A New Paradigm: What the Science of Psychedelics is Teaching us about Mental Health

Frederick Barrett is a cognitive neuroscientist with training in behavioral pharmacology. Dr. Barrett has been conducting psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins University since 2013, and his research on healthy participants and in patients with mood and substance use disorders focuses on the psychological and neurological mechanisms underlying the enduring therapeutic and other effects of psychedelic drugs.

In 2017, he received an NIH “R03” grant as Principal Investigator to investigate biological mechanisms of psilocybin effects, the first federally funded research since the 1970s administering a classic psychedelic to people with psychedelic effects as the primary focus. He developed the first comprehensive questionnaire to measure subjective aspects of challenging experiences encountered with psilocybin. He also published the first studies in humans characterizing the enduring effects of psilocybin on the brain (up to a month after psilocybin administration), the effects of psilocybin on a brain structure called the claustrum (which has been proposed to variously mediate consciousness and cognition), the effects of LSD on the brain's response to music, and the effects of the atypical hallucinogen salvinorin A on human brain network function.

He is currently leading a clinical trial to investigate the use of psilocybin to treat patients with major depressive disorder and co-occurring alcohol use disorder, and he is leading a number of ongoing studies aimed at better understanding the psychological, biological, and neural mechanisms underlying therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic drugs.
 

Dr. Hannah McLane is a physician, psychoanalyst, and entrepreneur. She is the Founder of SoundMind, a Philadelphia and Oregon-based psychedelic facilitator training and research initiative aimed at bringing ethics, equity, and innovation to the psychedelic ecosystem. Dr. McLane identifies as queer, white, able-bodied, and neurodiverse. She grew up in rural New Hampshire and spent several years in South America and East Asia.

Dr. McLane conducts research on cognitive diversity, psychedelic science, ethics, PTSD, and emerging alternative therapies for mental health issues. She is the clinical director of the SoundMind Center, the first psychedelic therapy center in the Philadelphia region, and training director for retreat offerings in Philadelphia, Oregon, and Costa Rica.

She attended McGill University and holds graduate degrees from Temple University (MA, Communication Sciences), Brown University (MD, Doctor of Medicine, Contemplative Studies Concentration), and Harvard School of Public Health (MPH, Global health and Bioethics). She attended residencies in neurology and Occupational and Environmental medicine (University of Pennsylvania) and completed a fellowship in Patient Safety at the VA Hospital in Philadelphia. She also completed a 5-year psychoanalytic training program and considers herself a relational psychoanalyst.

Dr. Jason Wallach is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as the Substance Use Disorders Institute at Saint Joseph’s University. He is an author on over 25 publications in peer-reviewed journal articles as well as numerous book chapters and popular press articles. Dr. Wallach’s research focuses on the analytical and pharmacological characterizations of existing and novel psychoactive drugs, as well as drug development with a focus on dissociatives and the serotonergic classical hallucinogens. 

As Senior Trade Officer for the Consulate General of Canada in NYC, Josh represents the Government of Canada in the Philadelphia region.  As part of his role in the city, he works to foster cross-border research and innovation partnerships between the PHL region and Canadian centers of excellence.  Whether is cell/gene therapy, immunology/oncology, or mental health, Josh is passionate about bringing cross-disciplinary scientists together to ideate new ways to look at old problems.  For the past 15 years he has been focused on development of SME internationalization efforts.  Josh holds a Bachelors from the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State and an MBA in International Business from the Drexel LeBow College of Business.  Josh was born and raised in the Philadelphia area and has been a proud resident of Washington Square West for nearly 13 years where he lives with his wife Abbie and four year old daughter Cecelia.