EP 61: Real Confidence- The Psychedelic Confidence Connection with Special Guest Sherry Rais

September 17, 2023

Nope. You are not tripping or hallucinating. We ARE talking about acid, ‘shrooms, and other forms of psychoactive drugs.

I think psychedelics are a very underrepresented topic but rapidly gaining ‘speed’. First, because psychedelics were politically shamed back in the 60s despite the scientific evidence they can really help mental illness. We were all told to ‘just say no’ with no scientific data but many myths used to scare us. Second, microdosing is today on trend being used to improve individual focus and innovation.

I am personally curious about psychedelics because there are studies that confirm psychedelics can help prune unnecessary or false neural pathways that trigger destructive beliefs and behaviors (including addiction). And when safely administered, psychedelics appear to generate new connections and rationalize beliefs by opening someone’s mind to learn and grow - yep, my fav neuro-word: neuroplasticity!

And while I have long advocated that we can all “choose to change our brains”, I had been more plugged into the assistive tech than considering anything organic.

Check out this episode to increase your psychedelic awareness and confidence.

Please note that neither Alyssa or ACI is not advocating the use of psychedelics. If you are interested in using them, please consult a qualified medical professional.

Sherry Rais is the co-founder and CEO of Enthea, a mental health company dedicated to providing access to safe and affordable psychedelic-assisted therapy. You can learn more about Enthea and Sherry at enthea.com.

Episode Transcript

EP 61: Real Confidence- The Psychedelic Confidence Connection with Special Guest Sherry Rais

Welcome fellow confidence, crusaders, neuro nerds and success equalizers. This is your podcast, Real Confidence. I'm your host, Alyssa Dver, and I'll be sharing a bit of basic brain science, some surprising social secrets, and a touch of tough love. Why? Because I believe confidence is everyone's fundamental right and choice. So, let's get to it.

Alyssa Dver:
For those of you who have been avid listeners of the Real Confidence podcast, I have to say this is going to be different today. This topic is really, really cool. And it's really different. So, strap on whatever you're driving or walking with, because I've got somebody with us today who's going to talk about psychedelics, but we're not just going to be talking about the chemical and the impact of it, we're going to tie it back to confidence. So, Sherry Rais, thank you for being here with me, I can't wait to get started.

Sherry Rais:
I'm excited to thank you for having me. Of course.

Alyssa Dver:
Now, you have a lot of credentials in all different areas, not just this area of psychedelics that we're going to home in on. But I want to take a moment to call out that you are a co-founder, you are a fellow entrepreneur, and tell us a little bit what that is. And then how did you get into why psychedelics?

Sherry Rais:
Yeah, so um, Anthea is the only company that provides benefit plans to employers for psychedelic therapy. What that means is similar to how companies can offer their employees’ healthcare and dental and vision through Anthea, they can offer their employees ketamine assisted therapy, or psychedelic assisted therapy through our plans. And we're the only company that's offering this without this service. People who want to try psychedelic therapy or seek that treatment because they need it wouldn't be able to afford it, unfortunately, or at least most people, if they're paying out of pocket, psychedelic therapy is very costly, and out of reach. So that's kind of why the company was created to help solve this equity issue in the psychedelic ecosystem.

Alyssa Dver:

So fascinating, so many questions already. But how did you get into this? Like, how does one often find themselves? Not just knowledge, but the business literally the business of it?

