Pedram Dara

Founder & Director at Psychedelic Lived Experiences | Bridging Clinical Science & Lived Expertise in Psychedelic Care | Summit Host & Patient Advocate

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

What is psychedelic therapy really like? 5 Questions with the director of @psych_lived_exp Pedram Dara. Thank you, Shayla Love @shayla__love and UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics @SciPsychedelics for the interview.

https://t.co/jElYvyO9lK

#psychedelics

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

Lived Experience (LX) in healthcare is what User Experience (UX) is in software.

The idea is simple...the people who actually use a product or service should help shape its design, priorities, and continuous improvement.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp Here’s to looking less at trials from the top down and more from the inside.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp This is one of the biggest gaps I see. What patients and trial participants carry can be very real even when it does not fit neatly into a checkbox.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@woodymatters Grateful for all the hard work you’ve done over decades to increase safety.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

This has been the most purposeful and meaningful work I've done in my life that's much bigger than myself. Feeling thankful for the impact it's made so far and the people who've supported it.

[Psychedelic Lived Experiences @psych_lived_exp]

Some people go through clinical trials and move on.

Others stay with what they saw, what they lived, and what they believe needs to change.

Two years into Psychedelic Lived Experiences, this clip reflects the heart of why this work exists.

#psychedelics #clinicaltrials

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp This has been the most purposeful and meaningful work I've done in my life that's much bigger than myself. Feeling thankful for the impact it's made so far and the people who've supported it.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp If participant experience helps make the research possible, it should also help shape how that research is designed, supported, and understood. Here's to helping shape a future where healthcare advances with rigor, integrity and the people most affected at the center.

[Unfiltered @quotesdaily100]

15 psychologists who figured you out before you did :

1. Sigmund Freud — your unconscious is running the show, not you
2. Carl Jung — the parts of you that you hide end up controlling you
3. Abraham Maslow — you cannot find purpose before you find safety
4. Viktor Frankl — suffering becomes bearable the moment it has meaning
5. B.F. Skinner — your behavior is shaped by what follows it not what causes it
6. Albert Bandura — you become what you consistently watch and repeat
7. William James — your habits are literally rewiring your brain every single day
8. Ivan Pavlov — your triggers were trained into you long before you noticed them
9. Erik Erikson — every stage of your life has one question it needs you to answer
10. Alfred Adler — most of what drives you is the need to feel that you matter
11. Karen Horney — anxiety is not weakness, it is what unsafe childhoods produce
12. Leon Festinger — when your beliefs and actions clash, your mind will lie to fix it
13. Daniel Kahneman — you have two minds, the fast one makes most of your mistakes
14. Martin Seligman — happiness is not the absence of pain, it is the presence of meaning
15. Erich Fromm — the greatest human fear is not death, it is the freedom to choose your own life

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp I've always appreciated Ron's unfiltered communication. His experience is vital for researchers designing trials and for regulators approving protocols. The clinical research field needs better experience design so that science doesn't get put above participant wellbeing.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp This is really at the core of it for me. Too many important issues get dismissed as anecdotal when they are actually showing us where the system is falling short and how it could improve.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp @TehseenNoorani Really important point, Tehseen. What sounds philosophical on the surface often has direct consequences for how people are understood and treated.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp The outside story and the inside reality are not always the same and this is the main reason why lived experience input matters so much in this field.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp This is such an important reminder that what participants need most is not always captured by the study design. Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing so openly.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp @drrosalindwatts What I appreciate about this paper is that it goes beyond scorekeeping and takes seriously how participants themselves describe the changes they experienced compared with standard care.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp @DrMonnica This is something I’ve heard again and again from patients and trial participants. Knowing a practitioner has relevant lived experience can change how safe the whole process feels. Thanks @DrMonnica for sharing this.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp It's a bit like reading about surgery risks before an operation. You may do your best to understand the words but you still don't really know what recovery will feel like in your body and mind until you are fully living it.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp @becca_kacanda What stays with people is how the team made them feel while going through it. Thank you, @becca_kacanda for sharing your experience.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp Key workshop takeaways:
- A shared vocabulary you can use in teams & institutions
- A practical integration map (design → consent → conduct → follow-up → interpretation)
- A one-page checklist to reduce tokenism and strengthen impact and accountability
- Networking with peers

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp @Drug_Researcher Degrees can signal knowledge, but they do not automatically signal the judgment, presence, and humility this work requires for patients and trial participants to feel safe, supported, and genuinely cared for.

[Pedram Dara @pedramdara]

@psych_lived_exp Some of the most important improvements in care begin when lived experience is treated as expertise, not just input.