Rosalind Watts, PhD

As former Clinical Lead of the Psilocybin for Depression trial at Imperial College London, Rosalind Watts, PhD, led a clinical team which facilitated over a hundred psilocybin treatment sessions. She is now exploring the potential of DMT as a treatment for depression as a consultant therapist in a clinical trial by Small Pharma in the UK. Dr Watts published qualitative research suggesting that the central psychological mechanism of psychedelic-assisted therapy could be ‘connectedness to self, others and world.’ She published a therapy protocol to assist the process of connecting deeply to the body, emotions, and insights during psychedelic sessions, and also developed a community-based integration program designed to help people maintain connectedness to self, others, and the natural world for 12 months following treatment. In order to quantify the impact of psychedelic-assisted therapy, Dr Watts and colleagues have constructed and validated a psychometric tool, the Watts Connectedness Scale. She also consults for the Synthesis Institute’s Psychedelic Practitioner Training program, and the Usona Institute, a not-for-profit psilocybin manufacturer and research organization.