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Chacruna’s newest course offering highlights connections between psychedelic history and LGBTQ history
Chacruna’s newest course, Queering Psychedelices: Intersectionality, Healing, Spirituality and Liberation, begins August 28. This nine-session course will meet weekly through November 6 to reflect on how queerness has fundamentally shaped the substance, style, and spirituality of the psychedelic movement. Born out of Chacruna’s Queering Psychedelics conference and collection, Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine, edited by Alex Belser, Ph.D., Clancy Cavnar, Psy.D., and Bia Labate, Ph.D., the series will reaffirm the role that queerness has played in the ascendent star of psychedelia in the scientific and cultural imagination, and will offer ways for LGBTQ+ communities to explore healing via psychedelics after centuries of oppression.
Over the weeks, students and world-class faculty will explore topics like the cruel effects of patriarchy on queer communities, self-acceptance and its related practices, the dark sides of psychedelic research (including conversion therapy), the move towards LGBTQ+ affirmative psychedelic-assisted therapies, transpersonal queer spirituality, sex positivity, trans and BIPOC issues, Indigenous perspectives in queer psychedelia, and pleasure. Students will also consider how psychedelic research could address the unique needs and trauma of sexual and gender minorities, who are at an increased risk to consider or attempt suicide and can suffer from mental health conditions as an effect of social exclusion, pathologization, criminalization, and stigmatization.
By the end of the course, students will have gained critical perspective on how heteronormative, hegemonic, and capitalist cultural and socioeconomic trends have impacted contemporary rhetoric of the psychedelic renaissance. They will also have tools to lead and engage with discussions that empower queer communities and recognize their central importance to our psychedelic future.
Over the nine weeks, lectures will be led by Chacruna faculty and allies on topics including psychedelics and sexuality, psychedelic conversion therapy and LGBTQ+ affirmative psychedelic-assisted therapies, transpersonal queer sexuality, trans issues in psychedelic medicine, BIPOC and queer providers and accessibility and community in psychedelic-assisted therapy, Indigenous wisdom and multi-spirit traditions, and the role of pleasure in psychedelic healing.
“Students will understand the power of alternative culture and outsider perspectives to bring valuable insights into the cultural phenomenon of the psychedelic renaissance.”
Dr. Clancy Cavnar
“This course looks at developments in the world of psychedelics and how they affect queer people, as well as how queer people have affected the development of the psychedelic scene in the past and up until today,” says Clancy Cavnar, instructor and Chacruna co-founder. “Students will understand the power of alternative culture and outsider perspectives to bring valuable insights into the cultural phenomenon of the psychedelic renaissance.”
Besides Cavnar and Chacruna co-founder Labate, as well as Alex Belser, Ph.D. (licensed psychologist and researcher); Justin Natoli, JD, LMFT (psychotherapist, hakomi practitioner, ketamine therapist, and retreat facilitator); Taylor Dahlia Bolinger, LMSW (co-founder of Decriminalize Nature Dallas); Jennifer C. Jones (co-founder of Rising Caps Collective with Aisha Mohammed), Ph.D., LCSW; Aisha Mohammed, LMFT; (co-founder of Rising Caps Collective with Jennifer C. Jones); Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Artist, Teacher, Founder of Indian Canyon Two-Spirit Society, Cultural Director and COO of Costanoan Indian Research and Cultural Representative, and Native Monitor for Indian Canyon Mutsun Band of Costanoan Ohlone People); Dee Dee Goldpaugh, LCSW (psychotherapist and author); Lígia Platero, Ph.D (Chacruna’s Education Program Associate), and Alejandra Barajas (Chacruna’s Program Coordinator).
“This course is an exciting opportunity to take a one-of-a-kind deep dive into the intersection of LGBTQ+ issues and psychedelic culture with queer and trans subject matter experts that have deep knowledge of these medicines.”
Taylor Bolinger
Wisdom gained from Chacruna’s courses provides opportunities for deep reflection about issues that are often sidelined or left out entirely of psychedelic discourse. “This course is an exciting opportunity to take a one-of-a-kind deep dive into the intersection of LGBTQ+ issues and psychedelic culture with queer and trans subject matter experts that have deep knowledge of these medicines,” says Bolinger. “One major takeaway that I hope will stick with students after they finish the course is that psychedelic history inextricably is LGBT history – and always has been.”
Classes meet weekly on Mondays from 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. PT / 1-3 p.m. ET from August 28th – November 6th. Check out the full description and register ($650; additional $280 for CE credits) here.
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About Chacruna Institute
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization co-founded by Brazilian anthropologist Dr. Bia Labate and American psychologist Dr. Clancy Cavnar, based in Northern California and with strong ties to Brazil and Mexico. We promote reciprocity in the psychedelic community, and support the protection of sacred plants and cultural traditions. We advance psychedelic justice through curating critical conversations and uplifting the voices of women, queer people, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and the Global South in the field of psychedelic science.
Contact Information
Lorien Chavez
Chacruna Institute
[email protected]
415-390-6157
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