Melbourne Chapter Catchup

Mind Medicine Australia’s Melbourne Chapter is pleased to invite you to an informal catch up at our headquarters in South Melbourne, including a light supper and Q&A with Peter Hunt AM, Tania de Jong AM, Dr Alana Roy, Diego Pinzon and other team members.

Venue: Dimension 5, Level 1, 10 Dorcas St, Southbank VIC 3006, Australia
Date: Friday 16th of July 2021
Time: 6:00pm - 8pm

About the Presenters

Peter Hunt AM
B.Com, LL.B
Founder & Chair of Mind Medicine Australia

As an investment banker Peter Hunt AM advised local and multi-national companies and governments in Australia for nearly 35 years. He co-founded and was Executive Chairman of one of Australia’s leading investment banking advisory firms, Caliburn Partnership (now called Greenhill Australia) and continued as Chairman of the Firm after its sale to Greenhill Inc in 2009. Peter is an active philanthropist involved in funding, developing and scaling social sector organisations which seek to create a better and fairer world. Peter was made a member of the General Division of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2010 for services to the philanthropic sector.

Tania de Jong AM
LL.B (Hons), GradDipMus
Founder & Deputy Chair of Mind Medicine Australia

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.

Dr Alana Roy
Ph. D Psychology, B. A Social Work (MHSW)
Practice Manager

Dr Alana Roy is the Practice Manager of Mind Medicine Australia, a Psychologist and a Social Worker. She is also a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and teaches and supervises students across multiple universities.

Alana has also worked in frontline sexual assault services for 13 years providing therapy to children, women and men working with victims, police and forensic doctors. She is passionate about emotion focused therapy, EMDR and trauma informed practices. Although these therapies are effective for a range of trauma survivors many victims continue to live with unbearable pain.

The reality is that there is an epidemic of sexual abuse in our world and we require radical treatments to tackle this global issue. Alana's own experiences of trauma and burnout lead her to seek out legal psychedelic assisted treatment overseas. It truly was 10 years of psychotherapy (insights) in one night. However, it wasn't 10 years of change in one night. Alana came back to Australia and was unable to locate a professional to help integrate these experiences. She realised that Australia needed a skilled mental health sector to help support victims who use psychedelics to overcome their trauma to process and integrate these transformative and healing experiences. Australia is falling behind in the global psychedelic renaissance.

Since this treatment, Alana has dedicated her life to researching and developing clinical services in the field of psychedelic and plant medicines. Mind Medicine Australia is a ground-breaking NGO advocating for the responsible use of psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Alana hopes to help make history in supporting legislative and policy change so that victims and all people with mental health issues have access to these medicines.

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About Medicinal MDMA

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 substantial advantage over current treatments. If forthcoming Phase 3 results confirm these treatments are effective, MDMA-assisted treatment of PTSD may become a prescription medicine as early as 2021 in some jurisdictions.

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 Melbourne Chapter for facilitating 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.

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Contact the host of Melbourne Chapter Catchup - An informal evening to meet, connect and learn.