When I was a little girl, I would lay on my trampoline looking up at the sky and dream of being on one of the planes overhead. I wondered where they were going. The people that were traveling…Were they headed to some exotic destination to play and explore exciting adventures? Were they professionals flying to share their talents?
One thing that I was inherently sure of…they were Expanding. Growing. Connecting.
They would be different in some way following their trip than when they left.
Today, I’m traveling across the country for all of those reasons.
Expansion. Growth. Connection.
As that little dreamer on the trampoline, I mentally planned many excursions.
One of which involved flying into southern California and driving up the coast to the Redwood Forest, meandering through interesting stops whenever I wanted along the way. Forests hold a special magic for me, and to see those beautiful monstrosities seemed to be the ultimate in what I now know to be “shinrin yoku” or forest bathing.
My flight today arrives in San Francisco (rather than southern Cali), and I will start my two week adventure taking in all of the excitement of that city along with my forest exploration until Wednesday!
Expansion. Growth. Connection.
As that little dreamer on the trampoline, I mentally planned many excursions.
One of which involved flying into southern California and driving up the coast to the Redwood Forest, meandering through interesting stops whenever I wanted along the way. Forests hold a special magic for me, and to see those beautiful monstrosities seemed to be the ultimate in what I now know to be “shinrin yoku” or forest bathing.
My flight today arrives in San Francisco (rather than southern Cali), and I will start my two week adventure taking in all of the excitement of that city along with my forest exploration until Wednesday!
Expansion.
Anyone who knows me well knows how passionate I am about serving people in healing their trauma especially through the use of the treatment modality, EMDR (https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/). I have been a psychotherapist for 26 years, trained in EMDR for 10, and I have been privileged to witness clients receive healing from EMDR in ways that I nor they could have ever imagined. I often feel like I am a part of something within clients’ healing journeys that is so sacred that I’m humbled to even have been chosen to be a part of the process.
Several years ago, I was at a national conference for my profession where one of the workshops was on “Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.” My first thought was, “What?! Is this real??? We’ve resorted to the use of mind-altering substances in the name of healing?!”
Then, I kept hearing more podcasts about the various healing experiences through this treatment as well as the research that was being conducted on the topic. More and more workshops were offered on the topic over the years as well as the keynote speaker at one of our regional conferences speaking on this therapy from a practitioner’s point of view.
Years before this, I had a client that was working with me who asked if I could come with him to provide EMDR treatment as he received his weekly ketamine treatments.
“What??? Ketamine? What is ketamine?”
He took out his phone and started pulling up information as I regrettably informed him that I knew nothing about the use of ketamine, and there were certainly no “best practices” that I was aware of that could guide me in supporting him through his treatments.
Last year, my COO, Lindsay and I attended an open house for a psychotherapy practice that had just added “Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy” to their therapeutic offerings. I was surprised (to say the least) that there was no professional organization yet established to oversee training in this treatment modality and no best practices to guide clinicians in proper therapeutic care following a ketamine “journey.”
I began looking for training options. Curiosity fueled the desire for training along with a feeling of responsibility to our profession as a whole to assist in establishing/contributing to research-based knowledge that will guide proper use of this treatment modality (assuming it resonates with me and my core values as I train in the treatment.)
Months ago, I was at a specialist doctor’s appointment. As this physician asked about my profession, I mentioned that I own Hope Springs Mind, Body, Spirit, and she looked at me like she had seen a ghost. She had established ketamine administration treatment at her practice months earlier, but she stated that she hesitated to continue to offer it without the necessary psychotherapeutic follow-up care. She went on to say just the week prior to our meeting that day, someone had recommended that she reach out to me to gauge my interest in this collaborative treatment modality.
There are no coincidences.
I trained in an online training on the topic, and I found it interesting, yet impossible to ethically move forward with this treatment offering as a practice without the experiential training component.
So….this Wednesday through Tuesday of the following week, I will be at a training in Mount Madonna just south of San Francisco as I join 15 other clinicians traveling from all over the world as we train with a group of professionals who, for years, have been practicing and training in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with EMDR treatment as the follow-up care…all medically monitored. My goal is to not only to potentially deepen the healing opportunity that we have utilizing EMDR, but also to make healing possibly more accessible for people who might be more resistant to trauma treatment/mental health treatment, in general.
Growth.
Following my training, I’m going travel down the coast (can we call that a dream in reverse?!) and meander to visit a friend in Santa Barbara. (Remember my blog post The Semmering? Christine?)
Connection.
Stay tuned….a new journey begins….
