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Mar 2025
1h 18m

Ep. 199 - Ram Dass Explorer's Club: Our ...

BE HERE NOW NETWORK
About this episode

Dynamic duo Annie & Michael Mithoefer speak with Jackie Dobrinska about how we can reach our innate healing capacity via psychedelic-assisted therapy, breathwork, and more.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This week, Annie & Michael Mithoefer discuss:

  • Ram Dass’ influence on Annie and Michael’s life
  • A story of meditative guidance from Neem Karoli Baba
  • Our capacity to self-heal via psychedelics or other non-ordinary states
  • The power of breath work as a pathway to inner healing
  • Researching MDMA-assisted therapy
  • Separating the self from the medicine
  • How avoidance perpetuates trauma
  • Utilizing psychedelics to re-open social reward learning networks
  • The importance of integration sessions after psychedelic-assisted therapy
  • How PTSD affects people, relationships, and more
  • Allowing the lows to become just as interesting as the highs

About Michael and Annie Mithoefer

Michael and Annie Mithoefer have been instrumental in developing the MDMA protocols and standards of care that have been used in the ongoing MAPS FDA trials. They crafted the MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program, a clinical training program that facilities learning in the theory, skills and practice of MDMA-assisted therapy. The MAPS training program has reportedly introduced MDMA-assisted therapy to over 2,000 interested mental health care professionals. Michael Mithoefer, M.D., is a psychiatrist living in Asheville, NC, with a research office in Charleston, SC. Annie Mithoefer, B.S.N., is a Registered Nurse living in Asheville NC, where she is now focused primarily on training and supervising therapists conducting MAPS-sponsored clinical trials, as well as continuing to conduct some MAPS research sessions in Charleston, SC. Learn more about the art of psychedelic care HERE.

About The Host, Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an inter-spiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves. 

“These are tools for accessing these non-ordinary states of consciousness. It’s not about the medicine, and the medicines are not the only way to do it, which Ram Dass demonstrated in the latter part of his life. That was very much the philosophy, and very much the philosophy that there’s this inner healing intelligence, self-healing capacity, and what we’re doing is helping people access that. – Michael Mithoefer

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