Faith, Healing, and Psychedelics on the Appalachian Frontier
Originally published June 12, 2026.
Our Hollers & Horizons Appalachian Town Hall series continues on Monday, June 29 from 5-6:30 P.M. ET, and we're bringing two incredible speakers to our vibrant virtual community:
Carrie Griffin, DO: Holistic Physician, Trauma Therapist, and Psychedelic Medicine Practitioner
Hunt Priest, M.Div: Founder of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society
Carrie Griffin, DO, a native of eastern Virginia, was educated at Virginia Tech and trained in medical residency in Asheville, North Carolina, who now serves rural and underserved communities in Humboldt County, California. Board certified in family and addiction medicine and fellowship trained in maternal and reproductive health, her path to medicine began with her own healing journey and years as a yoga teacher and therapist. She brings prenatal care, women’s health, newborn care, and addiction medicine to federally qualified health centers, tribal clinics, and residential treatment settings — meeting people where they are, in the fullness of their lives. A graduate of the MAPS MDMA Therapy Training, her work weaves together osteopathic medicine, somatic therapies, and psychedelic-assisted healing at the frontier of whole-person care for those most often left behind.
Hunt Priest, M.Div., is a native of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, where "the bluegrass meets the mountains." As a younger person, he spent significant amounts traveling with his family in Eastern Kentucky and as an adult visits with friends in in Abingdon and Damascus, Virginia any chance he can get. He is the founder of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society and a participant in the landmark 2016 Johns Hopkins/NYU Psilocybin Study for Religious Leaders. A priest in The Episcopal Church for 20 years — most recently rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia where he still lives — Hunt resigned his ordination in 2025 to dedicate himself fully to Ligare’s mission. His work lives at the crossroads of psychedelics, contemplative Christianity, end-of-life spiritual care, and mental health.
Together, Carrie and Hunt ask what all of this might mean for rural and Appalachian communities — places where suspicion, faith, resilience, and suffering often sit side by side. This presentation is for anyone interested in honest, hopeful, and practical conversations about how psychedelic healing can honor local culture while opening new possibilities for care.
See the talk now in our Hollers & Horizons Archives.