Dr. Rosalind Watts: Reimagining Psychedelic Healing Through Integration
Dr. Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist and one of the world’s leading voices in psychedelic-assisted therapy, best known for developing the ACE model (Accept, Connect, Embody) of psychedelic integration.
As psychedelic medicines move into the mainstream, much of the attention has focused on the power of the substances themselves. Yet without careful preparation and ongoing integration, profound psychedelic experiences can fade or even destabilise. The system risks repeating old patterns, chasing breakthrough “fixes” while neglecting the slow work of embodied healing and community support.
Through her research at Imperial College London and beyond, Rosalind helped pioneer psilocybin trials for depression. Still, she has always emphasised that the true medicine is not the compound, it is the reconnection to life that it can catalyse. Her ACE model offers a simple but profound path: Accept experiences fully, Connect to self and others, Embody insights in daily life. This approach reflects emergence itself: self-organisation, relational intelligence, and transformation that arises through ongoing integration rather than single moments.
Why It Matters Now
We are living through a global mental health crisis alongside ecological and cultural collapse. Psychedelics are being hailed as revolutionary treatments, but without grounded frameworks, they risk being co-opted into the same extractive medical and commercial systems that created disconnection in the first place. Dr Watts’ voice provides a compass for how this field can evolve with integrity, care, and reverence.
The New Earth Vision
If her model spreads, psychedelic healing will not be a commodified industry but a relational ecosystem. One where profound states catalyse long-term growth, supported by communities of practice, ethical guides, and reverence for life. In this vision, psychedelics become catalysts for collective reconnection, not consumer products.
Rosalind Watts is not only a researcher; she is a guardian of the emerging psychedelic movement, ensuring it unfolds in service to healing and wholeness. This is the kind of leader we want to be in Circle with at Emergence, voices who remind us that integration is the heart of transformation.
Explore Her Work
