Anya Oleksiuk is a documentary filmmaker, event organiser, and educator. She co-founded PsyAware, shaping organisational strategy and support systems with a strong emphasis on ethics and community involvement.

From June 2018 to June 2024, she served as co-director of the Psychedelic Society UK, spearheading psychedelic education, harm reduction initiatives, and overseeing strategic planning, administration, and finances. As a safeguarding officer, she played a crucial role in handling reports and establishing safe practice guidelines. Anya has frequently hosted renowned figures like Gabor Maté, Dave Nichols, Amanda Feilding, Camille Barton, Dr Rosalind Watts or Leonard Pickard, curated talks on psychedelic research, therapy, drug policy, and ethics, and organised numerous large-scale events such as the Ayahuasca Symposium (2018) and Psilocybin Symposium (2021) and Drug Policy Symposium (2022).

From 2019 to 2022, she curated the educational programme for Anthropos Festival, and she also serves as a consultant for the Polish Psychedelic Society and an advisor to Global Psychedelic Society.

In her filmmaking, Anya explores themes of psychedelics, mental health, drug advocacy, social justice, and regenerative living. She has collaborated with organisations such as ACER Integration, Beckley Foundation, Small Pharma, King's College Psychedelic Trial Team, The Hemp Trading Company and BDS Movement. Her latest project, The Psychedelic Chronicles, captures the resurgence of the psychedelic movement in the West, highlighting the intersection of indigenous practices, the mental health crisis, and Western capitalism.

As the Director and Finance Lead at PsyAware, Wiktor brings a wealth of expertise and a deep commitment to fostering sustainable, community-focused initiatives. With a background as a fully qualified accountant and nearly a decade of running his own modern accounting practice, his experience is instrumental in driving the financial integrity and operational efficiency of PsyAware.

Over the past five years, Wiktor has focused on working with sustainable and community impact organisations and businesses, a journey that aligns perfectly with PsyAware’s mission and vision. Over the last two and a half years, he also worked as Finance Manager for Symbiota Collective, the organisation behind The Psychedelic Society in the UK - a role that saw him significantly enhance budgeting and financial processes. His insight ensured the organisation operated on a sustainable business model while integrating automation to streamline operations.

Wiktor’s expertise in financial management and commitment to ethical, sustainable practices help build strong, legally compliant processes that are both trustworthy and professional. Wiktor's modern approach ensures that these processes remain approachable and aligned with the organisation's forward-thinking vision.

Adam is a professional with extensive experience in harm reduction and drug policy, with a focus on ‘recreational’ drug taking. His work spans project management, training, policy development, media and communications, and consultancy, with a focus on reducing drug related harm from ‘club drugs’, such as MDMA, ketamine and psychedelics.

Adam began volunteering with PsyCare UK in 2017, before becoming a member of the senior management team from 2019-2024, where he coordinated welfare & harm reduction services at around 30 UK festivals. Over that time PsyCare provided support to thousands of people having challenging experiences on psychedelics & other drugs. He also worked behind the scenes on many areas of the charity’s development.

Adam volunteered at The Loop Drug Checking Service from 2018 as a member of their harm reduction team, and then also became a freelance drug trainer. He became employed part-time as the charity’s training coordinator, where he manages their training programme. Adam delivers training on subjects such as harm reduction; drug use in the night-time economy or at music festivals; drugs such as MDMA, ketamine & psychedelics; amongst other areas. Adam has also worked in the development of The Loop’s drug alerts & harm reduction messaging; media & communications; and auditing, consultancy & report writing projects.

Adam has further experience in project management, engagements at academic and non-academic conferences, consultancy for music festivals, supporting journalists on media pieces, and speaking on panel discussions, amongst other areas. Adam has also supported several peer-led harm reduction initiatives over the past 8 years.

Prior to working in harm reduction, Adam studied a Ba (hons) in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Oxford University and an MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice with distinction from Durham University where his dissertation studied psychedelic harm reduction.

Jasmine Virdi (she/her) is a writer, educator, poet, activist, and harm reduction practitioner based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her writing centers on psychedelics, spirituality, and deep ecology and has been featured in DoubleBlind Magazine, Open Democracy, Psychedelics Today, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, Psychedelic Press, Synthesis Institute and Lucid News. Jasmine has an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology and offers private coaching and mentorship to clients. She is an advocate for decolonizing healing practices, and integrates earth-based wisdom, trauma-informed, and somatic approaches into her work.

Since 2018, she has collaborated with the independent publisher Synergetic Press, where her passions for ethnobotany, consciousness, and regeneration converge. Additionally, she volunteers for Fireside Project’s psychedelic peer-support line, aligned with their mission to provide compassionate, accessible, and culturally responsive support to all. Often breaking away into the wilderness, Jasmine can be found wherever there are birds singing. You can follow her work and find out about her offerings here.

