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ANDREW PENN, NP

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
 
Educator. Consultant. Clinician.

ABOUT ANDREW

Thirty years of Mental Health Experience

Andrew Penn is a board certified psychiatric nurse practitioner, trained at the University of California, San Francisco.  He has completed extensive training in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy at the California Institute for Integral Studies, MAPS, and the Usona Institute. As a member of the UCSF-TrPR Lab (with PI Josh Woolley, MD,PhD), he was a study therapist in the MAPS sponsored Phase 3 study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD published in Nature Medicine and was a Co-PI in the Phase 2 Usona sponsored study of psilocybin facilitated therapy for major depression published in JAMA.

A Clinical Professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Nursing, he teaches psychopharmacology and is an Attending Nurse Practitioner at the
San Francisco Veterans Administration.   

A leading voice for nurses in psychedelic therapy, he is a cofounder of OPENurses, a professional organization for nurses interested in psychedelic research and practice and Additionally, he was a co-author in an article in the American Journal of Nursing on psychedelic assisted therapies, the first in 57 years. In addition to numerous other publications, he is an author on the new textbook: Deliberate Practice in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy, published by American Psychological Association Press. 

He is the Co-chair for
Sana Symposium, a leading national CME meeting on psychedelic therapies and NP Institute, a CME meeting for early career PMHNP's.  As a steering committee member for Psych Congress, he has been invited to present internationally on improving medication adherence, cannabis pharmacology, psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, grief psychotherapy,  treatment-resistant depression, diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder, and the art and science of psychopharmacologic practice. He also keeps regular blogs on all things psychiatric, has been invited to speak at SXSW, the Aspen Health Ideas Festival, TEDxMarin, and the Singapore Ministry of Health, written for the Los Angeles Times, and interviewed in Forbes, and on the BBC World Service.  

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Now Available - Deliberate Practice in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy, published by APA Press

Abot

Clinical Professor, UC San Francisco School of Nursing

The recipient of both the 2020 Hallie T Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award and the prestigious 2021 UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Teaching Award, Andrew has been teaching at UC San Francisco since 2007, first as a volunteer Assistant Clinical Professor, currently appointed to a full time, Clinical Professor position in the School of Nursing, Department of Community Health Services. He is faculty of record for several psychiatric nurse practitioner psychopharmacology courses, a general psychiatry survey course, and a first and second year clinical seminars.

Additionally, Andrew is an internationally invited speaker for continuing education conferences and grand rounds, having provided over 100 lectures on contemporary issues in psychiatry. He currently is the Co-Chair for Sana Symposium, a leading CME meeting on psychedelic therapies and a steering committee member for Psych Congress, and Elevate, He was part of the successful launch of NP Institute, a CME meeting for early career Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners

See button below for a full list of past and current topics. 

EDUCATOR

Educator

CONSULTANT

Education. Legal. Regulatory. Pharmacology. Practice.

Andrew brings over 30 years of mental health professional expertise to clients as an expert consultant. He has served as a steering committee member and Co-Chair for Psych Congress, (and associated meetings Elevate, Sana Symposium, and NP Institute) a large, national continuing education meeting since 2010.

He has testified as an expert witness in nurse practitioner malpractice cases and served as a subject matter expert consultant. His work also includes consultation with pharmaceutical companies, particularly those developing rapid acting treatments and psychedelic medicines. 


He is available for peer consultation for matters considering medication and psychotherapy treatment of patients. He does not maintain a private practice. 

Consultant

CLINICIAN

Integrated Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy

Andrew brings over 30 years of mental health professional expertise to clinical practice, with two decades as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.  After working in outpatient psychiatry with Kaiser Permanente for 13 years, he now treats American Veterans at the San Francisco VA.  He has taught and has expertise in cases of treatment resistant depression, PTSD, and the use of psychedelic assisted therapies such as ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA in the treatment of psychiatric illness.

He was a study therapist in the

MAPS sponsored study of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and was a Co-I in the Usona sponsored study of
Psilocybin facilitated therapy for major depression. He is currently working on studies of psilocybin interventions for persons with Bipolar 2 depression and a separate study examining depression and Parkinson's disease.
 
At this time, his clinical practice is limited to his work with the
University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco VA and he does not maintain a private practice.

Clincian

CONTACT ME

Messages sent through this site are not secure and do not constitute medical treatment or advice.
Please do not include protected health information in your message.

I do not currently have a private practice and cannot provide referrals for psychedelic therapy. People seeking to participate in studies of psychedelic therapy are encouraged to look on clinicaltrials.gov.
For those looking for psychedelic integration therapy, I suggest psychedelic.support.

I get many requests for informational interviews about the PMHNP profession, training, and career opportunities and am happy to talk with potential future members of the profession. Before contacting, I ask that you please read this interview first, as it answers many frequently asked questions.   If you're especially interested in learning to be a psychedelic assisted therapist, I'd encourage you to read this first. 

If you still have questions, please feel free to get in touch. 

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