We use cookies on this site to enhance your experience.
By selecting “Accept” and continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies.
Marc Blainey
Associate Professor & Program Coordinator, Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy.
I received a PhD in Anthropology from Tulane University in 2013. After serving as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) post-doctoral fellow at University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion (2014-2015), I graduated from Luther’s MA in Theology program, in the field of Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy (2018), and completed a Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) residency at Niagara Health in 2019. I am now certified as a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).
I have trained as a multifaith chaplain and performed spiritually integrated psychotherapy at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph; Grand River Hospital in Kitchener; St. Catharines Hospital; and the Southdown Institute, Holland Landing, Ont. At these clinical sites, I dealt with individuals suffering from mood disorders, addictions, schizophrenia, bereavement, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders, adjustment disorders, and neurological disorders.
In addition to delivering one-on-one therapy, I gained experience leading or co-facilitating various group modalities including a concurrent disorders group (for comorbid addictions and mental illness); three different spirituality groups; a CBT group; a connectedness-and-meaning group; a grief group; a men’s group; and a sexual wellness group.
More information is available on my website: https://sites.google.com/site/marcblainey/
Previously, I conducted cognitive archaeology research on the ceremonial ingestion of psychedelics by Indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica. Then, based on 3 years of ethnographic fieldwork with Brazilian, European, and North American practitioners of an entheogenic religion called Santo Daime, I published a book entitled “Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing” (SUNY Press, 2021).
Prior to his current position at Luther, Marc served as a clinician for preparation, dosing, and integration sessions in a CIHR-funded research trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression at University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto. Building on these experiences, Marc’s current and future research projects will contribute new multi-faith approaches to psychedelic psychotherapy and entheogenic spiritual care.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2025). Santo Daime Ethnopsychiatry: Psychotherapy and Spiritual Care Implications of a Global Ayahuasca Healing Tradition from Amazonia. In Michael J. Winkelman (Ed.), Handbook of Entheogenic Healing (pp. 242-272). Leiden, NL: Brill.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2021). Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2016). Groundwork for the Anthropology of Belgium: An overlooked Microcosm of Europe. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 81(3): 478-507.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2016). Techniques of Luminosity: Iron-Ore Mirrors & Entheogenic Shamanism among the Ancient Maya. In Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm (pp. 179-206), edited by Emiliano Gallaga & Marc G. Blainey. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2015). Forbidden Therapies: Santo Daime, Ayahuasca, and the Prohibition of Entheogens in Western Society. Journal of Religion & Health 54(1): 287-302.
• Healy, Paul & Marc G. Blainey (2011). Ancient Maya Mosaic Mirrors: Function, Symbolism, and Meaning. Ancient Mesoamerica 22(2): 229–244.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2010). Towards an Ethno-Metaphysics of Consciousness. Anthropology of Consciousness 21(2): 113-138.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2010). Deciphering Ancient Maya Ethno-Metaphysics: Conventional Icons Signifying the King-as-Conduit Complex. Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture 3(3): 267-290.