Brisbane Chapter Presents A New Paradigm for Mental Health: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies with Nigel Denning & Tania de Jong

The Brisbane Chapter of Mind Medicine Australia is proud to invite you to:

A New Treatment Paradigm for Mental Illness: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies with Nigel Denning & Tania de Jong AM (feat Q&A)

As you may know, Psychedelic-Assisted therapy is showing incredible promise to help people suffering from a range of mental health conditions including PTSD, depression, anxiety and addiction.

We are delighted to invite you to a live in-person event on March 31 in Brisbane's West End where you can learn about this exciting new frontier for mental health.

The evening will feature a presentation and Q&A with two of the leaders in the field: Nigel Denning and Tania De Jong AM who will be joining us from Melbourne via zoom. Nigel is head of the Mind Medicine Institute, which is running Australia’s first certification program for psychedelic-assisted therapies and Tania de Jong is the Executive Director of Mind Medicine Australia.

They will be discussing this exciting new field, which is promising to allow Australians who are suffering with mental illness the opportunity to get well and return to living full lives.

Cheese platters and drinks will be provided on the night.

Date: Thursday 31st March 2022

Time: 5:30pm (supper and drinks) for 6:00pm start – 7:30pm (includes Q&A Panel)

Location: Treehouse Rooftop, 111 Jane Street, West End, 4101
Ticket Price (incl. Supper, Drinks and Q&A): $20 General Admission / $10 Concession
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About the Speakers

Tania De Jong

Tania de Jong AM is a trail-blazing Australian soprano, award-winning social entrepreneur, creative innovation catalyst, spiritual journey woman, storyteller and global speaker. Tania is one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs and innovators developing 5 businesses and 3 charities over the past 3 decades. She is Founder and Executive Producer of future-shaping events series, Creative Innovation Global. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2008 and named one of the 100 Women of Influence and the 100 Australian Most Influential Entrepreneurs in 2018.

Nigel Denning

Nigel Denning is a Counselling Psychologist with 30 years of experience in the mental health sector.  He is the Managing Director and co-founder of Integrative Psychology and the Mind Medicine Institute.

Nigel’s expertise covers developmental trauma, institutional abuse, family violence, attachment disorder, relationship therapy and advanced concentration meditation.  He works with individuals, couples, families, groups and organisations.  Nigel has been involved in therapy and court reporting on several hundred cases from the Royal Commission into Childhood Institutional Sexual Abuse.  Nigel is a former Family Violence Coordinator for Relationships Australia. He has conducted research at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, under the supervision of Professor Kelsey Hegarty on male perpetrator typologies. For over 10 years Nigel facilitated group psychotherapy for male perpetrators of family violence.  Nigel is an expert in trauma. 

Nigel has a passion for group psychotherapy having taught Irvin Yalom’s existential humanistic group psychotherapy.  Nigel has conducted many thousands of hours of group therapy across a range of formats including couple’s repair groups, mindfulness groups, trauma recovery groups and transpersonal groups.

Nigel has a life-long curiosity about the deep structure of the human psyche viewed from multiple different disciplines.  He gained a master’s degree in English Literature from Monash University pursuing his curiosity about how the human mind was expressed historically through literary form.  In his late teens and early twenties, Nigel’s passion for poetry and the novel, led him to perform live poetry.  In the formative stage of his professional life, Nigel studied Divinity at the Melbourne Theological College, at the University of Melbourne.

Nigel has extensive experience with psychedelic work internationally.  He began working with altered states of consciousness 35 years ago when he was introduced to Holotropic Breathwork through the guidance of Alf and Muriel Foote.  Twenty-five years ago, Nigel began to work with Dr Stanislav Grof, one of the leading pioneers in the clinical application of psychedelics.  Nigel co-founded the world’s first Spiritual Emergency Centre based on Grof’s work, in partnership with Tav Sparks, Director of Grof Transpersonal Training in North Carolina.  He was also lucky to meet Dr Albert Hoffman at a workshop organised by Grof at HR Geiger’s Museum/Gallery in Gruyere Switzerland. Nigel has also trained with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and successfully completed their clinician qualification. Nigel is passionate about educating clinicians into the potential of non-ordinary state work when done ethically and skillfully.

Nigel has studied with some of the world’s leading clinicians including Dr Daniel P. Brown, Dr Daniel Siegel, Dr John and Julie Gottman, Dr Sue Johnson, Michael White, Professor Pieter Rossouw and more recently Professor Anthony Bateman from the Anna Freud Centre in London.  Nigel has always sought to learn from the experts in their field with his interest moving most recently to metacognitive therapies and mentalizing practice.  In recent years, he has also developed an interest in cult exiting and has worked with Dr Steven Hassan on approaches to therapeutic recovery from mind control.  

Nigel has presented at numerous conferences and events around the world and presents lectures at tertiary institutions.  He is a former National Treasurer of the College of Counselling Psychologists and, as a Victorian state committee member, spent 10 years presenting professional development seminars for his peers. Nigel has also been inducted into the Buddhist Kagyu and Nyingma lineages by Tulku Rahob Rinpoche and into the Bon lineage by Geshe Sonam of Menri Monastery. He has an established meditation practice in the Bon rDzogs Chen tradition.
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More about psychedelic-assisted therapy

Psychedelic-assisted therapies offer enormous potential in providing a meaningful alternative to current treatments for mental illness. PTSD is a debilitating condition that affects tens of millions of people worldwide, with many more trauma victims diagnosed with comorbid conditions such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. In recent clinical trials, MDMA has been shown to produce reliable clinical improvements, restoring patient safety and self-agency even for individuals who have suffered with PTSD for many years, and for whom many treatments have failed.

Results from Phase 2 clinical trials over the past decade have been so compelling that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States recently designated MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a ‘Breakthrough Therapy’. This designation highlights the FDA’s anticipation that these therapies may offer a substantial advantage over current treatments.

The wave of clinical psychedelic research and regulatory support is rapidly building, with experts forecasting the availability of psychedelic-assisted treatments in the US and EU within the next 2 to 5 years, subject to positive clinical outcomes in large trials that are currently underway.

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Many thanks to Mind Medicine Australia's Brisbane Chapter for running this event. Click here for more details or to join the Chapter!

Please support psychedelic research and therapy development by donating to Mind Medicine Australia. The recent pandemic has exacerbated Australia’s mental health epidemic and these treatments have the potential to cure millions of people who are suffering.

We are a small organisation doing big things – we need your support.   

Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation.