Edmonton experiencing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy boom

A bottle of ketamine sits on a counter at Reunion Psychedelic Therapy in Edmonton on Jan. 31, 2025. (Nav Sangha / CTV News Edmonton)

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is on the rise in Canada and Edmonton is riding the wave of change.

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A small handful of clinics in Edmonton are accredited to provide such therapy and four more have applied to be accredited, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.

Experts in the topic say the last 10 years of research have revealed “huge potential” for psychedelics to help with a range of disorders for patients who have made no progress with other treatment modalities.

For example: ketamine for treatment-resistant depression and possibly post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder; psilocybin also for treatment-resistant depression and end-of-life existential anxiety among palliative patients; MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Retired psychologist and University of Alberta professor Peter Silverstone told CTV News Edmonton, “My research and others' has shown that many of these drugs increase chemicals in the brain that increase nerve growth, nerve connectivity and nerve changes, all of which has huge promise for mental health disorders and potentially other disorders, as well.”

Silverstone predicted, “As we know more about these drugs in two to three years, they will be staples of mental health treatment in the future.”

What psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy looks like

Reunion Psychedelic Therapy, one of the accredited clinics in Edmonton, treats patients with a combination of psychedelics and talk therapy.

A potential patient who is referred to the clinic by a professional will be screened and then assessed by a psychiatrist and doctor. If taken on as a client, the patient meets with a psychologist to establish their treatment goals before receiving any drugs. Doses are usually administered under the supervision of one or two professionals. Patients can recline or lay down and typically wear eye shades and listen to a clinic-curated playlist.

Patient experiences vary.

“It’s kind of like a dream that way. You go to sleep at night... You’re going to dream but we don’t know about what,” St. Arnaud said.

Sometimes, psychedelics lead to “expanded states of consciousness that have a real sense of spiritual flavor to them, or a sense of really contacting one’s truest or deepest self,” he told CTV News Edmonton. Sometimes, the experience is emotional. Other times, it causes deep introspection.

Patients return the next day for a talk therapy session about the experience.

“(Psychedelics) put the brain and the mind into a very open, receptive and plastic state of consciousness where the individual is perhaps able to revisit old memories, old traumatic experiences, painful thoughts and that kind of thing, from a new vantage point, from a new perspective, with greater psychological flexibility,” St. Arnaud said. “Perhaps the individual is able to process some of these memories or emotions in a way they haven’t been able to before, with the assistance of the medicine.”

Rising number of requests

The use of drugs like psilocybin, ketamine and MDMA is approved through Canada’s Special Access Program, which permits the sale of a drug by a licensed manufacturer to a health-care professional.

A Health Canada official confirmed requests for psilocybin and MDMA use have been steadily increasing since 2022, when the program was modified so health practitioners could request restricted drugs.

According to Health Canada, one third of the psilocybin requests have been made on behalf of patients experiencing end-of-life anxiety and distress. The department said “many” MDMA requests were related to PTSD and treatment-resistant anxiety, but could not quantify the volume.

Both Silverstone and St. Arnaud attributed the rise in popularity partly to psychedelics becoming more socially acceptable – especially the practice of microdosing – but largely the promising research.

“People in the 60s were talking about how good they were but for obvious reasons, these got discarded. The new research, though, is the past 10 years. And that has really built on the neuroscience. And these drugs seem to do different things in the brain to other drugs and that’s incredibly exciting,” Silverstone said.

“It’s good that more clinics are getting experienced with a small number of patients because when these things are approved, the need will be huge.”

St. Arnaud added, “It’s not appropriate for everybody for a variety of reasons and that’s OK. But there are some individuals for whom it is absolutely the best option. In some of these cases, individuals that have been stuck in therapy, maybe they’ve tried all sorts of other psychiatric medication. Maybe they’ve tried traditional therapy. And they’ve been stuck with no progress, with no hope.”

Ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA are not covered therapy treatments in Alberta outside of ketamine being used for treatment-resistant depression in some Recovery Alberta programs.

The province says it recognizes the emerging research on the potential benefits of psychedelics and was the first in Canada to introduce safeguards for psychedelic-assisted therapy.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nav Sangha, Brandon Lynch and Kyra Markov