EPISODE 27 - Dr Ben Sessa
“It Doesn’t really matter what psychiatric diagnosis you get - if you hurt or humiliate or abuse or maltreat a child, they will get something”
Dr. Ben Sessa
,
In today’s podcast, I did a live event with Dr. Ben Sessa at Luna Palace in Leederville. Ben was in town to help with various Antipodean psychedelic training schemes and conferences, and was kind enough to sit down for a live podcast - and a bit of socializing with the Perth psychedelic community afterward.
It was clear from Ben’s perspective that the eyes of the psychedelic world are now on Australia, and how we move forward as a collective has more importance than ever.
This event was kindly hosted by Emyria and The Pax Centre- a big thanks to both teams for making it happen, as well as to Steven for putting all the footage together. Also a big thanks to the excellent restaurant, ‘Servo’ for the excellent post-event food.
Watch the Youtube Live event here
In today’s podcast We Discuss;
The palliative to curative paradigm shift occurring in psychiatry,
Ben’s research into MDMA for alcoholism
Emyria and the Pax centre,
Childhood trauma as a primary aetiological root of many adult psychiatric diagnoses,
MDMA as an optimal therapeutic adjunct for trauma-focused therapy,
MDMA’s safety profile,
The Netflix documentary ‘How to Change Your Mind’
The blurred lines between the clinical and recreational use of MDMA,
The rationale for requiring prescribing physicians to ingest psychedelics - within a clinical setting and as part of their training protocol,
The road ahead for Australia and psychedelics and the urgent need to transcend parochial thinking and tribalism…
…and much more!
Dr. Ben Sessa
MBBS (MD) MRCPSYCH
Author, Psychiatrist, Psychedelic researcher.
For over 15 years Dr Ben Sessa has been at the forefront of psychedelic research in the UK through his affiliations with Imperial College London. Ben qualified as a medical doctor from UCL in 1997 and went on to specialise in psychiatry. For 25 years he has worked as a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with young people and adult patients in the field of addictions and trauma-related psychiatry.
Ben started studying psychedelics as a junior doctor and has taken part in research projects at Bristol University, Cardiff University, and Imperial College London with LSD, psilocybin, DMT, ketamine, and MDMA - receiving and/or administering all of these compounds in legal research settings.
One of the first doctors to develop the field of contemporary psychedelic research in the UK, he is the former co-founder and Head of Psychedelic Medicine at Awakn Life Sciences, a Bio-Tech company carrying out psychedelic research into addictions. Ben was one of the first Medical Cannabis psychiatric prescribers in the UK.
Ben is an approved and registered MDMA, ketamine, and psilocybin therapist. He has led research into MDMA-assisted therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder and is published widely in the academic and medical press. Ben is the co-founder and past president of the Breaking Convention conference. He is the author of ‘The Psychedelic Renaissance’, the novel ‘To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic’ (2015), and Altered States (2021). Ben lives and works in Bristol, UK.
* I take conflicts of interest very seriously - I am not an investor in Emyria/The Pax Centre, and the hosting of this event was a pro-bono offering from myself. This event was invite-only (i.e. non ticketed)- so I in no way monetized this podcast event - I simply believe that we need to maximize the number of ‘in-person’ events (around the topic of psychedelics) we have available in Australia. Emyria and the Pax centre were simply kind enough to host and facilitate such an event. More power to them.
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