Minh Trần is in the Ph.D. in Depth Psychology with Specialization in Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is currently in the final writing and editing phase of his dissertation. I’m delighted to catch up with this dynamic scholar and hear about his travels and research. Part II of II.
Angela: As a queer psychotherapeutic practitioner often working with LGBTQ+ identified individuals, have your world travels brought anything new to your perspective in this regard? Does looking into the United States from the outside offer some illumination?
Minh: Oh yes! For sure! Mystery is loving as well as a rough and tough teacher. The U.S. has its problems of course, but the fact that its citizens can voice our opinions of these problems in the ways that we do to the degree and frequency that we can is something I believe to be truly American, which around the world is popularly known as the people of the land of “personal freedoms” rather than “opportunity.” In so many places I have been to, it is illegal to say things against the government, which is seen as the symbol of THE collective. When I was in Malaysia, for example, I learned how it is still technically illegal to engage in homosexual acts, or when I was in Thailand and was warned never to bad-mouth the royal family or I could be jailed. Liberal America romanticizes notions like social collectivism as a corrective to its hyper-individuality. Yet, I have also had to deal with heavy amounts of social conformity during my months in Việt Nam and other places in a way I rarely ever have to deal with in the U.S. I have come to understand how conformity is the shadow side of collectivism. My uniqueness was constantly the proverbial nail that stood up and in which everyone felt the impulse to beat down with their stares and words. America has got its problems, but I have found my matriotic (rather than patriotic, harkening back to our 2021 interview) heart for America and what it stands for to beat louder than ever with my world travels.
Angela: That’s wonderful. I noticed that you are offering cannabis- and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) as part of your tele-mental health services. I know that the therapeutic value of psychedelics is of great interest to Pacifica scholars, although people rarely mentioned cannabis or even ketamine, normally speaking of LSD or mushrooms. I wonder what your experience as a practitioner has been of this work?
Minh: I remember in our last interview, I had called Denver, Colorado, where I was residing, as “The New Heartland of America.” Connecting this to the previous question, cannabis is still seen in most parts of the world, certainly in Việt Nam and also here in Buenos Aires, as a social evil and a “hard drug,” in line with heroine or crack. The stigma, misunderstandings, and misinformation about cannabis medicine has been a passion of mine to dismantle everywhere I go. In Việt Nam, I asserted my credentials and professional practice involving these medicines in order to educate and correct the misunderstandings. As a digital nomad, I see my clients online via telehealth and maintain licensure in California as well as Colorado, and having lived in both states for extended periods, I stay connected enough to be reminded of and truly miss the open-minded and curious attitudes these places have toward cannabis, ketamine, and the classic psychedelics. I have faith that American liberalism will be a leader, as it has for ¾ of a century now, to the rest of the world when it comes to progressive thinking and embracing of these medicines. To circle back around to your original inquiry, my experience in working with these medicines as a practitioner is that they have a snowballing effect, very much like how social attitudes toward LGBTQ+ folks change through personal interactions—people’s attitudes change when their personal inner circle comes out of the closet! Therapeutically, when it comes to these medicines, it’s all about the relationship one has with the spirit of the medicines. Maybe it’s my systems and relational approach, or my animistic worldview, but I believe the medicines co-evolve with human consciousness and it is all about the relationship one has with any substance: boundaries, feeling, fantasy, and there comes a time when a breakup is necessary.
Angela: I understand that you recently traveled to Italy to attend the IAAP conferences. What did you present on, and what were the highlights of the trip?
Minh: Firstly, I was excited to visit that region of the world for the first time. I was really looking forward to connecting with my European Jungian colleagues, many of whom I’ve admired and have been inspired by from afar. I was able to connect with many from the 2 Poland Jungian training centers, a couple of London analysts, as well as the Chinese and Taiwanese analysts who had attended while in Sicily. The presentations, as alluded to earlier, circumambulated the archetype of early-blooming/late-blooming, amplified by the Vietnamese myth of Thánh Gióng, a boy-warrior during the legendary Hùng Kings period of Vietnamese history, who took a village to feed to grow up exponentially overnight like a bamboo and to fend off northern invaders with a bamboo cane. The back-to-back conferences started with the child and adolescent conference then moved into the adults’ for the latter half of the 5-day gathering. I was given a poster presentation for the kiddie conference, which was then asked to be converted into a 20-minute breakout presentation a couple of weeks before the start of the event. I was also the final plenary presenter for the adults’ (or general) conference that followed as well. As social artistry, artivism, performance art (including wardrobe) is a part of my whole schtick, which since our last interview back in 2021 has taken flight with its little wings, I was able to represent my people’s ethnic clothing and loudly belt out songs in my mother-tongue (Vietnamese) in conference spaces which most likely had never heard Vietnamese ringing through its halls. I was nervous how this audience would take to my theatrics, but the presentations were very well received and has since left me feeling so very grateful and honored.
Angela: Thank you so much for speaking with me, and I look forward to seeing your dissertation work!
Part II of the interview with Minh Trần can be found here. To learn more about Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices at Pacifica Graduate Institute, click here.
Minh Trần, LMFT, is a PhD candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute in the Depth Psychology with Specialization in Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices program. Minh also received his MA in Counseling Psychology degree from Pacifica. Between his master and doctoral programs at Pacifica, Minh received scholarships to attend and complete the postgraduate Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program at the California Institute of Integral Studies while completing marriage and family therapy licensure requirements under the LA County MFT Consortium Stipend fellowship. Since becoming a doctoral candidate in Spring of 2022, Minh has been traveling the world as a digital nomad presenting his “musical lectures” at psychological conferences and conducting ethnographic fieldwork for his dissertation.
Angela Borda is a writer for Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as the editor of the Santa Barbara Literary Journal. Her work has been published in Food & Home, Peregrine, Hurricanes & Swan Songs, Delirium Corridor, Still Arts Quarterly, Danse Macabre, and is forthcoming in The Tertiary Lodger and Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Vol. 5.