DENOVO Therapy

It took a long time to learn the toll that trauma and untreated ADD had on my life. My journey started with counseling and meditation but my life really pivoted after safe and therapeutic psychedelic experiences. Then an effective and appropriate ADD treatment helped me begin to live to my potential. Finally therapy, psychedelic assisted therapy, and Internal Family Systems have helped me continue to grow. It is the amalgamation of these modalities over time that has been the recipe for healing for me. It is important to acknowledge that recipe is different for everyone. I spent my life in healthcare. After tasting that healing was possible it was a short jump for me to move to psychedelic care.

That is the context from which I started DENOVO Therapy, a psychedelic therapy clinic and collaborative mental health practice community. We started with DIY business systems and $10,000 renting a small room in a medical plaza. I began building the business in Fall of 2018 and we opened in June of 2019 with IV ketamine and therapist integration support. With in 6 months we added 2 therapist, started training therapists on Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and offering KAPs in the community. We survived the pandemic while growing and moving to a new location. We built in and added CRM, EMR, and HIPAA compliant communications so we would have room to grow into them. From the beginning everything was done from a psychedelic model of care. Today we have 7 therapists, 3 interns, 4 nurse practitioners, a paramedic, and front office support. All of them work various schedules to support the mission of the clinic. We have even had a psychiatrist resident join us for an elective rotation. You can read more about my story here or here or visit DENOVO Therapy here.

In the last few years my personal mission has expanded to include empowering others to provide healing to their communities. The consulting and training business has come from that desire. Whether you have an existing clinic or not, big or small operational questions, medical or therapy concerns, or need help integrating a psychedelic model, I will have some hard won value to contribute. In the mean time, below are a few common psychedelic clinic challenges to consider.

Implicit Bias
Consider your training background and how it effects the clinic design and systems you will put in place. Be willing to reconsider what’s essential and what’s not based on a psychedelic model of care. How would a therapist vs physician set up the office? What about anesthesia vs psychiatry?

Why?
What are your reasons for getting into psychedelic work? What are your first principals? What’s your why? The answers to these questions will drive your ethics. Every day you will be faced with with unclear ethical situations. Are you willing to do your own work? See the image below to see the complexity of personal ethical pitfalls, from this literal essential resource The Ethics of Caring by Kylea Taylor.

Set
Managing a clients expectations is essential. How will you educate and prep for experiences? Consider medical vs therapeutic, vs psychedelic preparations. Consider the set you and staff members bring to the office. Consider harm reduction (ZENDO) models vs psychedelic psychotherapy models.

Setting
How will your office setting support or inhibit a psychedelic experience? What does the patient experience entering your office? How does that changes based on region or the population you serve? What you think is appropriate may make someone in a non-ordinary consciousness experience feel threatened.

Team
How are you going to navigate training your team? Personal psychedelic experience are required to work with others in their experience. How do you ethically and legally require your team members to have experiences? How do you and should you provide experiences for them? How will you build and strengthen the relationships so there is equity when conflicts occur?

Support and Escalation
What mental health and medical support is appropriate? How are you going to screen for medical and mental health risks? What are your treatment indications and contraindications for each? How and when would you escalate each category if a client has an urgent or emergent situation?

Leadership
Industrialized models with humans as disposable resources create environments that are antithetical to authentic human connection. How will you recruit and manage a team while creating an environment that supports authentic connection?