Contact person: Dea S. Stenbæk
The NRU Psychological Psychedelic Intervention group aims to support psychologically safe administration of psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD. The group further aims to study psychological and psychiatric aspects of psychedelic therapy and contribute to best practice models of care in psychedelic therapy. This is attained by studying both healthy individuals and patients with various somatic and psychiatric disorders.
As a core function, the Psychological Psychedelic Intervention group conducts psychedelic interventions, including preparation sessions, dosing sessions, and integration sessions. The number of sessions and content of sessions vary depending on whether the study populations consist of healthy volunteers or patients. Psychedelic sessions are either conducted in a designated treatment room at NRU or modified to fit a scanner environment in studies where acute effects of psychedelics are studied. Each psychedelic intervention is conducted by a lead facilitator and an assistant facilitator that have been trained and supervised by experienced facilitators in the group.
The Psychological Psychedelic Intervention group consists of both pre-graduate psychology students as well as post-graduate PhD students, post docs and senior researchers. It houses interns and students from all Danish Universities and also welcomes students from abroad. The group collaborates with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, United Kingdom, the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and various other international partners in the psychedelic research field. It furthermore collaborates closely with Copenhagen University Clinic for Psychedelic Research (NOESIS), Department of Psychology, Copenhagen University, where some of the collaborative psychedelic studies are conducted.