Don't miss out - join our weekly online Community Meditation on Friday lunchtime.

We're excited to launch our FREE weekly meditation sessions for our community. We are living in turbulent times. At MMA we are committed to creating healthy, happy and inclusive communities. This is an opportunity to take a mindful break to connect to yourself and others during Friday lunchtime.

Meditation is a valuable self-care tool by itself, but is also useful for both preparing for and integrating psychedelic-assisted therapy (Eleftheriou & Thomas, 2021) . It can help us to cultivate mental clarity, self-awareness, emotional regulation, presence, and support the integration of insights. Through practices such as mindfulness, we develop the ability to approach psychedelic experiences with openness and clarity, while also gaining skills to navigate intense emotions and sensations that may arise during therapy sessions as well as in everyday life.

Please note that meditation complements psychedelic therapy, but it's crucial to only engage in therapy under professional guidance for safety and support.

The benefits of meditation can be enhanced by practicing with others. This view, which is central to many meditation traditions is being validated in recent research (Hanley et al, 2021).

These weekly sessions provide an opportunity for all members of MMA’s community to join members of the MMA team to connect and sit in meditation together.

EVENT DETAILS

DATE: Weekly on Fridays
TIME: 12:30pm start, finishing at 1:15pm
DURATION: 45 minutes
LOCATION: Online - a link will be emailed to you with the viewing details. Please note that this is the same link for each session.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

We will be alternating the facilitators for these sessions.

Dr Deb Roberts

Host of the Mind Medicine Australia Podcast

Deb Roberts grew out of a deep longing to share lived experience in various capacities through yoga, meditation, speaking and writing services to individuals, groups, and corporates. Deb has had a lifelong relationship with mental (ill) health yet been able to navigate a fulfilling existence through various means.

She has had two family members who have ended their life seeing no treatment pathway forward. One was her older sister who had tried countless medicine combinations, therapies, and facilities over 30 years. Deb’s pathway is to continue a life worth living and advocate for treatment options including the use of psychedelics.

Scott Edwards

Executive Officer at Mind Medicine Australia

Scott has had a diverse career, working across a variety of fields. After originally training and working as a professional musician, he founded and bootstrapped a successful online music education company – Ear Training HQ – at age 23. Ear Training HQ taught an innovative approach to skill development that he developed. He successfully taught this to thousands of students over 10 years. He has since trained and worked as a bodyworker and somatic therapist, again developing a unique approach called Contact Therapy which has led to significant positive outcomes for clients. It is through this somatic work that his interest in altered state based therapies developed.

His work in all fields is deeply influenced by Buddhist teachings and practice.

Julia Neubauer

Design Consultant at Mind Medicine Australia

Julia Neubauer is an emerging Arts Therapist. She has training in arts therapy, somatic embodiment, nervous system regulation, and rites of passage facilitation. Her practice also incorporates the principles from Hakomi therapy. She is interested in the intersection between psychedelic medicine, ancient Buddhist meditation practices, and the creative arts. Fascinated by the healing power that altered states of consciousness can provide, Julia is driven by the profound impact these modalities can have on our collective well-being. She is a registered Mindfulness Meditation Teacher with Meditation Australia.

Megan Smoak

Clinical Psychologist

Megan started meditating a bit over 30 years ago and has had an amazing journey out of anxiety and poor mental health into accidentally exploring the mystical, but the main thing she has learned across all the different traditions that she's tried is that the most important thing is to Do It. Not read about it or talk about it, but to actually show up and do it. She's passionate about meditation and the container it builds for us to enjoy greater ease and confidence in our self and our capacity. In her work as a Clinical Psychologist and supervisor, she so often uses the fundamental skills of mindfulness and meditation to work with clients experiencing grief, loss, trauma or even the basics of depression and anxiety. She is a mother, an educator and a therapist and within all these roles has, at the core, her practice of meditation.

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MEDICINAL PSYCHEDELIC TREATMENTS

Psychedelic-assisted treatments 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.

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.

SUPPORT PSYCHEDELIC RESEARCH AND THERAPY DEVELOPMENT

Your donation to Mind Medicine Australia will help us accelerate the availability and best practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in Australia. We are a small organisation doing big things – we need your support. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation.

DISCLAIMER

Mind Medicine Australia does not encourage or facilitate illegal use of psychedelics or plant medicines. MMA focus is focused on clinical and legal use only supported by the emerging science and legislative processes. Mind Medicine Australia reserves the right to record and publish webinars on various social media platforms. You agree that you will not discuss any names, locations or specific details of illegal use of psychedelics both verbally or via any written forms of communication via Mind Medicine Australia social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Instagram or zoom private and public chat forms during the webinar. Breaches of these guidelines may result in not being able to participate in the event. We thank you for support and cooperation on these matters. Mind Medicine Australia is focused specifically on the clinical application of medicinal psilocybin and medicinal MDMA for certain mental illnesses.