Sherry Rais:
Yeah. So, I think um a few people have different stories of how they got into psychedelics, because it's a new and old industry, since it has been around for millennia. But personally, my journey was through I had spent a decade in poverty reduction initially, so I was consulting to the UN and consulting to the World Bank. And I was working in very resource constrained environments, countries like Afghanistan, and Niger, and Yemen. And through that work, I saw firsthand that you can't completely address poverty if you don't address mental health. And I also saw firsthand what the effects were of war and intergenerational poverty, and that in a lot of developing countries, people, like don't have access to mental health care solutions, really at all, or it's very limited. And so, after a decade of doing that, and being very, it was really clear to me how important addressing mental health was, I started to look for solutions, and really stumbled upon what was happening in the psychedelic space. And by that what I mean, is, in a nutshell, if you look at how we've been treating mental health for the past few decades, we haven't had a lot of advancements or innovation, we're kind of using the same SSRIs there sometimes some changes in techniques and talk therapy, like using CBT versus another kind of talk therapy. But we've basically been doing the same thing for decades. And the data tells us it's not very effective. So, I won't go into all of the stats, but there's a lot of data out there showing how ineffective antidepressants are for a lot of people, and how ineffective talk therapy is not for everyone.
For some people, it does work but for a lot of people it doesn't. And if you look at psychedelic therapy, it's really mind blowing the potential it has to help people that are struggling with mental health issues. There are clinical trials that show that just one to three sessions of psychedelic therapy will help us 60 to 80% of people completely get rid of whatever illness that they're facing, whether it's treatment resistant depression or substance abuse disorders or anxiety. And this is like unheard of, in the mental health space, these kinds of results. So that is I guess what got me in space getting so excited about the potential to really help millions of people.

Alyssa Dver:
You know, it's unbelievably unique. I said that in the beginning. So, here's somebody who has a public policy poverty mission to erase and reduce it mental health as one of those big, flag issues in that space. And here you are now talking about and you kind of use these words, you're like, you know, substance abuse yet, using psychedelics, I think in many people's minds, they're like, wait a minute. So, can you give a little bit more to the layperson, like myself and others who may be listening? What is psychedelic therapy? Why is it used to even approach things like depression or substance abuse?

Sherry Rais:
Yeah, so um, and forgive me if I'm explaining it um too simply but essentially, what psychedelic therapy is, is the use of traditional psychedelic compounds. So that can be MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy in the street, or psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms or LSD, commonly known as acid or ketamine, commonly known as Special K, using any one of these substances, and there are others in the list or category of psychedelics, in combination with therapy, so it's not using it in a recreational setting at a party, it's not just simply going out and taking a bunch of mushrooms and seeing how it feels. But it is a very assisted and intentional process that starts formally starts with an assessment. So, you would see a provider, and they would do a medical examination and a psychiatric evaluation. And if you are a good candidate for psychedelic therapy, you would then do what's called preparation. So, you would talk to a therapist maybe one to three times and lay out what you've been struggling with, what your intentions are, what you want to solve with psychedelic therapy. And after those sessions of preparation, you would then do what's called the medicine session. So that's sitting with a therapist and taking in the psychedelic compound. And depending on which psychedelic there are different ways of taking it, whether it's through IV or IM or a lozenge. And then after that psychedelic or medicine session, you then have what's called an integration. So, you talk to a therapist, could be somewhere from six to eight sessions post medicine. And really try to integrate the learnings. And what's unique about psychedelic therapy is the mechanism of action. So, they work by targeting the serotonin receptors in the brain, which are involved in regulating mood and cognition and perception.
And what really happens that's different than with SSRIs is that you get to the root cause of the problem. So, the psychedelic effect allows for neuroplasticity, and allows for your brain to form new neural connections. It allows for ego dissolution, which is very closely tied to confidence. It allows us to reduce negative self-talk. And rather than something that you need to take as a pill every day for many years that comes with many side effects. Psychedelics are traditionally nontoxic, so you can't overdose and non-habit forming so you can't get addicted. And after typically two to three medicine sessions, you've gotten to the root cause of your problem because you've been in that phase of neuroplasticity, and you're allowed you're able to form new connections.

Alyssa Dver:
I love it. So, I talked about neuroplasticity in all my talks and all my books you said the magic word not much. But neuroplasticity SSRI for those of you who are on you may not be familiar with the term it is a category of drug for treating typically depression and anxiety often so many people who are on SSRIs or SNRIs. And you're saying basically that they don't work very well. The psychedelics work really well. They create the ability for your brain to embrace new connections and make you feel better, and you did drop some other magic words for me which was a race cell doubt erase self-doubt or reduce self-doubt.

