Psychedelic Institute of Mental Health and Family Therapy, PC

Michael DeMarco, PhD, Founder Michael DeMarco, PhD, LMHC, LMFT (he/him)

Board Certified Clinical Sexologist & Certified Sex Therapist, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Psychedelic Integration, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Preparation & Integration, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Existential Therapy. Telehealth Remote sessions in CA, NY, UT, VT

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy goes beyond the drip!

I believe counseling can be practical and accessible process that can lead to lasting, profound change and emotional stability.  My goal is to help you learn how to be your own therapist and to trust yourself to design a life that works for you and not against.

As we emerge from our pandemic years and fears, we can look forward to a revolutionized mental health paradigm with the legalization of psychedelics, normalization of psychedelic integration and harm-reduction, and the ceremonies and rituals surrounding these medicines, which have been used for millennia before the Republicans started the “War on Drugs"--the war on brown people, queer people, indigenous people and immigrants. (Quote me.)

Research continues to lead to communities around the world toward legalizing psychedelics, and the research supporting psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is overwhelmingly positive.

The unguided use of psychedelics in the general population without access to resources in integrating those experiences causes harm.

In some cultures this is done with the aid of individual or group psychotherapy. In some cultures this may be done alone, with your family, or with some sort of spiritual guide who has been well-acquainted with this medicine.

Currently, we have safe and legal access to therapeutic ketamine, and years of supportive research to evidence its benefits across age groups in a variety of settings in both humans and animals.

Ketamine is a generic drug that can be more financially accessible than other forms of treatment.  One mission of the Psychedelic Institute is to keep our ketamine assisted psychotherapy programs on a sliding scale that honors the therapists doing this special work, and is financially accessible to as many people as possible.

The sense of learning to integrate psychedelic experiences for improved mental health and well-being in your daily life is how psychedelic assisted psychotherapy brings these transformative substances and experiences to the wider population, incorporating a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach, that is, mind, body and spirit.

Routines keep you alive, until they turn into habits and ruts.

Rituals of introspection and inward journeying help you transform, especially when supported with informed aftercare and community to help keep the momentum of positive change going in a consistent and measured way.

I cannot give you illegal drugs. I can facilitate psychedelic integration and psychotherapy, as well as ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with collaboration from a medical team of your choice. I can do my best to teach you a language to make sense of the psychological / mental health aspects of this experience by working with a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual that is, existential, approach.

Doing drugs through the pandemic might have been a way to cope when under constant existential threat, but the use of psychedelic as medicine, with the assistance of caring compounding pharmacists and a team trained in medicine and mental health, can be YOUR mental health revolution and transformation.  Psychedelic experiences can be a tool for psycho-spiritual exploration and what Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy calls a radical philosophical shift.

While ketamine is not a traditional psychedelic, over 60 years of ongoing study suggests that regardless of the route of administration, ketamine at certain levels in your bloodtstream can elicit predictable types of experiences, and that at "psychedelic doses", the positive mental health effects may be extended, especially when paired with psychotherapy with a mental health specialist who specializes in this medicine. Ketamine is currently prescribed off-label for a number of mental health and substance use disorders.

I find it a deep honor to accompany you on this journey, and hope I can help support you in reaching your most authentic Self.

I am a licensed psychotherapist in CA, NY, UT and VT and work remotely via referral from a medical provider.