The Center for Transformational Psychotherapy

Our View

The Center offers our view of Transformational Psychotherapy—assisting individuals, couples and families towards healthy minds and healthy bodies in a setting that is gentle, safe, and creative of new and freer energy for life and connection. We cultivate awareness, imagination, and loving kindness using methods that utilize the best of mainstream psychology and psychiatry and of alternative methodologies. We are particularly focused on depression and trauma–past and present–and its alleviation. Loss and grief are inherent to our personal backgrounds and are part of our therapeutic awareness. As we have been working intensively with persons with life threatening illnesses, this too is an area of our expertise that we offer.

We are interested in all aspects of personal history, experience in family and culture, and the present situation and your orientation to it.

• We aim to provide a freeing, liberating experience that validates the past and makes the present alive with potential for growth and development, new choices and a working through of suffering that inhibits this.
  We are leaders in a new and exciting therapy (KAP) and may well recommend the use of the medicine ketamine as an assisted psychotherapy that has two major vectors:
• As a low dose, sub-lingual lozenge consciousness experience in an interactive psychotherapy frame. This provides a time-out from ordinary mind, a relief from negativity and depression and a reset for new consciousness.
• And as a higher dose, intra-muscular injection, that engenders a transformative experience, a journey, that is unique to the person, and leads to a shift in usual ways of being and viewing oneself and one’s world.
• Both methods may be used together over time in support of relief from suffering, depression PTSD and obsessional mind.

We follow the course of your treatment with assessment measures that enable us to understand difficulties and progress, and to contribute to the growing awareness of ketamine’s benefits. This work encompasses training for at home use of the lozenge low dose format that enables you to have sessions in your own space, in communication with us. Our model minimizes the medical aspect with its objectification and alienation. Instead, we embrace the personal and subjective as our focus in what we regard as a therapeutic nest that holds our patients in safety and furthers the exploration of mind, heart and spirit.

• Our therapeutic methods embrace non-directive therapy, our own form of Ericksonian hypnosis, the Internal Family Systems model, psychodynamic psychotherapy, meditation and loving kindness, gestalt and other approaches brought to bear as appropriate to the person(s).
• Going deep into mind means to us understanding suffering and its origins and seeking its relief.
• We are adept with medical and health issues and will use consultants and other practitioners as necessary.
• Our commitment is to an ongoing relationship with you, your dear ones, outside therapist(s) and practitioners with whom you may be involved—being with you as long as is necessary and fruitful.
• We situate our patients in their contexts (and include important relationship persons–as desired by our patients and as appropriate).
• We work with couples and families.

Above all, we are confident in your ability to put your great good Self in charge of your life!

Our Process

Generally, we begin with an intake session which encompasses history, assessment measures, and is designed to get to know each other, establish a bond, and explore the issues to be addressed in the therapy. The KAP process is explained and questions and concerns answered. If ketamine is to be used, a decision is made together as to which method will commence treatment. Most often we begin with a lozenge session to acquaint patients with the ketamine experience, to assess sensitivity and responsivity, dosage, and to design the at-home experience. At the conclusion, a prescription for the lozenges is made through our formulating pharmacy for a limited number of them but adequate for a series of at-home sessions. No refills are provided. We have a no abuse policy and provide ketamine in a manner where that is not possible. IM sessions are done only in the office.

Our practice tends to be to work as a male/female team, this emanating from our collaborative work in the MAPS sponsored MDMA trial. We remain in active contact through email and telephone with patients doing the at-home work.

Generally, in-office sessions last two and a half to three hours and with follow-up, this represents a commitment to you and our work with you. Hence, our fees are in accord with this extended time frame. Ketamine in not yet being reimbursed by insurance, but our sessions can be partially compensated based on psychotherapy coding and we will provide billing whenever possible.

Thanks so much for your interest!