Footage of therapists spooning and pinning down patient in B.C. trial for MDMA therapy prompts review

WARNING: This article con‐ tains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual vio‐ lence or know someone af‐ fected by it.

Newly released videos that show two B.C. therapists cud‐ dling, spooning, blindfolding and pinning down a dis‐ tressed PTSD patient during clinical trials using MDMA have prompted a review of their work and fresh concerns about public safety.

The 2015 footage shows psychiatrist Dr. Donna Dryer and unlicensed therapist Richard Yensen, a married couple who were then sub-in‐ vestigators for the Multidisci‐ plinary Association for Psy‐ chedelic Studies (MAPS), dur‐ ing their second experimental session in a Health Canadaapproved Phase II clinical trial with patient Meaghan Buis‐ son in Vancouver.

The videos were released last week through New York magazine's podcast Cover Story: Power Trip, which ex‐ plores the growing field of psychedelic therapy.

Buisson, a hiking guide based on Vancouver Island, told CBC she hasn't been able to watch the videos because even hearing her former ther‐ apists' voices triggers her post-traumatic stress disor‐ der.

But she has seen screen shots of the footage and has had the content described to her, including intimate physi‐ cal contact and a scene where Yensen is lying on top of her and holding her down as she moans in obvious anguish.

She believes the public needs to know what hap‐ pened in these sessions.

"This is horrific. This hap‐ pened in a Health Canada-ap‐ proved clinical safety trial," she said. "For that to happen in this environment, under far more scrutiny than the sub‐ stance will ever again be un‐ der, is extremely troubling."

The footage is being made public at a time when psyche‐ delic drugs are becoming in‐ creasingly mainstream, and substances like MDMA — a laboratory-made party drug often called ecstasy or mol‐ ly — are being hailed as mira‐ cle drugs for serious psychi‐ atric conditions.

Buisson believes the videos should serve as a warning that if these drugs are legalized for use in psy‐ chotherapy, there needs to be a strong system in place to keep patients safe while they're under the influence of powerful mind-altering sub‐ stances.

"I just want people to real‐ ize, this is not against MDMA. This is not against psyche‐ delics," she said.

"I'm just saying that if this drug is going to be legalized and medicalized in this way, then there is a certain degree of safety and fiduciary re‐ sponsibility and credibility that goes into being part of the medical system — and es‐ pecially with vulnerable sub‐ jects."

Therapists 'substantially deviated' from protocol

The footage comes from multiple video cameras placed in the treatment room by MAPS to ensure patients were safe and therapists were following the treatment pro‐ tocol.

But MAPS spokesperson Betty Aldworth acknowledged last week that the organiza‐ tion's staff did not actually view the videos until Novem‐ ber 2021, six years after they were filmed.

Aldworth said MAPS is now conducting a compliance review for the Vancouver trial site, reviewing all videos and documentation related to each participant.

"Though the compliance review is ongoing, MAPS has provisionally determined that Yensen and Dryer substantial‐ ly deviated from the MDMAassisted Therapy Treatment Manual on several occasions during the treatment period," Aldworth wrote.

Watch | Videos shown Buisson's MDMA session with Yensen and Dryer

Health Canada has yet to respond to requests for com‐ ment. Yensen and Dryer have not responded to emails or phone calls requesting com‐ ment.

Yensen has admitted to having sex with Buisson after the clinical trial. In a 2018 law‐ suit that has since been set‐ tled out of court, she alleged it was sexual assault, while Yensen claimed in his re‐ sponse that Buisson manipu‐ lated him and initiated the en‐ counter.

After Buisson first went public in 2019 with allegations of sexual assault, MAPS is‐ sued a statement acknowl‐ edging that Yensen had an "inappropriate and unethical" sexual relationship with a study participant and saying it was cutting ties with the couple.

The statement also said MAPS had previously been unaware of any "inappropri‐ ate interaction" between its therapists and study partici‐ pants, and "monitoring of study records throughout the course of the trial and after‐ wards did not indicate signs of ethical violation."

'This is not therapy' MDMA is a recreational drug that produces feelings of euphoria and enhances sen‐ sation and suggestibility. It's one of several illicit sub‐ stances, including ketamine, LSD and psilocybin mush‐ rooms, that are currently be‐ ing studied for potential uses in psychotherapy.

