April 11, 2023 @ 3:00 - 4:00 PM EST

Zoom Webinar

Did you know that Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was a proponent of LSD? As clinicians interested in working with people with substance-related and behavioral addictions, please join this webinar about how psychedelics can shape personal growth through intentional communities, with a presentation and discussion on Psychedelics in Recovery (PIR) led by one of its founders. PIR is a 12-step fellowship whose members integrate intentional psychedelic experiences. The presentation will include the background and history of PIR, as well as an overview of its core components. The presenter and PIR also extend an invitation to people who wish to attend open meetings of PIR, whether online or in cities with in person meetings, regardless of whether or not you identify as a person in recovery.

Kevin F. is a psychotherapist and Licensed Addiction Counselor based in Littleton. But for the purposes of representing his experience, strength, and hope around his personal addiction story and involvement in the development of Psychedelics in Recovery (PIR), a 12-step oriented mutual aid group, he wishes to honor the spirit of anonymity central to this lineage. Kevin will share how the personal recovery journeys of he and a scattered group of people in both mainstream and specialized 12-step fellowships independently discovered the utility of blending elements of their psychedelic experiences. The Twelve Steps, originally conceived by Alcoholics Anonymous, have been described since their inception as a “design for living” a life freed from the obsession and compulsion attached to varied experiences of addiction. Along with PIR’s founding members, Kevin has attempted to grow the fellowship while weaving and expanding many of the complex and overlapping ideas around topics like psychedelic integration, harm reduction, drug exceptionalism, and abstinence-only approaches.

Instructor(s)

Chief Visionary Officer, Co-Founder and Trainer Elizabeth Nielson, PhD

Dr. Elizabeth Nielson is a co-founder of Fluence and a psychologist with a focus on developing psychedelic medicines as empirically supported treatments for PTSD, substance use problems, and mood disorders. Dr. Nielson is a therapist on FDA approved clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder, MDMA-assisted treatment PTSD, and psilocybin-assisted treatment of treatment resistant depression. Through Fluence, she provides continuing education and training programs for therapists who wish to engage in integration of psychedelic experiences in clinical settings. Her program of research includes qualitative and mixed-methods projects designed to further understand the phenomenology and mechanisms of change in psychedelic-assisted therapy, including the experiences of trial participants and of the therapists themselves. Having completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at NYU, she has published and presented on topics of psychedelic therapist training, therapists’ personal experience with psychedelics, and including psychedelic integration in group and individual psychotherapy.

Kevin Franciotti