Welcome to Cohort Conversations, where BCSP speaks with former members of the training program about their experiences. Please note these interviews describe the experiences and perspectives of the trainees and do not necessarily reflect the views of BCSP.
Q&A with David Franklin
David Franklin’s background is in science and he’s worked as the director of an environmental laboratory. Later, he spent more than two decades as a personal counselor in an inner-city high school, and as a psychotherapist in private practice, working primarily with adolescents and men.
Franklin is also a composer and has released eleven albums of original music, three of which were featured on the instrumental charts; his music has been used during a Phase 2 MDMA study and for BCSP’s “Psychedelics and the Mind” online course. Fascinated by ways that sound, music and psychedelics influence our experience of being human, he’s created music for various psychedelic states. One Day in Spring, his eleventh album, was released on June 7, 2024.
BCSP
Why are you drawn to psychedelic facilitation? What was your personal and professional journey to pursuing the program?
David Franklin
I always felt connected to the natural world, and I studied environmental science in college. Working in this field in the mid-1980s, I was saddened by the apparent lack of curiosity and care that I witnessed with environmental issues. Wanting to inspire people to combat climate change, I began a yearlong walk across the country (from Los Angeles to New York City) with a group of people to spread greater awareness about environmental challenges; we spoke at schools, to the press and to members of Congress along the way.
On this journey, I realized social justice issues and environmental issues were deeply interconnected, and believed a profound societal shift was essential to healing our natural world; then I began my journey as a therapist. Later, believing these medicines had the potential to profoundly heal and transform individuals and communities, I studied psychedelic facilitation, with the hope that these medicines might inspire individuals and communities to heal, transform, and hopefully protect our environment.
Psychedelic journeys, like most healing journeys, seldom follow a linear path—and music has been a language for me to understand these landscapes in a non-linear way.
BCSP
What was your experience with psychedelic work before entering the BCSP program?
David Franklin
I’ve been a professional musician for most of my life and decided as a young person to not use “drugs” because I believed they were destructive and might take me off my musical path. I didn’t realize then that some of these “drugs” might actually be medicines, if taken in the right context. When I became licensed as a psychotherapist, a close friend spoke with me about the typically non-addictive elements of the classical psychedelics and the value of knowing these spaces. Trusting him, I personally realized the profound healing potential of these medicines.
Later, I decided that I wanted to be part of the conversation of how these medicines might help others. I believe my relationship with music helps me to understand the healing potential of psychedelics, because psychedelic journeys, like most healing journeys, seldom follow a linear path—and music has been a language for me to understand these landscapes in a non-linear way.
BCSP
What drew you to the BCSP Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program over others?
David Franklin
In looking at other facilitation programs, it became clear that Berkeley offered more than a teaching process: It offered a transformative process as well. I also welcomed the notion of learning from people on the front lines of research and have been highly impressed—and personally transformed—by this program.
BCSP
What are you finding most meaningful about your experiences in the program?
David Franklin
The BCSP program has been both amazing and humbling: amazing because it feels like a master class in how to become a healer; humbling, because I have profound gratitude to be learning from these amazing professors, teachers, healers, thought leaders, and guides. Through this program, I have deepened and widened my understanding of what might constitute healing for an individual, a family, a community, a society, and even our planet.
BCSP
What are you learning from other students in your cohort?
David Franklin
Every single student in my cohort has been a teacher for me and I’ve learned something profound from each of them. Aspects of social justice, personal healing stories, and the ways in which they consciously embody their professions, have been amazing to witness and learn from. In many ways, I believe we are creating a greater community which can and will do great things in the coming years, even though I don’t yet have a full sense of how this will continue to unfold.
BCSP
What advice do you have for incoming students as they prepare for the program?
David Franklin
I would invite new students to be open to learning and growing, not only as professionals, but as individuals and healers involved in a potentially transformative program; I’d also invite them to listen to their own intuition and internal healing intelligence as they incorporate the teachings of these amazing teachers, mentors and guides.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.