's PaT Graduate Certificate education program at Vancouver Island University (VIU), and a curriculum and research and development lead for the Roots to Thrive program (providing resilience development and psychedelic-assisted therapy).
Phil Dames a descendant of diverse European roots (Prussia, Ireland and England), resides on the ancestral lands of the Stz’uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island, BC. He is a son, a brother, a father, friend to many and a life partner of Shannon Dames. Phil is a co-founder, the Lead of Operations and playlist curator (soundscapes that guide psychedelic journeys) for the Roots to Thrive Society for Psychedelic Therapy. Phil is a graduate of Vancouver Island University’s Psychedelic assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate program and alumni of the Positive Deviants program through the Wolf Willow Institute. Phil is passionate about men’s health and the cultivation of environments that promote emotional awareness and expression. He has a keen interest in the intersection of music and psychedelic-assisted therapies and the creation of different playlists to use during therapeutic sessions. Phil curates the playlists utilized during the different RTT medicine sessions. Nature and music tend to occupy Phil’s spare time, when it exists.
Find out more:
rootstothrive.com
hshs.viu.ca/psychedelic-assisted-therapy
Group-Administered Psychedelic Therapy: Maximizing Healing and Resilience through Communities of Practice
Many individuals have never experienced truly safe and trustworthy relationships, which serve as a primary resilience factor, requirement of human thriving. By creating a peer held trauma- and attachment-informed container, participants can practice relational safety in a structured setting—where authentic, unconditional positive regard is the primary medicine. Psychedelics serve as secondary mediators, softening rigid ego defenses to enable deeper trust and connection. Formal intentions and agreements establish safety and predictability, while carefully curated playlists (musical alchemy) further enhance relational attunement. Finally, we discuss the integration of Indigenous (ancient wisdom) and Western (modern science) ways of knowing, cultivating a consensual third space that honors diverse healing traditions while ensuring cultural appreciation does not cross into appropriation.
Bio:
Shannon Dames comes is a third-generation immigrant to Canada with mixed European ancestry. She serves as a mom of two, a Health Professional Investigator, a registered nurse for the last 20 years with a doctorate in education (with a focus on resilience development curriculum) and a master's in public health. She is a Professor of Nursing and Chair of VIU's PaT Graduate Certificate education program at Vancouver Island University (VIU), and a curriculum and research and development lead for the Roots to Thrive program (providing resilience development and psychedelic-assisted therapy).
Phil Dames a descendant of diverse European roots (Prussia, Ireland and England), resides on the ancestral lands of the Stz’uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island, BC. He is a son, a brother, a father, friend to many and a life partner of Shannon Dames. Phil is a co-founder, the Lead of Operations and playlist curator (soundscapes that guide psychedelic journeys) for the Roots to Thrive Society for Psychedelic Therapy. Phil is a graduate of Vancouver Island University’s Psychedelic assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate program and alumni of the Positive Deviants program through the Wolf Willow Institute. Phil is passionate about men’s health and the cultivation of environments that promote emotional awareness and expression. He has a keen interest in the intersection of music and psychedelic-assisted therapies and the creation of different playlists to use during therapeutic sessions. Phil curates the playlists utilized during the different RTT medicine sessions. Nature and music tend to occupy Phil’s spare time, when it exists.
Find out more:
rootstothrive.com
hshs.viu.ca/psychedelic-assisted-therapy
