Dr Simon Ruffell graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Sheffield before specialising in Psychiatry. He has an interest in transcultural psychiatry, working overseas with child soldiers in Northern Uganda. Simon’s primary interest is in the use of psychedelic substances in the medical field; namely ayahuasca and has spent the last four years conducting research into the use of ayahuasca in a traditional setting in the Peruvian Amazon. Simon is currently based at the Maudsley Hospital in South London where he works clinically as a psychiatric doctor, as well as working as a Senior Research Associate at King’s College London looking at the use of psilocybin in treatment resistant depression. He is completing his PhD looking into the Amazonian use of ayahuasca and its psychological effects at the University of Goldsmiths, London.