Qualifications & Education

Qualifications:

• Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Maryland 
• Licensed Professional Counselor in Virgina
• Usui Holy Fire III Reiki Master Teacher
• Yoga & Meditation Teacher

Education:

• B.A. in Psychology and Conflict Analysis & Dispute Resolution from Salisbury University
• M.S. in Counseling with a concentration in School Counseling from Johns Hopkins University
• Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Johns Hopkins University
• Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Certificate from Naropa University 
• Ketamine Apprenticeship Training with Naropa University
• MDMA-Assisted Therapy Education Program with Naropa University and Lykos Therapeutics (formerly MAPS PBC).
• Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) Certificate from the Psychedelic Somatic Institute
• Clinical Trauma Professional Certificate from PESI (CCTP)
• EFT/Tapping Training with PESI

Learn More

Resources for you to continue learning

Free Information Session by Nicole Sparrow, LCPC

Ketamine Overview by ThirdWave

Articles:

• Ketamine for Depression
• Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): Patient Demographics, Clinical Data and Outcomes in Three Large Practices Administering Ketamine with Psychotherapy
• Ketamine and Depression: A Review
• Ketamine for Bipolar Depression: Biochemical, Psychotherapeutic, and Psychedelic Approaches
• Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Related to Racial Discrimination
• Double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging trial of intravenous ketamine as adjunctive therapy in treatment-resistant depression (TRD)
• Toward specific ways to combine examine and psychotherapy in treating depression

Books: 

• The Ketamine Papers by Phil Wolfson M.D. and Glenn Hartelius Ph.D
• Ketamine Dreams and Reality by Karl Jansen
• Ketamine for Depression by Dr. Stephen J. Hyde

More Resources from the KRIYA Institute

Trauma Healing at the Nervous System Level · Frederick, Maryland

If you’ve found your way here, something in you is likely ready for a deeper layer of healing. 

You’ve probably been in therapy, have self-awareness, and can trace the origin story of your relational patterns. Despite your awareness, you still may find yourself in the same arguments, experiencing the same shutting down, or lost in the same discomfort and confusion in relationships.

You know your patterns and yet, here they are. 

The good news is that these patterns and behaviors actually indicate that your nervous system is highly intelligent. You’ve learned adaptations over time to keep you safe and alive in challenging and even traumatic situations, and your body has learned how to protect you. However, the protective mechanisms your system uses to keep you safe during a traumatic event often don’t necessarily fit the healthy present moment relationships you want to have. 

Trauma doesn’t live in the thinking mind, it lives in the body and in your nervous system. You may notice it in a freeze response when someone raises their voice, or in the relationship dynamics you keep finding yourself in despite wanting to make a different choice. Healing at that layer requires something deeper than simply talking about it logically, which is where somatic work comes in. 

Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy is body-centered, medicine-assisted therapy that works directly with the nervous system to excavate and reprocess stored trauma.

Most therapeutic modalities are top-down, meaning that they move from the cognitive mind down into the body. PSIP is bottom-up, or from the nervous system first. Here, we trust the wisdom of the body in the healing process so that you can heal from the inside out.

Ready to explore whether PSIP is right for you?

When Trauma Patterns Keep Repeating

You’re probably highly self-aware and have spent a good amount of time in therapy. You likely understand intellectually (and can describe in detail) where your behavior patterns in relationships come from.

Maybe you recognize yourself in some of these:

• You keep finding yourself in the same relationship dynamics, even when you know what you want to do differently
• Conflict dysregulates you in ways that feel completely out of proportion, and afterwards you can’t explain why you reacted the way you did
• Your nervous system feels like it's always a little on: scanning, bracing, waiting for something that isn’t actually there (fight or flight mode is activated)
• You experience chronic tension, pain, or fatigue that doesn’t have a clear physical cause
• You’re aware of generational cycles within your family of origin; you observe patterns within yourself that you don’t want to continue or pass on 
• You feel stuck in maladaptive patterns (behavioral or relational) that self-awareness alone hasn’t been able to shift

The people who come to this work are often highly self-aware and have been in therapy before. Despite the therapeutic work you’ve done so far, you likely still find yourself saying things like:

“I can’t keep living like this.”

“My relationships are suffering.”

“I see this pattern that lives in me, and feel like it isn’t mine.”

“I know what happened to me in the past, but I don’t want it influencing the present.”

“I’m sick of my trauma running my life.”

“I want to have a choice. I’m aware of the patterns, but still feel stuck.” 

“It seems like there is a layer I can’t get to by just talking about it - like the body is the missing piece.”

If you’ve said any version of these things to yourself, to a therapist, to a friend, there is nothing wrong with you. 

