Queering Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Ketamine-Assisted Therapy in Seattle and throughout Washington state in the comfort of your own home
“Both queerness and psychedelics extend beyond the limitations of society’s mundane expectations. Breaking out of the gender binary or the boundaries of the quotidian mind, queerness and psychedelics alike offer the experience of shapeshifting – of re-envisioning what you can be. The queer community had to become something else within their lifetime. They had to enact that transformation within their psyche.” – Bett Williams
Here at Courageous You, I provide transformational psychedelic facilitation in a safe, nurturing space, aka the comfort of your own home. I am a fully-trained psychedelic-assisted therapy provider, certified through the Integrative Psychiatry Institute and I have also done my own deep work with psychedelic medicines that have prepared me to help you along your own healing journey. You can read a bit more below about what KAP treatment looks like in my practice and you can check out my KAP FAQ page for any remaining questions you might have.
I work with humans along all walks of life, but I am especially passionate about working with those who are part of the LGBTQIA+ and non-monogamous communities. Therapy, including psychedelic therapy, at my practice empowers and nurtures the diverse ways of being that LGBTQIA+people embody by providing counseling, education and community programs that uplift queer, trans and gender expansive lives. All services at Courageous You are queer informed and affirming with an emphasis on queer resilience and vitality and creating safe spaces for queer folx to live their most authentic lives.
I work with individuals, relationships of all types, and I occasionally also offer small groups for ketamine-assisted therapy as well.
My services focus on deep healing work, mindfulness, empowerment, spirituality, and transformation through preparation, ketamine dosing sessions in collaboration with Journey Clinical, and integration, all via telehealth from the comfort of your own space. I also teach self-help strategies that support self-directed personal development and brain change. My goal is to help you prepare for a healing shift that will help you get the most out of your experiential journey. I offer preparation sessions, ketamine medicine sessions, and then several integration sessions to help you better recognize and incorporate the pearls of insight from your psychedelic experiences into your daily life.
I operate from a non-directive approach to psychedelic preparation, facilitation, and integration. Providing a safe and supportive space for individualized healing and transformation is my highest priority. Each person’s inner intelligence is considered the primary guide for healing, along with the inner-wisdom promoting action of the ketamine. I am here to help with facilitating that connection and to provide a safe space and the support for taking the time to go deep within.
I also strongly believe: “you can only take a person as deeply as you’ve gone.” Because of this, I have spent my life applying myself to my own inner work and personal development process, along with receiving education and professional experience using psychedelics to facilitate spiritual growth and transformation. I also value as one of the fundamental aspects of this process, my ability to hold space and support clients in their trauma healing, heart opening, and spiritual awakening process.
“Community care is important for queer psychedelic liberation because we all need a safe container within which to heal, expand, and grow; a space where all of us is welcomed, seen, and celebrated. Then our defenses may be able to melt and our light may shine with passion, joy, and courage, so that we may bring the gift of our authentic selves to our communities.” – Ayyur Sutherland
Here’s how it works:
I am a KAP Provider in collaboration with Journey Clinical.
In my practice, I offer Ketamine-Assisted Therapy in collaboration with Journey Clinical. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a holistic modality in which ketamine is used as a complement to psychotherapy to help eligible patients experience more frequent breakthroughs and sustained improvement in symptoms. I take on the psychotherapy portion of the experience, while Journey Clinical’s medical team supports you on all medical aspects. This includes determining eligibility, developing a custom treatment plan, prescribing the medicine and monitoring outcomes.
Right now, ketamine is the only legal psychedelic medicine that can be used in the context of psychotherapy. It is an effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder, and PTSD. Although ketamine can be administered in a variety of ways, in my practice, we only use the sublingual lozenge form. This mean you swirl the medicine in your mouth and spit it out. No needles, thank you very much!
I combine Parts work, CBT, and Ketamine Assisted Therapy (KAP) in my practice. Before the ketamine dosing session(s), we will work together to build relationships with your parts. There might be parts of you that are really excited about psychedelic therapy, while other parts might feel quite scared. Parts of you might be hoping this will solve all of your problems. A part of you might not be ready for such a big shift. In our preparation sessions, we will hear from, connect with, and make sure all your parts are on board for this transformative experience.
KAP (like any psychedelic-assisted treatment) induces a nonordinary state of consciousness, which can provide us opportunities to work with wounded parts of ourselves, to support the development of new neural connections, and connect with more adaptive perspectives about ourselves and our suffering.
