A 14-session hybrid course with self-paced materials and weekly live-online meetings that teaches a theoretically grounded methodology for KAP.

Training Program Overview
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Introduction & Program Orientation
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Context of Drug-Assisted Psychotherapy
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Informed Consent Demonstration
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Preparation in Practice
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Set and Setting and Dosing Day
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Integration
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Group KAP Psychotherapy
Estimated time:90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Introduction to Ketamine for Mental Health
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Ethics of KAP
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Psychological Aspects & Preparation
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Preparation Session Demonstration
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Ketamine Dosing Session Demonstration
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Integration Session Demonstration
Estimated time: 90 mins. asynchronous learning + 90 mins. live/online learning

Socio-Cultural Context of KAP and Putting it Together in Practice

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the history and theory behind drug-assisted psychotherapy.

  • Compare drug-assisted psychotherapy from other psychotherapeutic approaches.

  • List the ethical standards of drug-assisted psychotherapy and informed consent shared with patients for clinical trial research and private practice.

  • Describe how integration sessions are designed and implemented in clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

  • List common knowledge gaps patients may have about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and appropriate knowledge resources.

  • Describe the proposed psychological mechanisms of ketamine’s role in psychotherapy.

  • Explain ketamine’s proposed mechanisms of action with regard to neuroscience-based narratives.

  • Explain how ketamine’s proposed mechanisms of action and neuroscience-based narratives inform clinical processes and practices.

  • Demonstrate how to prepare patients to safely receive ketamine-assisted psychotherapy so that they benefit from the experience in ways suitable to their life situation, diagnosis, and intentions.

  • Demonstrate how to prepare patients to engage with the experience safely and meaningfully by cultivating attitudes of openness and curiosity toward their experience.

  • List a variety of methods to integrate the ketamine experience with patients that align with the practitioner’s existing therapeutic model and the patient’s treatment history.

  • Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the arc of treatment and nonlinear change.

  • Describe the wider sociocultural context of drug-assisted psychotherapy, including the stigma and judgment related to drug-assisted psychotherapy that may be experienced by patient and/or practitioner.

  • Describe the current clinical research on ketamine’s safety, efficacy, clinical indications, and contraindications.

  • List current evidence-based practices for use of set and setting to optimize safe, effective, and ethical ketamine administration and dosing.

Meet the Training Staff

Course Materials & Design

Dr. Elizabeth Nielson

Chief Visionary Officer, Co-Founder
and Lead Trainer

Dr. Elizabeth Nielson is a co-founder of Fluence and a psychologist with a focus on developing psychedelic medicines as empirically supported treatments for PTSD, substance use problems, and mood disorders. Dr. Nielson is a Site Co-Principal Investigator and therapist for an FDA approved Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and has served as a therapist on FDA approved clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder, psilocybin-assisted treatment of treatment resistant depression, and earlier phase 2 and 3 trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Through Fluence, she provides continuing education and training programs for therapists who wish to engage in integration of psychedelic experiences in clinical settings. Her research includes qualitative and mixed-methods projects designed to further understand the phenomenology and mechanisms of change in psychedelic-assisted therapy, including the experiences of trial participants and of the therapists themselves. Having completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at NYU, she has published and presented on topics of psychedelic therapist training, therapists’ personal experience with psychedelics, and including psychedelic integration in group and individual psychotherapy.

Dr. Ingmar Gorman

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
and Lead Trainer

Dr. Ingmar Gorman is a co-founder of Fluence, a psychedelic education company training mental health providers in psychedelic treatments. As a psychologist, he shares his expertise in empirically supported psychedelic treatments with his clients and trainees alike. Dr. Gorman received his clinical training in New York City at the New School for Social Research, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, Columbia University, and Bellevue Hospital. He completed his NIH postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. He simultaneously served as site co-principal investigator on an FDA approved Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and is currently a study therapist on the same study, as well as another FDA approved clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. Dr. Gorman has published on the topics of classic psychedelics, ketamine, MDMA, and Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration.

