AMANDA GRINTER, M.ED., RCT-C, C.C.C.-C

Amanda is a Registered Counseling Therapist (RCT) in Nova Scotia with a background in mental health and addictions. After attending one of the screening events back in 2019, she was thrilled to see the work and advocacy that HPS has been doing, so when the opportunity to join the board became available, she jumped in immediately. Amanda is grateful and enthusiastic to be part of this psychedelic wave that's blending new and ancient consciousnesses of plant medicines, and their therapeutic/healing utility.

She has a love for meditation & mindfulness practices, music of all sorts, dancing, cooking (i.e. eating!), learning about cultures around the world, and heartfelt conversations.

SOPHIA MANLEY, BSCN, RN, CPMHN(C)

Sophia lives and works in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, also known as Halifax, N.S. Sophia is a Registered Nurse with mental health and public health background. Sophia has long been intrigued by non-ordinary states of consciousnesses and how these states can lead to transformation and healing as well as creativity and personal growth. She became a Board Member of Halifax Psychedelic Society in the summer of 2021. This is an exciting period and opportunity for her and she is grateful to be part of the team that establishes the mission and goals as well as the strategy to achieve these goals. She is a lifelong learner and is pursuing courses in the psychedelic field to expand and deepen her knowledge in this rapidly growing field.

Her professional interests are rooted in holistic well-being and promoting wellness and harm reduction. Sophia is also a volunteer psychedelic peer support (PPS) with Fireside Project. She enjoys forest therapy, qigong, meditation, dancing, music and art.

LASLO TOTH, RN, CPMHN(C), MEd, RCT-C

Laslo is an advocate for the ethical and evidence based integration of psychedelics into a more holistic approach to mental health treatment. Having worked in harm reduction organizations, inpatient and outpatient mental health settings as a psychiatric nurse, Laslo has come to appreciate the significant role that trauma plays in the therapeutic process, and feels there is more research to be done in advancing our understanding on how we can effectively treat trauma.

As a board member and President of the Nova Scotia Psychedelic Society, he aims to support an inclusive spirit of community building that connects people across the province who share an interest in the psychedelic space.

Currently working as a psychotherapist in private practice, he’s received training in psilocybin therapy for end of life care from Therapsil, and ketamine assisted psychotherapy from Polaris Insight. His greatest joys in life involve being in the stillness of nature, dancing barefoot on the grass, and sharing laughter with friends over good food or an open fire.

TR APPLEBY

TR is an activist/educator for environmental sustainability, currently turning their family home into a teaching garden. Focusing on regenerative agriculture and whole systems thinking, TR is dedicated to promoting hope in our food and environmental future. Much of this hope comes from their experiences with plant medicines, which showed him how much is possible if we simply get quiet and open our minds.

TR co-founded NSPS to provide the community and support to others that he wished he had during his struggle with mental health, substance dependency and consciousness expansion. They have to come to appreciate the wisdom and potential psychedelics have for great healing, but there is also potential for great harm. While trying desperately for healing, TR found both great healing and great harm. Much of the harm coming a lack of education, community and best practices. It is his hope to prevent others from the lonely struggle he felt, particularly for other gender diverse individuals.

JUSTIN ANDREWS

Justin is a professionally trained Chef turned activist and food & drug scholar. Pursuing a combined Honours Degree in Sustainability and Social Anthropology, Justin focuses much of his research on food sovereignty and security, food policy & local/international food systems. He also studies the sociological implications of substance use and the sociology of healthcare and medicine systems. Justin is deeply passionate about drug policy reform towards evidence-based harm reduction approaches and moving away from criminalization.

Justin will be the Chair of our Research Committee and our Policy/Advocacy Committee. Serving as the President of the Dalhousie Chapter of Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP), Justin has connections across Canada and beyond working on reforming outdated drug policies, creating fact based harm reduction education materials and more. (See CSSDP.org for more information). 

As the Co-Founder of HPS, Justin saw a need for a platform in Atlantic Canada to discuss and network within this emerging field of psychedelics. Having some difficult experiences himself in his younger years, he doesn't want anyone who has experienced a psychedelic experience to be alone with no one to talk to like he did. With psychedelics still taboo to talk about in many circles, HPS was created to be a safe place to host such conversations, both at a community level, and within medical/scientific/policy communities.  

COCO HARRIS

Coco (they/she) brings a decade of Harm Reduction and community organizing experience to the Board. They work as the Volunteer Coordinator for Out of the Cold Community Association, a low-barrier, permanent supportive housing community based in Kjipuktuk that offers human-centred care that is grounded in harm reduction.

Being a core team member and volunteer coordinator with a psychedelic peer support group (the Tea Hive Collective) for the past ten years has been incredibly meaningful for Coco. This work has deepened her capacity for embodying radical compassion and for understanding that holding space (especially during/after a psychedelic experience) in a way that is heart-centered and trauma-informed, with community care and integration support, can be absolutely transformative.

Coco is a multifaceted human, combining a passion for all things plant medicine, music, art, and food to also show up in the world as a plant-based chef and educator, a budding herbalist, and a stage manager/performing artist. They are happiest with their hands in the soil or swimming in the ocean. 

DR. ALEXIS GOTH, MD CFPC 

Dr. Goth was trained in Family medicine at Dalhousie University, went on the train in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, and functional medicine with IFM (Institute of functional medicine). She works as a Hospitalist at the QEI, providing acute in-patient adult medicine.

She offered Integrative medicine at the Integrated Chronic Care service in Fall River, offering a holistic model of care focused on symptoms and conditions of nervous system dysregulation and complex chronic stress. She has very recently left this position to be able to create a multi-disciplinary consultative integrative medicine practice, which will include exploration of expanded states of consciousness, connection to nature and seasonal rhythms.  

Her goal is to include psychedelic-assisted therapy as a tool for expanding out of conditioned beliefs and experiences, (many rooted in trauma) and integrate these new understandings of self and other with art, self-regulation and neuroplasticity practices in community. She is also joining other clinician researchers, interested in exploring ketamine therapy for depression and chronic pain.