Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research

To practice psychedelic therapy safely and effectively, practitioners need a broad range of competences. Many of these overlap with what is needed from regular psychotherapy practices, but there are also psychedelic-specific areas. Psychologist and psychotherapist Max Wolff, who leads MIND Foundation’s Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT) program, will present on the topic on Monday Dec 9th 2024 at 6PM (UTC+2) in a free webinar lecture organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research. 

The presentation introduces 12 essential competencies of psychedelic therapists that form the basis of the MIND Foundation’s Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT). 

The basic competences include:

1. the application of psychotherapeutic concepts, methods and attitudes, 
2. understanding the scientific and medical foundations as well as 
3. the cultural and medical history of psychedelic therapy, 
4. complying with legal requirements and addressing ethical challenges as well as 
5. existential aspects of psychedelic therapy, and not least 
6. a learning-oriented attitude toward psychedelic self-experience. 

Practical competences include:

7. professional communication and cooperation in multi-professional teams and 
8. the prevention and treatment of harmful effects of psychedelics
9. screening and treatment planning, 
10. psychotherapeutic preparation for psychedelic experiences, 
11. inducing and accompanying psychedelic experiences in appropriate settings, and 
12. supporting patients in the integration process and transition to the post-treatment phase. 

The importance of these competences will be illustrated with case examples from treatment practice.

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 2 hours. The event is free of charge – you can register here. You can support us in organizing such free events by paying our membership fee for 2024. You’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. We also accept donations. 

About the speaker:

Dr. rer. nat. Max Wolff is a psychologist and psychotherapist. As Director of Research and Training and a board member of the MIND Foundation, he directs its Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT) program. As a psychotherapist at the OVID Clinic, the MIND Foundation’s clinical partner, he uses an integrative approach with cognitive-behavioral, acceptance-based and emotion-focused elements. As a therapist and researcher, he is involved in clinical studies such as the EPIsoDE study testing the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression at the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) Mannheim and Charité Berlin. His research focuses on the psychological mechanisms and contextual conditions of psychological changes associated with psychedelic experiences, and aims to make knowledge established by psychotherapy research applicable to the practice of psychedelic therapy.

One of the key challenges related to researching psychedelics is the high cost involved. One way to get around this challenge is by citizen science which involves the active participation of the public in the scientific process. Psychedelic science stands to benefit significantly from this approach due to the widespread use of these substances. Millions of individuals use psychedelics recreationally, and capturing scientifically meaningful data from even a fraction of these experiences could greatly enhance our understanding of these drugs.

On Monday Nov 18th, 6PM UTC+2, psychedelic citizen science pioneer Balázs Szigeti will present his work in a webinar organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research. In his own words:

“In the first part of the talk, we will discuss the ‘self-blinding microdose trial’ as an example of a complex psychedelic citizen science project. This project used a novel ‘self-blinding’ paradigm, where voluntary citizen scientists implemented their own placebo control without clinical supervision. This trial, costing approximately 0.1% of a traditional clinical trial, recruited 191 participants, making it one of the largest placebo-controlled studies ever conducted on psychedelics. The combination of low costs and large sample size underscore the potential of psychedelic citizen science.

In the second half of this talk, I will focus on PsyDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization designed to support psychedelic citizen science. PsyDAO is part of the broader decentralized science movement, which seeks to leverage blockchain technology to modernize the scientific enterprise, which includes incentivizing psychedelic citizen scientists to capture and share data from their psychedelic experiences.”

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 2 hours. The event is free of charge – you can register here. You can support us in organizing such free events by paying your membership fee for this year or, if you’re not already a member, becoming one. You’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. We also accept donations. 

About the speaker:

Balázs studied physics at Imperial College and then earned a PhD in data science from the University of Edinburgh. After graduating, he worked as a biomedical software engineer before starting to research psychedelics. Balázs invented ‘self-blinding’, a novel method to enable self-experimenters to implement their own placebo control, and using this methodology he led the largest placebo-controlled study on psychedelic microdosing to-date. Later, Balázs joined Imperial College’s Center for Psychedelic Research as a postdoctoral research associate. Currently, he works at UCSF’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program as a clinical data scientist while he continues his research into expectancy and placebo effects in psychedelic medicine.