Dr. Jeffery Guss

Lead Trainer and Psychoanalytic
Program Director

Jeffrey Guss, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher with specializations in psychoanalytic therapy, addictions and psychedelic therapy. He was Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Therapy Training for the NYU School of Medicine’s study on psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of cancer related existential distress, and is currently is a study therapist on studies of Psilocybin-Assisted treatment of Major Depressive Disorder and MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD. Dr. Guss is interested in the integration of psychedelic therapies with contemporary psychoanalytic theory and has published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. He co-authored a paper on the influence of therapists’ first hand experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and is an Instructor and Mentor with the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies. He maintains a private practice in New York City.

Dr. Casey Paleos, MD

Lead Trainer

Casey Paleos, MD is a psychiatrist and researcher with over a decade of experience in the use of psychedelic medicines for the treatment of mental illness, dating back to his work, while still in residency training, as a study therapist in the landmark Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study at NYU, where Dr. Guss was one of his mentors. Since then, Dr. Paleos was Co-Principal Investigator in the NYU-Bellevue Ketamine for Depression Study and has been treating patients in his private practice with both ketamine infusion therapy and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy since 2016. Presently, he is a study therapist and Principal Investigator, alongside Dr. Gorman, in the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Phase 3 Clinical Trial, serves as Scientific Director at Mindbloom, Inc., and is a co-founder of Nautilus Sanctuary, a non-profit psychedelic research and clinical institution based in New York City.

Live Session Teaching Staff

Donna Sorgen, LMHC, LPC

Ketamine Certificate Program Director

Donna Sorgen, LMHC,LPC (she/her) is a psychotherapist with over 25 years experience working with adults, children, adolescents, couples and groups. She is the Director/Owner of the Woodstock Therapy Center, a collective of practitioners providing a variety of services to the community including Ketamine Assistant Psychotherapy (KAP), psychiatric services , psychotherapy and holistic modalities. Donna has spent her career working with diverse clients in multiple settings. Her current private practice includes KAP, Psychotherapy and Psychedelic integration therapy. Donna has completed training in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies(MAPS). She was a sushi chef, caterer and enjoys the outdoors and gardening.

Dr. Shari Taylor

Assistant Trainer

Dr. Shari Taylor is a somatic therapist practicing in New Orleans, LA. She employs methods drawn from humanistic, Jungian, transpersonal, and Eastern traditions. Using meditation, mindfulness exercises, yoga inspired movement, breathwork, and talk therapy, she helps her clients bridge the mind-body dichotomy. Her interests in yoga, meditation, and the transformative potential of expanded states of consciousness inform her style of practice. Dr. Taylor is currently working with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), in the phase III study using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. Dr. Taylor holds a PhD in Psychology from Northcentral University, a Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of South Alabama, and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in the field of child/adolescent psychiatry.

This course is only available by invitation to therapists who are contracted by Innerwell.

To register your interest in joining this program and to learn about future opportunities for involvement, please email us.

[email protected]
Innerwell
Continuing Education Information

This course offers a Certificate of Completion with 18 hours of CE which is based on attendance at the live-online sessions. Participants who miss more than two live-online sessions or do not complete the knowledge checks and Skillsetter activities as part of the course are not eligible to receive a Certificate of Completion for this course. There is no passing score required on knowledge check question for this course, but the knowledge checks do have to be completed. Trainers will evaluate individual competency through interactions in live-online sessions and Skillsetter in order to determine that each participant has met the competency requirements of the course before a Certificate of Completion will be issued. Once all course completion requirements have been met, participants will receive an attendance verification code to claim their Certificate.

Fluence Continuing Education
Continuing Education Approvals
  • Fluence International, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Fluence maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • Fluence International, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0232.
  • Fluence International, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0674.
  • Fluence International, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0167.
  • The Department’s approval of a provider of continuing education does not constitute the Department’s endorsement of the content, positions or practices that may be addressed in any specific continuing education course offered by the approved provider.
  • For questions about receiving your CE/CME Certificate or Certificate of Attendance, contact Selah Drain, [email protected].