Five Canadian healthcare workers have undergone a unique training process to better understand experimental psilocybin-assisted therapy. One such healthcare worker, registered nurse Natasha Fearnley, spent 10 weeks on a 100+ hour course to fully understand the therapy program she would help administer. Her employer, the non-profit organization TheraPsil, is looking to offer psilocybin-assisted therapy for terminally ill patients.

“From my own perspective, it would be really weird if I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is what’s going to happen, you’re going to feel this way,’” explained Fearnley.  “And if I have no experience whatsoever, they’d be like, ‘Who are you to tell me that?’”

Now that she has gone through the unique experience of psilocybin-assisted therapy, she offers credibility and assurance to her patients. “There’s a sense of trust and they’re just a little bit more relaxed,” Fearnley said.

Qualifications

For the 30 individuals and five healthcare providers, each secured exemptions from Section 56 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act. With their exemptions, they can legally partake in administering and receiving psilocybin-assisted therapy. A total of 35 exemptions have been granted. 

However, there are more than a thousand potential patients with end of life illnesses who have contacted TheraPsil. The non-profit has helped potential patients apply for exemption. However, no exemptions have been issued since the initial 35 in 2020. Additionally, TheraPsil hopes to train around 500 healthcare professionals this year alone. Though professionals can only be trained if they have received their exemption cards. 

“We can only train those who have exemptions and it’s just not enough to meet the patient demand that the government has already created by giving out those exemptions,” Spencer Hawkswell, TheraPsil’s CEO, said. “So they’ve really got to respond, they’ve got to give more exemptions out. And we’re going to continue to do training, and to prep these doctors and therapists and nurses for their experiential session, because it’s just a matter of time.”

Testimony

One Canadian man, Thomas Hartle, has received his exemption card and has gone through psilocybin-assisted therapy for his terminal cancer. After his first session, with the assistance from TheraPsil’s founder, Dr. Bruce Tobin, Hartle experienced no anxiety for the first time since his cancer diagnosis in 2016. 

“I have had anxiety for so long, I had sort of forgotten what it feels like to not have it,” Hartle said about his first experience. “To experience the lack of anxiety I have had this week is beyond words. It’s amazing. I have no idea how long this particular benefit will last, but so long as it’s here, it’s really, really amazing and good.”

This experience lines up with several research studies several universities have conducted, such as Yale and John Hopkins University. Dr. Tobin explained why Hartle’s first experience showed huge potential for the therapeutic potential for psilocybin-assisted therapy.

“A fundamental dynamic in this healing potential of psilocybin is that it allows our ego self to temporarily relax the grip of our negative and pain-producing belief systems, to relax and let go of that grip on our sense of who we are and what’s really important and what living is all about,” Dr. Tobin said. “With this relaxation of old habits of thinking, new perspectives and attitudes and assumptions are possible, leading to new possibilities for being in the world with our disease.”

Next Steps

Nurse Natasha Fearnley and TheraPsil will continue to administer psilocybin-assisted therapy to their patients. TheraPsil says they will also continue to advocate for exemptions for both patients and healthcare providers. This will increase the amount of people TheraPsil can help with their end of life care. Until then, TheraPsil will do what they can to help more and more people to the best of their abilities. 

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