MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD: Improving Social Connectedness

Presented by Sara Klinkhamer MA, RCC

Live Streaming on June 17, 2025

$122.00

3 Hours | Pre-approved for CEU’s

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Description

This workshop will be live streaming to online participants on June 17, 2025 from 8:30am – 11:45am (Vancouver, BC)
Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone. 

Recorded footage and all course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until July 28, 2025. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.
Please allow 3 – 10 business days after the course airs for recorded footage to become available.

Registration will close on June 16, 2025. 

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is making a comeback, and this time it doesn’t look like it is going anywhere despite some significant controversies in the last few years. The most research has been conducted with MDMA for chronic PTSD, with Phase 3 clinical trials complete and the application into the FDA, it is expected to be approved by the end of this year in the United States. Already here in Canada many people have received treatment through the Special Access Program (SAP) and expanded access is on the horizon. For this 3-hour workshop, Sara Klinkhamer will focus on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which has also been the focus of the PhD she is currently completing through the California Institute of Integral Studies. It will be argued here that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is particularly effective for treating PTSD because it improves one’s sense of social connectedness and social connectedness moderates PTSD symptom severity. A brief history and context will situate these claims. The talk will also include a discussion of the possibility that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy improves one’s sense of connectedness in general. Current and future research may show it is effective for treating various ‘maladies of disconnection’ including addiction, depression, relationship problems and other existential issues.

  • Understand the complicated history of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
  • Understand the rationale for utilizing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.
  • Understand how MDMA-assisted psychotherapy increases participants sense of social connectedness.
  • Understand how a sense of social connectedness moderates PTSD symptom severity.
  • Understand what a ‘malady of disconnection’ is and how MDMA-assisted psychotherapy could be effective in treating these.

Clinical Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Clinical Counsellors, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Hospice and Palliative Care Workers, School Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Addiction Specialists, Marital & Family Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants and all professionals looking to enhance their therapeutic skills.

Sara brings a background of working on the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver for more than 10 years, which has given her much experience working with addiction and mental health issues, particularly trauma. Sara has also worked in both residential and outpatient settings as a concurrent disorders counsellor. Her strong belief in the worth of each individual, optimism in the face of adversity, as well as respect for autonomy and dignity, has served her well in this work. Sara completed her BA in psychology at Simon Fraser University in 2005 and her Masters of Counselling Psychology at Adler University in 2008. In 2009, Sara started a post-graduate program in Existential Analysis and in 2013 became a founding board member of the Existential Analysis Society of Canada. Sara joined the Sunshine Coast clinical team in 2016.

  • Canadian Psychological Association
    The Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers (NLASW) accept CPA-approved continuing education credits

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