Becca Kacanda
@beccakacanda.bsky.social
Art Therapist | Coordinator for Psychedelic Lived Experiences. Bridging Clinical Science and Lived Expertise in Psychedelic Care | MDMA-AT trial participant . Milwaukee, WI
Pinned
Becca Kacanda
@beccakacanda.bsky.social
· Jul 10
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant
Critiques are generally a good thing— but over-applying harsh, totalizing critiques has a downside too; it creates new harms and buries the good work along with the bad.
substack.com
Oof, I did it…. my first Substack post. More to come (although hopefully on more fun topics).
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
[LIVE PANEL] Centering Lived Experience in Psychedelic Research and Training
What happens when lived experience becomes evidence?
Get Your All Access Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit-upgrade
🗓️ Nov 21, 2025
⏰ 12 PM PST | 3 PM EST | 21:00 CET
#psychedelics #livedexperience
What happens when lived experience becomes evidence?
Get Your All Access Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit-upgrade
🗓️ Nov 21, 2025
⏰ 12 PM PST | 3 PM EST | 21:00 CET
#psychedelics #livedexperience
November 17, 2025 at 6:12 PM
[LIVE PANEL] Centering Lived Experience in Psychedelic Research and Training
What happens when lived experience becomes evidence?
Get Your All Access Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit-upgrade
🗓️ Nov 21, 2025
⏰ 12 PM PST | 3 PM EST | 21:00 CET
#psychedelics #livedexperience
What happens when lived experience becomes evidence?
Get Your All Access Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit-upgrade
🗓️ Nov 21, 2025
⏰ 12 PM PST | 3 PM EST | 21:00 CET
#psychedelics #livedexperience
Great interview with @pedramdara.bsky.social , former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant and founder of @psych-lived-exp.bsky.social 💓 open.substack.com/pub/themicro...
What is psychedelic therapy really like? 5 Questions with the director of Psychedelic Lived Experiences Pedram Dara
Dara discusses why researchers need to listen more to the stories of clinical trial participants.
open.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Great interview with @pedramdara.bsky.social , former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant and founder of @psych-lived-exp.bsky.social 💓 open.substack.com/pub/themicro...
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
What could clinical science learn if it began by listening to the people it's meant to help?
October 29, 2025 at 11:52 PM
What could clinical science learn if it began by listening to the people it's meant to help?
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Free Live Event: Psychedelic Integration through Storytelling, Coaching, and Creativity
Join @mareesastertz.bsky.social Daniel Shankin from @tamintegration.bsky.social @onapraderas.bsky.social, and Jimmy Nguyen exploring best practices for psychedelic integration that go beyond therapy.
Join @mareesastertz.bsky.social Daniel Shankin from @tamintegration.bsky.social @onapraderas.bsky.social, and Jimmy Nguyen exploring best practices for psychedelic integration that go beyond therapy.
October 16, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Free Live Event: Psychedelic Integration through Storytelling, Coaching, and Creativity
Join @mareesastertz.bsky.social Daniel Shankin from @tamintegration.bsky.social @onapraderas.bsky.social, and Jimmy Nguyen exploring best practices for psychedelic integration that go beyond therapy.
Join @mareesastertz.bsky.social Daniel Shankin from @tamintegration.bsky.social @onapraderas.bsky.social, and Jimmy Nguyen exploring best practices for psychedelic integration that go beyond therapy.
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Federal agents aren’t trying to keep the peace. They want violence to escalate so that Trump can declare martial law.
They shot a reverend in the head with pepper balls while he was praying in front of an ICE facility. If that doesn’t tell you where we are as a country, nothing will.
They shot a reverend in the head with pepper balls while he was praying in front of an ICE facility. If that doesn’t tell you where we are as a country, nothing will.
October 11, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
The Untold Stories of MDMA-assisted Therapy for PTSD
Meet Becca Kacanda, M.S., and learn from her lived experience as a participant in phase 3 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD clinical trials.
🎟️ Claim Your Free Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit
#psychedelics #LivedExperience
Meet Becca Kacanda, M.S., and learn from her lived experience as a participant in phase 3 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD clinical trials.
🎟️ Claim Your Free Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit
#psychedelics #LivedExperience
September 22, 2025 at 6:59 PM
The Untold Stories of MDMA-assisted Therapy for PTSD
Meet Becca Kacanda, M.S., and learn from her lived experience as a participant in phase 3 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD clinical trials.
🎟️ Claim Your Free Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit
#psychedelics #LivedExperience
Meet Becca Kacanda, M.S., and learn from her lived experience as a participant in phase 3 MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD clinical trials.
🎟️ Claim Your Free Pass: psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit
#psychedelics #LivedExperience
Join us for the first ever Psychedelic Lived Experiences Summit to hear from 50+ patients, therapists & researchers. Explore the potential and limits of psychedelic treatments with raw stories that move beyond hype and fear, highlight complexity, and deepen understanding. Thrilled to take part.
