Understanding Therapeutic Psychedelics and Their Role in Healing: A Conversation with Courtney Watson

Be Ready to Learn Something New in Episode 42 of the Love Letters to Our Bodies Podcast

For a long time, psychedelic-assisted therapy has felt like a conversation happening somewhere else — in wellness circles that weren't built with African American women in mind. Episode 42 of Love Letters to Our Bodies opens that door.

My guest, Courtney Watson, is the founder of Doorway Therapeutic Services, a group practice of predominantly QTBIPOC providers built on ancestral wisdom, liberation, and a "no code-switching" policy — a stand that protects something essential for both her clients and her team. Courtney's own path into this work began with skepticism. She once believed psychedelics were, in her words, "not for us." Two years later, she opened a ketamine clinic designed specifically for marginalized communities.

In our conversation, Courtney walks through what that shift looked like from the inside, and what ketamine-assisted therapy can offer that traditional talk therapy sometimes can't reach. We talk about how she integrates ceremony and cultural, ancestral tradition into clinical care when clients want it, and why that integration matters so deeply for women of color seeking to heal.

We also touch on what is close to home for many of our listeners: the grief that comes with a changing body, the uncertainty that surrounds illness and survival, and how Courtney holds space for clients carrying that weight. She speaks honestly about the barriers — beyond cost — that keep our communities from these healing modalities, and about Access to Doorways, the nonprofit she founded to help close that gap.

This episode closes, as they all do, with a love letter — Courtney's own, written to her body as a healer, a Black woman, and someone doing deep ancestral work.

If you've been curious about therapeutic psychedelics but didn't know where to begin asking questions, this conversation is a good place to start.

🎧 Listen now to Episode 42, "Understanding Therapeutic Psychedelics and It's Role in Healing,"

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Love Letters to Our Bodies is a production of Moyo Institute, Inc., dedicated to holistic healing, wholeness, and the lived experiences of African American women.