Survivorship Collective is a nonprofit advancing safe, ethical, and accessible psychedelic care for people facing a life-threatening illness.
We create programs for patients and loved ones navigating the psychological and existential realities of serious illness and life after treatment.
Through direct, real-world care, we are helping define how psychedelic care can be ethically and safely integrated into care beyond the clinical trial setting.
As featured in:
The Reality of Survivorship
Tens of millions of Americans are navigating life with or after a serious illness. Advances in medicine mean more people are surviving cancer, heart disease, organ failure, and other life-threatening conditions than ever before. Yet surviving often marks the beginning of a different challenge: learning how to thrive in a new reality.
Over 18 million cancer survivors are living in the U.S. todayNearly 1 in 3 experience depression or anxiety after treatment
Survivors have ~40% higher rates of serious psychological distress than the general population
16% meet criteria for major depression
20–25% experience clinically significant anxiety
45–95% report at least one PTSD symptom
Suicide risk is significantly elevated, especially in the first year after diagnosis
These numbers point to a deeper truth: survivorship is not just physical recovery. It is a psychological and existential transition that most people navigate alone.
One Participant’s Story
Where Survivors Struggle Most
These are the areas of suffering that are most common, least addressed, and most defining of life after cancer:
Existential anxiety
Even in remission, many survivors live with a persistent awareness of mortality. The fear of death does not disappear. It becomes quieter, more internal, and often more isolating.
Medical Trauma and PTSD
Treatment is often a traumatic experience. Medical procedures, uncertainty, loss of control, and proximity to death can leave lasting psychological imprints that persist long after treatment ends.
Recurrence anxiety
Fear of recurrence is one of the most common and enduring forms of distress. It can shape daily decision-making, relationships, and the ability to plan for the future.
Grief
Survivors grieve many things at once: their former body, their sense of safety, lost time, altered identity, and in many cases, the illness or death of others in their community.
Dissociation and disconnection
Many survivors report feeling detached from their bodies, their lives, or their sense of self. This can show up as numbness, disorientation, or difficulty re-engaging with everyday life.
What Makes This Different
These challenges are not fully addressed by standard mental health care. They sit at the intersection of:
medical trauma & PTSD
identity disruption
mortality awareness
meaning-making
This is the space Survivorship Collective is designed to hold.
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What the Cancer Community Actually Needs from Psychedelic Care (Psychedelics Today)
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Cedars Sinai Hospital Talk - Cancer and Psychedelics
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Voices of Esalen Podcast