Me in my Happy Place (Mermaid Cove, Bermuda)
KATHERINE MACLEAN
I am a writer, research scientist, mother and adventure-seeker. I have spent the past two decades studying the effects of mindfulness meditation and psychedelics, surviving motherhood, and learning a lot about death and grief. I’m thrilled to announce that my first book about all of these themes - Midnight Water: A Psychedelic Memoir - will be available this summer!
At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, I conducted legal clinical trials of psilocybin, the primary chemical found in "magic mushrooms”. I was a lead researcher and session guide on the first study to test the combined effects of high-dose psilocybin, daily meditation training and integration support. My research on meditation and psilocybin indicates that these practices can promote positive and lasting changes in concentration, emotion regulation, openness, wellbeing, and prosocial traits.
Following my younger sister’s untimely death from cancer in 2013, I left my faculty job, traveled the world and finally settled on an organic farm with my husband. In 2015, I co-founded and was the first director of the Psychedelic Education and Continuing Care Program in New York, where I led training workshops and monthly integration groups focused on increasing awareness and reducing risks of psychedelic use. I have helped to bring medical and humanitarian aid to remote Himalayan villages, as well as create sanctuary spaces for psychedelic support at large outdoor festivals. My most gratifying and humbling experiences have been as a mother to my two young children.
My teaching and integration approach combines over a decade of training in rigorous academic and clinical research with practical intuition guided by personal experiences, including five silent meditation retreats, a 2-month pilgrimage in the Himalayan mountain range in Nepal, my sister and father’s death journeys through cancer, and natural homebirth. During my professional and personal life experiences, I have developed a unique set of skills that allow me to feel safe, and help others feel safe, in extremely unusual environments and powerful states of consciousness. I believe in the power of the body and mind to courageously create healing and transformative relationships with self, community and nature.
Please note that I am not a psychologist, licensed therapist, or medical doctor, and thus cannot provide therapy, counseling, or medical advice.
More about my research background...
I completed my BA in psychology and neuroscience with Dr. Yale Cohen at Dartmouth College (1999-2003), my PhD in research psychology with Dr. George R. Mangun and Dr. Clifford Saron at the University of California, Davis (2004-2009), and my postdoctoral research fellowship in psychopharmacology with Dr. Roland Griffiths at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2009-2012). I was hired as a tenure-track faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins from 2012-2013. During my graduate training at UC Davis, I was one of the lead researchers on the Shamatha Project, a groundbreaking study of the effects of intensive meditation on psychological and brain function. While a research fellow and faculty member at Johns Hopkins, I apprenticed with and was supervised by two of the world’s top psychedelic therapists -- Bill Richards, PhD and Mary Cosimano, LSW -- learning how to effectively and safely support people before, during, and after high-dose psychedelic experiences.
You can read my top professional articles below:
Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention
Cognitive aging and long-term maintenance of attentional improvements following meditation training