Is it possible to have a psychedelic experience from a placebo? The past decade has seen a surge of interest in psychedelics across the world, but there are growing concerns about study methodology. One of those concerns relates to blinding: because participants generally know whether they have taken a psychedelic drug, maintaining experimental blinding is challenging. However, people in placebo groups occasionally also report significant consciousness-altering experiences. This deserves more research. Furthering our understanding of placebo effects might prove useful for both research and clinical applications of psychedelics.

Some of the most intriguing research mapping the relationship between psychedelics and placebo has been conducted by Jay Olson, a postdoc researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. On Monday, October 7th at 6PM UTC+3, he will present his work in a webinar organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research. In his talk, he will argue that some of the benefits of psychedelics may be due to placebo-related factors such as positive expectations rather than the drug itself. 

His research paper Tripping on Nothing: The hidden role of placebo effects in psychedelic drugs describes an elaborate deception that Olson and his colleagues utilized to convince participants that the placebo they consumed was actually a psychedelic drug, which led to the largest placebo effects on consciousness documented in the literature. Research participants described visual alterations, waves of intoxication and strong physiological effects. The results align with clinical trials that find striking improvements in both psychedelic and placebo groups.

Please note that, respecting the wish of our lecturer, this lecture will not be recorded, so if you want to hear it, be sure to attend! 

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 2 hours. The event is free of charge – you can register here. Also, if you want to support our work on high-quality scientific discussions on all things psychedelic, you can pay your membership fee for this year or, if you’re not already a member, become one. You’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store.

About the speaker:

Dr. Jay Olson is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He studies a range of topics across psychology and medicine including placebo effects, smartphone addiction, sleep, creativity, and psychedelic drugs. He did his previous graduate and postdoctoral training at McGill University and Harvard University.

Based on discussions of psychedelics in scientific journals and the media, you might get an impression that they are pretty much safe and almost risk-free, at least in clinical settings and for carefully screened participants. There are, however, estimates that perhaps 10 % of people who’ve taken psychedelics have experienced difficulties that last longer than the acute effects, and such difficulties also occur in research settings. 

An ever-increasing abundance of scientific work is investigating the beneficial potential of psychedelics, but the new wave of psychedelic research in the 2000s hasn’t thus far paid too much attention towards understanding the darker and risky, even dangerous aspects of these substances. Several study participants have expressed a need for longer-term support structures, and many groups aiming to support in the integration of difficult processes have sprung up. Additional research is necessary both to get a clearer picture of the diverse range of effects that psychedelics induce, and to better help and support people who experience challenges related to psychedelics.

Jules Evans is one of the key figures in expanding both the research field and general public discussions towards these neglected sides of psychedelics. He is a philosopher, historian and director of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project. On Monday April 29th, at 6:00PM (UTC+3), Jules will give a talk on the project in a free webinar organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research. His talk will cover extended difficulties after psychedelic experiences, focusing particularly on the most common types of such difficulties, such as increased anxiety, social disconnection, derealisation and existential confusion. We will also explore what the data suggests people find helpful in dealing with these difficulties. In the Q&A section, we can also discuss the project’s work related to ethical harms and abuses in the psychedelic space via its newsletter, Ecstatic Integration (which we most warmly recommend). 

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 2 hours. Because of how important and overlooked this topic is, we decided to make the event free of charge – you can register here. If you want to support us in organizing our work on high-quality scientific discussions on all things psychedelic, you can pay your membership fee for this year or, if you’re not already a member, become one. You’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store.

About the speaker:

Jules Evans is the director of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project, a non-profit which researches post-psychedelic difficulties and what helps people cope with them. He is also the editor of Ecstatic Integration, a popular substack exploring psychedelic and ecstatic integration. He is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. He’s the author / co-author of four books, including Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations (2012), The Art of Losing Control (2017) and Breaking Through: Finding a Way Through Spiritual Emergency (2020). He has written and presented for publications including The Times, Economist, Spectator, Financial Times, BBC Radio 4, Audible and Aeon, and he was a BBC New Generation Thinker.

