Research Interests

National and International Conference Presentations: 27 presentations on psychedelic therapy in past 5 years; notably at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MAPS Psychedelic Science 2017 and 2023, and at the largest psychedelic conferences in the UK, Canada, and EU.

Biography

The Center for Psychedelic Therapy and Research is led by Full Professor Janis Phelps, PhD. Dr. Phelps is a leader in the field of psychedelic therapy training as the Director of the Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies Center. As the Center’s founder, Dr. Phelps developed and launched the first university accredited, post-graduate training program for psychedelic therapy and research. She has held the position of the Dean of Faculty of the six doctoral departments in the CIIS School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her 2017 journal publication, Developing Guidelines and Competencies for the Training of Psychedelic Therapists, describes best practices in the academic training of medical and mental health professionals in this field. These ideas are further developed in a 2019 chapter on “Training Psychedelic Therapists” in Advances in Psychedelic Medicine, edited by Michael Winkelman and Ben Sessa. Dr. Phelps is a board member of the Heffter Research Institute, which has conducted highly influential psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy research since the 1990’s. A licensed clinical psychologist, she is a leader in developing methods of scaling effective training programs to meet the burgeoning need for well-trained mental health and medical professionals in the field of psychedelic medicine. Dr. Phelps maintains a private clinical practice in Mill Valley, CA.

Education

MA and PhD, Clinical Psychology, U. of Connecticut

Publications

Phelps, J. and Henry, J. (2022). Book chapter titled “Foundations for Training Psychedelic Therapists” in Preller, K. and Barrett, F. (Eds.). Disruptive Psychopharmacology. Zurich, Switzerland: Springer Publishers.

Rosa, W., Sager, Z., Miller, M. ... Phelps, J., ... Beaussant, Y. (2022). Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know about psychedelic-assisted therapy in the context of serious illness. Journal of Palliative Medicine. DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2022.0036.

Penn, A., Phelps, J., Rosa, W., & Watson, J. (2021). Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy practices and human caring science: Toward a care-informed model of treatment. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678211011013

Phelps, J. (2019). Book Chapter titled “Training psychedelic therapists”. In M. Winkelman and B. Sessa (Eds.), Advances in Psychedelic Medicine: State of the Art Therapeutic Applications (pp. 274-294). Santa Barbara: Praeger.

Phelps, J. (2017). Developing guidelines and competencies for the training of psychedelic therapists. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 450-487. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ciis.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0022167817711304

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