reclaiming her life after battling severe depression

after a decades-long search for help with her depressive symptoms, kirsty found a program that gave her the chance to heal.

by university health network (uhn)

published feb 20, 2026

3 minute read

“for the first time in years, i felt connected — not ‘fixed,’ but present,” says kirsty, six weeks after participating in a trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy at university health network (uhn). uhn

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life never stopped being busy for kirsty. not when she pursued a demanding career in financial operations. not while she spent years in and out of hospital with her son, who was born with a congenital heart defect. and not even while she was battling depression, an affliction that affects more than five million canadians.

“i showed up anywhere and everywhere i was needed. i was the person others leaned on professionally and personally. with two beautiful children and a loving husband, my life looked full and successful from the outside,” she recalls.

on the inside, kirsty was unravelling. she reached out for help that came in the form of medications. some meds helped temporarily; others made her feel worse. as her symptoms deepened, she pressed on trying to navigate the health system on her own only to face discouraging experiences, including long waits for specialist referrals that did not work out, and ineffective interventions.

eventually, in 2023, after 20-plus years of trying to outrun depression, she became incapacitated. “i slept most of the day for over a year. when i was awake, i struggled to move and to think clearly. eventually i withdrew from my world and stopped leaving my home.”

feeling that she had reached the end of her rope, kirsty decided to do one more google search and finally found a research trial under the direction of dr. joshua rosenblat, research and academic development lead for the mental health program at university health network (uhn).

dr. rosenblat is a global leader in the study of psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression. psilocybin, the psychoactive component of “magic” mushrooms, has been reported to improve mental health symptoms when combined with psychotherapy. “response rates to conventional depression therapies for treatment-resistant patients remain disappointingly low. for patients like kirsty, treatments like psychedelic therapies provide not only a chance for symptom relief but a glimmer of hope for a brighter future.”

from her first contact with dr. rosenblat and the research team, kirsty noticed immediately how different the experience was. about six weeks later, after weekly appointments, kirsty felt a shift in her mood. “for the first time in years, i felt connected — not ‘fixed,’ but present,” she said. she also came to terms with acknowledging the effects of a traumatic assault early in her teens that she had tried to bury.

according to dr. rosenblat, psilocybin, combined with psychotherapy, can make the brain more adaptable, leading to a softening of repetitive negative thought patterns and a loosening of rigid behaviours.

“the process was challenging, but it felt less like symptom management and more like actual healing,” kirsty explains.

in addition to psilocybin-assisted therapy, clinical research within uhn’s mental health program includes evaluating new pharmaceutical molecules, expanding access to image-guided brain stimulation and exploring potential new uses for medications used for other disorders, like repurposed anesthetics and glp-1 agonists. the program is home to canada’s largest medical psychiatry team serving some of canada’s most complex patients who suffer from life-threatening physical and mental illnesses.

“with deeper insight into the two-way relationship between brain and body, we can develop better interventions for a range of mood disorders,” says dr. ishrat husain, uhn mental health department head and program medical director.

“we are creating a more connected and responsive health system so that people like kirsty do not suffer in silence any longer,” he says.

since her last treatment session in october 2025, kirsty has “re-entered life” and believes funding research is the key to making new treatments accessible to those who need them. “depression does not need to be a life sentence or a death sentence,” she says. “today, i am living fully and excited for the future.”

to learn more about how uhn is leading the future of brain care, visit uhnfoundation.ca/lead.

this story was provided by university health network (uhn) for commercial purposes.