Psychedelics are gaining increased attention in both clinical research and popular culture as they represent novel treatments for a host of difficult-to-treat mental health conditions (e.g., PTSD, depression). Much of this interest has been driven by a number of groundbreaking clinical trials that have demonstrated the possible therapeutic efficacy of these substances in carefully controlled treatment settings. However, these trials have two key limitations. First, they have limited ecological validity (i.e., these findings might not generalize to real-world settings). Second, they feature a severe dearth of participants of color.

Psychology researcher Grant Jones is presenting in a webinar by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research on April 10th, 6PM UTC+3. The talk addresses his research that aims to address the limitations of existing research, providing an overview of his research findings in the field of naturalistic (i.e., non-clinical, real world) psychedelic use and health in communities of color. Additionally, this talk addresses the key next steps inspired by this existing research.

Deviating from our typical webinars, the length of the event is one hour, and the lecture segment will be shorter than normal. Following Jones’s introduction, our host, psychology professor Markus Jokela, will present his initial reflections on the presented research, which will then be followed by an audience discussion segment.

Tickets are available from our web store. The event is free for charge for members who’ve paid their membership fee for 2024. If you want to pay your membership fee for this year or become a member, you’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. If you’ve already paid your membership fee, you’ll find your free registration link in the email about this event or the web store receipt.

About the speaker:

Grant Jones is a contemplative, musician, and a researcher writing his PhD thesis in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at Harvard University. His research is focused on better understanding how altered states of consciousness play a role in the flourishing of underserved communities. Currently, his research focuses on three core areas – meditation, music, and substance use – and investigating the relationships that these domains share with the well-being of individuals with diverse identities. His substance use research has particularly focused on psychedelic substances like psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) and understanding whether naturalistic (i.e., non-clinical) use of these substances is associated with lowered odds of adverse mental health and behavioral outcomes.

His research uses a number of approaches to study altered states, including epidemiological survey studies and intervention trials. His research has been funded by grants from the Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund, the Source Research Foundation, the Harvard Psychology Department, the Mind & Life Institute, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Additionally, his research has been recognized through awards from the Ford Foundation, the Society for Research in Psychopathology, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Addictive Behaviors Special Interest Group (SIG).

About the host:

Markus Jokela is a professor of mental health research at the University of Helsinki. His educational background is in psychology, sociology, and public health. In his research, Jokela has explored how individual psychological differences are associated with social behaviors that influence population dynamics, e.g., health inequalities, selective residential mobility, and family formation. This research is based on longitudinal studies collected in many different countries. Jokela wants to promote a broader understanding of mental health that considers not only the diagnostic approach but also wider themes of humanity, such as humanistic, existential, and spiritual perspectives. In 2024, he also serves as a board member of the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research.

The Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research is once again organizing a competition for the best psychedelic-themed thesis. The competition is held biennially, this year marking its fourth occurrence. This round includes works completed in 2022 and 2023.

If you’ve written an academic thesis (bachelor’s thesis, master’s thesis, licentiate thesis, diploma thesis, or a comparable university of applied sciences thesis) that was approved in a Finnish higher education institution (or if you’re a Finn and did your thesis abroad) in 2022 or 2023, and deals with psychedelics, you can participate in the competition by sending your work to psyty@psyty.fi by February 28, 2024. The competition is open to works from all disciplines.

A multidisciplinary jury, consisting of members of the association’s board, will evaluate the theses and select the winner by the association’s spring meeting in 2024. The winning thesis will be presented on Psyty’s website and social media channels, and the author will be awarded a 200 euro scholarship.

A freely distributable link to the competition and information about our previous thesis competitions can be found here (in Finnish, but you can use automatic translation tools).

The conventional history of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) research has been criticized for things such as missing critical histories of harm and the stories of marginalized groups, and a lack of focus on key therapeutic elements such as therapist–participant relationship, attentiveness to the body, counseling for spiritual experiences, and ethical considerations. On Wednesday March 6th 2024 at 6PM (UTC+2), psychologist and clinical scientist Alex Belser will introduce the EMBARK model that represents a novel model in psychedelic therapy, designed to address the limitations of previous models by offering a comprehensive, ethical, and inclusive framework. 