You may just need a different kind of work.

Why trauma stays in the body

The reason talk therapy has taken you only so far is not that you haven’t worked hard enough. It’s that trauma doesn’t only live in the logical thinking mind. It lives in the body and in your nervous system, held there long after you’ve made cognitive sense of what happened.

In the natural world, when an animal experiences a traumatic event, they have an inherent somatic process by which they integrate their experiences; they often physically shake themselves afterwards to move through it. 

As humans, we do it differently. Often lacking safe places to process grief and trauma, we’re usually taught to do our best to move on and seem okay even when (especially when) we're not. 

Rather than allowing ourselves to shake and move and physically process our emotions and the things that happen to us, we shove it all down where it can harden and turn into deeper pain, resentment, and even disease. When we don't allow our emotions to move, we can end up cut off from our bodies altogether, unconsciously repeating the trauma patterns stored in them.

How the body encodes trauma - somatic states

Trauma research has consistently shown that traumatic experiences are encoded not just as memories, but as somatic states. They’re stored in the nervous system as patterns of tension, reactivity, and survival response. This is why you can understand your behavior retroactively, yet still find yourself hijacked by it in the moment.

The body holds what the mind can’t fully process. Because it does, healing often requires working at that level directly.

PSIP works with the innate intelligence of your autonomic nervous system to help the body access and metabolize stored trauma patterns that talking alone often can’t reach. This enables us to gain access to the primary consciousness still holding the trauma. 

Working with medicine (low-dose cannabis and/or ketamine) softens the default mode network (typical way of viewing the world, defense mechanisms, etc) just enough to gain access to primary consciousness: deep memory systems, the inner child or infant, where attachment wounds are encoded and what drives survival. This access opens while keeping one foot in secondary consciousness: your adult self and ability to have higher level thinking) 

This allows us to witness the truth of what your nervous system is holding, so that it can be processed through and completed rather than bypassing or forcing our way through.

What is PSIP and is it right for you?

Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) is a body-centered, medicine-assisted therapy model developed by the Psychedelic Somatic Institute. It pairs low-dose psychedelics (ketamine or cannabis) with somatic psychotherapy and a highly relational, interactive therapeutic presence to help access and heal trauma stored in the nervous system.

PSIP is particularly well-suited for PTSD, C-PTSD, and complex or developmental trauma, especially when traditional therapy has helped you understand your patterns intellectually, but the body hasn’t caught up yet.

At Mind Body Wellness in Frederick, Maryland, we also offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), a different modality with a different focus. Both are powerful, but they’re not the same thing, and they’re right for different people at different moments. 

Here’s a breakdown of the two therapies and their applications:

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

•  Best for: getting unstuck, treatment resistant depression, generalized anxiety, insight, inner guidance and neuroplasticity for lasting change, depression, anxiety, OCD, thought rigidity, personal growth, and anyone curious about psychedelic healing

• Goal: shift stuck patterns, overcome rumination, access your inner voice, change the way you think and cultivate a more stable foundation

• Interaction: The medicine supports a self-directed, inward journey. Your therapist holds the container, reflecting the wisdom your inner voice already knows.
• Experience: Sessions are an inward experience that can include profound insights, expanded perspective, and a deepened relationship with yourself.
• Intensity: Generally sessions are gentle, introspective, soft, and relatively mellow within the body.
• Container: Structured in clear way, each session includes prep, medicine, and integration. See KAP FAQ for more.

Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP)

• Best for: PTSD, C-PTSD, attachment wounds, trauma stored in the body, repeating relational patterns. PTSD, C-PTSD, complex or developmental trauma, chronic pain linked to trauma, dissociation, and people who feel stuck despite years of therapy
• Goal: excavate and reprocess trauma at the nervous system level to create lasting change in how you respond, not just how you think
• Interaction: Your therapist is an active, interactive participant the entire time:  tracking your body, nervous system, and what arises in the relational field.
• Experience: Sessions involve somatic processing; You may shake, cry, move, or dissociate. Memories may resurface as they are reprocessed. The body leads; our role is to be a loving witness to what arises.
• Intensity: As we invite primary consciousness forward, sessions may feel challenging, disruptive, or intense.
• Container: Highly variable, typically with a longer arc than KAP as the therapeutic relationship is essential and foundational to the efficacy of the work.

Not sure which path is the best fit?

Complete the interest form and we can decide together

PSIP Rates & Session Structure 

Rates are $160 / hour for all session types. Insurance accepted in some cases, superbills can be provided. 

