This is the third post in our blog series sharing highlights from the 2025 Symington Public Forum on Healing with Integrative Cancer Care, co-hosted by CancerChoices. Each post offers a glimpse into one powerful talk. We hope you’ll take the time to watch the full presentations. They’re worth it.
In her deeply compelling talk, Unlocking the Inner Healer: The Role of Psychedelics in Oncology Care, therapist and social worker Jennifer Bires MSW, LICSW, OSW-C shares a vision of healing that goes far beyond symptom management. With years of experience supporting people with cancer, Bires explores a bold question:
What if psychedelics could help people living with cancer feel less afraid, more connected, and even more alive, despite their diagnosis?
The limits of traditional mental health care in cancer
Many patients face depression, anxiety, or profound existential distress during cancer, but conventional treatments like antidepressants often fall short. They weren’t designed for people with serious illness, and they often don’t reach the deeper emotional and spiritual suffering that cancer can surface.
Bires speaks openly about the times when, as a therapist, she felt limited in how far she could help patients go. Something was missing. That gap led her to psychedelic-assisted therapy.
A different kind of healing
In clinical trials, 60–80% of participants using psychedelics under guided support report significant reductions in depression and anxiety, but the outcomes go far beyond that.
Bires shares stories of patients experiencing a sense of deep connection, a shift in perspective, and an ability to face death without fear. One woman, a mother of three, moved from paralyzing dread to a place of peace, allowing her to truly live her final months with her children.
It’s not a magic wand
Bires is clear: psychedelics aren’t for everyone, and they aren’t a quick fix. Set, setting, safety, and support all matter.
Guided preparation, thorough screening, and meaningful integration afterward are key to making the experience safe and healing rather than re-traumatizing.
A new (but ancient) frontier
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is still largely inaccessible, limited to clinical trials or select programs in places like Oregon. But interest is growing. Bires advocates for expanding access through healthcare systems, so more people, regardless of income or location, can benefit from this promising therapy.
“What does it mean to truly live?”
For Bires, this work is about more than therapy. It’s about reclaiming connection, expanding consciousness, and making peace with the hardest parts of being human. Her vision is one of individual healing that ripples outward, changing families, communities, and even the systems we live in.
Resources
Watch Jennifer Bires’ full talk from the 2025 Symington Conference on Healing, and other talks from the inspiring conference.
Learn more about psychedelic therapy retreats for people with cancer hosted in legal facilities by the Survivorship Collective. Listen to CancerChoices’ podcast conversation with Survivorship Collective founder Anne Hamilton.
Review the evidence via CancerChoices’ therapy review of psilocybin.
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