Eliza Dushku has officially traded Hollywood glamour for a meaningful new chapter as a mental health counselor specializing in psychedelic therapy. The 44-year-old former actress, best known for playing Faith on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” recently graduated with her Master of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University.
“Graduating with my master’s degree (!!) feels like more than an achievement â it feels like a deep calling realized,” Dushku wrote on Instagram in June 2025. “True growth, energy, and passion â manifested.”
The career shift is a dramatic departure from her entertainment industry roots. Dushku began acting at the age of 9 after being discovered by chance on a Boston street. She eventually starred in major films like “Bring It On” and “True Lies,” alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her successful acting career spanned over 30 films and television shows, including starring roles in “Dollhouse” and “Tru Calling.”
From Acting to Healing
Dushku’s journey into mental health work stemmed from her own experiences with trauma recovery. After publicly sharing her story of childhood sexual abuse in 2018, she found herself struggling with PTSD. Dushku sought alternative healing methods, Us Magazine reported.
Her introduction to psychedelic-assisted therapy proved transformative. “I found myself feeling so wholly unwell,” she told Boston Magazine in a September 2024 interview. “So painfully vulnerable, raw, exposedâterrified and suffering from what was diagnosed as PTSD. I finally surrendered and began to feel a release and a sense of peace and security and calm whooshing through me.”
The healing she experienced through MDMA and psilocybin therapy inspired her to pursue formal training in the field. She’s now certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy. It involves administering substances like MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, and ketamine in medically supervised settings. These substances are combined with psychotherapy to treat trauma, PTSD, addiction, depression, and anxiety.
Her personal struggles with addiction also informed her career choice. Dushku got sober in 2009 after battling substance abuse that began when she was 14. In 2017, she publicly shared her recovery story at the New Hampshire Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness. Dushku told the audience: “I’m an alcoholic. I was a drug addict for a lot of years,” as reported by Boston Magazine.
“I had the means to shift directions and choose a course in my life that focused on healing myself so that I could help heal others,” Dushku explained to the outlet. “I would be remiss if I didn’t now share the transformation and the peace and the passion that I have. This is just absolutely so clearly my real calling, my real purpose.”
The transformation was so significant that it enabled her to speak out against other injustices. In 2018, she revealed that CBS fired her from the show “Bull” following sexual harassment allegations against her co-star Michael Weatherly, and then paid her $9.5 million.
Building a New Life in Boston
Dushku has embraced her return to her native Boston, where she lives with her husband Peter Palandjian, a real estate developer and former professional tennis player. The couple married in 2018 at the Boston Public Library and share two young sons, Philip and Bodan.
Together, they’re funding research and clinical trials into psychedelic treatments. They have donated $7.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to support addiction research. Their contribution led to the facility being renamed The Eliza Dushku Palandjian and Peter Palandjian Bridge Clinic.
The couple has also invested $100,000 in Massachusetts for Mental Health Options, supporting ballot initiatives to legalize regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics, Boston Magazine reported. They’ve hosted influential dinner parties bringing together researchers, medical professionals, and philanthropists to advance the psychedelic therapy movement.
The actress-turned-therapist sees her new career as more fulfilling than her entertainment days. “Don’t get me wrong â there are amazing things about being an actor and doing red carpets and getting to go on Jimmy Kimmel, but this stuff gets me going,” she told the publication in 2019.
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