In addition to the missing elements mentioned above, previous PAT models have suffered from underdeveloped therapeutic frames and a reliance on pre-existent evidence-based (non-psychedelic) approaches. The EMBARK model addresses these shortcomings by offering a transdiagnostic and trans-drug approach adaptable to various indications and psychedelic medicines. It is built upon four Cornerstones of Care: Trauma-Informed Care, Culturally Competent Care, Ethically Rigorous Care, and Collective Care, reflecting a foundational belief that efficacious treatment is ethical treatment. 

The EMBARK acronym points to six Clinical Domains that commonly emerge in psychedelic experiences: Existential-Spiritual, Mindfulness, Body Aware, Affective-Cognitive, Relational, and Keeping Momentum. For the treatment of depression, twelve mechanisms of therapeutic change are outlined.

The EMBARK approach has a growing evidence-base: in a recent psychedelic clinical trial, 79% of participants achieved full remission from depression three weeks after treatment.  EMBARK psychedelic therapy is intended to be open-sourced to the clinical community for development and adaptation to other psychedelic medicines (e.g., DMT, LSD, MDMA, ketamine) other contexts (e.g. group therapy, conjoint/couples therapy), diverse populations (e.g., LGBTQIA+ participants) and to inform the development of psychedelic practitioner training.

The event contains a Q&A section. The total length is 2 hours. Tickets are available from our web store. The event is free for charge for members who’ve paid their membership fee for 2024. If you want to pay your membership fee for this year or become a member, you’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. Members who have paid the membership fee will be sent a free registration link via email.

Alex Belser, PhD is a psychologist and clinical scientist exploring psychedelic therapies to alleviate human suffering. At Yale University, he’s a Co-Investigator for a study of psilocybin treatment for OCD.  His book, EMBARK Psychedelic Therapy for Depression: A New Approach for the Whole Person (Oxford University Press), co-authored with Dr. Bill Brennan, offers a clinical guide to working with psychedelic medicines. He enjoys training clinicians and has taught in ten psychedelic training programs about psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and DMT therapies. Dr. Belser co-founded a number of early psychedelic organizations including the university team at NYU in 2006 and Nautilus Sanctuary, a non-profit psychedelic center.  He served as the Chief Clinical Officer of Adelia Therapeutics and Cybin, leading clinical teams in the US and Europe. His last book is Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine. His work has been featured in the media, with coverage in the New York Times, the Atlantic, The Guardian, Forbes, Rolling Stone, NPR, and in Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind. Dr. Belser is a teacher of hatha and kundalini yoga. He studied at Georgetown, Cambridge, Columbia, NYU, and Yale. More information is available at http://alexbelser.com and https://www.centerforbreakthroughs.com

Do you conduct academic research related to psychedelics? Please take part in our survey regarding the prevalence of psychedelic experiences among psychedelic researchers. We hope for answers from all psychedelic researchers, regardless of whether they have had their own psychedelic experiences or not. You can answer until May 8th. Also feel free to spread information about the study to your colleagues and networks!

The research is carried out by Dr. Aila Mustamo (University of Turku) and Dr. Jussi Jylkkä (Åbo Akademi University).

You can participate in the survey via this link.

For more information, please contact the researchers: Aila Mustamo (aila.mustamo (at) utu.fi), Jussi Jylkkä (jussi.jylkka (at) abo.fi).

Recent studies have shed light on the potential use of psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin for depression. While known for their quick and lasting antidepressant effects, the hallucinogenic properties of these substances, with the risks inherent to them, may limit their widespread clinical adoption. Recent research indicates that some of their therapeutic benefits might be harnessed without the hallucinogenic effects. This is one of the themes that biochemist and neuroscientist Rafael Moliner will cover in a webinar organized by the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research on Monday February 5th 2024, 6PM (UTC+2).

