We envision a world where safe, effective, ethical and accessible psychedelic treatment is available to patients who have been failed by standard treatments; where people seeking mental health care feel supported, empowered and respected in their healing. To help successfully navigate these new models of care, Synchrony supports psychedelic clinicians and organizations in leading the way for a future with gold-standard psychedelic treatments accessible to all.
As the Lead Trainers and Senior Clinical Consultants for Compass Pathways, Stephanie, Carolina, and Mark have extensive backgrounds developing and implementing gold-standard training in psychedelic support. Together they co-founded Synchrony Psychedelic Training Institute to ensure the rigor of clinical trial therapist training is carried over to real-world dissemination of psychedelic interventions.
Stephanie, Carolina, and Mark believe that the only way to maintain the safety and well-being of clients seeking healing through psychedelics is to train mental health practitioners and organizations to the highest standards of ethical and effective psychedelic practice. As such, the Synchrony curriculum is informed by evidence-based knowledge and the training model encourages embodiment of effective psychedelic support principles.
Meet our experts
Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck is a clinical psychologist and Associate Clinical Professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Director of Intensive Family Treatments at the UCSD Eating Disorder Center. She is co-investigator on two FDA-approved trials evaluating psilocybin for eating disorders and lead psychologist on an FDA-approved trials evaluating psilocybin for treatment resistant depression and anorexia nervosa. She has extensive experience delivering both psilocybin therapy and ketamine-assisted therapy and possesses training in a variety of models of psychedelic assisted therapy. She has served as consultant, subject matter expert and lead content developer for Compass Pathways assisting with the development of content related to their psychological support model and therapist training program for indications including treatment resistant depression and anorexia nervosa. Her ongoing work with Compass includes the role of senior lead therapist trainer and mentor, which she has been involved with for the past 4 years. Stephanie is a member of the UCSD Psychedelic Research Consortium and passionate about developing and disseminating indication-specific psychedelic therapy models which reduce harm, increase safety, and leverage healing.
Carolina Maggio is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and clinical investigator specializing in trauma-informed approaches to psychedelic-assisted therapy. She works as a research therapist and as a trainer and supervisor for therapists involved in psychedelic studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, and at Sunstone Therapies. At Sunstone, she consults on psychedelic research for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women survivors of sexual assault. Her clinical and research work focuses on developing trauma-informed methodologies and protocols that foster safe, ethical, and gender-responsive approaches to psychedelic-assisted care. Carolina’s experience includes clinical trials investigating psilocybin, MDMA, and 5-MeO-DMT for conditions such as PTSD, functional neurological disorder (FND), and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). She also facilitates the Maudsley Psychedelic Society’s Harm Reduction and Integration Group and provides supervision through the Psychedelic Women Network.
Dr. Mark Burton is a clinical psychologist working as a therapist, trainer, and researcher focused on psychedelic support models and exposure-based therapies. Mark is a psychological support provider for several models of psychedelic treatment currently being studied in phase II and phase III clinical trials. Through working with dozens of participants receiving psychedelic treatment across different clinical trials, Mark has developed a strong sense for how to support those experiencing the broad range of psychedelic effects and how to implement these treatments in various medical settings. Mark is also a therapist, lead trainer and mentor with Compass Pathways, where he has helped develop and implement the training program for the phase III clinical trials for COMP360 Psilocybin treatment. Outside of psychedelics, Mark’s focus is on clinical practice, training, and research in trauma-focused therapies. He is a lead trainer for the Emory Prolonged Exposure (PE) Consultant Training Program, which trains consultants to work with novice trauma-focused therapists. He is also a co-founder of the Mind Body Behavioral Institute, focused on delivering experiential training for exposure-based psychotherapy. Mark believes that well-trained therapists armed with effective treatments can help turn the tide of psychological suffering in our world.