There’s so much more to say about how Ketamine-Assisted Therapy at my practice works, so head to my KAP PROGRAM OVERVIEW or KAP FAQ page for more information and you can schedule your free consult when you’re ready to get started!
My Psychedelic Therapy Training:
I am regularly taking continuing education courses on psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, as well as other relevant courses to best support my clients on their mental health journeys. Below is a brief summary of some of the trainings I have taken.
I trained with the Integrative Psychiatry Institute in 2023 and studied Psychedelic Therapy with Ketamine, Psilocybin, and MDMA.
I have taken the following relevant courses as well that have prepared me for psychedelic-assisted therapy:
- Intro to Ketamine
- Overview of Ketamine Part 2
- Ketamine Ethics
- Ketamine Routes of Administration
- Ketamine Therapy – Professional Panel on Routes of Administration
- Ketamine-assisted Therapy (KAP) for the Treatment of Depression
- Ketamine-assisted Therapy Preparation Sessions
- Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) interventions for Trauma Healing
- Treating Racial Trauma with Ketamine Therapy
- Integrative Psychiatry for Psychedelic Therapists
- The Healing Presence of the Psychedelic Therapist
- Therapeutic Competencies in Psychedelic Therapy
- Introduction to Parts Work and Internal Family Systems in Psychedelic Therapy
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) – LGBTQIA+ in Psychedelic Therapy
- Diversity in Psychedelic Treatment Overview
- Culture and Consciousness Revolution
- Intergenerational Trauma and Anti-Racism
- Mystical Experiences in Psychedelics
- Past and Present of Psychedelic Therapy
- Psychedelic Ethics
- Transference + Counter-Transference
- Evidence of MDA Therapy
- NMDA Receptors and Ketamine Pharmacology
- Psilocybin Introduction
- Transpersonal Psychology and Psychedelics
- Relational Issues in Psychedelic Therapy
- Intergenerational and Racial Trauma and Embodying Cultural Identity in MDMA-Assisted Therapy
- Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy and Traumatic Memories
- Introduction to MDMA-Assisted Therapy
- Informed Consent in Psychedelic Therapy
- Basics of Ketamine Consultation
- Clinical Applications of Harm Reduction
- Complex Patient Selection Criteria
- Considerations for working with BIPOC Communities in Psychedelic Therapy
- Cultural Considerations in Psychedelic Therapy Part II
- Culturally Attuned Recruitment and Assessment for Psychedelic Therapy CEU
- Culturally Informed Care with Refugee Populations
- Culture, Addiction and Psychedelics
- Environmental Distress, Grief, and Psychedelics
- Ethical Caring in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy
- How to Build a Psychedelic Therapy Practice
- Importance of Measuring and Scales in Psychedelic Therapy
- Indigenous Uses of Psilocybin Mushrooms and Psychedelic Capitalism
- Inner Healing Intelligence & Participant Directed Process
- Introduction to Co-Therapy in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy
- Journey of the Wounded Healer
- Lessons from Sacred Plant Medicine
- LGBTQ Considerations for Psychedelic Therapy
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy – Integration
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy – Preparation Overview
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy – Therapeutic Alliance and Trust
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD
- Mindfulness and Meditation
- Neuroscience and trauma with Arielle Schwartz
- Neuroscience of Trauma
- Professional Development in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
- Psilocybin and Transpersonal Experiences
- Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Alcohol Use Disorder
- Psilocybin-assisted Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder
- Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Set and Setting Roundtable
- Psychedelic Peer Support
- Psychedelic Reform – The Long Road Ahead
- Overview of Classic Psychedelics – Brain Mechanisms
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD
- Psilocybin and the ACE Model for Depression
- Trauma, Somatics, and Psychedelics
- Integration in Ketamine-Assisted Therapy
- Patient Selection Criteria in Psychedelic Therapy
- Somatic Process in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy
- The “OH WOW” of Dying
- The Psilocybin Consult – Screening, Intake, Assessment Protocols
- The Spiritual Role of the Healer
- Therapeutic Process – MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy
- Therapist Self Care in Psychedelic Therapy
- Touch in Therapy
- Understanding Spiritual Emergence/y
- Utility of Psilocybin for the Treatment of Existential Distress and Demoralization in End-of-Life and Palliative Care
- Values-Driven Approaches to Integration and Life Design
- Veteran Moral Injury and Psychedelic-Assisted Recovery