Essentially all antidepressants, including fluoxetine and ketamine, act by binding to TrkB, the receptor for the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Moliner’s recent research, conducted at the University of Helsinki and published last year, discovered that LSD and psilocin directly bind to TrkB with affinities 1,000-fold higher than those for other antidepressants. The research provides additional support to the view of TrkB’s central role in antidepressant effects, suggesting new drugs that don’t activate the 5-HT2A receptor (which is relevant to psychedelic effects) as a promising new avenue of research. 

There are several reasons to explore such drugs. Psychedelics can occasionally produce hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) or irreversible psychotic episodes in susceptible populations, which has led to routinely excluding patients with a family history of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia from participating in psychedelic clinical trials. While there is intense ongoing debate on how much of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics is a direct result of the things experienced during the treatment sessions, it’s also obvious that there is need for new treatments for situations where such intense experiences are not welcome or even viable. 

The event length is around 45 minutes for the lecture and 30 minutes for audience questions. The event is free of charge for everyone interested – you’ll receive a free participation link by registering here. 

About the speaker: Rafael studied biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and neuroscience at the University of Helsinki (Finland). He developed his doctoral research at the laboratory of Eero Castrén, where he contributed to the groundbreaking discovery that antidepressants produce their therapeutic effects through direct binding and allosteric modulation of the BDNF receptor TrkB. More recently, Rafael had a leading role in the multidisciplinary research effort that unveiled how psychedelics with therapeutic potential bind to TrkB with much higher affinities than antidepressants, which could help explain their faster and more long-lasting effects on plasticity and antidepressant action. Importantly, his research also revealed that the therapeutic-like effects of psychedelics through TrkB are independent of their hallucinogenic action, which opens an avenue for the development of safer therapeutics with the fast and persistent antidepressant effects of psychedelics but devoid of hallucinations.

Clinical research on psychedelics has come a long way from its origins in the middle of the 20th century. One of the key figures in the current revival of psychedelic research is psychiatrist Charles S. Grob who has, since the 1990s, conducted important research on ayahuasca and psilocybin, amongst others. On Thursday December 7th, 6PM (UTC+2), dr. Grob will talk about the history of psychedelic research and the present and future implications of his own research projects – both for future projects and the practice of psychiatry and medicine.

The talk will review the history, ethnobotany, pharmacology and clinical research record of psychedelic drugs in human subjects. Prior investigations during the 1950s and 1960s will be examined as will the socio-cultural reactions that led to their termination by the early 1970s. An overview of the reemergence of psychedelic research in the modern era will be conducted, with particular emphasis on examining recent research using a psilocybin treatment model in the treatment of human subjects with advanced-stage medical illness approaching the end-of-life who are suffering from severe existential distress and demoralization. 

The implications of this body of investigation will be addressed with an emphasis on the necessity to safeguard optimal safety and ethical conduct. Particular attention will be given to the rationale, methodology and development of a new multi-site research project designed to explore the utility of psychedelic treatment at the end-of-life in the palliative care setting. 

The event contains a Q&A section. The total length is 2 hours. 

Tickets are available from our web store. For members of the association who’ve paid their membership fee for 2023, the event is free of charge. If you want to pay your membership fee for this year or become a member, you’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. An email with a link for free registration to the event has been sent to members of the association. If you’re not sure if you’ve paid for your membership this year, feel free to ask us.

Charles S. Grob, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine and the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He previously held faculty positions at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of California at Irvine. He has conducted approved clinical research with psychedelics since the early 1990s. From 2004-2008 he was the Principal Investigator of the first study in several decades to examine the use of a psilocybin treatment model for patients with advanced-cancer anxiety. He has also conducted research into the range of effects of MDMA, in both normal volunteers and in a selected subject population of adult autistics with severe social anxiety. And, he has conducted a series of ayahuasca research studies in Brazil. 

Over the last thirty years Dr. Grob has published numerous articles and chapters on psychedelics in the medical and psychiatric literatures and he is the editor of Hallucinogens: A Reader (Putnam/Tarcher, 2002), co-editor (with Roger Walsh) of Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics (SUNY Press, 2005) and co-editor (with James Grigsby) of the recently published Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens (Guilford Press, 2021). He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute.