Facilitator
Portland VA Medical Center-Vancouver
Vancouver, Washington
In 2001, Zach had his first experience with psilocybin while stationed in Okinawa, Japan, in the United States Marine Corps. Not long after this experience, he found himself invading Iraq, navigating combat operations and post-traumatic stress, which ultimately led to a transformative journey as a therapist helping veterans within his community. When helping start the first PTSD clinic in South Sudan for veterans and family members of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, Zach developed an interest in community-based group interventions & traditional healing modalities. Starting in the US as a peer counselor for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, he trained as a clinical psychologist within the Northern California VA & Northern Arizona VA Health Care Systems. As he continued to help veterans at the VA, Zach also facilitated psycholytic & psychedelic-assisted therapies for individuals & groups of US Special Forces communities at The Mission Within. These experiences, combined with his coursework in CIIS CPTR & MAPS programs, furthered Zach’s interest when addressing the outcomes of psychedelic interventions. While beginning clinical trials of psychedelics in the veteran community as a postdoctoral scholar with the Translational Psychedelic Research program at UCSF, Zach's work as a facilitator, researcher, and scholar has been utilized in training psychedelic peer counselors at the Fireside Project.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM ET