Helena Aicher, PhD

Helena’s main academic background is in Psychology. She has teaching and research experience at different departments at the University of Zurich, and clinical experience at the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich and in private group practice. At the Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Brain Imaging, she studied the effects of psychedelics and meditation. For her PhD, she investigated the effects of ayahuasca and ayahuasca-inspired DMT/harmine formulations on the relationship to oneself and others, psychotherapy-relevant processes, underlying mechanisms, and contextual modulators with interdisciplinary and multimethod approaches. Helena is currently involved in several trials investigating DMT/harmine and 5MeO-DMT formulations in group and retreat settings in the Psychedelic Research and Therapy Development research group at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich). Furthermore, she is study coordinator of a trial on the relevance of personal psychedelic experience for therapists at the University Hospital of Basel (Pharmacology and Toxicology Department). Helena is also working as a psychotherapist including the limited medical use of psychedelics, and an active member of the SÄPT involved in the training of therapists. Thereby, she finds herself at intersections, aims at bridging science and practice, contributing to the development and implementation of psychedelic-assisted therapy.