By Gabor Maté - Several years ago, I began to receive inquiries about what I knew regarding the use of ayahuasca in the healing of addiction. Since then, I've developed deep respect for the collaborative power of shamanic medicine allied with the insights and practice of depth psychology. Respect may be too mild a word—awe hits closer to the mark.

In his opening keynote, Canadian physician Gabor Maté called on therapists to expand their frame of reference and recognize how their job is too often a kind of mopping up after the cruelties and injustices of the larger systems that shape our lives.

A practitioner trained in the orthodox Western model of medicine develops a deep respect for the healing power of psychedelic plants and shamanism. What he discovers is not magic but an often astonishingly rapid pathway to self-realization.