Upcoming Event: SomPsych Retreat

Ketamine is a psychoactive drug classified as a dissociative anesthetic. It was first synthesized in 1962 and has been used in the United States as an anesthetic in medical settings since 1970. It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines

Ketamine has been used off-label in sub-anesthetic doses for the past 20 years to treat chronic pain, depression, and a variety of other mental health concerns, thanks to its rapid onset antidepressant effects, sometimes providing nearly immediate relief from emotional and physical pain. While the antidepressant effects tend to be temporary after a single ketamine treatment, multiple treatments have proven to have a cumulative effect, successfully alleviating symptoms in approximately 30 - 60% of individuals with treatment-resistant depression.

In low doses, ketamine can serve as a supportive adjunct to psychotherapy, as it provides an opportunity for the temporary softening of the psychological defenses, allowing for deeper self reflection and psychotherapeutic processing.

In moderate doses, ketamine has psychedelic effects, which have been shown to facilitate profound transpersonal experiences. These types of experiences can help people in a variety of ways, offering important clarity and insight into one’s struggles, adding a spiritual dimension to ongoing therapeutic work, and facilitating a sense of meaning and interconnectedness.

From Dan McQueen, Psychedelic Cannabis:

“Cannabis Sativa is a classic psychedelic, equal to psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and DMT….. the most accessible and effective psychedelic medicine we have for healing and transformational practices.”

When used in accordance with strict protocols for preparation, the blending of selected strains, and engagement with sacred ceremonies, we have found its usefulness to be unparalleled.

Breathwork is endogenous medicine. You gain mastery as a direct result of your own efforts to shape your own chemistry, your own flights of transformative awareness through an engaged breathing ritual. Its transformative effects are the result and the reflection of what is already within you, which too frequently is bound and buried under convention and habit. Surrounded as we often are by a society that is incredibly disempowering – this is a model that turns you back inside yourself over and over again. It is a true gift and an act of radical self-empowerment.

Physical activity has a powerful and positive influence on neurotransmitter balance. Once an entheogenic medicine has softened the ruts and boundaries of the known and familiar world of suffering, physical empowerment sessions strengthen your capacity to step forward in personally meaningful ways. Physical empowerment is helpful for healing areas of hurt, as well as overcoming habits that keep you stuck, into a flexible, healthy, and vital sense of being alive. On a retreat the group as a whole body gathers in the morning to explore breath, movement, and strengthening, which grounds and integrates the entheogenic journeys. Though challenging at times, it’s a lot of fun.

Each session is skillfully tailored to all levels and abilities, and to serve the needs of all participants in the room. If you have a physical limitation that you have concerns about, please feel free to reach out to our staff so that we can determine how to accommodate you during this portion of the program. We are passionate about helping and empowering people with physical challenges. A condition, disability, injury, quirk or limitation does not automatically exclude you from our program. The retreat is a loving invitation to explore new landscapes.