This must be the place: 'It was the work of the quiet mountains, this torrent of purity at my feet'

Hello from Room 204 at The Pendry hotel in the Canyons Village of the Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. After a weekend of mostly sunny skies and lush high desert mountains surrounding this bucolic property, it’s currently 65 degrees with a vicious thunderstorm on this otherwise lazy Sunday evening. 

MDMA will, eventually, help many with PTSD

As the executive director of the nonprofit Pearl Institute here in Waynesville, I wanted to express my gratitude to The Smoky Mountain News for the feature story written by Cory Vaillancourt about the recent decision by the FDA to request more research into using the drug MDMA in combination with therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

As veterans with PTSD continue to die by suicide, FDA demands do-over for MDMA trials

Flying in the face of stats from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that say veterans continue to commit suicide at higher rates than non-veterans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week declined to approve MDMA, a psychedelic compound, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. 

The hamster wheel of human well-being

I’ve become fascinated with studies and lifestyle changes focused on longevity and biohacking. A few recent “revolutionary health and wellness suggestions” made me realize our cave dwelling ancestors already had everything figured out.

HCS mental health services report

Haywood County Schools has increased the number of people it employs to care for and monitor students’ mental health this year, largely due to increased funding from the county commission that allowed for additional school resource officers. 

Feeling the forest: Forest therapy offers opportunity for restoration

With my eyes closed, I can’t see the patchwork of brown leaves and fallen twigs covering the forest floor before me, the pale green lattice of lichen peppering the trunks of upward-reaching trees, or the waters of Fisher Creek rushing over a bed of weathered rocks.

Finding What Works For You

Feeling like I can’t think straight or get out of a slump is a struggle I face almost daily.

Community Care: With successful data in hand, Sylva’s pilot police program grows

When Western Carolina University Professors Katie Allen and Cyndy Caravelis approached Sylva Police Chief Chris Hatton with a proposal for a Community Care pilot program, using social work interns in the police department he was understandably skeptical. Crisis response involving a student intern seemed like a risk he was not willing to take.

Audience chastised for applauding nonprofit leader’s mishap

Members of Waynesville’s Board of Aldermen responded harshly to applause from the audience after payments to a nonprofit contractor were suspended because the group didn’t furnish paperwork requested by the town after its executive director was severely injured in an alleged DWI crash.

WNC residents pave a ‘trail of truth’ to Washington for drug deaths

As a stark reminder of the toll that substance abuse has taken on families across the country and across Western North Carolina, a small group of Macon County residents will travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to help erect a temporary cemetery made up of hundreds upon hundreds of hand-painted tombstones.

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