This workshop is open to anyone with an interest in the topic and who is considering further development of their current therapeutic skills. It is particularly for those who are aiming to work in this field as and when these therapies become legally available in Australia.
It will cover an introductory background history to psychedelic medicines, how they work and how they are applied in research and clinical settings. There will be a significant practical component focussing on integration of experiences – how to understand and use the kinds of experience commonly encountered when using these substances for better self-understanding and how trained therapists might help someone apply them in their own lives.
While not providing a qualification of any kind, attendees can obtain non-accredited Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certificates (related to your professional registration) for attending.
Medicine-assisted therapy is not yet legal in Australia, outside of a research context. However, given the impressive early clinical evidence to date, and the near-term regulatory changes predicted in the US and EU subject to forthcoming data, these workshops will contribute to preparing the Australia context for regulatory changes in the coming years.
The workshops will cover all three phases of medicine-assisted therapy: preparation, medicine session, and integration. Workshops will incorporate the theoretical (neuroscience, psychology, psychotherapy), practical (instruction in methods of service provision), and experiential elements of treatment (process learning that deepens and develops clinicians’ capacity).
The Presenters
Nigel Denning
MA, MPsych
Nigel Denning MA, MPsych is a Counselling Psychologist, AHPRA registered supervisor and Managing Director of Integrative Psychology a Psychology/Psychiatry practice in East Melbourne. He is a former Family Violence Co-ordinator for Relationships Australia and is currently the Deputy President of the In Good Faith Foundation, an organisation that supports Institutional Abuse and cult survivors. Nigel is also a registered Neuro-psychotherapy supervisor with IAAN.
Nigel has been involved in Transpersonal Psychology and consciousness studies for over thirty years. He has studied extensively under Stanislav Grof MD and worked closely with Tav Sparks and Grof Transpersonal Training to develop training approaches to Holotropic breathwork and therapy influenced by this modality. Nigel also conducted one of the few peer reviewed research studies on HB.
Nigel teaches and has presented at numerous national and international conferences on state change technology, including medicine work. Nigel also has an established practice in Tibet Bon Dzogchen meditation under the guidance of Dr Daniel Brown of Harvard Medical School.
Dr Alana Roy
Ph. D Psychology, B. A Social Work (MHSW)
Dr Alana Roy is a psychologist, social worker and therapist and has spent the last 13 years working in mental health, suicide prevention, trauma, sexual abuse, family violence and the disability sector. Alana has worked with borderline personality and dissociative identity disorder in various roles in the community such as: Rape Crisis Centres with victims of ritual abuse, childhood and adult sexual assault, supporting women in the sex industry, survivors of human trafficking and now as a psychedelic integration specialist.
Alana focuses on harm minimisation, community and connection. She is dedicated to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and plant medicines. She has engaged with, and provides integration therapeutic support services for communities across Australia. Alana works at several universities as a Research Fellow and supervisor of students on placement. Alana passionately advocates for public policy, community education and legislative changes so that these treatments are regulated and supported by a strong, connected and skilled sector.
Learn more about Alana’s experiences in: Psychedelic Medicines: How My Journey Into The Jungle Changed My Life
Dr Tra-ill Dowie
PhD
Psychotherapist and Head of the Faculty of Psychotherapy at Ikon Institute Australia
Dr Tra-ill Dowie is the Head of the Faculty of Psychotherapy at Ikon Institute Australia. Dr Dowie is the Chair of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) Panel for Trauma Standards & Practice. Dr Dowie is a practising psychotherapist, supervisor and public speaker. Dr Dowie’s academic life and public lectures cover a broad range of interdisciplinary topics that relate to the human condition: psychiatry, psychotherapy, trauma, continental philosophy, philosophy of mind, anthropology, health and wellbeing, and human optimisation. He holds dual PhDs, receiving a PhD in Psychiatry from Monash University and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne.