Psychedelic experiences are known to be some of the most profoundly moving of one’s life, and researchers are finding early success with psychedelic-assisted therapy for the treatment of depression, addiction, and PTSD. Outside of a clinical setting--with peer groups, underground therapists, or in ceremonial settings--these experiences can range from intensely terrifying to profoundly positive. Yet, the average therapist has little training on how to help patients reduce the potential for harm and weave these experiences into the course of therapy, enhancing the potential for a beneficial outcome. In this talk, we present a way of shifting the paradigm in psychotherapy to include psychedelic experiences as potentially valuable in the quest for healing.

This event is open to the general public; we encourage friends from near and far to come for this incredible seminar!

Dr. Elizabeth Nielson and Ingmar Gorman will be leading this seminar and discussion.

Dr. Elizabeth Nielson is a co-founder of Fluence and a psychologist with a focus on developing psychedelic medicines as empirically supported treatments for PTSD, substance use problems, and mood disorders. Dr. Nielson is a therapist on FDA approved clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder, MDMA-assisted treatment PTSD, and psilocybin-assisted treatment of treatment resistant depression. Through Fluence, she provides continuing education and training programs for therapists who wish to engage in integration of psychedelic experiences in clinical settings. Her program of research includes qualitative and mixed-methods projects designed to further understand the phenomenology and mechanisms of change in psychedelic-assisted therapy, including the experiences of trial participants and of the therapists themselves. Having completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at NYU, she has published and presented on topics of psychedelic therapist training, therapists’ personal experience with psychedelics, and including psychedelic integration in group and individual psychotherapy.

Dr. Ingmar Gorman is a co-founder of Fluence and a psychologist who specializes in assisting populations who have a relationship with psychedelics. He is the site co-principal investigator and therapist on a Phase 3 clinical trial studying MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Dr. Gorman is a board member of Horizons Media, Inc., a not for-profit educational charity and organizer of the Horizons Conference: Perspectives on Psychedelics. After completing his NIH postdoctoral fellowship at New York University, Dr. Gorman stepped down as director of the Psychedelic Education and Continuing Care Program to focus his efforts on Fluence and the training of future therapists.

The Penn Society for Psychedelic Science (PSPS) is a multidisciplinary student group at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to the study of psychedelic science, and more broadly, consciousness, through multiple intellectual and philosophical perspectives. We seek to promote thoughtful psychedelic research and public awareness of the science, policy, and clinical applications of psychedelics.

Please learn more about our organization at PennPsychedelics.org, and if you want to know about future events, please sign up for our mailing list!

This event is made possible by the financial support of Penn Wellness.

Penn Wellness was founded in 2015 with three goals.

1. To foster discussion, collaboration, problem-solving, and idea sharing among student communities and wellness student groups on wellness issues, initiatives, and events at the University of Pennsylvania.
2. To jointly clarify and advertise wellness resources and events to the student body.
3. To implement new wellness initiatives throughout the student community.