Psychedelic Science and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

* Wednesday, September 27, 5:00pm pacific

Join this live 90-minute class and discover the ways that psychedelic-assisted therapy is revolutionizing medical treatment for hard-to-treat illnesses, including addiction, anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD.

Andrew Penn

I’ve worked in the field of mental health for over 30 years, and for the last decade, I’ve been closely involved with researching psychedelic compounds in the context of psychotherapy. At UCSF, we’re studying these drugs with the aim of providing relief to people that have may not been helped as much as we would like by conventional pharmacologic treatments and psychotherapies. I’m happy to say that the results have been remarkable, and remarkably encouraging. We’re just at the beginning of what promises to be a breathtaking era of new treatments and therapies.

It’s these results – and their dramatic impact both for individuals currently suffering from some of the most challenging conditions we face today and for the clinicians and therapists who serve them – that I want to share with you in my upcoming live 90-minute class, Five Things I’ve Learned about Psychedelic Science and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy.

You may already know about some of the latest research taking place in world class institutions like Johns Hopkins, NYU, Imperial College London – and at UCSF. Remarkably, psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA are consistently being found to accelerate the process of psychotherapy for conditions including PTSD and chronic depression. These same compounds also show promising results when integrated within therapy for as a number of substance use disorders.

In our time together, I’ll talk about the long history of research into these compounds before they ever became part of popular culture. I’ll explain why this research went dark for decades, and review the most promising key findings of contemporary research efforts, findings that document these drugs’ remarkable impact as they’ve slowly become integrated within a variety of clinical practices over the last 25 years. Of course, I’ll also illustrate the remarkable potential of psychedelic assisted therapy with case studies from my own research at UCSF.

I think you’ll find this discussion both provocative and clarifying. Like anything that’s new, there’s both hope and hype. But one thing is certain: what researchers are discovering across the country is that the same psychedelics that were once considered to be only dangerous, recreational drugs are showing promise for treating mental health conditions when given in controlled, therapeutic settings. My aim is to share with you not only what we know about these drugs, but also what we still need to learn to keep this practice safe and effective.

I hope you’ll join me.