Hattie Wells is a psychedelic therapy guide, ethnobotanist and drug policy reform advocate with over twenty years of experience researching and working with psychedelics. Her experience with clinical research includes LSD, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT Phase I trials and she is currently working on Beckley Psytech's 5-MeO-DMT Phase II trials, both as a therapy guide and global advisor. She started working with 5-MeO-DMT in the early 2000s, carrying out independent research with the compound. At this time, she was also facilitating ibogaine treatments for addiction interruption, and has continued to support research into ibogaine’s therapeutic potential, most recently working on the Demerx Phase I ibogaine trial in London. Over the last decade, she has worked with non-profit organisations such as the Beckley Foundation, Transform Drug Policy Foundation and ICEERS, in an effort to support psychedelic science initiatives, challenge the needless criminalisation of people who use certain drugs, and chart an equitable path forward that minimises the risks and maximises the benefits of psychedelic drug use. Hattie is also an executive director of Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest conference on psychedelic consciousness.

Dr Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist and an influential voice in the psychedelic field. Her research focuses on how psychedelic therapy can increase ‘Connectedness to Self, Others and World’. Her 2017 Ted talk about psychedelic therapy had more than a million views but she has critiqued her earlier ideas, realising that these ways of working cannot be safe or effective until we create community infrastructure of care around them.

In order to start building a web of connectedness for people after psychedelic sessions, she co-founded a global online integration community, ACER (‘Accept, Connect, Embody, Restore’) which takes a collective approach to personal growth, and encourages re-alignment to the wisdom of nature.

After years of focusing on the importance of Psychedelic Integration, Dr Watts is now also developing infrastructure for ‘Psychedelic Outegration’, and exploring this within the ACER community. Some members become Elders who are supported to share some of the ACER practices free of charge in their local ecosystem. You can find out more about ACER and how to join the community at acerintegration.com .

For free open access to therapy and research tools, such as the ACE manual, ‘pearl dive’ audio for psychedelic preparation, and the WCS psychometric tool for measuring Connectedness, please visit drrosalindwatts.com goes here

Dr Oliver Bashford is a Consultant Psychiatrist with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP), where he has worked since 2016. Initially, he split his time between the East Surrey Older Persons Community Mental Health Team and liaison psychiatry at East Surrey Hospital, moving to a full-time role in older adult liaison psychiatry in 2019. He is currently acting as Associate Medical Director for Specialist Services at SABP.

Dr Bashford has a keen interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy. In 2015–16, he served as an honorary research associate at Imperial College London, contributing to a psilocybin study for treatment-resistant depression. He co-founded the Maudsley Psychedelic Society to support healthcare education in this field and volunteers with Psycare UK, where he also serves as an advisor. He frequently presents on psychedelic therapy, collaborating with organizations like the UCL Society for the Application of Psychedelics.

Dr Bashford completed his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 2008, training in West London and later specializing in psychiatry through the South London and Maudsley training programme. He became a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2012 and holds a Diploma in Geriatric Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians, awarded in 2014. His work focuses on bridging physical and mental health, especially in neurodegenerative conditions.

Passionate about mental health innovation, Dr Bashford created SABP’s first Physician Associate post and, from 2019 to 2022, served as locality tutor for East and Mid Surrey. He is an award-nominated clinical supervisor recognized by Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Dr Bashford has also supported quality standards in mental health, advising the Care Quality Commission in 2014 and 2015.

Description goes hereMichelle is an integrative psychotherapeutic counsellor based in London, where she has a private practice. Currently Michelle has an honorary contract with Kings College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience working on Psychedelic clinical trials with substances such as 5 MeO DMT and Methylone. 

Michelle has been a member of Imperial College’s Psychedelic Research Group since 2015. She was a lead guide on Imperial College’s randomised controlled trial (Psilodep 2) comparing psilocybin to escitalopram in the treatment of depression. Michelle has recently been working as a lead therapist for Small Pharma’s clinical trials with DMT-assisted therapy for depression. This was originally a collaboration between Small Pharma and Imperial College London. She has contributed to the development of a therapist training programme for the DMT trials, having co-produced a psychedelic therapy framework for working with DMT. She also co-designed the Beckley Academy Foundations to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy training course. Michelle is also an advisor for PsyAware and to PsyCare UK. 

Michelle also offers individual psychedelic integration for people who are struggling to process psychedelic experiences. She co-facilitates the psychedelic integration specialist interest group for The Institute of Psychedelic Therapy, drawing on her experience of facilitating integration groups over the past five years.

Lorraine Langham is retired and works voluntarily as a mentor, coach, and climate activist.

Most recently, Lorraine served as CEO of an education charity for three years, leading transformational change during and immediately following the pandemic. Prior to this, she was a member of the Rotherham Child Sexual Exploitation Inquiry team and held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Brent Council.

From 2007 to 2014, Lorraine was a Senior Civil Servant at Ofsted. Before that, she worked in the private sector, where she established and led a successful joint venture company following a career in local government management. She served at the board level for a decade in various inner London boroughs.

Lorraine’s early career was in local government communications, where she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and was made a Fellow of the Institute. She is also a past Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a qualified Chartered Director.