Sherry Rais:
Talk more about that. Yeah. So, the profound part of psychedelic therapy, there's a few things that make it very distinct. One, it during that enhanced connection between different brain regions, there's a profound shift in consciousness and perception that facilitates introspection, personal insight, this is kind of what leads to psychological healing, but really reduces negative self-talk and helps us ruminate less. So as an example, if I was the kind of person that perhaps, I'm always worried, like, how people are perceiving me, and I kind of think I might, not in a narcissistic way, but I kind of think I'm like the center of attention, right. And I'm really self-conscious about everything I'm doing when I'm in public. And let's say I trip and fall, you know, I get to a party or some sort of event and I trip and fall upon entry, I would spend, you know, weeks being like, Oh, my God, I can't believe I tripped and fell, like so many people saw me how embarrassing. I'm gonna ruminate on that for a while and keep calling myself clumsy and all these things. Well, after a psychedelic assisted therapy experience, you're able to realize, oh, no, I'm not actually not the center of attention. People aren't really talking about me falling for weeks on end. And this is like, you know, a silly kind of trivial example, but it's to illustrate how it encourages self-compassion, and increases our self-awareness, which is what ultimately leads to boosting confidence.

Alyssa Dver:
Yes, it does. It's sad. So, it's like, oh, I can't believe but it. So, stopping that rumination stopping that cycle of I suck, right? Or, you know, I'm just not worthy. Right, you know, stopping that cycle in and of itself is magical. And then you're saying it basically kind of corrects it in a way that says, you know, that that's not the truth. That's not the reality. So how do people mean you you're giving them some assistance? But where does that reality come from? You said it's not. It's not, there's not a talk therapy aspect of it. So oh, no, they go, I'm much better than I used to be. I thought I thought I sucked and now I'm awesome.

Sherry Rais:
No, to be really clear, forgive me, that was not clear. There is a talk therapy aspect of it. And that's a huge component. And in fact, if you do the psychedelics, without the talk therapy, then they're not gonna have the same effect. And so, it's not talk therapy for the rest of your life. Psychedelic assisted therapy means you're doing therapy for a few sessions before you do the psychedelics, usually, while you're doing the psychedelics, and then a few sessions after the psychedelics, but that's what makes the world of a difference. It's your brain is in a more fluid state where there's more neuroplasticity. And also, you have a trained therapist there that we sometimes call guides, or sitters, who is literally sitting beside you, and able to walk you through this experience, which, depending on the psychedelic compound, if it's something like ketamine, it'll last an hour or so. But if it's something like psilocybin, or MDMA could last six to eight hours, and you're, you're with your therapist during that time, right?

Alyssa Dver:
So, you know, I, I'll admit, when we first connected online, and all I was like, oh, it's kind of like, you know, when artists, creative artists, whether they're painters, or they're musicians take a psychedelic to kind of open up that creative door, right? We're opening up some doors that allow people to then not only hear the truth but agree and accept and build those neuroplastic pathway to kind of make it so that that should stick. And I think that that maybe is again, oversimplifying it, as you said.

Sherry Rais:
That's not oversimplifying at all. That's really it. And I think what you said about making the truth stick is what we call integration. So that's why we were integrating our lessons or whatever we learned during that experience into our everyday lives. So, they become permanent.

Alyssa Dver:
So, everybody who's listening is going sign me up, where do I go? So, I want to come back and you know, who's a good candidate? You have to have an employer, it sounds like to help fund it because I would like you to comment, like, you know, how do people why and how do people get this kind of treatment? And is it really reserved for people who are at their last straw, or should this be something that's more of a first - first attempt?

