Charles Wininger has been a psychotherapist in private practice since 1989. Licensed as a Mental Health Counselor, he specializes in relationships and communication skills, treating couples and individuals in his Brooklyn, N.Y. office.

He completed his post-graduate training at the Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy in New York, and has continued his professional development the past twenty years at New York’s Soma-Psyche Institute, where he learns intuition and empathic attunement skills.

As a former hippie in the ‘60s, he’s lived through multiple eras of psychedelic culture and carries with him the same spirit of peace and love today. “I’ve lived through it all,” he says. “And now it all lives through me.”

These days, Charles, who lectures on “MDMA As Relationship Superglue” is considered an elder in New York’s psychedelic community, meaning he’s had his share of encounters with MDMA, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and ayahuasca.

When he met his second wife, Shelley, back in 2000, he found a woman who was new to these medicines but eager to try them. Together, they discovered that MDMA could add an additional layer of intimacy and joy to their relationship. Moreover, it has helped them transition from middle age into their senior years.

During this time, they ventured into a forbidden world of psychedelic drug users, and found it to be enchanted. As a result, they’ve been instrumental in building the community in New York for the past twenty years.

Now in his mid-70s, Charles uses these medicines as a tool for better understanding his own perspectives on aging, love and relationships, community building, masculinity, and mortality. He is intrigued by the potential of these substances for, as one psychedelic researcher puts it, “the betterment of well people” – in other words, to help us live our best life.

P.S. Charles learned so much from using MDMA with Shelley, he wrote a book about their adventures. You can check it out here.