Episode 63: The Relational Nature of Psychedelics: Indigenous Knowledge & Healing w/ Dr. Keith Williams

Healing is often understood through the individual experience, but what might we learn by centring Indigenous perspectives on the deeply relational nature of psychedelic healing?

In this episode of the MAPS Canada Podcast, host Matt Hamel speaks with Dr. Keith Williams, an associate professor at Athabasca University and psychedelic researcher with training in psychedelic-assisted therapy. Dr. Williams has worked with Indigenous and local communities across Canada and around the world on plant-related projects, with a particular focus on the traditional uses of food and medicine plants.

Dr. Williams lives in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) and has paternal family roots from a Mohawk (Haudenosaunee) community on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. Although he does not identify as Indigenous, Dr. Williams draws on Indigenous thought, traditional botanical knowledge, and his own experiences working with communities and the land. He explains how psychedelic-assisted therapy might be understood through a more relational and place-based framework. The conversation touches on a paper Dr. Williams co-authored in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, exploring inner healing intelligence through the lenses of critical vitalism and Indigenous thought.

Dr. Williams also discusses the risks of extracting or appropriating Indigenous practices and knowledge into Western psychedelic therapy, and why Indigenous knowledge should instead be recognized on its own terms and treated as a philosophical and epistemological partner. He considers what it might look like for practitioners to establish deeper relationships with the medicines, lands, and communities where they live, rather than simply incorporating isolated elements of Indigenous traditions into existing therapeutic models. Dr. Williams also shares his vision for a future of psychedelic-assisted therapy that embraces multiple ways of knowing while fostering reciprocity, connection, and a deeper sense of place.

To access the paper discussed in this episode, visit: https://www.akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/10/1/article-p59.xml

If you would like to connect with Dr. Keith Williams, he can be reached at: [email protected]

Working with partners in government, business, and the community, MAPS Canada is committed to advancing psychedelic medicine by supporting scientific, multidisciplinary research; advocating for drug policy reform; offering public education; and supporting equitable access to legal and regulated psychedelic medicine in Canada.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) was formed in the US in 1986, in response to the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s classification of MDMA as Schedule 1 substance, and has been developing medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics since then.

MAPS Canada was founded as a sister organization to MAPS in 2011, and is a registered Canadian non-profit organization. Based in Vancouver and with hundreds of volunteers from across Canada, MAPS Canada is moving forward to become the leading Canadian source of information, resources and advocacy regarding psychedelic medicine and related clinical research, education, and public policy.

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