Nova Scotia Psychedelic Society

TR APpleby - CO-Founder

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.

Michelle reid - President

Michelle has been passionate about community all her life. She believes shared experiences are what keep people connected and can be life changing. As someone whose life was changed by psychedelics, joining the Nova Scotia Psychedelic Society and helping build community in this way seemed a natural fit. 

After attending a psychedelic psychotherapy conference in BC and returning home to Nova Scotia, Michelle reached out and offered her help. The co-founders were thrilled to add a third person to the team, particularly someone with such passion and enthusiasm. After a couple of years of volunteering at HPS events like the Drug Use Symposium in 2019 at Dalhousie University, she was asked to join the founding board in 2020. Michelle currently acts a Director on the board and as Volunteer Coordinator. 

While dealing with MS, Michelle had a psychedelic experience which she believes was crucial in her recovery. Part of her advocacy is to promote safe and legal access so others might have the opportunity she had many years ago.

Angela Amirault - Vice President

Angela is passionate about supporting individuals who are looking for growth, healing and transformation. She was born in Nova Scotia, and has lived in Ireland and Colorado. She has spent two decades studying and working in the mental health field as a psychotherapist, but in the last few years has shifted her focus primarily to the psychedelic medicine space.

While living in Colorado, she received advanced credentialing as a mindfulness-based psychedelic therapist. There, she supported clients working with ketamine, cannabis and psilocybin. She was the first practitioner in the United States to offer a week-long retreat working with cannabis and psilocybin legally. She returned to Nova Scotia in 2023 and founded Altered Healing, a cannabis-assisted psychedelic therapy practice.

She credits her own intentional work with psychedelics as being a huge part of her own healing and transformation. She counts community, movement and nature as another. She is so grateful to be a part of this growing movement, especially here in Nova Scotia.

Amanda Grinter - Treasurer

Amanda (M.ED., RCT-C, C.C.C.-C) is a Registered Counseling Therapist 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.

Maya Sloan - Secretary

Maya is a lifelong seeker, and after relying mostly on meditation and studying Buddhism, she trained to be a therapist and studied some psycho-spiritual modalities that have opened up her world: Internal Family Systems, Relational Life Therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy. She understands spiritual bypassing a lot better, and knows that the ego sometimes needs to soften back with the aid of plant medicine for the reality of interconnectedness to reveal itself. 

She works in private practice in Halifax as a Registered Counselling Therapist. 

Originally from Germany, she knows how cultural burdens and gifts can also impact our perception. 

Maya has recently joined the board and is excited to contribute to the society for folks to have access to as much support as possible, both in terms of finding community and getting information. 

Amy Demone

Amy Demone (MACP, RCT-C, CCC, NIT) is an integrative counselling therapist specializing in trauma reconciliation through bottom-up approaches such as somatic work and plant-assisted therapies. With a robust foundation in therapeutic practices, she is dedicated to fostering deep-rooted communities in the psychedelic space, both virtually and in person. Since February 2024, Amy has hosted MAPS Canada online community gathering for the Special Access Program - Community of Practice, and is trained by Therapsil in their foundations of psilocybin. Before her current role, Amy dedicated five years to managing online communities in the wellness industry. She spends her time co-hosting “Rites of Passage” retreats in Joshua Tree National Park, is a student of Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects and is obsessed with frolicking in anything that is covered in moss or reminds her of the ocean.

haley flynn

Haley holds an undergraduate degree in psychology and is currently pursuing a master’s degree, with a keen focus on the innovative field of psychedelic-assisted therapies. Driven by a deep passion for utilizing psychedelics to address mental health struggles that don’t respond to traditional treatments, Haley is actively designing and conducting a research study aimed at expanding knowledge in this promising area.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Haley works as a support worker, dedicating time to help individuals navigate their mental health challenges and empowering them on their journeys toward self-improvement. With a commitment to advancing the understanding and application of psychedelics in mental health treatment, Haley aspires to contribute meaningfully to the field and support those in need throughout their healing processes

jay nicholson

Jay is an accountant by trade but has a deep passion for exploring spirituality, consciousness, plant medicines and the journey toward discovering one’s true authentic self. Having experienced the transformative healing power of plant medicines firsthand, Jay has become a strong advocate for alternative healing modalities and mental health.

Jay is dedicated to offering support, resources, and guidance to those seeking alternative paths to wellness. Through personal experience and years studying various modalities and ancient wisdom teachings, Jay is also beginning to offer personal advising services to help others on their own journeys of self-discovery and healing through his business, Alchemy Accounting & Advising.

Jay is passionate about promoting more holistic and compassionate approaches to well-being and is committed to supporting meaningful change in all of our public systems, especially in how we approach healing. It was only natural for Jay to join the NSPS team as soon as the opportunity arose.