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International Society for Substance-Assisted Psychotherapy (ISSP)


In 2019, a meeting was held in Potsdam (near Berlin) to found the International Society for Substance-Assisted Psychotherapy (ISSP). The founders agreed on the need for well-organized international cooperation for the introduction of substance-assisted psychotherapy methods.

The founding members present were Joost Breeksma (Amsterdam, Holland), Dr. Rick Doblin (USA), Prof. Torsten Passie (Germany), Dr. Michael Schlichting (Switzerland), Dipl. Psych. Thomas Dürst (Germany), Dr. Elisabeth Petrow (Berlin, Germany), Prof. Eric Vermetten (Holland) and Dr. Werner Middendorf (Germany).

In 2019, the International Society for Substance-Assisted Psychotherapy (ISSP) was recognized as a non-profit organization in Germany.

Members of the board

Six board members were appointed at the inaugural meeting to register the association. These will be valid until the first board elections.

1. Chairman
Prof. Torsten Passie, MD, MA
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1. Chairman
Prof. Torsten Passie, MD, MA

Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Hannover Medical School (apl)

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2. Chairman
Prof. Eric Vermetten, MD, PhD
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2. Chairman
Prof. Eric Vermetten, MD, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry und Psychotherapy
University Leiden, NL
 

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Board Member
Anja Loizaga-Velder, PhD
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Board Member
Anja Loizaga-Velder, PhD

Clinical Psychologist, 
Co-Director of Nierika Institute for Intercultural Medicine
 

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Board Member
Prof. Jeffrey Guss, MD
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Board Member
Prof. Jeffrey Guss, MD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry
New York University
 

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Treasurer
Thomas Dürst, Psychologist
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Treasurer
Thomas Dürst, Psychologist

Clinical Psychologist
Private Practice
 

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Executive Secretary
Elisabeth Petrow, MD
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Executive Secretary
Elisabeth Petrow, MD

Psychotherapist
Private Practice

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Members of the scientific advisory board

The scientific advisory board currently has four members:

George R. Greer, MD
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George R. Greer, MD

George is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in Santa Fe, NM. George conducted the earliest therapeutic trials with MDMA in the early 1980s. His publications prepared the path for later therapeutic studies using MDMA. George was medical director of the Heffter Research Institute where he helped to design and conduct studies with psychedelics.

Prof. Janis Phelps, PhD
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Prof. Janis Phelps, PhD

Janis is professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. She is the director of the CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, where she directs the first academically accredited training program for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Prof. Ingo Schäfer, MD
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Prof. Ingo Schäfer, MD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University Medical Center Hamburg (Germany). He leads the trauma and stress research group and coordinated a research network on trauma and addiction. He is coordinator of the German PTSD guideline and is a Past President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS).

Michael Schlichting, MD
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Michael Schlichting, MD

Medical specialist for psychiatry and psychotherapy. Medical assistant to Prof. Hanscarl Leuner (University of Göttingen) 1985-1989.

Further training in psycholytic therapy and research therein.

Since 2008 forensic psychiatrist in Switzerland.

Members of the Advisory Board

The Advisory Board has the following members:

Alicia Danforth, PhD
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Alicia Danforth, PhD

Alicia is a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist and Psychotherapist. She was involved in the first recent trial to use psilocybin In psychotherapy for terminal cancer patients and a study treating social anxiety in autistic adults with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

Prof. Charles Grob, MD
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Prof. Charles Grob, MD

Charles is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of California Los Angeles. He conducted clinical research with psychedelics since the early 1990s. He pioneered the first study with MDMA in healthy volunteers and the use of psilocybin with terminal cancer patients. Charles has published numerous books and articles on psychedelics.

Annie Mithoefer
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Annie Mithoefer

Annie is a Registered Nurse. She was co-investigator on two Phase 2 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and a pilot study treating couples with PTSD. She currently conducts MAPS Therapist Trainings with her husband, Michael, and is a supervisor for Phase 3 therapists. She is trained in Holotropic Breathwork and Hakomi Therapy.

Michael Mithoefer, MD
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Michael Mithoefer, MD

Michael has been board certified in Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. He is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at University of South Carolina. His wife Annie and he did the first Phase II trial testing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. He guided further trials and is Medical Director for Training and Supervision at MAPS PBC.

Peter Oehen, MD
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Peter Oehen, MD

Psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
Training in Psycholytic Therapy 1991. Private practice 1988-2020. Former board member of the Swiss Medical Association for Psycholytic Therapy (SAePT).

PI of MAPS-sponsored Swiss phase II MDMA/PTSD study. Special licenses for LSD and MDMA-assisted therapy 2014-20.

Tomas Palenicek, MD
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Tomas Palenicek, MD

Tomas is a psychiatrist employed at National Institute of Mental Health in Prague, Czech. He studied schizophrenia with animal models until his research changed towards psychedelic drugs. In recent years, he studied the acute effects of cannabis and psilocybin in healthy volunteers and the use of ketamine to treat depression.

William "Bill" Richards, PhD
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William "Bill" Richards, PhD

Bill is a clinical psychologist and researcher. He has conducted therapeutic studies with psychedelics in the 1960s with Walter Pahnke and Stan Grof in Baltimore, Maryland. Since the early 2000s he participated in psychedelic studies at Johns Hopkins University and is currently a teacher and supervisor for recent therapeutic psilocybin trials.

Juraj Styk, MD
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Juraj Styk, MD

Juraj is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in Basel (Switzerland). He was trained in LSD therapy with Stan Grof in Prague in the mid-1960 and had a special permit for LSD- and MDMA-assisted therapy during the years 1988-93 in Switzerland. He has published on these trials and is a supervisor of recent psilocybin therapy studies.

David Erritzoe, MD, PhD
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David Erritzoe, MD, PhD

David is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist at Imperial College London and in CNWL NHS Trust. He is the clinical director of Imperial’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, and has in early 2021 launched a new psychopharmacology & psychedelic research clinic at St Charles Hospital in London, CIPPRes Clinic.

Erwin Krediet
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Erwin Krediet

Psychologist and PhD candidate at Leiden University Medical Center and ARQ National Psychotrauma Center in the Netherlands. Erwin is currently involved with studies investigating MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapies for the treatment of PTSD. In addition, he works as an adherence rater for MAPS, evaluating treatment manual adherence in several Phase 2 and 3 trials.

Forerunners of the ISSP

The most direct predecessor of the ISSP was the European Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy (EPT), which was founded in the early 1960s by hallucinogen researcher and LSD therapist Professor Hanscarl Leuner of the University of Göttingen (Germany) and other therapists working with LSD. The EPT had about 50 medical members, mainly from Germany, Scandinavia and Czechoslovakia. Between 1965 and 1975, the EPT organised about 10 symposia on psycholytic therapy, partly separately and partly integrated within larger congresses.

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ISSP Committees

The ISSP has two forms of committees:

  1. Standing committees are regular committees.
  2. Ad Hoc committees are created and tasked by the executive board for specific (usually time-limited) purposes.

All committees consist of a chair person and 3-5 members. The committees indicated below are regular committees only.

Education and Training committee  |  Committee on Ethical Practices  |  History committee  |  Membership committee  |  Committee on Publications  |  Research committee  |  Awards committee
 

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ISSP Awards

Hanscarl Leuner Award for Scientific Excellence

The Hanscarl Leuner Award is given to a clinician or scientist honored for the most distinguished successful clinical or experimental research in the area of hallucinogenic/entactogenic drugs. This award is given every two years.



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