In this heart-centered episode of PsychedelicIQ: Guidance for Guides, Dr. Neil Hanon—a psychiatrist, educator, and Grof Legacy trainer—shares his profound journey from personal tragedy to pioneering psychedelic healing. After the loss of his son, Neil turned to holotropic breathwork and eventually became a lead trainer for the Grof Psychedelic Training Academy. This conversation explores grief, the ethics of underground facilitation, the importance of integration, and honoring one’s lineage in psychedelic work. Tune in for insights on mental health, therapy, spiritual emergence, and personal growth in the psychedelic space. Subscribe for more grounded, practical, and sacred conversations.
Show Notes
[00:00] Introduction and Neil’s background as a psychiatrist and breathwork facilitator
[03:00] Neil’s intention: educating guides and healers in safe and effective psychedelic practices
[04:48] The death of Neil’s son and how grief led him to Stan Grof and holotropic breathwork
[06:43] Attending his first breathwork with Stan and Christina Grof at Wisdom University
[08:23] Perinatal matrices and Neil’s powerful healing experience
[12:00] The importance of lineage and mentorship in psychedelic healing work
[14:17] Overview of Grof Psychedelic Training Academy: structure, breathwork, and certification
[20:13] Importance of integration, bodywork, and the completion of psychological material
[23:00] Ketamine-assisted therapy done with a psychedelic mindset and sacred intention
[30:25] Understanding grief as a diagnosable disorder and the founding of Jamaica Grief Retreats
[33:35] Ancestral work and calling on one’s own lineage for guidance in the healing process
[35:18] The legacy of Stan Grof and his contributions to psychedelic cartography
[44:41] The role of integration in moving from psychedelic “tripping” to sustainable healing
[50:15] Training programs, ethics, and professionalism in underground psychedelic work
[59:00] Distinguishing a “bad trip” from a “challenging but healing journey”
[01:14:53] Modular training structure and the use of Stan’s recorded teachings
[01:22:49] Who the Grof Training is for: professionals with a college and assistants
[01:30:25] Speed round: Why Neil does this work and the most important lesson it’s taught him
[01:33:05] Contact details and closing gratitude
Neil Hanon
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Neil Hanon MD, FRCPC, is a psychiatrist based in Kelowna. He holds the position of Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and serves as the Director of Year 3 in the Southern Medical Program of UBC at Kelowna General Hospital. With over two decades of clinical and didactic teaching experience since 1996, Dr. Hanon specializes in holistic patient care, emphasizing a bio/psycho/social/spiritual approach. Dr. Hanon is a founding board member of the Ketamine Assisted Therapy Association (KATA) of Canada and contributed to developing guidelines for outpatient ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Hanon got involved in Holotropic Breathwork first as a participant to help with his grief after the death of his 17-year-old son. He discovered that conventional psychology and psychiatry had no coherent strategy to help him in his grief. Through extensive reading, he discovered Stan Grof’s writing on novel theories of the human psyche and was able to attend a breathwork retreat led by Stan and Christina Grof. He found the breathwork to be so beneficial for his grief that he continued training and in 2015, became certified as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator. Driven by his own journey, Dr. Hanon developed a keen interest in treating grief and spiritual emergence. He co-founded Relief for Grief, which evolved into Jamaica Grief Retreats, offering legal psilocybin mushroom journeys to parents who have lost a child. In 2021, Dr.Hanon was invited by Stan and Brigitte Grof to co-lead the Canadian arm of Grof Legacy Training International. In late 2023, Grof Legacy Training Canada separated into breathwork and psychedelic streams. Dr. Hanon continues to lead the Psychedelic Training Program in Canada, and with his extensive background in curriculum development and teaching skills, he has developed the coursework to include an emphasis on its application to psychedelic medicine work.
Grof Legacy Psychedelic Training in Canada is taught under the name “Grof Psychedelic Training Academy” to reflect both its academic and practical content.
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