Stand In The Circle – Details, episodes & analysis

There's a lot to be angry about right now. But rage can't be the only thing we feel. This is a place to come for stories of people moving from disconnection to connection, numbness to feeling, isolation to belonging.

In this first episode, clinical psychologist Ros Watts introduces Stand in the Circle. What it is. Where it came from. And the night she walked out in the rain and ended up with her arms around a tree.

Ros tells the story of her years running one of the first clinical trials treating depression with psychedelic therapy, and the truth is: she was publishing research on connectedness while living a deeply disconnected life.

The heart of the episode is the difference between the pyramid and the circle. The shape most of us were raised inside, where you climb, perform, and hide what's hard. And the shape we're learning instead, where no one stands above anyone else and the question shifts from "how am I doing" to "how are we doing."

Each month on the podcast will include 4 episodes: a solo episode, a conversation with someone from the ACER community, a thinker or researcher, then your questions answered.

Mentioned in this episode:
ACER Integration. Free live ACER circles: https://acerintegration.com/acer-live-events To try a tree journey, come to the Introduction to ACER Integration.
The Watts Connectedness Scale, on connectedness across self, others, and world: https://bit.ly/3Qe5KJK
bell hooks, on healing as communion, from All About Love: New Visions (2000): https://bit.ly/44261Tb
Dacher Keltner, on human contact and the nervous system: https://bit.ly/3Q8qRgx
Suzanne Simard, on forests, mycorrhizal networks, and mother trees: https://bit.ly/4dZK2SQ
Maria Sabina, the Mazatec medicine woman whose ceremony reached LIFE magazine without her consent.
Michelle Baker Jones, who set up the first online sharing circles with Ros.

If you need support: This podcast holds some tender ground, and listening can bring things up. If you are struggling, please reach out. You don't have to carry it alone.
UK and Ireland: call Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123. Or text SHOUT on 85258.
US: call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential, any time, by dialing 988. You can also chat online at 988lifeline.org. Crisis Text Line is available 24/7. Text HOME to 741741.
Elsewhere: please look up your local crisis line. Help is there and asking for it is a choice to stand in the circle.

Connect with Dr. Rosalind Watts:
https://www.drrosalindwatts.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rosalind-watts/
https://www.instagram.com/acerintegration

Submit a question for a future episode: https://forms.gle/jVcGniTN3uS1bjz18
Find out more about ACER, the year-long community Ros founded: www.acerintegration.com

Psychedelic medicines can open a door. But what happens when there's nothing waiting on the other side to help you stay open?

In this episode, Dr. Rosalind Watts tells the story of John, a participant in one of the first psilocybin trials for depression. For a time, the medicine brought him back to life. The lights came on. He reconnected with his family, his farm, and the world around him. But a year later, his depression had returned. Through John's story, Ros explores a question that sits at the heart of modern psychedelic care: what happens after the breakthrough?

Along the way, she reflects on a major new U.S. executive order designed to accelerate access to psychedelic medicines, and the hope, excitement, and ethical tensions it raises. As access expands, are we building the support structures people need to integrate these powerful experiences, or are we repeating old mistakes?

In this episode:

Ros explores why healing is about more than medicine. Drawing on years of research, clinical work, and personal experience, she argues that while psychedelic medicines can create profound openings, lasting transformation depends on what comes next. Community, integration, and ongoing practices are not optional extras. They are the conditions that help keep the lights on.

She shares the story of John, whose experience revealed both the promise and limitations of psychedelic treatment for depression. His journey becomes a lens for understanding what many people encounter after moments of deep transformation: the challenge of bringing insight back into ordinary life.

Ros also examines the cultural crossroads facing the psychedelic field today. She discusses concerns raised by therapists and researchers about the rapid expansion of psychedelic medicine, the risks of prioritizing access over care, and the importance of learning from Indigenous traditions that have stewarded these medicines for generations.

Through the stories of Maria Sabina and the Bwiti people of Gabon, she explores what happens when sacred medicines are separated from the communities and cultural containers that have held them for centuries, and what a more respectful path forward might look like.

At the heart of the episode are three principles that help individuals and cultures hold transformative experiences well:

• Honesty with yourself. Telling the truth about what is really happening, even when it is uncomfortable.

• Being witnessed by others. Finding community, support, and spaces where you do not have to carry life's challenges alone.

• Belonging to the living world. Remembering that healing is not only personal. It is also relational, ecological, and rooted in our connection to nature.

Ultimately, this episode asks a bigger question than whether we are ready for psychedelic medicines. It asks whether we are ready to build the kinds of communities that can hold all of life's threshold moments: grief, birth, loss, love, transformation, and healing.

Connect with Dr. Rosalind Watts:

https://www.drrosalindwatts.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rosalind-watts/

https://www.instagram.com/acerintegration

https://x.com/drrosalindwatts

https://medium.com/@DrRosalindWatts