For over 15 years Dr Ben Sessa has been at the forefront of psychedelic research in the UK through his affiliations with Imperial College London.

Come along to The Square Club at 6pm on Wednesday 18th January for a talk about the history, pharmacology and clinical uses of psychedelics, followed by a discussion about the current psychedelic renaissance and further details of his team’s new psychedelic clinic in Clifton.

Tickets are free, and all are welcome, so book using the link below, spaces are limited.

About your host

Ben qualified as a medical doctor from UCL in 1997 and went on to specialise in psychiatry. For 30 years he has worked as a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with young people and adult patients in the field of addictions and trauma-related psychiatry.

Ben started studying psychedelics as a junior doctor, and has taken part in research projects at Bristol University, Cardiff University and Imperial College London with LSD, psilocybin, DMT, ketamine and MDMA – receiving and/or administering all of these compounds in legal research settings.

One of the first doctors to develop the field of contemporary psychedelic research in the UK, he is the co-founder and Head of Psychedelic Medicine at Awakn Life Sciences, a Bio-Tech company carrying out psychedelic research into addictions and opening twenty high street psychedelic medical clinics throughout Europe, providing psychedelic psychotherapy – initially with ketamine, then with MDMA and psilocybin – for a wide range of psychiatric indications.

He was one of the first Medical Cannabis psychiatric prescribers in the UK. Ben is an approved and registered MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin therapist. He has led research into MDMA-assisted therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder and is published widely in the academic and medical press. Ben is the co-founder and past president of the Breaking Convention conference. He is the author of The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012/2017), the novel ‘To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic’ (2015) and Altered States (2021). Ben lives and works in Bristol, UK.