Sherry Rais:
These are very good questions. Okay. So, let me start with how do people access this? So, if we're talking about ketamine assisted therapy, ketamine is legal nationwide. It Has 50 years of proven safety and efficacy is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. So, it's here it's available and it's safe and legal. And you can get ketamine assisted therapy covered through your employer if your employer uses an Anthea benefit plan. But if that's not the case, then there are many ketamine therapy clinics nationwide. There are ones that do ketamine therapy, even via telehealth so you can do it from the comfort of your home. There are brick and mortar clinics. If somebody wants to explore perhaps doing ketamine assisted therapy, they could just Google it, and they'll see which they'll see a handful of telehealth options. And they'll also see in Google maps and locations that are you know, in their vicinity. My recommendation there for anyone listening is to make sure that the clinic that you are looking at if it's a physical clinic that they do ketamine therapy, so there's you could do just a ketamine infusion. But if you're looking for this kind of profound psychological healing, this boost in confidence, you'd want to do it with the therapy.
So that's one part of your question. And the other part. You know, I'm also talking about MDMA and psilocybin, and I've mentioned a few other substances. These are not FDA approved yet; however, the FDA has given both MDMA and psilocybin breakthrough status. And what that means is the FDA recognizes from all of the clinical trials, they've seen how significant these medicines are, and the potential they could have to help people and how strong good results so far are, so they're fast tracking them so that they get approved sooner, and fingers crossed. MDMA would be approved next year and psilocybin perhaps shortly there are thereafter. Psilocybin is decriminalized in a lot of parts of the US like Colorado and Oregon, but not FDA approved yet.

Alyssa Dver
So, my last part of that question, and I threw it in probably too much in one, one go, we just like, who's a candidate? Like if somebody's out there, they're listening to our podcasts because they like, I want to get more confidence. Can anyone do this?

Sherry Rais:
So um, that's a great question. And there's one more thing I should have said, which there are countries outside of the US for psychedelics are lethal. And there are retreat centers that people can go if they don't want just a ketamine experience, if they want to try something else there. Of course, it's more costly, but there are retreat centers in Costa Rica and Jamaica and Amsterdam. So that is also an option. And who's a good candidate? Well, terrific question. For ketamine assisted therapy there are several conditions that ketamine therapy is really great for substance abuse, anxiety, depression, PTSD, social adjustment disorder. These are just some of the options. Some people only resort to ketamine therapy after they've tried other methods, and it hasn't worked for them. But for some people, that's not the case. Some people are trying ketamine therapy because they are really depressed and they've read about antidepressants or they read about something else, and they don't think that that's for them, then ketamine therapy is their go to option first. But yeah, those are those are some of the indications that ketamine therapy is good for. And then, like I said, the first part when somebody goes to a clinic that is offering ketamine therapy, the first thing that will be done is an assessment to see if they are a good candidate. And there's a medical component to that to check someone's medical history and, and a psychological component to make sure somebody's also in the right place mentally to go with this to do this therapy. Some contraindications might be like being pregnant, for example, if you're pregnant, probably not a good time to try this.

Alyssa Dver
Well, you know, I'm so excited. We didn't even take a sponsor break, which is okay, because we're going to take a quick run, but I'm gonna come back with the magical question, which is, I want you to look into your crystal ball, my crystal meth ball, in this case that your crystal ball and really think about and share with us, you know, maybe 5-10 years from now is, you know, what do you think's gonna happen in this space? Because if everything you said sounds almost too good to be true, we're going to be back in just a few seconds to answer that with Sherry.

This podcast was sponsored by the American Confidence Institute. ACI uses basic brain science to teach you not what, but how to think with more confidence. ACI is endorsed by top universities and business experts. And it is accredited by the Society for Human Resource Management and the international Coaching Federation. Learn more about ACI empowering keynotes, workshops, online training, and coaching certification at www.AmericanConfidenceInstitute.com.

Alyssa Dver:
Alright, Sherry, is your magic ball and your wand or whatever you need to predict the future ready? This is a hard question. And I'm kind of being silly about it. But like everything you said, sounds so amazing. And I you know, I'm sure I'm not the only one who after learning from you says, why are we doing more of this? So, you know, what do you think is going to happen? Is this going to become common practice? Is everybody going to be taking psychedelics? Who Has any one of those issues or disorders? What do you think?