Preparation

Before any medicine sessions, we spend time getting to know each other and understanding your nervous system. We spend plenty of time exploring the model, answering your questions, and preparing you for what to expect. You’ll also engage in several somatic sessions without medicine so that you can get a feel for the principles of PSIP in practice. Some people need more preparation than others, and we move at a pace that feels right for you.

Preparation sessions are 1 hour and can be done virtually.

PSIP Sessions

Using selective inhibition, we inhibit your body’s learned management strategies in order to invite the primary consciousness forward. When you dial back or stop managing, the body is able to show you what it has been holding onto. Our job here is to be loving witnesses to what arises so that the material can be processed in a safe and held container. 

Sessions are 2 to 2.5 hours and are conducted in person in Frederick, Maryland.

PSIP sessions are in person only.

Integration

Throughout this process, we meet regularly without medicine to help the material land. This work can be intense, and sometimes disregulating, and integration sessions help to provide much-needed support as you navigate healing. Ongoing integration support allows you to bring what emerges during these sessions into your everyday life and relationships. 

Integration sessions are 1 hour and can be done virtually.

Two PSIP Pathways: Ongoing or Intensive Sessions

Ongoing PSIP

Sessions are paced to what feels accessible and appropriate for you. This is the right fit for most people, especially those integrating deep or complex material over time, or who want to continue the work alongside other life commitments.

PSIP Intensive

One week dedicated entirely to you. Two to four sessions back-to-back, allowing for a continuation of the work in a condensed period of time. Well-suited for people who are traveling to Frederick for this work, or who want to do concentrated deep healing in a shorter window. 

Intensives are best planned ahead due to availability. Please reach out to explore scheduling options.

Inside Sessions: What PSIP actually looks like

PSIP is a highly interactive, deeply relational process; one in which the therapist is an active participant the entire time. I’ll be tracking your body movements, your nervous system, and the relational dynamics arising in session.

By selectively inhibiting your learned management strategies, PSIP helps you enter primary consciousness to allow unresolved trauma to complete. The body reveals and works toward resolving unfinished survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). You may shake, cry, move, or dissociate. The point isn’t to control the process. It’s to witness what your body is holding onto without managing it, so that the material can be processed.

This work tends the inner child or infant whose needs weren’t met with as much love and care as you deserved, and whose essence may still be influencing your adult behaviors.

Over time, you’ve learned management strategies that have kept you alive and safe in relationships, especially ones that weren’t as safe as you needed them to be. When we slow down and gently pause those strategies, unresolved patterns come forth. 

Using the container of a whole and healthy therapeutic relationship, we revisit past wounding so it can be excavated and reprocessed with care.

Setting Honest Expectations

This is hard work, and sessions can be dysregulating. Re-experiencing painful material is challenging, and the days after a session can be tender as the material integrates. 

The preparation period exists so that you can feel ready before we begin. Your autonomy and choice are centered as we build the container together.

What Becomes Possible with PSIP

PSIP isn’t just about reducing symptoms. It’s a fundamental restructuring of how your nervous system responds, how you show up in relationships, and how you experience yourself and the world around you. For many people, what shifts is something they couldn’t quite articulate before: their freedom and choice to respond in a new way, more capacity to authentically be present in their own life. 

Here’s some of the common benefits noted by clients of PSIP: 

• More choice in how you respond, especially when conflict or discomfort arises
• A more objective view of reality, less colored by past experiences and old wounds
• Stronger, healthier relationships; less reactivity, more genuine presence
• A clearer sense of who you are without the old patterns of behavior
• More freedom, choice, and authenticity in your being

For me, the heart of this work is about helping people have more choice. When we release trauma and protective patterns from the body and nervous system, we can choose to respond rather than react.

If you’re ready to take the next step towards exploring PSIP, complete the form below.  

Affirming, Inclusive and Collaborative Care

At Mind Body Wellness, we whole-heartedly believe in collaborative care. We have providers who specialise in a variety of modalities including EMDR, art therapy, trauma, couples therapy, and psychedelic integration. If you’re already working with a therapist and want to explore PSIP, I’m happy to coordinate with them to support your care. 

Mind Body Wellness is a trauma-informed space open to all ethnicities, races, cultural identities, gender identities and expressions, religions and spiritual practices, and sexual orientations. We are committed to being a LGBTQIA+ celebrating, neuro-affirming, and anti-racist space. 

Psychedelic Medicine: Our Approach

We offer acknowledgement and deep reverence to indigenous peoples who were the original stewards of psychedelic medicine and medicine work. While ketamine is a human-made compound, keepers of plant medicine have been partnering with altered states of consciousness through the use of psychedelics for thousands of years before us. Without their wisdom, we would not have the means to offer this modality as a path for healing.