Sunstone Therapies

Home
United States
Rockville, MD
Sunstone Therapies

Leading the research and delivery of psychedelic therapies for those affected by complex mental health challenges.

Sunstone Therapies is a first mover in the research and commercial delivery of psychedelic therapies for those touched by cancer and beyond.

08/08/2026

We use the term "participant" intentionally.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is not a passive experience. It can surface memories, emotions, and sensations long buried. While what surfaces varies from person to person, the therapy around it asks for active engagement in working with what comes up.

Eloise Cherian is one of the first people you'll speak with at Sunstone. Here's how she describes what participation involves and why our screening process is as thorough and intentional as it is.

08/06/2026

Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic, known for producing shifts in perception, mood, and thinking.

It binds to serotonin receptors in the part of the brain tied to rigid self-narrative and rumination. Researchers believe temporarily loosening this default mode network may open a window where old patterns feel less fixed.

Researchers have been studying whether that shift may help support therapeutic work in structured clinical settings.

At Sunstone Therapies, psilocybin is just one of the classic compounds being studied as part of psychedelic-assisted therapy research. While the medicine plays an important role, the broader therapeutic process matters just as much: preparation beforehand, support during treatment, and integration afterward.

The compound creates the conditions. What happens within this window is guided and supported by the therapy.

Learn more: https://www.sunstonetherapies.com/psychedelic-therapy/

07/24/2026

Some experiences arrive with words. Others begin as a feeling, a memory, or a physical sensation that doesn't yet fit into a story.

Often, it's only after returning home - when life resumes, and the dust begins to settle - that those experiences start to make sense.

Trauma-informed care honors that process. Therapists stay attentive to what is emerging, responding with curiosity rather than assumption and continuing the collaborative approach established during preparation. Consent remains ongoing. Preferences can change. Care adapts alongside the individual as their experience evolves.

At Sunstone, trauma-informed care isn't confined to the dosing day. It's reflected in every stage of the therapeutic process, helping build the trust, collaboration, and therapeutic relationship that support meaningful care.

07/21/2026

When it comes to the future of mental health care, Sunstone CEO Dr. Manish Agrawal sees a few things clearly. Current approaches largely manage symptoms. Psychedelic-assisted therapy, he believes, reaches the root cause beneath those symptoms to drive meaningful change.

Other questions remain open: namely, how PAT will integrate into mainstream care as research and regulation evolve.

What’s clear is that the work ahead is substantial, and the field is still building the evidence to understand its true impact.

07/14/2026

What if participants had more say in how a clinical trial was experienced?

That's one of the questions we're exploring at Sunstone Therapies.

Through a shared decision-making framework, participants are invited into ongoing conversations about aspects of their PAT experience: from the therapeutic environment and facilitator preferences to the types of support that help them feel grounded throughout the process.

The protocol remains consistent, while the experience of it is personalized for each participant.

This approach is rooted in trauma-informed care and guided by a simple idea: trust grows through collaboration. By making space for participants' values, preferences, and lived experiences, we're exploring whether a more collaborative model can strengthen both care and research.

Understanding what works means studying both the intervention and how people experience it.

07/11/2026

Psychedelic-assisted therapy can act as something of a rehearsal space for life. A place where we can practice responding in different ways to how we have in the past. To meet challenging information with curiosity. Shame with self-compassion. Difficult decisions with openness.

The path is deeply individual. It unfolds as we walk it, shaped by our own willingness to stay with what comes up and to learn from it. That capacity is what we take with us from the therapy room to our relationships and our lives.

Here's how Sunstone therapist Jess Jones describes it.

07/01/2026

Every session is different because every patient is different.

We asked Maureen Betz, one of our therapists, what still surprises her after years of supporting people through psilocybin- and MDMA-assisted therapy.

She shares that the moments that stay with her are when a person chooses to stay with a hard moment: a painful memory, a strong emotion, a truth they can finally see.

Watching that take shape is, in her words, humbling every single time.

06/26/2026

Certain questions seem to follow us through life.

What matters most?

How do I face uncertainty?

How do I make sense of suffering?

What does it mean to live well?

These are some of the questions explored in the conversations we’ll be revisiting this summer: about the mind, mental health, and what we are all still learning.

We think they’re worth adding to the queue.

All episodes are linked in the comments. ⬇️

06/21/2026

In a Johns Hopkins University study of psilocybin-assisted therapy for smoking cessation, nearly 80% of participants were smoke-free at six months. By comparison, standard treatments usually see much lower success rates.

While it’s a remarkable result, it’s easy to miss everything that happened outside the dosing session itself.

Participants spent time preparing for the experience, working closely with trained clinicians, and integrating what they learned afterward. The treatment wasn’t a one-time event; it was actually a structured therapeutic process.

These details matter because psychedelic-assisted therapy is often talked about in terms of the compound itself. Research suggests that the care surrounding it may be just as important.

That’s why Sunstone’s approach is built around preparation, dosing, and integration, each designed to support the slower, deeper work of lasting change.

06/18/2026

Many people who participate in psychedelic-assisted therapy research have already spent years engaged in treatment. While the work is happening, progress can sometimes plateau.

As psychedelic-assisted therapies continue to be studied, an important question is emerging: How might these treatments fit within ongoing clinical care?

One of the ideas explored in our latest blog in The Modern Medicine Group on Psychology Today, authored by therapist Dr. Mark Bates, is that psychedelic-assisted therapy may be best understood not as a replacement for therapy, psychiatry, or existing provider relationships, but as a specialized intervention within a broader continuum of care.

In that model, patients don't leave therapy behind. They return to it: with new material to explore, new perspectives to integrate, and continued support from the providers who know them best.

Read the full article: https://www.sunstonetherapies.com/psychedelic-treatments-modern-clinical-care/

Address

9905 Medical Center Drive Suite 350
Rockville, MD
20850

Telephone

+13013377570

Website

https://www.sunstonetherapies.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Sunstone Therapies posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Sunstone Therapies:

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Rockville?