Today on Leadershipedelics, we talk about music for psychedelic assisted therapy with Phil Dames, the music maker and director of operations at Roots to Thrive. We've had other members of Roots to Thrive on the show, Dr Pamela Kryskow and Shannon Dames. This is very intentional: they’ve got a great team and they’re doing great work. Roots to Thrive is Canada’s first and only multidisciplinary, non-profit healthcare practice to legally offer evidence-informed, group therapy programs that use a community of practice model, uniquely designed to address trauma and to promote resilience, and to also include the option of psilocybin-assisted and ketamine-assisted group therapy.” It’s a pleasure to get to know them and share their work.

With Phil being a music maker, and music playing such an important role in psychedelic assisted therapy, we go deep in what it takes to create the perfect playlist for a therapy session, how different types of music are used at different points and with different medicines. We share many resources, all listed in the show notes. And of course, we bring it all back to leadership comparing leadership to a cattle dog, imagine that.

💡Highlights💡

Ketamine therapy in group setting
Crafting and curating playlists for psychedelic-assisted therapy
Creating more inclusive playlists
Different music for different medicine
Structuring a playlist
Customizing at the cohort level
Use of tension and textures in songs
Leadership as a cattle dog

Connecting with Phil

Roots to Thrive: https://rootstothrive.com/

More about Phil
Phil is the Director of operations at Roots to Thrive, a 12-week program aimed at addressing PTSD, treatment resistant depression, anxiety, and others.

Phil comes to Roots to Thrive with a focus on developing the structure to guide and inform the operations of the program. Phil has a long history of working with families and corporations, in the management of their financial well-being. Phil’s passion surrounds men’s health and the cultivation of environments that promote emotional awareness and expression. Phil developed the structure of the Roots to Thrive virtual program, which is currently is being used for RTT and RTT-KAT.

Resources mentioned in the show

Eric Sienknecht:
https://open.spotify.com/user/estnick46

Patterns by Solar Fields (“brain scrambler”): https://open.spotify.com/track/1wnZN0xG2bWmlKHP0iYeSG?si=2823b8178bcc4bc2

4am by Jade Cicada:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7IIVlJeo9O2DpSCBuWWLtu?si=e53e660bd9544457

Portals (Avengers Endgame):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0OVtnS3l4vThGxkdqCxN6K?si=01944b094e3c4f94

About the Johns Hopkins playlist mentioned during the interview:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/inside-the-johns-hopkins-psilocybin-playlist

Wilbur Weekend playlist by Eric Sienknecht:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7raeMhIkbeCyOCXmoAeNY1?si=5f276f4f7d47474a

Connecting with Sébastien

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