MDMA-ASSISTED THERAPY: INTRODUCTORY TRAINING FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

What can we learn about the human psyche from a medicine that supposedly opens us up? How can benefits be maximized and risk minimized?

Get ut to date on the most exciting frontier in mental health right now. Get the evidence-based knowledge and the skills you need to support your patients, bring fruits back to your own clinical practice and take informed choices for your level of involvement in this field. 

The first in a series of 3 monthly 3-hour lectures on MDMA-assisted therapy, hosted by MDMA researcher and therapist Ivar W. Goksøyr. 

Buy your ticket now! 50% of net profit will be funneled back into funding psychedelic research projects where Psykologvirke is involved. 

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MDMA-assisted therapy is well underway to become an approved treatment modality, estimated to happen next year. Meanwhile, more or less conscious, responsible use with or without therapeutic intent is spreading in informal settings in the general population.

These series of lectures from Psykologvirke will bring you up to date on this important research frontier. It will hand over much of the knowledge already gained from early pioneers, underground practitioners and modern clinical studies.

The lectures will enable you on a practical level to answer your clients questions with evidence-based knowledge and contribute to harm-reduction. You will be better able to understand how much of the therapeutic potential can be lost in informal settings, and how risks are enhanced. 

But you will also learn to work more effectively with integration of MDMA-experiences of potential therapeutic importance. 

This way, mental health practitioners can more easily understand, navigate and bring fruits back from this field. It will also be easier to determine what your own level of engagement in this field should be. 

It will provide you with an increased theoretical understanding of how MDMA works and different ways to combine it with therapy to create optimal synergies. You will learn how this state of consciousness can be navigated to maximize benefits and avoid potential pitfalls.

You may also get an increased understanding of and respect for the psyche and its self-healing capacities.

Hopefully, you will be inspired to see how knowledge obtained from this line of research can also be implemented into your own clinical practice.

This lecture is the first of 3 monthly 3-hour sessions. This first lecture will cover topics such as:

• The history of MDMA-assisted therapy: Procedures and findings from early pioneers before the scheduling of MDMA and how they relate to modern findings. 
• How and why MDMA-assisted therapy its different from recreational use of MDMA
• The rationale for MDMA-assisted therapy: How MDMA acts as a catalyst for psychotherapy and how can these effects be maximized, and associated risks minimized?

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• The psychotherapeutic framework for MDMA-assisted therapy: What are the proposed mechanisms of change? 

• How do MDMA_AT relate to other therapeutic modalities and how can synergies be maximized?
  

• The empirical status of risks and benefits of MDMA-assisted therapy: The most important studies from basic and clinical science.

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• What basic principles about the human psyche seems to be revealed in this specific context? Can these principles inform your self-understanding and your own clinical practice?

• Clinical vignettes will be used to illustrate the didactic material. 

This lecture will be held in English. 

The second lecture in this series will focus on hands-on aspects of conducting MDMA-assisted therapy. The third lecture will present a detailed video-based case-analysis of Ivar Goksøyrs own experience as a participant receiving MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as part of the training. 

It will be possible to sign up for the coming lectures only when this first is conducted. The price is per lecture. 

About the presenter: 
Ivar W. Goksøyr is a specialist in clinical Psychology. He is the founder of Psykologvirke, a leading mental health clinic in Norway. He has a background as a sports officer and leadership developer in the Norwegian Navy.

He is a psychedelic researcher and therapist. He has been associated with the Norwegian psychedelic research unit Psykforsk – Innovative treatment research, at Østfold State Hospital, since 2018.

He is a certified MDMA-assisted psychotherapist under the auspices of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received MDMA-assisted psychotherapy himself, as part of this training.

Ivar Goksøyr has been a therapist in a larger European multicenter study that looked at MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and is now a therapist in the world's first study that looks at MDMA-assisted therapy for depression.

He collaborates with several national and international research units on new studies. He has published both scientifically and popularly on the subject, in addition to presenting at international conferences on psychotherapy in general and psychedelic therapy in particular.

Ivar also has experience with psychedelic integration therapy for clients who have received Ketamine treatment at private clinics.

Ivar Goksøyr has received training in psilocybin-assisted therapy and has previously been a consultant and adherence rater for Compass Pathways in a clinical study that looked at the safety and effectiveness of psilocybin against depression.

He has administered psilocybin to subjects in the world's largest study on the effects of psilocybin on healthy volunteers.

He has been a guest on a number of podcasts and has lectured on psychedelic therapy across the country.