Breaking Through PTSD with Psychedelics - Documentary Screening & Panel Q&A

From Army Veteran to being a significant part of the psychedelic assisted therapy movement, Guy Murray’s story shows how an underground psychedelic assisted therapy session helped him overcome PTSD.

Right now, 1 in 5 people suffer with anxiety, depression and trauma in the UK. However, limited therapy treatments and resources leave some individuals seeking underground therapy treatments. As of right now, the UK is at the forefront of psychedelic assisted therapy trials with doctors and advocates continually pushing for more research to help rethink treatments and question why we aren't using psychedelics to treat in psychotherapy.

We should have been getting the correct help that we were meant to be receiving. There should have been proper follow-ups from that tour. We ended up self-medicating and doing the work ourselves.

- Guy Murray -

‘Breaking Through’ is a short documentary exploring the current status of psychedelics as medicine through veteran Guy Murray's journey to healing and how an underground LSD therapy session rescued him from his PTSD. 

Following the live screening, we will hold a panel discussion with Guy himself, during which we will explore more deeply the potential for future PTSD treatment through psychedelic experience.

OUR PANELISTS:

Guy Murray

Guy served in the UK military for 5 years, leaving in 2014. He is currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at the University of Roehampton, studying a BSc in Psychology and Counselling. After witnessing the loss of a very close friend during active service, Guy developed PTSD. Since leaving the military, his experiences with different plant medicines highlighted the root causes of his trauma and how he was maintaining it through his behaviour and thought patterns. Having been healed of his own PTSD, Guy is now an energetic and committed advocate for the use of plant medicine therapies to treat PTSD in veterans. He volunteers with Heroic Hearts UK as their Integration Coach & Research Assistant.

Dr Grace Blest-Hopley

Grace earned a Ph.D. in the neurochemical and neurofunctional effects of cannabinoids following completion of a Masters in Neuroscience at King’s College London. As a research associate, she has continued to research in the field of cannabinoids and mental health, particularly using neuroimaging techniques. Grace has a keen research interest in psychotropic drug research and how these may be used therapeutically, as well as the mechanisms and risk factors behind the development of psychological disorders. She is currently serving as a member of the reserve armed forces, and recently joined Heroic Hearts UK as Research Director.

Dr Ben Sessa

Ben Sessa is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist who has worked with young people and adults in the field of addictions and trauma-related psychiatry for over 20 years. For the last 15 years Ben has been working in the field of psychedelic research in the UK through his affiliations with Bristol University and Imperial College London, under the auspices of Professor David Nutt. He has taken part as a study doctor and as a healthy subject both receiving and / or administering MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, DMT and ketamine in multiple UK research  studies. He runs a weekly UK-based medical cannabis prescribing clinic. Ben is the Chief Medical Officer at AWAKN Life Sciences, a new start-up opening Europe's first psychedelic medical clinic, in Bristol, which will be providing psychedelic therapies, therapist training courses and conducting independent psychedelic research. Ben is the co-founder and former president of Europe's largest psychedelic conference, Breaking Convention.

Dan Laughton

Dan Laughton is a documentary and commercial director, producer and camera operator. Dan’s background in film starts at Ravensbourne University and on to Grierson DocLab, TV/Factual and working with some of the UK’s largest online platforms. Ranging from directing, producing and shooting, Dan’s skills have been transferred across many projects in both documentary and commercial work. Dan is currently working on multiple documentary projects, in pitch and production as well as commercial and commissioned work.

We will send out a recording of this talk/panel discussion to all ticket holders within a week of the event taking place.

If you would like to attend this event but are unable to afford the ticket price, please do get in touch with us closer to the time of the event taking place, at mags@psychedelicsociety.org.uk, giving the reason for your request. At the Psychedelic Society, we believe that everyone should be able to access our events regardless of employment or health circumstances, so we will do our best to accommodate where we can.

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