Sherry Rais:
That is a really great question. I, of course, I can only give you my thoughts, but one, I think in 5 to 10 years, both MDMA and psilocybin will not only be FDA approved, but they will be used very commonly for people with the different indications that I just mentioned, PTSD, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, etc. So, I do think they'll both be approved. They'll be out there, they'll be common knowledge, people will be like, why didn't Why wasn't this approved sooner, we will see less trauma in the world. And we will see people that have felt profound healing and feel more connected, we will see a population that feels more confident. I do think we will see those things. I also think after, you know, 5 to 10 years, I'm hoping that these medicines will also be available in other countries. Probably we won't have to wait 5 to 10 years, but I do think they then becoming approved in the US will help be a catalyst for many other countries to adopt these things. So, in going back to my international development routes, I would like to see that even in resource constrained environments, people will have access to these medicines in safe settings. This all sounds like some sort of utopia where everyone is healed and happy and nobody is sad, and nobody has trauma. But I'm there on the negative side, I do think that there will also be some cases of some adverse effects as there are with even Tylenol, we have many cases of adverse effects every year that we don't talk about. But I do think given the stigma and history and nature of psychedelic experiences, those adverse effects may sometimes get hyped in the media. And so, us the people building this ecosystem need to be prepared for that and need to be able to disseminate information and help people understand why that could happen, and you know, give people the resources to prevent it from happening. And then finally, I think, maybe finally, I have so many thoughts, but I'll try to be consistent. I think there will be new drugs that will be in the market in five to 10 years, which are psychedelic, like or grounded in psychedelics, but don't have the hallucinogenic effect. Because I know that there are so many people who, despite hearing this podcast will be like, I don't know, I don't really want to hallucinate, I'm not comfortable with like letting go, you know, control for 16 hours. That's crazy. Um, so I think there will be new medications and new therapeutics developed that help offer this, this kind of healing and neuroplasticity without the hallucinogenic effect. And then, finally, I think we will also be exploring using these medicines in both adolescent and younger populations, as well as in elderly populations. So right now, we've been focusing on, you know, just adult populations, how healthy or mean, you know, 18, to whatever, but I think we'll look more closely at how we can use this both in the youth and also in elderly.

Alyssa Dver:
Wow, wow. So, you know, for all those years, I've been saying you can't really have confidence in a pill in some ways you can now and that's really exciting. It's really exciting on so many levels, because giving the world confidence is my personal mission. But you know, when you talk about allowing people to really create the new pathway so that they can move forward in their lives on a permanent, sustainable, satisfying and confident basis. I mean, that is utopia. But it sounds like it's possible. And that not only made my day, that's probably going to make me continue to get up every morning. So, thank you for sharing so much information. I'm sure people are going to listen to a lot more than once. But if they want to reach you and get more resources and stay connected, what's the best way to do it, Serry?

Sherry Rais:
Yeah, you can go on our website, there's a way to contact us there. It's www.enthea.com that's e n t h e a.com, You can email me directly, I'm happy to talk to you. My email is [email protected]. You can find me on LinkedIn Sherry Rais. Yeah, any one of those methods.

Alyssa Dver
That's super wonderful. And thank you so much for sharing all that. The contact directly with you. That's a lovely thing. And thank you for sharing the wisdom you did today. Most importantly, thank you for doing the work you're doing before, during and after in your bio, you are an inspiring human and a fellow confidence crusader. So, I just want to really thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sherry Rais:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. This has been so much fun.

Alyssa Dver
Before we totally wrap up, I want to let you know that full transcripts and show notes for this and other real confidence episodes can be found on www.AmericanConfidenceInstitute.com/podcast. I also want to remind you once again, that the best way to get confidence is to give it to others and you can do it just by liking and sharing this episode on your preferred podcast and social media channels. You can even give me some competence by noting topics you'd like me to consider for the future. So, for now, this is Alyssa Dver. Thank you for helping to bring more competence to the world.

EP 61: Real Confidence- The Psychedelic Confidence Connection with Special Guest Sherry Rais

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