Team
Laura McLean
, MD, FRCPC
RTT KAT Medical Doctor
Laura is a settler of European descent who is uncomfortable but grateful to live as an uninvited guest on Vancouver Island on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Cowichan Tribes, to whom she offers respect and honour. Laura’s medical background is in respirology and critical care, but her clinical focus now is sleep medicine which she practices in the context of lifestyle medicine. At a time in her life when she needed it most, Laura had the opportunity to participate in RTT-KAT cohort 3, which led to discovering new ways of being and living. She experienced the profound change that comes with true self compassion, and she witnessed this in her co-participants. She has learned to trust her heart and follow what it tells her, and this has led to the privilege and honour of becoming a member of the Roots to Thrive team.
Other Medical Team
MD
RTT Medical Team Co-Chair, Medical Lead and Organization Steward
Dr. Pamela Kryskow is the medical lead for the Roots To Thrive Program. She is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Association of Canada and the medical chair of the Vancouver Island University Post Graduate Certificate in Psychedelic Medicine assisted Therapy. Pam is also a a clinical i...
MD, FRCPC
Co-Chair RTT Medical Team & Organization Steward
Crosbie completed his MA in Psychology at Lakehead University, prior to completing Medical School at McMaster in 1991. Following medical school, Dr. Watler completed his residency in psychiatry at Dalhousie University. Crosbie relocated to Duncan BC in 2001, working with Island Health in diverse ...
MD
RTT-KAT physician
Dr. Zhiish McKenzie is Family Physician. She is Anishnabai from Northern Ontario and a member of the Temagami First Nation. She works as a Clinical Instructor & Indigenous Portfolio Co-Director at the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. Zhiish was introduced to Roots to Thrive as a patient particip...
RN(c), MN, DMin
Co-Chair RTT Medical Team, Medicine Administration Nursing Lead, PAT Facilitator
Gail brings nearly 50 years of nursing experience to Roots to Thrive. Much of her career has been working with and for Indigenous people and communities. Gail promotes awareness of physical, mental, and spiritual health issues associated with past traumas and walks beside people as they reconnect...
RPN, BSN, MBA
RTT KAT Program Chair, Intake lead, Nurse Facilitator
Julia comes to the Roots to Thrive team with over twenty years experience as a front-line registered psychiatric nurse. Julia completed her nursing training in New Zealand before becoming certified in California and then Canada. Julia has practiced in a wide variety of clinic areas including inpa...
MD, FCFP(EM)(PC) GPO
RTT PAT Physician
I am a palliative care physician and general practitioner in oncology working in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. I am an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of British Columbia and working on a clinical trial demonstrating the feasibility of delivering psilocybin t...
RN, BSN, BA
Nurse, Sea to Sky RTT
Heidi comes to Roots to Thrive with over 25 years of emergency pre-hospital care as a professional Ski Patroller in Whistler and over 8 years of nursing with both Oncology and Emergency nursing specialties. She currently lives and works as an RN in Squamish, BC with her amazing family.Heidi joine...
MD, FRCPC
Psychiatrist, Sea to Sky RTT
Birgitta is a psychiatrist in Vancouver, BC with a special interest in psychedelic medicine as a powerful tool for accelerated healing from deeply rooted psychological trauma. She realized early on that standard psychiatric treatments are inadequate for many individuals and participated in the M...
MD, FRCPC
Psychiatrist, Sea to Sky RTT
Kathryn is a psychiatrist working in the Sea to Sky corridor and took part in cohort three of the Roots to Thrive (RTT) program. Her approach to psychiatric care is person-centered and she has a special interest in the (re-)emerging field of psychedelic medicine. She is grateful to work with an a...
MD, CCFP(PC,AM), FCFP, cGTT, CMAc, CAPM, PGcPain
KAT Physician, Facilitator
Barb is thrilled to be a part of the RTT team as a facilitator after being a participant in Cohort 5. She is of European (German) ancestry living on the unceded territory of the K’omoks First Nations in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island since 1998.
Barb has been a Family Physician for 25 years...