Join the first-ever Psychedelic Lived Experiences Summit — Free & Virtual, Nov 21–23 🎟️ psychedeliclivedexperiences.com/summit
Psychedelic Lived Experiences Summit
Free summit bridging science and lived expertise with nuance and wisdom. Hear from 50+ patients, therapists, and researchers in psychedelic care.
psychedeliclivedexperiences.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Join us for the first ever Psychedelic Lived Experiences Summit to hear from 50+ patients, therapists & researchers. Explore the potential and limits of psychedelic treatments with raw stories that move beyond hype and fear, highlight complexity, and deepen understanding. Thrilled to take part.
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
You almost never see/hear/read a person-on-the-street quote in which that person is saying "Yeah, immigrants are great." If it hates it rates just like if it bleeds it leads, and we get a disproportionate number of right-wingers sharing their hate and disinformation about immigration from msm.
August 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
You almost never see/hear/read a person-on-the-street quote in which that person is saying "Yeah, immigrants are great." If it hates it rates just like if it bleeds it leads, and we get a disproportionate number of right-wingers sharing their hate and disinformation about immigration from msm.
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Dr. Lawrence Leeman of the University of New Mexico describes how the REKINDLE clinical trial will test the effectiveness of RE104 (a synthetic prodrug similar to psilocybin) in treating patients who have received a life-altering disease diagnosis.
UNM Scientists Test Experimental Psychedelic Drug to Alleviate the Emotional Toll of a Life-Threatening Diagnosis
University of New Mexico researchers are joining a multi-site clinical trial of an experimental psychedelic drug intended to alleviate the mental suffering many patients experience when they receive a...
hscnews.unm.edu
August 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Dr. Lawrence Leeman of the University of New Mexico describes how the REKINDLE clinical trial will test the effectiveness of RE104 (a synthetic prodrug similar to psilocybin) in treating patients who have received a life-altering disease diagnosis.
I did a brief livestream w/Joe at @psychedelicstoday.bsky.social about my perspective as a MAPS MDMA-AT trial participant and perceptions of Psymposia’s critiques and methods. This topic is heavy and complex and difficult to talk about. Please excuse the technical difficulties…link in comments
July 31, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I did a brief livestream w/Joe at @psychedelicstoday.bsky.social about my perspective as a MAPS MDMA-AT trial participant and perceptions of Psymposia’s critiques and methods. This topic is heavy and complex and difficult to talk about. Please excuse the technical difficulties…link in comments
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
I posted to Twitter for what looks like the fifth time this year yesterday. Checked back today and the post has 39,000 likes, 3.2k retweets — and 9 replies, and 4 quote tweets. I'm sorry folks those numbers ain't real. Bordering on a statistical impossibility. It's gotta be almost entirely fake.
July 30, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I posted to Twitter for what looks like the fifth time this year yesterday. Checked back today and the post has 39,000 likes, 3.2k retweets — and 9 replies, and 4 quote tweets. I'm sorry folks those numbers ain't real. Bordering on a statistical impossibility. It's gotta be almost entirely fake.
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Interesting...
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study
www.cambridge.org
July 11, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Interesting...
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for major depressive disorder: proof of principle study
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Wow this article packs it all in, quite impressed! Not thrilled about the MAHA correlation I must say..this will be interesting.
www.wired.com/story/psyche...
www.wired.com/story/psyche...
Psychedelic Therapy Crashed and Burned. MAHA Might Bring It Back
Abuse allegations and infighting helped kill a campaign to legalize MDMA for medical use. Trumpworld is giving the therapy’s advocates hope for a second shot.
www.wired.com
July 29, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Wow this article packs it all in, quite impressed! Not thrilled about the MAHA correlation I must say..this will be interesting.
www.wired.com/story/psyche...
www.wired.com/story/psyche...
I was told today that “lived experience is not a serious perspective”. It seems that many people aren’t aware that the field of mental health is largely based upon subjective experience, feelings, and plain observations. Lived experience runs the show. This is not hard science, folks… sorry
July 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I was told today that “lived experience is not a serious perspective”. It seems that many people aren’t aware that the field of mental health is largely based upon subjective experience, feelings, and plain observations. Lived experience runs the show. This is not hard science, folks… sorry
I’m so glad I refused to leave this unusually friendly unclaimed kitty out on the street ( she was following us around at a block party) . Although only 6 lbs and approx 10 months old, she was PREGNANT 😭 . Baby girl is now spayed and we are fostering her until she’s adopted. 💕 meet Angelica 🥰
July 19, 2025 at 2:14 AM
I’m so glad I refused to leave this unusually friendly unclaimed kitty out on the street ( she was following us around at a block party) . Although only 6 lbs and approx 10 months old, she was PREGNANT 😭 . Baby girl is now spayed and we are fostering her until she’s adopted. 💕 meet Angelica 🥰
A Thrifting Mystery, Solved: The Midwest Grotto Tradition and Catherine Bastian’s incredible Ham Can Shrines. ( by me on Substack)
open.substack.com/pub/vesselsa...
open.substack.com/pub/vesselsa...
