How to Create Musical Playlists for Psychedelic Work, with Matt “River” Baldwin, Co-Hosted with Chacruna (POSTPONED)

Join Matt “River” Baldwin, MFT, as he discusses his experience with musical playlists for psychedelic work. He will share his insights into the theory and practice of how to create playlists for successful therapeutic experiences with psychedelic medicines. This talk will briefly cover the history of the use of music and psychedelics in a medical context and will then focus more deeply on structural considerations in the process of creating playlists for psychedelic work. It will also address different approaches and types of music for different medicines, playlists of varying lengths and fixed versus flexible approaches to managing the musical experience. He will elaborate on his idea of the thoughtful musical intake and will also discuss aesthetic and technical audio considerations. This talk draws on Matt’s decades of experience as a musician, psychotherapist and haunter of record stores.

As a musician, Matt has released 8 solo records, collaborated with a variety of artists and toured in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. He has created playlists for a MAPS research study, ketamine clinics, solo and group journeys. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley and John F. Kennedy University and is The Director of The Psychedelic Therapy Music Forum at The Chacruna Institute For Psychedelic Plant Medicines. He has a private psychotherapy practice in San Francisco and most recently he has been collaborating with Nico Georis on plant-generated music.