Overcoming Ethnoracial Barriers to Participation in the Psychedelic Renaissance

About Oriana Mayorga

Oriana (she/her/ella) is a cis-femme, first-generation, queer, Latina with disabilities, and she identifies as a person who uses drugs. Master of divinity, oriana works in Manhattan (primarily as a multi-faith healthcare chaplain), as well as the Bronx, providing harm reduction services in Spanish to individuals experiencing various forms of grief, trauma, immediate loss, and illness. Native New Yorker, she’s supported numerous local, as well as national, drug policy organizations, mainly centering the dreams/hopes/fears/desires/needs of BIPOC individuals, and comrades interested in psychedelics. In 2020, she received the first part of her MAPS MDMA-assisted therapy certification, and this year will mark her 11th year working within both harm reduction, and psychedelic movement spaces.  In 2027 (Inshallah), she will complete her doctorate which will likely focus on MDMA- assisted psychotherapy for women of color with complex trauma histories. When she is not in the streets providing care to people who use drugs, or protesting, you can find oriana on the dancefloor, on the beach or unintentionally intimidating someone with her "magic powers" also known as: calling out the ways a person embodies white supremacy culture.