113. Psychiatrists and Curanderos with Dr Simon Ruffell

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Simon Ruffell, a psychiatrist and ayahuasca researcher with extensive experience working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin. He discusses the potential of Indigenous medicines to complement Western psychiatric care and reduce relapse rates. Dr. Ruffell compares Western and Indigenous approaches to using spiritual plants, addressing the ongoing debate about how to respectfully integrate Indigenous medicine into Western healthcare as well as highlighting the key differences between commercial ayahuasca retreats and authentic Indigenous practices. Lastly, he discusses aspects of Shipibo culture and a journey into Shamanism.

[@jw31209]

I think there’s a problem with the podcast version of this episode. In my podcast app the episode was only 21 seconds long.

[@DrugScience]

Apologies for that! This has now been fixed and should update in the next 24 hours

[@jw31209]

@@DrugScience Great, thank you! I look forward to listening to it