St. Louis therapist Kate Schroeder announced in Jue that she will offer psychedelic-assisted therapy in Oregon and Colorado (photo submitted).
Kate Schroeder’s journey began seven years ago when one of her therapy clients brought up the idea of using psilocybin — also known as magic mushrooms — to help treat post traumatic stress disorder.
“I had a pretty immediate, almost visceral ‘no’ inside of me to the thought of mixing psychedelics with therapy,” said Schroeder, who has had a private practice in St. Louis for 12 years.
But that resistant reaction also sparked her curiosity.
“I began reading clinical research and listening to interviews with pioneers in the field,” she said.
As a provider who specializes in helping people work through trauma, she uses a variety of methods, including somatic and experiential healing and inner child work.
“I was very, very intrigued, and that kind of was the biggest part of me wanting to move forward in the psychedelics.”
Earlier this month, Schroeder’s practice, Transformation Counseling, announced the addition of psychedelic-assisted therapy services in Oregon and Colorado — the only states where psilocybin services are legally sanctioned.
She is a certified psychedelic-assisted therapist and licensed psilocybin facilitator in Oregon and Colorado, where she completed her training. About half of her clients travel in from out of state for the therapy, she said, including a large number from Missouri.
Schroeder has followed the studies by psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, showing potential benefits of psychedelics in addressing hard-to-treat psychiatric problems.
She’s been excited to hear about Missouri lawmakers pushing legislation for the last three years to require the state to conduct a study on using psilocybin to treat depression, substance use or as part end-of-life care. Though the bill died once again this year during the legislative session that ended in May, it was the first time it won the Senate’s initial approval.
“Psychedelic therapy isn’t really about chasing those altered states or skipping the hard work,” she said. “It’s about deepening that therapeutic process and kind of being able to get to the parts of that self that can be gotten through in conventional therapy alone.”
Pulling back the layers
For about six years, Schroeder has been working with a client who has been committed and dedicated to their weekly sessions. But they hit a road block in their progress.
“Part of what they were trying to tap into and access was a deeper layer of fear from some childhood trauma,” she said, “and just weren’t able to get there.”
For years, her client would be triggered by certain things related to that childhood fear, and it would impact their daily life. About seven months ago, the client went through psilocybin-assisted therapy with Schroeder.
“They were able to get to that layer and discharge that energy in such a way that they weren’t as activated all the time back in ordinary consciousness,” she said.
And it wasn’t just immediate, temporary relief, Schroeder said. The benefits of the psilocybin therapy have remained seven months later.
“There was a real deep, energetic, somatic nervous system shift for them,” she said. “It’s very powerful.”
For the treatment, her clients enter into a room similar to a regular therapy or meditation room, she said. Two main pieces of the experience are wearing an eye mask and listening to meditative music to help the clients go inward.
As a psilocybin facilitator, Schroeder is there to hold a safe space for the experience. There isn’t much talking, unless the person needs help moving through certain feelings.
Probably the most important piece is the preparation, she said. If a person who has experienced PTSD has certain triggers – such as claustrophobia or rage — that might come up during the session, there’s a lot of preparation to help resource the person on how to work through those feelings.
A week prior, the clients follow a cleansing diet and censor any agitating or dysregulating things, she said.
“Just like you pay attention to what you put in your body, it’s like paying attention to the energy that you’re around, and making sure you’re hydrating and sleeping and things like that.”
Missouri psilocybin legislation
For the last three years, Missouri lawmakers have heard testimony from the veteran community about how psilocybin has helped veterans treat their PTSD in a way that prescription drugs or conventional therapy could not.
Schroeder has been listening with much interest to the debate. During her training in Colorado, they explored research related to veterans and heard lectures and interviews about the issue.
“I, without a doubt, believe in the efficacy of this for that population,” she said.
Schroeder works with PTSD and complex PTSD in her practice.
“Trauma is an experience that’s kind of stuck in our bodies and in our nervous systems,” she said. “So that is why a lot of the time conventional therapeutic approaches, even medication, can only get so far, because we have to be able to get down to that nervous system and integrate the experiences. And then they take their rightful place.”
Veterans face elevated rates of PTSD and suicide, she said, so conventional treatments are often not enough. Psychedelic therapy offers more possibilities for that “profound, restorative change,” she said.
“I appreciate that Missouri is taking a measured approach,” she said. “It’s an absolutely important option that we keep pursuing, not just with veterans, but there’s many, many, many people who could benefit from it.”
Like Schroeder, several Missouri lawmakers have repeatedly said during debates that they were staunchly opposed to the psilocybin legislation when they first heard about it.
Then they said they looked at the extensive research coming out of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.
“I’ve probably spent, I don’t know, 20 hours reading materials that came out of Johns Hopkins,” said state Rep. Dave Griffith, a Republican from Jefferson City and chair of the House Veterans Committee, last year. “The data that comes out of these studies that they’ve done is remarkable.”
He said he understands the idea may be outside some legislators’ “comfort zones.”
“If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be chairing a committee and listening to psychedelics, I would have told you, ‘You’re crazy,’” he said. “But I really have a passion for the struggles that my veteran brothers and sisters are going through, and I think we’ve got to look at the big picture.”
This post was originally authored and published by Rebecca Rivas from Missouri Independent via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
