I’m Dr. Candida Maurer. I have a PhD in psychology with over 45 years of psychotherapy experience. And as I look back, I realize that my psychedelic journey began in my early 20’s when I was using psychedelic medicine with friends. I was “lost” back then and had no idea what I was supposed to do or become. I was floundering and depressed and anxious, and I had not developed a moral center. I can truthfully say that psychedelics changed, and maybe saved, my life!
Over time, I became the person that several of my friends turned to for support when they were having a “bad trip.” I didn’t know it at the time, but I was already showing a natural aptitude for helping others who were scared when they found themselves in an altered state of awareness.
After several years of not taking myself seriously, I went to graduate school and received a master’s degree in counseling. Soon after, I got married, had children, got divorced, and went back to school as a single parent to get a PhD in Counseling Psychology. I was fortunate to meet a really good man, Dr. Michael Santangelo, who was also a psychologist. We had an immediate sympatico that resulted in a 35-year marriage.
During our time together, Michael and I created Eastwind Healing Center, the first, and largest, integrative medicine center in the state of Iowa. Along the way, we taught many classes in alternative medicine. These included Chinese medicine, shiatsu, energy medicine, Reiki, hypnosis, dreamwork, ethics, quantum healing, and other esoteric subjects. We combined these teachings with psychology and integrated these methods into our healing practices. I also taught hypnosis, dream analysis, and psychological theory and practice at the graduate school level. And we were really busy!
After a long illness, Michael passed away in 2018. Needless to say, I was filled with grief and at loose ends. Then, just as psychedelic research was coming into focus in the public arena, I found Michael Pollan’s book called How to Change Your Mind. In it, Pollan explores psychedelic therapies and research in a manner that opened the minds of many who were looking for better alternative methods of healing. It is a book full of hope, and it inspired me to pursue training in psychedelic therapy.
I applied to the Certification in Psychedelic Therapy and Research program at CIIS in San Francisco. There, I Iearned from the best researchers in the country how psychedelic research was being used to bring these medicines into legality in the United States. I also learned that there is literally no other psychiatric medication that brings the level of healing that psychedelics are demonstrating.
I attained certification and returned to Iowa City, and then Covid came. It was clear that I wouldn’t be doing psychedelic therapy anytime soon, and like many therapists, I moved my therapy practice to zoom. After a year of Covid, I still knew that I was supposed to work with psychedelics, and I contacted a psychiatrist who I had heard was interested in psychedelic therapy. He connected me with the Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University Hospital and a plan was born in the minds of the three of us.
The plan took off and at this time, I am the lead therapist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics doing research to compare psychedelic medications for alleviation of alcoholism.
As far as I’m concerned, psychedelic medicine is the future of psychology!
