global view constructed of white lines
Blog
Home Blog 31. Helping Patients and Advancing Science With a Psilocybin Trial | Karina Sergi, MS, MFT
August 23, 2022

31. Helping Patients and Advancing Science With a Psilocybin Trial | Karina Sergi, MS, MFT

by Anthony Effinger

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Simplecast

Watch: YouTube

Episode 31: Show Notes

Karina Sergi is a licensed therapist, trained the old-fashioned way, but she is exploring a new tool that has been proven to help people who are struggling with persistent depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder: magic mushrooms.

PNI is studying psilocybin, the active ingredient in mushrooms, as a treatment for alcohol use disorder, and Karina is a facilitator for the trial. She meets with patients before their psilocybin journeys, sits with them during the experience, then meets with them afterward to integrate the event into their daily lives. PNI founder Dr. Dan Kelly has said that psilocybin might be the most important compound for brain health that’s currently under study, and Karina agrees. She points out that magic mushrooms have been used by indigenous populations in Mexico for centuries, and she feels fortunate that the modern world has rediscovered them.

Listen to this podcast to learn what a classically-trained therapist thinks about what has become a cutting-edge compound.

About Karina Sergi

Karina Sergi MS MFT

Karina Sergi, MS, MFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, public speaker and published academic author who has worked extensively with individuals, couples and families both in private practice and in the non-profit sector. Working with the clinical trials team at Pacific Neuroscience Institute, she is a patient guide and facilitator with the Treatment & Research In Psychedelics (TRIP) program at the Brain Health Center.

Check Out More Think Neuro Podcast Episodes

About the Author

Anthony Effinger

Anthony Effinger

Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Last updated: August 29th, 2022