Microprogram Courses
Psychedelics and Spirituality
SRS 5108 Foundations of Psychedelic Studies
This course provides an overview of the use of psychedelic drugs for specific mental health applications, including MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine assisted-therapy research. It includes study of diverse religious traditions in use of psychedelics and the therapeutic and artistic practices they inform
SRS 5109 Preparation & Integration: Insights Challenges
This course reviews the criminalization of use, possession, and trafficking of psychedelic substances in Canada and globally. Provides a history of drug policies and their origins. It covers harm-reduction approaches and public health, with an emphasis on human rights and social concerns.
SRS 5110 Sacred Plant Medicines & Shamanic Practices
This course offers a historical and socio-cultural overview of plant medicine shamanism, ritual, and religion from an anthropological perspective. Current topics include decolonizing psychedelics, pharmacopower, indigenous plant knowledge, plant teachers, and the globalization of ayahuasca.
Microprogram Courses
Psychedelic Science
PSY 6137/6537 Psychedelic Psychotherapies and Mental Health
This course reviews the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for mental health and the related research base. Specific topics will include psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies in Western medicine, treatment outcomes, CBT approaches, ethics, and psychedelic group therapies.
One of these:
PSY 6151/6551 Drugs and Behaviour
A study of current neurochemical and neuropharmacological techniques applicable to the study of normal and pathological behaviour. A critical evaluation of techniques as they relate to animal and human behaviour. (May take PSY 6951 instead.)
CMM 5302 Comprehensive Pharmacology I
This course offers extensive coverage of pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and the pharmacology of the autonomic and central nervous system. (CMM 5301, CMM 5302 cannot be combined for units.)
BIO 5130 Ethnobotony and Ethnopharmacology
Introduction and current perspectives on world ethnobotanies, traditional knowledge, medicinal and food systems; quantitative and qualitative methods; ethical requirements; pharmacological basis of traditional drugs, phytochemsitry, drug discovery and development; safety, risk assessment and regulations.
One of these:
PSY 6138/6538 Neuroscience of Psychedelics
Students learn about the psychopharmacological properties of psychedelic drugs. Relationships between the behavioral effects of psychoactive drugs and their potential mechanisms of action will be uncovered. Students will be introduced to the neurobiological basis of neuropsychiatric conditions potentially targeted by psychedelics and related therapeutic applications of different types of psychoactive compounds.
NSC 6101 Consciousness: Interdisciplinary Perspective from Neuroscience, Philosophy, & Psychology
This interdisciplinary course addresses two fundamental questions in the study of the mind: 1) what is consciousness? 2) Can we explain the emergence and operation of this central feature of human life by analyzing the brain?
PSY 6191 Seminar: Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
Students will learn about non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC) through an interdisciplinary lens, with an emphasis on phenomenology of psychedelic experiences, subjective experience, methods of NOSC research, cultural conceptualizations of NOSC, evolution of consciousness, mystical states, and neurophysiological processes that facilitate NOSC.
SRS 5108 Foundations of Psychedelic Studies
This course provides an overview of the use of psychedelic drugs for specific mental health applications, including MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine assisted-therapy research. It includes study of diverse religious traditions in use of psychedelics and the therapeutic and artistic practices they inform. (If not already taken as part of the Psychedelics & Spirituality Microprogram.)
Microprograms
Admissions Requirements
To be eligible, candidates should:
- Have an honours bachelor’s degree (or equivalent), or higher degree in a related discipline, with a minimum average of 75% (B).
- Demonstrate a high academic achievement as shown by official academic transcript, academic reference forms, and other supporting documentation
- Provide a personal statement.
- Have proficiency in the language of instruction.
Preference will be given to students engaged in helping professions.
Microprogram
Fees
The three courses from either microprogram can be credited toward the MA degree when taken for a grade.