Child Abuse, Addictions and MDMA Psychotherapy: A Child Psychiatrist's Perspective

A one-off FREE talk on the emerging psychedelic renaissance. FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/791381861064791/ Dr Ben Sessa is a consultant Addictions Psychiatrist as well as Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, with 20 years of experience. His work has focused on the link between child abuse and adult mental disorders. He is one of the pioneering scientists to begin looking at the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for resolving traumatising childhood memories – which may often lie at the heart of mental disorders like addiction. He is a widely published writer, with many peer-reviewed scientific papers, popular press articles and books under his name. His 2012 book, 'The Psychedelic Renaissance' (1st edition in 2012) has recently been launched as an up-to-date (2017) textbook describing the latest international developments in the field of psychedelic medicine. He has also authored several other books on the subject, as well as a novel. Ben works clinically in Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare and is currently carrying out the world's first MDMA Psychotherapy study for treating addictions, with a Bristol-based study sponsored by Imperial College London. Ben is a co-founder and co-senior executive of the major international psychedelic research conference, Breaking Convention. In this talk Ben will describe the neurological, social and psychological roots of mental disorders and addictions as they pertain to child maltreatment. He will explore the physical and psychological actions of the drug MDMA and describe why it is "the perfect drug to assist trauma-focused psychotherapy". He will also give a potted history of psychedelics in medicine and highlight some of the current on-going psychedelic research projects underway on the UK and beyond.