therapists Archives • Psychotropic Deprescribing Council

WEBINAR

Bridging to Recovery While Deprescribing Psychiatric Drugs,
with Anders Sørensen, PhD

ByPDC Administrator June 26, 2025

Friday, June 27, 2025
10-11 a.m PST | 1-2 p.m. EST | 5-6 p.m. GMT
Register today! Registration closes noon PST June 26, 2025

When psychiatric drug treatment comes to an end, how may a clinician minimize the risk of withdrawal or relapse while deprescribing? In this webinar presented by the Psychotropic Deprescribing Council, Danish psychologist and researcher Anders Sørensen, PhD offers his views on this important clinical skill, discussing his work in helping patients find their ways through tapering off antidepressants and psychiatric drugs to a new life supported by psychotherapy.

A short question and answer period will follow Anders’s presentation. A video of the webinar will be available for those who register but find they cannot attend. Please register for this webinar today.

Early in his training, Anders observed that the masking effects of psychiatric drugs often interfered with his clients’ abilities to address the root causes of their emotional distress and that these drugs could be very difficult to stop. He then obtained his PhD in psychiatric drug tapering and now specializes in advising people how to come off psychiatric drugs through gradual, hyperbolic tapering while providing psychotherapy to enable them to stay off.

Anders’s most recent work is a book, Crossing Zero – The Art and Science of Coming Off and Staying Off Psychiatric Drugs, to be published this summer, which incorporates the concept of recovery into psychiatric drug treatment. The first part of the book provides a clear, thoughtful interpretation of how psychiatric drugs do and do not work. In the second part, Anders explains the science of hyperbolic tapering and step-by-step methods to minimize the risk of withdrawal symptoms. In the last part, Life beyond Medication, Anders explores psychotherapeutic approaches to overcoming the difficult thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that underlie our various mental health diagnostic labels.

Anders’s scientific research includes systematic reviews such as Sørensen, et al. (2022). Description of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms in clinical practice guidelines on depression: A systematic review and Sørensen, et al. (2021). The relationship between dose and serotonin transporter occupancy of antidepressants—A systematic review. In addition to his writing, research, and clinical practice, Anders shares information about psychiatric drug tapering with the general public through social media, interviews, articles, and his popular YouTube channel, @AndersSorensen.

Register today! We will email a reminder and webinar link shortly before the date of the webinar. Registration closes noon PST June 26, 2025. If you cannot attend but are interested in receiving notification of other PDC events, please complete this form.

VIRTUAL MEETING

The Therapist’s Role in the Psychotropic Deprescribing Process,
with Dr. Anne Guy and Angela Peacock, MSW

ByPDC Administrator December 5, 2024

Friday, December 6, 2024
9-10:30 a.m PST | noon-1:30 p.m. EST | 5-6:30 p.m. GMT
Registration closes noon PST on Dec 5

The Psychotropic Deprescribing Council is pleased to announce a virtual roundtable to explore the roles of psychotherapists and other certified counselors in the deprescribing of psychiatric and other psychotropic drugs. Dr. Anne Guy (PsychD), UKCP Reg and Angela Peacock, MSW, CPC will lead the discussion.

Therapists may be involved in the deprescribing process when people are considering coming off psychiatric or pain drug treatment, in the process of tapering a psychotropic, or rediscovering their lives after coming off. A client may view going off a psychotropic regimen with trepidation or enthusiasm. The tapering process may be bumpy, requiring new coping skills. After taking a psychotropic for an extended time, people may be motivated to discover new ways of being. An understanding therapist can facilitate this journey and assist in new realizations.

This event is free. Registration closes noon PST on Thursday, December 5. All clinicians are welcome to contribute their experiences to the roundtable.

Dr. Anne Guy, a psychotherapist in private practice in the UK, is the lead editor and co-author of the free Guidance for Psychological Therapists: Enabling Conversations with Clients Taking or Withdrawing from Psychiatric Drugs, endorsed by the British Psychological Society, The UK Council for Psychotherapy, and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, among other organizations.

Anne is active in the secretariat for the Beyond Pills All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), a member of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, a founder of the Lived and professional Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) for Prescribed Drug Dependence, and is working with National Health Service staff to improve the safety of antidepressant deprescribing.

Angela Peacock, MSW, CPC provides education and support to individuals, families, groups, and organizations regarding harm reduction and deprescribing of psychiatric drugs. She hosts 18 support circles per month for clients and family members. Her story, featured in the documentary Medicating Normal (2020), sheds light on the challenges of polypharmacy and discontinuing psychiatric drugs.

Angela’s past positions have included Legislative Policy Fellow at Veterans of Foreign Wars; Military Veteran Liaison at Benzodiazepine Information Coalition; team member at The Withdrawal Project / Inner Compass Initiative.

Registration for this event closes noon PST Thursday, December 5. If you are interested in receiving notifications of other PDC events, please complete this form.