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Psychedelic assisted therapy has been legalised in Australia for the treatment of PTSD (using MDMA, an entactogen) and Treatment Resistant Depression (using Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic).
MDMA‑assisted therapy is a breakthrough approach that pairs targeted psychotherapy with the carefully supervised use of MDMA to deepen emotional access and reduce fear. By calming the brain’s threat response and enhancing trust and openness, it makes it possible for people to work through trauma in a way that feels safer, more connected, and more effective than talk therapy alone.
What MDMA-assisted therapy does:
Enhances emotional processing: Reduces fear responses and increases feelings of trust and openness, so clients can revisit traumatic memories more safely.
Supports trauma resolution: Helps people engage with painful experiences without becoming overwhelmed, improving outcomes for PTSD and complex trauma.
Strengthens therapeutic connection: Increases empathy and connection, deepening the relationship between client and therapist.
Reduces avoidance: Makes it easier to confront emotions or memories that are usually shut down or avoided.
Promotes lasting change: Clinical trials show durable improvements in symptoms months after treatment.
Why it’s effective:
Calms the threat system: MDMA helps quiet the amygdala, reducing fear and hypervigilance during trauma work.
Boosts key neurochemicals: Increases serotonin and oxytocin, supporting emotional openness, bonding, and a sense of safety.
Facilitates insight: Clients often gain clearer understanding of patterns, beliefs, and emotions that have been driving their distress.
MDMA helps quiet the brain’s threat response while enhancing trust and openness, allowing clients to revisit difficult memories without shutting down. In this supported state, people can process what once felt unbearable, often leading to meaningful breakthroughs and lasting change.
Who it may be for:
People with PTSD or complex trauma who haven’t found sufficient relief with standard therapies, including people with -occurring conditions such as anxiety, OCD, eating disorders.
Those who feel “stuck” in therapy, unable to access or express core emotions.
Individuals ready for deeper work in a structured, professionally supervised setting.
Safety and supervision:
Medical screening: Careful assessment to ensure MDMA‑assisted therapy is appropriate and safe.
Professional support: Sessions are facilitated by trained therapists within a clear therapeutic framework.
Integration sessions: Follow‑up therapy to help make sense of insights and embed changes into daily life.
Psilocybin‑assisted therapy combines targeted psychotherapy with the carefully supervised use of psilocybin, the active compound in certain mushrooms, to help people access deeper emotional layers, shift rigid thinking patterns, and experience meaningful psychological insight. In a safe therapeutic setting, psilocybin can open a window to profound reflection, allowing clients to explore their inner world with clarity, compassion, and reduced defensiveness.
What Psilocybin‑Assisted Therapy does:
Expands emotional awareness — helps clients access emotions that are normally suppressed or difficult to reach.
Interrupts rigid thinking patterns — loosens entrenched beliefs and narratives, supporting cognitive flexibility.
Facilitates deep insight — promotes meaningful reflection on life experiences, relationships, and personal identity.
Enhances connectedness — increases feelings of openness, empathy, and connection to self, others, and the world.
Supports depression relief — clinical trials show rapid and sustained reductions in depressive symptoms for many participants.
Why It’s Effective
Disrupts the default mode network — reduces overactive self‑critical thinking and rumination.
Promotes neuroplasticity — encourages new perspectives and emotional pathways.
Creates a sense of safety and openness — clients often feel more receptive to exploring difficult experiences.
Supports transformative experiences — many report shifts in meaning, purpose, and self‑understanding.
Psilocybin can temporarily quiet habitual mental loops while amplifying emotional clarity, allowing clients to explore experiences with curiosity rather than fear. This often leads to breakthroughs that feel both profound and practical.
Who It May Be For
Individuals experiencing depression — especially those who haven’t responded to standard treatments.
People seeking deeper psychological insight into patterns, identity, or life direction.
Clients feeling stuck in therapy or unable to access core emotions.
Those exploring existential distress related to illness, transitions, or meaning.
Safety and Supervision
Medical and psychological screening: Ensures psilocybin‑assisted therapy is appropriate and safe.
Professional facilitation: Sessions are guided by trained therapists in a controlled environment.
Integration sessions: Follow‑up therapy helps clients make sense of insights and apply them in daily life.
Supportive setting: Comfortable, calm environments reduce anxiety and support emotional exploration.
Screening and assessment — comprehensive medical and psychological screening ensures suitability before therapy begins.
Three preparation sessions — held about a week apart, either face‑to‑face or via Zoom, building trust, emotional readiness, and a shared therapeutic framework.
First medicine day — an 8‑hour session conducted in a specially designed room within a private hospital, supported by two trained therapists.
Three integration sessions — help clients process insights and stabilise emotional shifts; can be delivered in person or online.
Second medicine day — another full‑day therapeutic session in the hospital setting with the same two‑therapist support.
Three more integration sessions — deepen understanding and help translate experiences into daily life.
Third medicine day — final 8‑hour session in the hospital environment.
Final integration phase — three concluding integration sessions to consolidate learning and support long‑term change.
A number of psychologists at Centre Point Psychology have completed additional training in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy. This includes therapy for 'bad trip' experiences. We strongly encourage accessing this therapy in legal, clinically controlled settings with support from registered health professionals to ensure your safety, however, if you have had experiences in non legal settings that you would like help to integrate, we are able to support you.
Please note that we are not able to prescribe or provide dosing sessions of psychedelic assisted therapy at Centre Point Psychology.
We have partnered with Evolution Medicine Enhanced Therapy (EvolutionMET) to deliver a comprehensive program of therapy for treatment resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder at Hirondelle Private Hospital in Chatswood
Evolution Medicine Enhanced Therapy | Evolution Medicine Enhanced Therapy (evolutionmet.com)
Please email info@evolutionmet.com for more information
"The Psychologists at our practice would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands where we work and to pay respects to their Elders - past, present and emerging."
