As psychedelic-assisted therapy grows, so does interest from a new group: chaplains

Dried Psilocybe mushrooms on a glass plate.

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Research on the therapeutic use of psychedelics is underway at several universities, and data continues to accumulate on how they may help with conditions from PTSD to depression. Many states and localities across the country are considering legislation. Some, like Oregon and Colorado, have already passed regulatory models, which involve licensing facilitators to administer these drugs. And there’s increasing interest in that work from a group of professionals who already guide people through life’s deep and difficult times: chaplains.

Chaplains are religious professionals who work in non-religious settings — hospitals, schools, battlefields. Although they’re trained and often ordained in a particular tradition, they help people of any faith — or none at all — wrestle with spiritual issues, and connect with a sense of meaning.

“We are with people in deep moments of grief, deep moments of pain, deep moments of life transition,” explains Caroline Peacock, an Episcopal priest who serves as director of spiritual health at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. “And we know how to be with people in these very, very hard moments.”

Peacock recently drew upon this training as part of a clinical trial using psilocybin, the compound in so-called “magic mushrooms,” at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. Their results will be published next year. In the study, chaplains worked alongside mental health practitioners to administer the psychedelic drug to terminal cancer patients. And after the treatment, they provided what’s called…