WORK WITH ME
FOR INDIVIDUALS:
As a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, I understand the deep, vital connection between the mind and body. In sessions I will work with you to: identify and deepen your internal and external resources; develop coping skills to foster greater capacity and resilience for difficult emotions and life experiences; identify and communicate wants, needs, preferences, and boundaries; explore habituated and conditioned patterns of relating, reacting, numbing, and avoiding so you can move away from the various levels of activation your nervous system has developed into states of more ease, flow, spaciousness, and freedom.
Somatic Experiencing® supports releasing fixed patterns held within the body and nervous system developed through traumatic events and/or growing up in an unsafe, fearful, chaotic, emotionally absent, or unstable environment, allowing greater access to a deeper and wider range of emotions. Somatic Experiencing® also supports healing from other types of traumatic events, ranging from medical conditions (surgeries, diseases, chronic illness) to accidents to sexual assault.
My practice places great emphasis on mindfulness, as I believe that cultivating present-moment awareness is essential for self-discovery, self-awareness, and freedom from painfully constricting beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations. We will incorporate mindfulness practices into therapy sessions, helping you develop greater self-compassion, emotional regulation, and insight.
With a relational approach, I recognize the significance of the therapeutic container and connection. Together we create a safe and non-judgmental space where you can explore your relational patterns, uncover underlying dynamics, and build healthier and more fulfilling relationships.
In addition to somatic and mind-body approaches, I'm trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, an innovative modality that has shown promise in treating a range of mental health conditions. We can explore utilizing this therapy as another possible tool, tailoring your treatment plan to meet your unique needs and goals. I am deeply committed to supporting you on your journey towards well-being. Together we work to unlock your innate healing capacities and create meaningful change in your life.
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FOR THERAPISTS:
Scroll down to the Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) section to see how Adjunctive/Collaborative KAP can support your clients and your practice.
SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
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Emotions and the accompanying body sensations and thoughts can sometimes be overwhelming and intolerable. This often leads to avoidance, distraction, depression, excessive worry, rage, collapse, relationship difficulties, and when extreme, self-medicating with drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, and other addictive behaviors.
When we're activated (triggered), the root cause is usually something from our past: messages from our families or peers that we interpret as being unloveable, too much, that something's wrong with us (shame), or that our needs cannot be seen and met. We use our minds and body patterns to protect these vulnerable parts of ourselves, resulting in maladaptive patterns of behavior, mood issues, and chronic physical distress.
My approach is to identify, build-on, and use your strengths and resources, while also exploring negative patterns that stop you from living a full, integrated life. Together we cultivate your inner wisdom through gentle focused attention and presence (mindfulness), awareness of and building capacity for the somatic (body) sensations response to triggers, and quieting the accompanying internal dialogue. The result is more choice, freedom, and possibility for your life.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies. When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE helps us release, recover, and become more resilient. It is a body-oriented therapeutic model for healing trauma and other stress disorders. It is based on a multidisciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics and has been clinically applied for more than four decades. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine.The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states.
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KETAMINE-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY (KAP)
​"Psychedelics can provide a deeply significant experience, but ultimately, healing is the result of greater psychological and cognitive flexibility and the capacity to adapt constructively to life situations as they happen, rather than the result of a life free of emotions or symptoms...." --Marc B. Aixala from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
A unique therapeutic method used to address a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress, chronic pain, addiction, and some forms of anxiety. It involves the use of the psychoactive substance ketamine to enhance and deepen the therapeutic process, and the use of psychotherapy and other integrative forms of treatment to amplify and prolong the curative effects of ketamine.
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SPECIAL OFFERING
4 month KAP + Somatic Experiencing® (28 hours)
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4 Preparatory Sessions-virtual & in-person (4 weeks): Build our therapeutic relationship, learn and apply Somatic Experiencing® nervous system regulation techniques, and prepare for your ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) session. At least one session will be in person at the Sage office to introduce Somatic Experiencing® touch work.
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4 Ketamine Dosing & 4 Integration Sessions-virtual & in-person (8 weeks): Four in-person ketamine dosing sessions (every other week at the Sage office), with virtual integration sessions in between. Integration sessions help deepen and sustain ketamine-influenced neuroplasticity (durability/cumulative effect) by exploring session themes and content, strengthening positive mood changes, reinforcing pro-health behaviors, and applying Somatic Experiencing® regulation techniques.
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Post-Dosing Somatic Experiencing® Touch Work-in-person (4 weeks): In-person sessions at the Sage office to support continued integration and healing.
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Berkeley office (ketamine-assisted psychotherapy):
2185 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94705
Use this link to contact Sage Integrative Health directly to request an appointment through the clinic's practice.
In-person appointments available for ketamine-assisted therapy.
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ADJUNCTIVE/COLLABORATIVE KAP FOR THERAPISTS
​​​Adjunctive KAT may facilitate therapeutic progress for clients experiencing treatment resistance, particularly in the context of persistent depressive or trauma-related symptoms, by enhancing neuroplasticity and increasing affect tolerance.
How it works:
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Consultation: we have a brief phone consultation to determine if your client is a good candidate for KAP. Generally, KAP is effective in addressing a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD (certain medical and psychiatric conditions need to be treated before considering KAP).
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Collaboration: you and I collaborate on your client's goals, how KAP might support those goals, and answer any questions you have about KAP.
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Adjunctive Role: My work with your client is in the role of adjunctive therapist, in that they continue to see you for their regular therapy sessions, and I am in the collaborator role.
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Prescribing: Your client has a virtual appointment with one of the ketamine prescribers at Sage to determine eligibility and provide a ketamine prescription (mailed to the client's home).
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Preparation: Your client sees me for 3-6 50-minute preparation sessions (via telehealth), the number depending on how resourced they are, how severe their early-childhood attachment wounding is, etc. The goal is for them to feel safe in this new relationship with me, and prepared for altered-states work.
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Dosing: Your client starts with a minimum of 3 ketamine dosing sessions* (sublingual), either weekly, or every-other week. When working with TRD I find that weekly is best for a minimum of 4 sessions. When working with trauma symptoms, every-other provides a nice cadence for 3-6 sessions. During this time you and I continue to check in, either with a brief phone call, or leaving confidential voicemails with updates.
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Integration: After each dosing session is an integration session (via telehealth), where your client and I review themes and content of the session, and also deepen any supportive emotional and physical states they are experiencing post-dosing. During these sessions I often link directly to the work they are doing with you, offering suggestions of how to weave the work together, what to bring to you, etc..
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Logistics: Dosing session held at Sage Integrative Health in South Berkeley (near Alta Bates). I am in the room with the client the entire time to offer support, presence, reassurance, with the intention of providing a sense of security and safety.
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Scheduling: Currently my dosing sessions are Friday mornings, and also every-other Wednesday afternoon.
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Length of session: Dosing sessions are 3-3.5 hours.
* The number of dosing sessions varies, as does the treatment plan for maintenance. Ketamine is a medicine, as well as a medication. It changes activity in the neurocircuits in the brain (and throughout the body), and also provides an experience for the person that can support healing.
Reach out to me directly if you have a client who is interested, and I can support getting them to the front of the line to get on my schedule.
PSYCHEDELIC INTEGRATION
An important part of any psychedelic or consciousness-altering experience is the integration of the experience days, weeks, or months afterwards. Engaging in integration during and after a psychedelic experience supports a "positive imprint [that] gives us some confidence in our own internal processes and helps us develop an optimistic attitude towards life." (--Marc B. Aixala from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness) Together we identify ways to engage with and enhance the experiences, ideas, feelings, and sensations of the experience, and identify practices to includes in daily life to promote healing.