The videos of Buisson's sessions were filmed during Phase II clinical trials, when drugs are assessed to deter‐ mine if they are safe and have an effect on humans.

CBC has not viewed the full video of the session, which lasted for at least five hours. But Cover Story: Pow‐ er Trip co-host Lily Kay Ross and David Nickles have re‐ viewed the full tape, as well as the videos from Buisson's first MDMA session. Nickles has also viewed the footage of Buisson's third experimen‐ tal session.

Both described the tapes as difficult to watch.

"The number of checks and balances that failed be‐ yond the therapist's own de‐ cision-making is just unreal," said Nickles, managing editor of the psychedelic watchdog publication Psymposia.

Buisson signed up for the experimental therapy in a last-ditch effort to treat posttraumatic stress disorder re‐ lated to a history of sexual abuse and assault.

She was particularly dis‐ turbed to learn about two clips in which she is blindfold‐ ed. The clips culminate with Buisson struggling and wailing as Yensen uses his entire body to pin her to the bed and Dryer holds a towel in her mouth.

"As a woman who is sexual assault survivor, I'm really un‐ comfortable being touched around my head…. I was very clear. I didn't want blindfolds on," Buisson said.

"To learn that I was blind‐ folded, pinned down, gagged — there are no words for that. That is not therapy."

That footage is equally troubling for Ross, who com‐ pleted her PhD in sexual vio‐ lence research.

"It raises the question of, how do people persist past such clear cries of distress, to continue inflicting the things that are causing that level of distress to a person who is in therapy to to treat sexual vio‐ lence-related trauma?" Ross said.

Spooning and cuddling Viewed in sequence, the clips show escalating physical contact between the thera‐ pists and their patient.

In the earliest segment, Buisson tells the couple she needs to relax, and Yensen asks her, "Do you want to try and maybe lie down and spread your legs?"

Buisson immediately snaps her body tight in re‐ sponse to that, folding for‐ ward into her knees while she rocks back and forth on the bed. Yensen places his hand on her back, and after a few seconds, she uses her elbow to knock it away.

In segments filmed later in the session, Yensen and Dryer are shown lying in bed with Buisson, with their arms around her — both separate‐ ly and together. In one scene, Yensen is shown spooning her from behind and twice readjusting his hips to press his groin against her.

"It's important to under‐ stand that the MAPS manual actually does not allow for this kind of touch," Ross not‐ ed.

The MAPS manual for MD‐ MA-assisted therapy refers to two types of touch that it deems appropriate during sessions.

One is "nurturing touch," which could include holding a patient's hand or patting them on the back when they're agitated. The other is "focused bodywork," which the manual defines as offer‐ ing resistance for the patient to push against.

RCMP recommended criminal charges

Buisson has submitted the videos of her sessions to the College of Physicians and Sur‐ geons of B.C., where she has had an active complaint against Dryer for more than four years. A college spokesperson said she could not comment on that investi‐ gation.

Yensen is not a licensed psychologist in B.C., and be‐ cause the province does not regulate therapists and coun‐ sellors, there is no official body that can investigate his actions or discipline him if deemed necessary.

The videos have also been reviewed by the Quadra Is‐ land detachment of the RCMP, where Buisson filed a sex assault complaint in 2019.

Police recommended crim‐ inal charges, but Crown pros‐ ecutors declined to approve them, RCMP Cpl. Chris Voller confirmed. In B.C., the charge approval standard requires a "substantial likelihood of con‐ viction."

Dryer is an clinical assis‐ tant professor in the psychia‐ try department at the Univer‐ sity of B.C. UBC's director of university affairs, Matthew Ramsey, said in an email that the conduct shown in the video is outside the school's jurisdiction, and he couldn't comment because the study was not conducted or ap‐ proved by the university.

Buisson received a similar response in 2019 when she re‐ quested that UBC investigate Dryer's role in her treatment, according to emails shared with CBC.

After all of this, Buisson says she feels like she's been let down by every system that was put in place to pro‐ tect patients from harm, and that's why she's speaking out.

She says she worries about what could happen to future patients if rigorous checks and balances aren't in place before substances like MDMA are legalized for thera‐ peutic use.

"There's nothing I've seen in the last four years that gives me any reason to be‐ lieve that what happened to me won't happen again," she said.