Rate My Professor Tobias Penno

Tobias Penno is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Western Australia, within the School of Health and Clinical Sciences, Social Work and Social Policy. He obtained his Master of Social Work from the University of Western Australia, awarded on 30 November 2016, and a Bachelor of Science from the same institution, awarded on 30 November 2013. Currently, Penno is finalizing his PhD, with his doctoral thesis titled "Interpersonal neurobiology in somatic & psychedelic assisted therapy: A somatic relational framework for psychedelic practitioners," listed as an unpublished work from 2025.

His research interests focus on the therapeutic skillset required for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, the interpersonal neurobiology of psychedelic-assisted therapy, circadian heart rate as a biological marker for screening, assessment, and measuring efficacy in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, the role of social work in the psychedelic humanities, the Power, Threat, Meaning Framework, the social model of mental-emotional health grounded in relational neurobiology, and the role of psychedelic healing practices in re-establishing the human-nature bond, ecological healing, and the cultivation of the Human "Evolved Nest." Penno's career appointments include co-founding the Australian Psychedelic Society WA Chapter with Dr. Stephen Bright, coordinating the Mental Health Professional Network’s local Psychedelic Community of Practice, serving on the therapy team for Reset Mind Sciences' Perth-based clinical trial using psychedelic medicine for treatment-resistant depression, acting as a treating clinician in a clinical trial exploring psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression, and researching as part of a team of social workers investigating the role of social work in the psychedelic renaissance. He is also affiliated with the WA Suicide Prevention and Resilience Research Centre as a researcher from the School of Social Work. Penno's first academic publication, "How Ayahuasca Offers Psychosocial Wellbeing," won the social work research prize in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at UWA in 2017.