#72: Julie Holland: Psychedelics, Psychotic Breaks, and the Psych Ward | The Psychedelic Series (2/5)

PsychedelicsPsychologyResearchScience

May 27

Written By Samuel Donner

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Episode Description

Today we hear the story of Julie Holland and her road with redefining psychedelics and psychotherapy. Julie grew up with a strong tomboy personality and was a very smart girl and bright for her age. She began using drugs and alcohol at a young age but even then she was interested in the psychology of psychedelics.

Through her own research, she learned how the altered mind can change how one perceives the world and how psychedelics have successfully been used in psychotherapy. She also speaks of how her experiences with PCP made her realize the importance of drug policy and harm reduction. In her college years, her passion for music was taken over by her deep interest in school pushed her to go to medical school.

Julie worked at Bellevue and her book, “Weekends at Bellevue” is based on her experiences of working there for nine years. Here she saw the connections with childhood trauma and altered states of mind and she enjoyed working with patients with altered states. She even noticed how her mind had changed when she became a mother and her way of working and thinking changed. Since leaving Bellevue, Julie joined the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and has continued her research on Psychedelics. So join us and hear this story of how the future of psychedelics in medicine is closer than we ever imagined.

Show Notes

Childhood: Julie grew up as a strong tomboy with a great mind and it’s at the age of 10 that she first began to smoke.
Drug Scene: From early on she began to research the differences in different drugs and exploring the different trips.
Social Trauma: Julie talks about how being bullied in middle school made her seek companionship in a different crowd in high school.
Psychedelics: While enjoying the fun light side of Psychedelics and the intensity of emotions, she learned how it can change your worldview perspective and how it stays with you.
PCP: Julie had unknowingly taken PCP and the bad psychotic episode initiated her interest in drug policy.
MDMA: MDMA came to be in her pre-med years and it interested her very much from a physiological and psychological standpoint.
Bellevue: She started working weekends at Bellevue and enjoyed working with people who were in altered states.
Policy: With the inaction of Kendra’s law she found herself deliberating whether; it was right to keep someone institutionalized against their will for safety, who was able to take care of themselves, and where she stood in the middle of it.
Stories: Julie tells stories of a patient who came in altered by PCP and how his backstory was similar to a lot of homeless people, drug addicts. She recalls the events of Kendra Webdale and her interactions with Andrew Goldstein.
Motherhood: In her time in Bellevue, Julie had two children, and having them changed her brain and the way she worked.
Leaving: Once she had outgrown Bellevue and more inmates were being brought in, she decided it was time for her to part with the hospital after nine years.
Research: Julie speaks of her association with maps as a medical monitor and more recently as a medical advisor.
Future: The future of psychedelics becoming accepted as part of medicine is quickly becoming the present.