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CIIS to launch the first-ever undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Psychedelic Studies offering, planned to begin in fall 2025.
Almost ten years ago, CIIS embarked on a new and exciting endeavor when it created the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research (CPTR), the first-ever university-affiliated psychedelic therapies and research certificate program designed to train healthcare professionals to administer psychedelic-assisted treatments to their patients. The program, which has trained and certified more than 1,000 healthcare mental health professionals since its beginning, continues to serve as the gold standard for post-graduate professional training in psychedelics.
Once again, CIIS is leading the nation in the field of psychedelics as it prepares to launch the first-ever undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Psychedelic Studies offering, planned to begin in fall 2025. And like CPTR, it will be the first university-based program of its kind in the United States.
Anne Huffman, Ph.D., Chair of the School of Undergraduate Studies, Nicholas Literski, JD, Ph.D., Senior Program Manager and Senior Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Undergraduate Studies, and Nick Walker, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology in the School of Undergraduate Studies and the School of Professional Psychology and Health, are the primary architects of this innovative new B.S. degree program.
With the mainstreaming of psychedelics, many researchers have discovered that psychedelics can be used to treat myriad mental health challenges including PTSD, alcoholism, smoking, and severe depression, among other conditions. More recently, psychedelics have been found to be useful in palliative care — helping patients in end-of-life care overcome their fear of dying.
Universities such as Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and New York University have developed their curriculums to train and certify medical and mental health professionals to provide psychedelic-assisted treatment to their patients based on the roadmap developed by the CPTR, hailed by The New York Times as “one of the best known organizations offering a certificate program to train future therapists working with psychedelics.”
Dr. Walker said the development of the new B.S. program was inevitable, given the university’s success with the CPTR. “Launching a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychedelic Studies is a natural extension of the long-standing CIIS tradition of representing the leading edge of scholarship and education on topics related to the expansion and transformation of human consciousness.”
She added that the priority is to provide undergraduates with a well-rounded and comprehensive education on psychedelics, which can serve as a foundation for a wide range of psychedelics-related graduate studies and professional careers.
“In light of the many different exciting directions in which our students might end up taking their studies and careers, and in keeping with the CIIS commitment to multiple ways of knowing, I’d say the most important element of our program is its interdisciplinarity,” Dr. Walker said. “Students will study psychedelics through a broad spectrum of lenses, including psychology, neuroscience, cultural anthropology, psychopharmacology, ethnobotany, ecology, and ethics,” she added.
CIIS’ new undergraduate offering will incorporate the science behind psychedelics and the spiritual aspects that have long held great meaning for the indigenous peoples who have invested centuries in the healing nature of psychedelics.
“As a Bachelor of Science program, we’ll have a primarily scientific focus which will incorporate both biological and social sciences,” Dr. Walker said. “This includes the study of the vast diversity of past and present psychedelic traditions throughout the world, approached with an attitude of respect and cultural humility.”
Dr. Walker said she has high hopes for the program, especially the success with which students will develop and their potential for leadership in the field of psychedelics.
“We hope that the graduates of our program will go on to become leaders in a variety of psychedelics-related fields and endeavors, and that in whatever they end up doing, they’ll bring with them the high levels of understanding, cultural humility, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and ethical integrity that our program will aim to foster,” Dr. Walker said.
CIIS plans to expand its community health services with the launch of a new psychedelics clinic that will provide patients with ketamine-assisted treatments, the first of its kind to be associated with a university in the United States.
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CIIS was overjoyed to hold its 56th Commencement on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Festivities began at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco with a commencement reception on Mission campus.
