S2 | E9 Dr. Katie Simons, PharmD, Clinical Pharmacist, Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, Psychedelic Medicine Facilitator and Coach

Katie Simons came to the healing world the long way around. With a doctorate in pharmacy from Idaho State University and ten years inside the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System — working in internal medicine, medication safety, and eventually as a patient safety manager — she had every credential the western medical world could offer. And then COVID happened, and the whole thing cracked open.
In this conversation, Katie and I trace her origin story from pharmacist's daughter to closeted psychedelic explorer to full-time medicine guide and hypnotherapist now based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her first psychedelic experience — an epiphany on MDMA at a Phish show in her early twenties — cracked open a question she couldn't put back: Is this how happy I could actually feel? That question lived quietly alongside her professional life for years, until burnout, a divorce, and a first encounter with ayahuasca in 2022 collapsed the compartmentalization for good.
We get into the pharmacology of psilocybin and MDMA — including a remarkably clear-eyed look at the actual risks (and frequent fearmongering) around drug interactions with SSRIs and SNRIs. Katie brings her clinical background to bear here in ways that feel genuinely useful and grounding, not alarmist. We talk about harm reduction for solo journeys, what to look for (and watch out for) when seeking a facilitator, and why psychedelics aren't a replacement for the inner work — they're a tool that breaks the chains, but you still have to walk out of the cave yourself.
We also explore somatic breathwork, hypnotherapy, and the subconscious belief systems that keep the nervous system locked in survival mode long after the original wound has passed. Katie's framework for what healing actually means — not the absence of hard feelings, but access to choice — is one I keep turning over. And I get honest about my own stumbling blocks: the addiction to suffering, the pressure to perform as someone who's "done the work," and the places where my own nervous system still has the wheel.
This one goes deep. I'm grateful Katie was willing to go there with me.