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In this groundbreaking episode of Life Beyond Loss, host Kelly Chandler sits down with Dr. Rebecca Lester, an anthropologist and licensed clinical social worker at Washington University’s Healthy Mind Lab and CHIRP (Center for Holistic and Interdisciplinary Research in Psychedelics). Drawing from her personal experience with eating disorders and her academic expertise in culture and mental health, Dr. Lester is pioneering research into psychedelic-assisted therapy as a revolutionary approach to treating mental distress. She discusses her journey from patient to researcher, the rigorous training required to become a psychedelic facilitator, and how these powerful substances can help people address the deep existential issues underlying conditions like eating disorders, addiction, and trauma—moving beyond symptom management to tackle root causes.
This episode is essential listening for mental health professionals, individuals struggling with treatment-resistant conditions, and anyone curious about the future of psychiatric care. Listeners will gain insight into how psychedelic therapy works at a neurological level to create new neural pathways, understand the critical importance of guided experiences versus unsupervised use, and learn why this approach represents a fundamental shift from traditional Western medicine’s focus on behavioral fixes. By the end, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how psychedelics are being studied as legitimate medical interventions, the safety protocols involved, and why this research could transform how we think about healing—not just for mental health, but for medicine as a whole.
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00:00 – Introduction & Guest Welcome
02:09 – Dr. Lester’s Background & Journey
03:08 – Mental Health Crisis in America
03:52 – Personal Story: From Patient to Researcher
06:42 – Transition to Psychedelic Research
07:48 – Anthropological Perspective on Psychedelics
09:00 – How Psychedelic Therapy Works
10:03 – Current Research & Training
11:45 – Patient Selection & Success Metrics
15:09 – The Neuroscience of Healing
19:22 – Research Funding & Team Dynamics
24:22 – Business Considerations & Future Challenges
26:11 – Traditional Treatment Failures
29:19 – Risks & Safety Protocols
32:36 – Societal Acceptance & Stigma
35:35 – Commercialization Concerns
37:51 – The Future of Medicine
38:32 – Where to Find Dr. Lester
39:19 – Closing
If you’re facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns, or just need someone to talk to, call or text 988.
Caring counselors are there for you. You are not alone.
“I worry that if this gets FDA approved then there’s a whole other aspect of the commercialization beyond people that need it. The people who’ve gone, who have the means, is this going to create another inequity where if you have the means, you had access to this treatment. If you don’t, this is not available to you.”
In our society, we think of psychedelics as drugs that are illegal for the most part, and, you know, dangerous… but through the span of human history, they’ve been part of our culture. These kinds of compounds grow all over the world. And so humans for millennia have been utilizing them for medicinal reasons, for ritual reasons, for religious reasons. For most of human history, they’ve been very accepted as part of our healing systems.
The EMTs allowed me to go say goodbye to my husband. And when I did, I promised. I thanked him, number one, for our life. I thanked him for the best five years of my life. And I promised him that I would take care of our family and that our baby would be a happy baby and that she would be born into love and light and not tragedy and negativity.
“So we got through the TAPS and, and I remember the doctor said, ‘I’m not here to make anybody feel better. I’m here to make sure you feel.’ So what a lot of people do is they forget to feel. They forget to feel the pain.
“A lot of people are familiar with Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s stages of grief. And a lot of therapists don’t even really like the term stages because it makes it seem like it is this linear path. Like you go through anger, you go through bargaining, you go through depression, you go through acceptance. And you might go through all of those things, you might not. So I like using, like phases or states of grief. This is a state of grief you might be in. Some people don’t go through bargaining, some people don’t go through anger. And that there is no right or wrong way to grieve.”
