Ketamine Therapy: Promoting Access and Cultural Responsibility

Featuring Sara Reed in conversation with Dr. Kaylie Tejeda

Ketamine therapy continues to gain popularity as a promising treatment to some cases of major depression and other mental health disorders. As many ketamine clinics continue to emerge across the United States, it is important for clinicians to think critically about ethical and effective treatment solutions that are responsive to the current times. In the midst of this era plagued by COVID-19 and the hypervisibility of violence inflicted on Black Americans, there is an increase in exposure to trauma among many groups of people. Clinicians, researchers, and epidemiologists also predict an increase in anxiety and depression post COVID-19, and the need to re-imagine mental health care in this digital era is paramount. How do we make ketamine therapy accessible in the midst of a pandemic? What does culturally responsible care look like within ketamine-assisted psychotherapy? What do ethical and sustainable business models look like within this work? The presenter will address these questions and provide insights from her experiences as a black therapist in private practice.

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the Director of Psychedelic Studies at Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Tolland, CT. She provides individual psychotherapy and supervises and trains clinicians in providing culturally informed ketamine therapy. Sara’s prior research work includes participating as a Study Therapist on the Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy research study for Major Depression at Yale University. Before joining the research team at Yale, Sara was a Sub-Investigator and Study Coordinator for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Phase 2 MDMA Clinical Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Sara also works to advance health equity and address mental health disparities among many underserved groups through community based initiatives. As a socially-minded therapist, Sara continuously works to expand culturally sensitive practices within her work and within the literature of the mental health field. She is also a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee.

Dr. Kaylie Tejeda is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) in Fresno, California where she practices and teaches. She has been in the healthcare field for the past 8 years and will begin her first year as a PhD student at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she will study Integral and Transpersonal Psychology. Additionally, she is the creator and moderator of the Psychedelic Social Justice Collective (PSJC) discord server and was recently selected as the Social Policy & Impact Spore for the Intercollegiate Psychedelic Network (IPN). She identifies as Queer and Latinx (Dominican-American) and was born and raised in New York. Her passions, while diverse, are predominately centered on social justice advocacy, with an emphasis on equity in healthcare and the psychedelic field, rewriting societal narratives, and developing community solutions for marginalized communities that have been plagued by systemic inequities.

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