The Midwest Grotto Tradition and Catherine Bastian’s incredible Ham Can Shrines
This piece includes a re-published guest blog post I made for Spaces Archives in 2020 about Catherine Bastian’s Ham Can Shrines. It feels like a good time to share this again because the John Michael ...
open.substack.com
July 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM
A Thrifting Mystery, Solved: The Midwest Grotto Tradition and Catherine Bastian’s incredible Ham Can Shrines. ( by me on Substack)
open.substack.com/pub/vesselsa...
open.substack.com/pub/vesselsa...
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
I wrote about the strange writing made up by outsider artist James Hampton, which researchers have referred to as "the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues'."
Hamptonese: The Asemic Writing of James Hampton
James Hampton (1909–1964) was an American outsider artist. He worked as a janitor, and in his spare time, in secrecy, he built a large assemblage of religious art, made from scavenged materials: cardb...
www.samwoolfe.com
July 14, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I wrote about the strange writing made up by outsider artist James Hampton, which researchers have referred to as "the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues'."
Added a very brief TL:DR synopsis in the comments section, but if this topic interests you I recommend reading the whole thing. And nope, this isn’t about taking sides, it’s about adding another important perspective to the multifaceted narrative.
Oof, I did it…. my first Substack post. More to come (although hopefully on more fun topics).
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant
Critiques are generally a good thing— but over-applying harsh, totalizing critiques has a downside too; it creates new harms and buries the good work along with the bad.
substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Added a very brief TL:DR synopsis in the comments section, but if this topic interests you I recommend reading the whole thing. And nope, this isn’t about taking sides, it’s about adding another important perspective to the multifaceted narrative.
Oof, I did it…. my first Substack post. More to come (although hopefully on more fun topics).
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant
Critiques are generally a good thing— but over-applying harsh, totalizing critiques has a downside too; it creates new harms and buries the good work along with the bad.
substack.com
July 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Oof, I did it…. my first Substack post. More to come (although hopefully on more fun topics).
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
The Watchdogs Need Watchdogs, Too; A Perspective on Psymposia from a former MAPS MDMA clinical trial participant substack.com/@vesselsandv...
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Musk will be responsible for the deaths of 14,000,000 people.
That’s a genocidal amount of death.
That’s a genocidal amount of death.
STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
July 5, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Musk will be responsible for the deaths of 14,000,000 people.
That’s a genocidal amount of death.
That’s a genocidal amount of death.
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
Every 4th of July, I take the time to read "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July." Let us begin:
"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us."
"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us."
(1852) Frederick Douglass, "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July"
Explore the speech "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" delivered by Frederick Douglass in 1852, including full text and historical context.
www.blackpast.org
July 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Every 4th of July, I take the time to read "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July." Let us begin:
"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us."
"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us."
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
A lot of this country’s problems boil down to straight white men who see themselves as some sort of default “normal” but any variation on that as “an identity” that is “political”
July 4, 2025 at 10:28 PM
A lot of this country’s problems boil down to straight white men who see themselves as some sort of default “normal” but any variation on that as “an identity” that is “political”
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
“Trump supporters were [are] willing to put their own lives on the line in support of their [white supremacist] political beliefs”
www.basicbooks.com/titles/jonat...
www.basicbooks.com/titles/jonat...
Dying of Whiteness
A physician's "provocative" (Boston Globe) and "timely" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times Book Review) account of how right-wing ...
www.basicbooks.com
July 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
“Trump supporters were [are] willing to put their own lives on the line in support of their [white supremacist] political beliefs”
www.basicbooks.com/titles/jonat...
www.basicbooks.com/titles/jonat...
A good reminder that the watchdogs need watchdogs too - sometimes the skeletons in their closet are a mirror reflecting what they purport to be so strongly against…
🚨 Sasha Sisko credibly accused of stalking, harassment, and distributing child pornography 🚨
The picture painted of Sisko by the legal documents on this thread is that of a violent abuser who has exploited someone close to them – exactly the type of person they purport to protect us against
The picture painted of Sisko by the legal documents on this thread is that of a violent abuser who has exploited someone close to them – exactly the type of person they purport to protect us against
July 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A good reminder that the watchdogs need watchdogs too - sometimes the skeletons in their closet are a mirror reflecting what they purport to be so strongly against…
Reposted by Becca Kacanda
This guy is working for the Justice Department: "As violence erupted, his charging document said, he told other rioters who were attacking law enforcement officers, 'Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!'"
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u...
Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Who Threatened Police Joins Justice Dept.
www.nytimes.com
July 1, 2025 at 11:08 PM
This guy is working for the Justice Department: "As violence erupted, his charging document said, he told other rioters who were attacking law enforcement officers, 'Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!'"
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/u...