News Footage of therapists spooning and pinning down patient in B.C. trial for MDMA therapy prompts review

thegreenhand

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Footage of therapists spooning and pinning down patient in B.C. trial for MDMA therapy prompts review​

Bethany Lindsay
CBC
29 Mar 2022

Excerpt:
Newly released videos that show two B.C. therapists cuddling, spooning, blindfolding and pinning down a distressed PTSD patient during clinical trials using MDMA have prompted a review of their work and fresh concerns about public safety.

The 2015 footage shows psychiatrist Dr. Donna Dryer and unlicensed therapist Richard Yensen, a married couple who were then sub-investigators for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), during their second experimental session in a Health Canada-approved Phase II clinical trial with patient Meaghan Buisson in Vancouver.

The videos were released last week through New York magazine's podcast Cover Story: Power Trip, which explores the growing field of psychedelic therapy.
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Full article here.
 
this video was extremely disturbing. i had a difficult time watching it. the victim is clearly in distress and the "therapists" seem to respond by holding her down and forcing themselves on her

at one point the male therapist can be seen pushing himself up against her backside and throwing his leg over her. this guy also admitted to having sex with the patient before the clinical trial ended. quite frankly, it seems he was grooming her during the mdma sessions.

they had fast tempo intense music playing at some points (only adding to the stress i imagine). both of the "therapists" appeared to pin her down so she couldn't resist. the victim seemed to be crying a lot of the time.

and top it all off:
"MAPS spokesperson Betty Aldworth acknowledged last week that the organization's staff did not actually view the videos until November 2021, six years after they were filmed."
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does MAPS not review footage of their own trials? it's not like these early trials have massive study populations. i find it hard to believe nobody saw this video until 2021 when the victim initiated a lawsuit in 2018

or perhaps this was all swept under the rug and covered up?
 
😲😲Disturbing...MAPS does wonderful ground breaking research. ....hopefully it isnt tainted through a couple of therapists whom clearly have stepped well over the line.These therapy sessions need to be scritinized more .
 
I couldn’t watch the end..

So here’s my take. That fat fuck deserves to burn.

My and my wife have inadvertently been that couple talking people through hard sessions. There’s been times where I pick up that for whatever reason the female we may be helping doesn’t respond well to men. I fully acknowledge that many women have had traumatic experiences related to men so when I get that vibe I take my leave and allow my wife to do what needs to be done.

This man clearly understood he was pushing boundaries and she was uncomfortable with him around. The wife even says “oh that was a real trigger.” Patient then pushes his hand away as he tries to comfort.

This video makes me sick to my stomach.

-GC
 
Finished the video. Yea he’s a sick fuck. The way he puts up his hands as if to say “oh whatever you deal with her” does not implicate a safe environment. These old 60-70’s relics want some more of that free love.

-GC
 
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I’ve thought on this a bit more.. And it has brought up some interesting points.

The video is most sickening due to what we know happened after the fact. I see what they were trying to do, and that is to have the patient relive the trauma in what I suppose to be a safe environment. I think the patient could sense she truly wasn’t in a safe place but was more or less brainwashed to think she was.

But it brings the question, when working with patients where their trauma revolves around past sexual abuse.. How far is too far? The goal is to have the patient live their lives with a healthy view of sexual relationships, but that can only be acted out in a therapy session so far.

I think we can all agree wherever the line lands, it got crossed here.

Next we need to ask ourselves how do we safely vet for male therapists that won’t abuse their power in this kind of situation. Unfortunately many men even ones that seem good on the outside, would abuse this power. Especially a fat aging man with one more shot at some younger gal. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Idk something has always rubbed me the wrong way with Doblin, his persona gives me the impression he too would push boundaries in a similar way. I doubt he didn’t watch this video at some point.

-GC
 
I couldn't even watch the video. This is disgusting.

Unfortunately this is not the first time that MAPS Canada has had these sorts of issues. Really pisses me off and makes me concerned for the future of MDMA psychotherapy. This is coming from someone with PTSD who recently applied to be in the Canadian trials. MAPS Canada needs to get their shit together and start vetting their therapists properly.

G_Chem said:
My and my wife have inadvertently been that couple talking people through hard sessions. There’s been times where I pick up that for whatever reason the female we may be helping doesn’t respond well to men. I fully acknowledge that many women have had traumatic experiences related to men so when I get that vibe I take my leave and allow my wife to do what needs to be done.
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That is the entire reason that they have both a male and female therapist present. In case the patient is uncomfortable with one gender due to sexual trauma, the other therapist backs the fuck off while the one of the non-triggering gender can help the patient.

