"I envision a day where people would be able to choose to do MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a safe context to be either able to heal from something together or to grow together, and to support the relationship."

In this episode of the Mindspace podcast, Dr. Joe speaks with Dr. Anne Wagner. Anne is a Toronto-based psychologist and couples therapist, a researcher studying MDMA-assisted therapy, and the founder of Remedy Centre (remedycentre.ca). Remedy is a social venture that provides individual, couples, and group therapy and reinvests the profit from these services into the Remedy Institute, which is “a new charity focused on supporting mental health innovation & research, including with psychedelics, training for aspiring mental health professionals, as well as low to no-cost therapy services for marginalized communities.”

She is the principal investigator on a pilot trial studying the impact of MDMA-assisted Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) on PTSD and is planning a study that will examine the impact of MDMA-assisted Cognitive Behavioural Conjoint Therapy (CBCT) on PTSD.

If you’d like to donate to the Remedy Institute, please check out: canadahelps.org/en/charities/remedy-institute

Dr. Joe and Dr. Wagner spoke about:

- The origins of Remedy Centre and the newly created non-profit, the Remedy Institute

- Her research on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with couples

- Using a form of Cognitive Therapy in her protocols, as opposed to more experiential approaches typically used in psychedelic therapy

- The advantage of couples therapy over individual therapy in the treatment of PTSD

- Transference and counter-transference in couples therapy with MDMA

- Integration of couples experiences with MDMA

- The roles of co-regulation and self-regulation

- How MDMA can be a catalyst for change in couples