Our new project blog!
Written by Tehseen Noorani
It’s been a busy month for us. At the end of March we hosted the first national discussion on psychedelic therapy in Aotearoa, at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. It was an exciting event, with over 200 registrations, 5 keynote talks, 3 panel discussions, and 5 breakout rooms each of which convened multiple times to discuss key pieces of the psychedelic therapy puzzle. Fiona Hutton from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University recently wrote a review of the gathering for the Drug Science website, which you can read here.
Since then, Jor’el and Tehseen traveled all the way to Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest psychedelic conference hosted at Exeter University in the UK, to speak about the project and the March gathering. Jor’el also introduced kaupapa Māori healing modalities to a rapt audience. It was a privilege to connect with Indigenous and non-Indigenous folk working to make psychedelic therapy safe and accessible in other countries.
Some updates from us: the video recordings of the keynotes from our March event are now all available to view online through the event webpage, and we’re keen to move into the next phase of our community strategising project. There are several things on the go - one is this blog, and we welcome you to contact us about anything you’d like to write on! We are also working with community leaders to develop an online harm reduction course, guidelines for clinicians wanting to set up psychedelic clinics in Aotearoa, and tailored presentations to specific audiences such as politicians and regulators. And we’re actively exploring options for setting up a psychedelic therapist training course that is embedded in both te ao Māori and the best of Western biomedical science and therapeutic traditions.
It’s a lot to keep us going. As things stand our project funds will run out by the end of August, so we are working in a way that is mindful of ensuring legacy no matter what. Meanwhile, if you want to support our work, please reach out!
Paddington Station, London