These scumbags knew exactly what they were doing. And having sex with the patient is clearly crossing a million fucking lines here. That therapist should at the very least lose the ability to ever practice therapy again, and probably be in prison.
 
just watched the video... wtf

"just lie down and spread your legs" -- !?

I don't even have any sort of major trauma of any kind let alone sexual, and if I was tripping on something and these people were doing that to me I would become insanely uncomfortable. This is so fucking weird. I would never let anyone do something like that to me. I get pretty uncomfortable in people touching me in general, I would have punched that guy.

It's even more revolting knowing this man had sex with her??

fuck man...
 
I know what you mean bro, I do not like being touched by strangers outside of normal stuff like shaking hands or a hug or what have you, if some fat dude tried "spooning" with me while I was tripping I think I'd absolutely flip shit lol

It just seems like a real invasion of personal space and I don't know how these people could've thought that was appropriate
 
The last thing I would want to do while on MDMA is be pinned down by some freaks.


I find this idea of only legalizing these kinds of drugs under extreme "supervision" to be counterproductive.
If I'm going to do MDMA or a drug, I want to be able to be alone, wear my headphones, smoke a cigarette & do what I need to do.

I find it invasive & insulting really.
I guess I could understand in the case of PTSD or needing some one there to relive a trauma or clinical trials, but take diacetylmorphine maintenance for instance. Why should some one have to take their medicine supervised in a clinical setting & enjoy the acute effects there & not somewhere, where they're comfortable... like AT HOME.
 
WHY in god's name would they react the way they did to this, when they're SO CLOSE to having MDMA-assisted psychotherapy be accepted? It's like they want to undo all the good work they've done. I firmly believe that MDMA and psychedelics can be amazing, miraculous tools for therapy, when used appropriately. They can be far more effective than giving people psychedelics and having them deal with everything they bring up on their own. But obviously the potential for abuse is there, so you need to vet your therapists. Of course, people are going to slip through the cracks, many sociopaths are very good at giving off the impression they are not sociopaths. So we should not be blaming the thing (MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, or even the organization running said therapy framework) for a few bad apples.

That said, we SHOULD blame an organization when they refuse to even watch a video presented as evidence until 6 years after it was presented, or try to brush it under the rug, or try to protect the therapists who are the "bad apples". I just can't conceive of why they wouldn't get this out in front of them, cut ties with the guy, pursue criminal charges, and try to let the public know that this sort of thing won't be tolerated. Instead, they put a bad taste in everybody's mouth. This is the sort of thing that will lead to the government refusing to allow the entire practice due to concerns about exactly this sort of thing happening.

Massively disappointing... :|
 
This is exactly the reason psychedelic assisted therapy training and clinics should be regulated, vetted and rigorously scrutinized. After obtaining a licence, PAT‘s should be reviewed annually and clinic inspections should not be pre planned.

Yes I know this will delay access to this necessary treatment, but if the kind of shit, what this woman had to endure, happens again? We all know what that outcome will be.

On a similar note, wtf is Mind Cure doing offering a mdma for women’s sexual disfunction program at this early stage? What kind of scrutiny are they under? MC may be a safe place but it opens the door for other ‘clinics’ to potentially ripoff clients and cause further damage to people in need. Winnipeg already has a mdma for relationships program in the pipe.

In no way am suggesting that people, in any kind of need, should not have access to any treatment that is going to help them, but the risks of jumping into this so fast is too numerous. Not to mention the competition for grants, subsidies, etc. to fund these programs and clinics, That will dilute the amount of available funds that could be funnelled to address the most pressing needs.

Maybe a medical access program, similar to the route cannabis took in Canada should be implemented for now, treating areas where the bulk of the research lies. Not having sex doesn’t kill people, addiction, PTSD and depression do.
 
tired of crap said:
any sources for these claims?
A quick google didnt bring up anything
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its been scrubbed from google. Rick doblin is a DEA and fbi informant who got LSD dealers locked up to save his own rapist ass. He was even called out on video at a psychedelic conference by somebody. This use to be easy to find in 2019 but seems his powerful friends had google scrubbed totally clean
 
Wow, finally get my laptop screen fixed after something like two years and one of the first things I come across when I get back on the internet is this.
Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered. (Nice to see you lot alive and well though)
 
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