Professional Mentoring

Dr William A. Richards (Bill), author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, is Director of Therapy at Sunstone Therapies in Rockville, Maryland (USA), currently focused on the implementation of psychedelic-assisted therapy in palliative care.

Bill also is a psychologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research in Baltimore, where he and his colleagues have been pursuing research with psilocybin since 1999, and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies and for MMA’s Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies. Bill’s graduate degrees encompass the psychology of religion, theology, comparative religion and clinical psychology.

Bill’s involvement with psychedelic research originated in Germany at the University of Göttingen in 1963.  From 1967 to 1977, he pursued research with LSD, DPT, MDA and psilocybin at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

Dr Lauren Macdonald is a psychiatry doctor and therapy guide at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London. She currently works on trials studying psilocybin-assisted therapy for anorexia nervosa and fibromyalgia, and DMT for treatment-resistant depression. Alongside her clinical work she is a retreat facilitator and co-founder at Essence Medicine, an organisation providing psycho-spiritual care to people facing life threatening illness. She has degrees in Medicine and Psychology, and has undertaken further training in Integrative Medicine, Compassionate Inquiry, Yoga, and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies).

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and psychedelic research therapist at Imperial College London. Her prior research work includes participation as a study therapist for a Phase 2 MDMA clinical study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). She additionally received training at Yale University for the Psilocybin-Induced Neuroplasticity in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder study and is listed as a contributor to the therapist training manual for this treatment. Sara has spent her early career examining ways culture informs how we diagnose and treat mental illness. As a mental health futurist, she reimagines what mental wellness can look like in this digital era. Sara lectures on topics fusing culturally sensitive practices within mental health care and advises organizations on anti-oppressive and inclusive practices.

Brian D. Richards, Psy.D., completed a Master’s degree in Existential-Phenomenological Psychology at Duquesne University, a Psy.D. at the University of Denver School for Professional Psychology, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit (now the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research), where he contributed to some of the original research administering psilocybin with cancer patients and healthy normal adults. Dr. Richards was formerly a Clinical Director with MedOptions, the largest behavioral health provider in the United States. He now cares for patients with a cancer diagnosis at Maryland Oncology Hematology, The Aquilino Cancer Center, and works with Sunstone Therapies on clinical trials with LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. Dr. Richards also teaches and mentors students at the California Institute for Integral Studies, the leading Psychedelic Medicine Certificate Program worldwide. He is a Subject Matter Expert on Psilocybin with the Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies, and has worked with BrainFutures on Coding and Reimbursement for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy.