Valorie Masuda, Gail Peekeekoot and Barb Fehlau take part in a grounding...READ ON
Valorie Masuda, Gail Peekeekoot and Barb Fehlau take part in a grounding ceremony for staff at the Roots to Thrive Centre.
Cheryl Meyer closes the door as her husband Brian takes part in a...READ ON
Cheryl Meyer closes the door as her husband Brian takes part in a post-psilocybin-assisted therapy session integration meeting at the Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Resort. Following the group session, the participants meet with Roots to Thrive staff via video conference to discuss their experiences.
Physician Valorie Masuda prepares the psilocybin capsules before the group...READ ON
Physician Valorie Masuda prepares the psilocybin capsules before the group therapy session at the Roots to Thrive Centre. Each capsule contains 25mg of pure extracted psilocybin. The capsules are tightly controlled, arriving on site only on the morning of the group therapy session and locked away until minutes before consumption.
A room set up for a psilocybin-assisted therapy session is seen at the Roots...READ ON
A room set up for a psilocybin-assisted therapy session is seen at the Roots to Thrive Centre. The Roots to Thrive Centre is based in the Snuneymuxw Learning Academy, the former site of Woodbank Elementary School.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy participants Cat Parlee (left) and Brian Meyer...READ ON
Psilocybin-assisted therapy participants Cat Parlee (left) and Brian Meyer hold hands at the Roots to Thrive Centre . Parlee and Meyer both live with stage four cancers.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy participant Brian Meyer is seen lying down after...READ ON
Psilocybin-assisted therapy participant Brian Meyer is seen lying down after taking his psilocybin capsule at the Roots to Thrive Centre. Meyer rested with a handmade blanket — given to him when he was first diagnosed with cancer — made of handprints from family and friends and featuring a photo of him and his wife, Cheryl.
A note of affirmation is seen in Gail Peekeekoot's office at the Roots to Thrive Centre.
Gail Peekeekoot, Roots to Thrive’s medicine administration nursing lead...READ ON
Gail Peekeekoot, Roots to Thrive’s medicine administration nursing lead and facilitator. “People come for the psychedelics,” she said. “But people stay for community.”
Cat Parlee, left, and her husband Cory Parlee. The couple has been together...READ ON
Cat Parlee, left, and her husband Cory Parlee. The couple has been together for 30 years. Parlee lives with stage four malignant melanoma which has spread to her lungs. Her first diagnosis was in 1996 and the cancer returned in 2016. “I see [psilocybins] help her find pieces that make her whole,” Cory Parlee said about Cat’s group therapy sessions.
Cheryl and Brian Meyer take a walk at the Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Resort. Brian...READ ON
Cheryl and Brian Meyer take a walk at the Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Resort. Brian Meyer died in December 2023, surrounded by a dozen family members. In the month before his death, he came to the realization that psilocybins had taken him to an unknown, altered world; death would do the same.
Roots to Thrive, a non-profit health care practice in Nanaimo, B.C., offers guided group psilocybin-assisted therapy for end-of-life patients.
Brian Meyer, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in 2020, and Cat Parlee, who lives with Stage 4 melanoma that has spread to her lungs and throat, became friends as they were part of a small cohort who had shared their anxieties about their terminal diagnoses. After weeks of Zoom group therapy sessions, the cohort gathered in-person in August 2023 to meet each other, their spouses, and to take part in a six-hour group psilocybin-assisted therapy session.
While psychedelics do not alter the course of a disease, Roots to Thrive is one program that may offer insight into how psychedelic-assisted therapy may offer meaningful improvements to psychological and spiritual well-being for terminal patients.
As Meryl Davids Landau reports: Brian Meyer died in December 2023, surrounded by more than a dozen family members in the hospital. But in the month before, he reported an enhanced sense of calmness.
"I don't want to say I'm excited, but I'm very curious now," he said.
He realized the mushrooms had taken him to an unknown, altered world; death would do the same.
Taehoon Kim
Taehoon Kim is a photographer, producer and editor based in Vancouver, B.C.