MDMA-Assisted Therapy

MDMA-Assisted Therapy is Coming to Town: Soon-ish

BY DAREK DAWDA, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

This is not a joke. New rigorous research is showing that the hippy love-drug MDMA (aka Ecstasy), when combined with psychotherapy, is a powerful agent for healing trauma. And the word is spreading fast. BBC News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, VOX, CBC, and all other major news outlets are reporting on this groundbreaking research.

One year after treatment, two-thirds of 90 participants with severe PTSD no longer had PTSD.

The largest study to date showed that MDMA-Assisted Therapy is not only safe but also more effective in treating PTSD than any other existing treatment. One year after treatment, two-thirds of 90 participants with severe PTSD no longer had PTSD. This is truly unprecedented, and if these results hold up with further research, we might have an amazing tool to treat trauma. Some go as far as calling this a revolution in mental health treatment, but more research is needed before such assertions can be unequivocally made.

Trauma is notoriously difficult to treat because the traumatic memories are loaded with fear, which naturally makes us avoid those memories. And as we all know, those unprocessed memories continue to debilitate us, causing all sorts of problems on an ongoing daily basis, including depression, relationship dysfunction, substance abuse, and in extreme cases aggression or suicidality.

What the drug MDMA does is calm down the brain’s fear centre, which allows access to and reprocessing of traumatic memories during the MDMA-Assisted Therapy process. The therapy itself is often called Integration Therapy, as it is designed to integrate the insights and gains achieved during the MDMA sessions into everyday life. Each MDMA dosing session is followed by several integrations sessions, specifically designed to bridge the gap between the altered MDMA state and regular daily life. Integration is deemed to be at least as important a part of successful treatment as the MDMA experience itself.

What MDMA does is calm down the brain’s fear centre, which allows access to and reprocessing of traumatic memories during the MDMA-Assisted Therapy process. MDMA results in a release of the hormone Oxytocin, which is responsible for social bonding.

The good news is that MDMA is used only 1 to 3 times during the therapy, which is enough to create lasting change.

MDMA-Assisted Therapy is also being currently studied for other conditions with some promising initial results, including helping couples heal their relationships. In addition to calming down the fear centre, MDMA results in a release of the hormone Oxytocin, which is responsible for social bonding. Oxytocin gives couples a window in which to connect and communicate more openly and with care. Psychotherapy then helps integrate these insights and experiences into everyday life, resulting in more openness, compassion and overall happiness and harmony.

The good news is that MDMA is used only 1 to 3 times during the therapy, which is enough to create lasting change. This is starkly different from most other psychotropic drugs. The effects of MDMA Therapy also seem to last a long time. Moreover, people seem to be showing spontaneous improvement in well-being even after the end of the treatment. That’s why this treatment is said to have the potential to not only reduce symptoms but to actually heal trauma.

At this point, MDMA-Assisted Therapy is not legal or available. We are working hard to bring this therapy to people in need in a professional, safe, and effective way, once it goes through the process of approval by Health Canada.

At this point, MDMA-Assisted Therapy is not legal or available, aside from a few rare research opportunities (no such opportunities are available in Manitoba at present). The FDA and Health Canada approval process is currently in its final stages, and the best guess is that this therapy will become available around 2023, maybe even 2024. Between now and then there might be some rare opportunities to obtain MDMA Therapy through Health Canada’s Special Access Program, but this route is in its untested infancy at present.

I am a part of Enhanced Therapy Institute, a professional Manitoba group that is preparing to provide MDMAAssisted Therapy when it becomes legal and available. We have done the training, we have the facilities, we have the support and guidance from the leaders in the field, and we have years of experience treating trauma and relationships using traditional psychotherapy methods. We are working hard to bring this therapy to people in need in a professional, safe, and effective way, once it goes through the process of approval by Health Canada.

To stay informed on the Manitoba developments around MDMA-Assisted Therapy, sign up @ https://enhancedtherapy.ca

Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is the leader in the field of MDMA-Assisted Therapy, with a host of relevant information on their website @ https://maps.org

If you’d like to listen to an amazing first-hand account of how MDMA Therapy works, listen to Lori Tipton’s heart-felt account on the Enhanced Therapy Podcast @ https://enhancedtherapy.ca/a-personal-account-of-the-healing-power-of-mdma-therapy-with-loritipton-enhanced-therapy-podcast-4/). WARNING: Content might be triggering!

Happy Holidays from myself and our crew at Enhanced Therapy Institute …

Dr. Darek Dawda, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist Co-founder of Enhanced Therapy Institute Host of Enhanced Therapy Podcast