Founded in 2014, the Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum was launched in Vancouver Island (on traditional, unceded, ancestral territories of the Snuneymuxw)  – in a living room gathering of 12+ therapists interested in discussing the potential of psychedelic psychotherapy. Today, the Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum (PPF) is the longest-running psychedelic conference of its kind in Canada and is unique in that it is crafted for and co-created with practitioners, supporting, working, and training, in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

From 2015 to 2020, our events offered a typical conference format plus post-forum training workshops. In 2015, PPF was a sold-out conference, with 190+ attendees, with Dr. Gabor Maté as the keynote speaker at the UVIC Club. Keynote speakers in the following sold-out conferences, with 220+ attendees, were Rick Doblin (2016), and Robin Carhart-Harris (2018), at the Westin Bear Mountain Resort, in Victoria, BC.

In 2020, PPF navigated the COVID protocols by organizing a challenging hybrid event – with in-person attendees limited to 50 registrants; and 400+ online attendees, with Dr. Claudia Ford as our keynote speaker. For PPF 2020, we moved the conference to the location where it was originally founded – Nanaimo, BC.

PPF 2022 was held in the same location as the last forum, at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre, Nanaimo, BC. 

Through the years, PPF has been part of the evolution of this challenging field, alongside practitioners working, supporting, and training in the field. We are proud to be here, rooted, present, and in service to our communities.

PPF is pleased to facilitate continued learning and training, inclusivity, and cohesion, through our platform. We provide an opportunity for everyone interested in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy and psychotherapy — including health providers, advocates, researchers, students, body workers, traditional and/or holistic therapists — to come together to learn, network, and dialogue about this field. 

In 2022, PPF organized a new “unconference the conference” format on our Practitioner Forum Days to service the wider community, to educate, empower, and resource folks about safe practices and treatment accessibility.

In 2023, founding member Pauline Goh has now passed on the Forum’s planning duties to the small and dedicated team at TheraPsil.

This year, 2024, we are carrying forward this style of “unconference the conference” and growing on last year’s theme to honour and build upon the strong roots that the PPF Visioning Committee has grown over the years. 

We look forward to this year's conference and are so excited to have you join us. 

- The PPF Visioning Committee