Core Circle
We are a living network of caretakers and change-makers. We practice non-hierarchical, shared leadership and tend to each other as we grow.
Meet the humans who nurture the ecosystem behind the scenes—holding space, resources, and shared responsibility.
Mitsu Puri, MA (she/her) is the cofounder of APC. She completed a master's in clinical psychology with a focus on spirituality, mind and body practices from Columbia University. Her research explored Jungian psychology, and the therapeutic potential of spiritual and somatic practices—particularly those erased or pathologized by Western clinical paradigms.
She serves as a Community Engagement and Training Specialist at the NYC Department of Health, where she bridges institutional resources and grassroots AANHPI organizations. Her background spans harm reduction, psychedelic peer support (Fireside Project), and substance use treatment—always advocating for communities harmed by prohibition and carceral systems.
She advocates for decolonial healing justice, resisting extractive practices in psychedelic communities and mental health systems. Born in India and raised in Southeast Asia, her work grows from diasporic resilience and the conviction that true liberation demands reclaiming ancestral wisdom.
Harpreet Lakhan, BScN, is the Director of Operations. Harpreet is a Registered Nurse and has worked with vulnerable populations such as the elderly, individuals living with physical disabilities and clients living in subsidized housing. She also served as a clinical supervisor in home and community care. Since then, Harpreet has transitioned sectors to explore her passion in the field of psychedelics and to be of service to others in the psychedelic community. Harpreet dedicated a year of service to Fireside Project, offering emotional peer support to individuals during and after psychedelic experiences.
Currently, Harpreet volunteers at MAPS Canada in policy advocacy and government relations, whilst working diligently to uplift the valuable role of nurses in the psychedelic space. She is currently obtaining a Certification in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy at the ATMA Journey Institute. Harpreet is a strong advocate for the safe use of psychedelics, specifically for spiritual, mental and emotional well-being. She was born in Toronto, Canada to immigrant parents from Punjab, India.
Preeti Simran Sethi, MSc., MBA, LHD, is a Punjabi immigrant who comes from a long line of healers. She dreamed the Asian Psychedelic Collective into being in the spring of 2022 after struggling to find the beloved medicine community she longed to integrate with. (Learn more here and here.)
Preeti transitioned from APC in late summer 2023 to focus on directly supporting people of Asian descent on their healing journeys. She offers mental health coaching and medicine facilitation rooted in South Asian knowledge systems and healing traditions. She continues to advocate for Asian well-being as a writer and lecturer in the CIIS psychedelic facilitator program.
Preeti is committed to - and extensively trained in - trauma-informed, neurodivergent- and queer-affirming offerings that tap into integrated mind-body wisdom, helping Asians and Asian culture heal intergenerational wounds of acculturation, colonization, and the myth of the Model Minority that ties worth to hyperachievement and productivity.
Her goal is to ensure our community is seen, heard, and held.
Support Circle
Noriko Brubeck (she/her) is a Registered Nurse with expertise in reproductive and mental health. She is biracial yonsei (4th generation Japanese American) and white, whose family members were removed from their homes and incarcerated for years without trial during World War II because of their heritage. She has both a gentle presence and a fierce commitment to ethical, evidence-based practice. She completed her BA in liberal arts at the New School University and studied ethnobiology through the Organization for Tropical Studies and Columbia University. Noriko received her BSN at SUNY Downstate University, and has been practicing psychedelic-assisted nurse coaching under the supervision of Angela Ward since January 2022. Noriko considers it a great privilege to witness, provide safety, and hold nonjudgmental space for people moving through extraordinary states of consciousness. Her work is informed by a deep concern for issues such as intergenerational trauma, parenthood, ecological collapse, decolonizing psychiatric and psychedelic spaces, celebrating neurodiversity, and cultivating creativity. As a stage 3 cancer survivor, she has a special empathy for those who have experienced physical illness or medical trauma.
Terence Ching, PhD (he/him) is an integration facilitator and research support at APC. He identifies as an immigrant, gay, cisgender man of Singaporean Chinese descent. Terence was born and raised in Singapore before moving to the United States in his mid-twenties, where he received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut.
He is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Yale OCD Research Clinic, where he co-leads the development and conduct of psilocybin clinical trials for OCD. In his professional life, Terence has cultivated interests in: (1) fear-/trauma-based disorders; (2) cultural diversity; (3) exposure-based cognitive-behavior therapies; and (4) psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Terence has completed clinical training in a variety of settings and has also received training in MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for various disorders.
In the psychedelic space, rooted in his experience of healing through MDMA-assisted therapy, Terence endeavors to promote equitable access to psychedelic clinical trials among traditionally underrepresented groups, including but not limited to members of BIPOC and sexual- and gender-diverse communities.
Jay Louie 雷貽丰 LMFT (they/he) provides transformative therapies - ketamine and talk psychotherapy and climbing therapy for folks wanting breakthroughs. They address complex trauma with compassion and curiosity and advocate for clients’ needs, truths, deep desires, and purpose. Jay grew up in multilingual immigrant communities in Hong Kong, Canada, and Central America. They believe embodiment and intimate contact with the outdoors are essential to thriving, and want to interweave Eastern spirituality and Chinese medicine into psychedelic journeying. They’re driven to transform dysphoria to euphoria, dissociation to embodiment, disconnection and shame to integration and liberation.
Jay helped build the first Zendo and served as a sitter for those undergoing challenging trips. They earned a Masters in Holistic Counseling focusing on Asian-American Trauma, Intersectionality, and Sex Work, trained at an LGBTQ+ center, and completed programs in Sex Therapy, MDMA Therapy (MAPS), and Liberation Academy. They were the Project Director for a city-funded telehealth program serving queer trans elders and HIV+ survivors. They serve as President and Board Chair of a queer climbing nonprofit.
Stephanie Sheng (she/her) is an integration circle facilitator at APC. She is an entheogenic integration coach of Chinese descent, born and raised in the US with 5 years also spent in Hong Kong). For Stephanie, integration is a lifelong process, fundamental to living and learning from this exciting journey of life; it helps us to remember who we really are and come back home to that, again and again. It is the practice of seeing the divine in all things and weaving our beautifully profound experiences into daily life. Her approach to integration combines training in ontological coaching, hatha yoga, self-enquiry meditation, and non-dual tantra, with endless learnings and inspiration from the great teacher that is Mother Nature.
She is passionate about accompanying people in their processes of integration and supporting them in realigning with their wild, soulful, authentic selves so that, from this place, they can create and bring forth the gifts they are meant to share with the world. Currently she shares integration support in her private practice, and through volunteering at Fireside Project and Psychedelic Agora, a womxn’s psychedelic collective in Berlin, Germany.