Lead Ketamine Groups Like A Rockstar: Elevate Your Psychedelic Group Leadership Skills
“The next Buddha will be a Sangha” (Thich Nhat Hanh). Groups are essential in making psychedelic therapy more accessible and harnessing the power of community to combat the loneliness epidemic. Groups can be more powerful, fun, effective, cost-effective and magical - and they are places where shadow can arise. There is a lot to learn about how to hold impeccable, ethical space and to lead healing and consciousness groups. Please join this first-of-a-kind KAP group leadership training.
This retreat style training includes the opportunity to co-lead a group ketamine experience with your peers - including preparation, journey, integration and debrief with feedback; as well as to work on your own healing as a group member in two group ketamine journeys guided by other participants in the cohort and the under the support and supervision of the retreat facilitators.
What makes this and us different from other retreats?
Beyond modalities and specific approaches: nuances, contemplations and relational practices that are a the core of psychedelic group work:
How to create a tight and safe container
How to be a strong “parental unit” and not under- or over-parent
“It’s not what you do but how you do it” - how to be present
Rupture - repair and how to deepen relationships
Practical concerns including dosing and route of administration
Practice co-leadership in small cohorts (instead of working in dyads)
Each cohort group is responsible for curating and executing a ketamine group experiential incl. preparation, journey, integration, and debrief
Experience two ketamine journeys to work on your own healing, guided by your cohort and supported and supervised by the retreat facilitators
Explore challenging topics with care, humor, and heart, including:
How to address ruptures, group and co-leader conflict
What do you do with your insecurities and triggers when you are being projected upon
What to do when you don’t know what to do
What to do when ego arises
Conscious conflict and sacred anger (vs. unconscious, self-righteous, projected anger)
Learn how to not become a cult leader (based on Kylea Taylor’s Ethics of Caring)
Benefit from what we learned the hard way:
Spiritual superiority and how to deal with it
Divided co-leadership and how to prevent and deal with it
Failure to make things bigger by not bringing it into the larger container
Boundaries, self-care and other elements to prevent suffering
Rigidity vs. presence
There is a massive need in our society for building conscious containers for group healing work. We all are experiencing division and collective trauma. We are being asked to re-remember what it is like to be in a group, to belong, to heal and to have others be mirrors for our own growth and consciousness.
We must evolve beyond a single conscious individual popping up every so often to how we can do this as a community? If a client has a mystical experience in an individual session but is isolated in their lives, they will eventually become anxious and depressed again. We are all social primates and need each other.
Please join Dr. Eva Altobelli, Katja Cahoon, and Dr. Steve Rosonke for a one-of-a-kind, immersive, fun leadership development retreat. This teaching retreat is specifically for clinicians desiring to build and enhance their KAP/psychedelic group leadership skills. All experience levels are welcome. This retreat offers didactic and experiential learning opportunities.
Instead of working in dyads we are offering a unique cohort model, giving you the opportunity to practice co-leadership and holding space as a group, as well as being guided by a co-leadership team. Each participant will have the opportunity to work in partnership with a small team to develop, plan and facilitate a small group ketamine experience. Each participants will also experience two ketamine journeys guided by other participants in the cohort - under the support and supervision of the retreat facilitators.
We will begin the learning journey with two pre-retreat virtual sessions to get to know your fellow participants and start the small group leadership preparation. We’ll end our work together with another virtual meeting two weeks after the retreat.
You will learn about and practice:
Co-leadership skills: practical concerns, techniques, how to work with difficult situations / co-leadership conflict
Group preparation skills: how to design a KAP experience for a group and hold space as a co-leadership team
Two Group KAP experiences guided by your colleagues (ketamine optional) - oral and IM
Group integration skills: how to guide group integration sessions, support a variety of client presentations
While working with groups is sometimes challenging, it is also fun and joyful and we plan on having fun together!
Drawing on their combined experience as psychedelic guides, therapists, physicians, and teachers in this field, Eva, Katja, and Steve will present and model a variety of options for co-leadership, preparation, and integration, including but not limited to:
Guidelines and structure for safe containers
Movement, meditation, and mindfulness
Ceremony, music, and art
Self-leadership skills
Rupture and repair processes
Integration processes
Special emphasis will be on self-leadership, working with shadow, misattunements and how to repair them.
Limited to max 18 people - need a minimum of 10 people to make it happen.
LOCATION: Rainfall in Portland, Oregon: a beautiful practice space with outdoor and indoor space, surrounded by restaurants and food trucks and a variety of accommodation options including Airbnb and hotels.
DATES:
Pre-retreat virtual gatherings: May 24th - 1-2pm Pacific Time, and May 28th, 2024 10-11am Pacific Time
Retreat: June 5-9, 2024 - 9:30 - 4:30pm Pacific Time daily (exact time each day subject to some change)
Post-retreat virtual gathering: June 21, 2024 - 12:30 - 2pm Pacific Time
COST:
Incl. the 5-day retreat, daily breakfast and snacks, two virtual preparation sessions before and a virtual integration after the retreat:
Apply and pay by April 15th: $3,999
Apply and pay by May 5th: $4,125
After May 5th: $4,250
PLUS medical evaluation and prescription by Dr. Altobelli or Dr. Rosonke: $350
Some sliding scale options available - please enquire via this form.
CANCELLATION POLICY:
Two months out: full fee minus $250 admin fee
Six weeks out: 50%
One month out: 25%
0-2 weeks out: 0% (unless we can fill the spot from a waitlist, minus a $250 admin fee)
Eva Altobelli MD is an addiction psychiatrist and the founder of HOME-LA a holistic mental health center integrating psychiatry, psychology and psychedelics. Trained with IFS, Haikomi and Reiki, CIIS, MAPS and psychoanalysis she is passionate about trauma informed clinical care and psychoeducation. With extensive experience in working with MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine, she remains dedicated to integrating clinical research and creativity into her practice. Dr. Altobelli is committed to setting the highest standards of safety, ethics, and efficacy, contributing to the advancement of the field and the well-being of individuals and communities alike.
Steve Rosonke MD is the founder of Rainfall Medicine, a ketamine healing center in Portland, OR. He has been leading ketamine trainings since 2018 with the Ketamine Training Center (KTC) and through a collaboration with Rainfall/Polaris Insight Center. Additionally he leads KAP healing groups and retreats. He is firmly dedicated to help others create high-integrity healing and consciousness containers throughout the world.
Katja Cahoon LCSW MBA started her career leading year-long closed trauma groups. In addition to ketamine assisted psychotherapy groups she has guided mindfulness and meditation groups. She works as a lead therapist for Usona sponsored, FDA approved Phase I and III clinical studies (5-MeO-DMT and psilocybin) both in individual and group settings. She trained with Polaris Insight Center and MAPS, Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield (MMTCP), EMDR Institute, and others and is committed to helping others grow in this field. She has trained over 100 clinicians in Group KAP.
(Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash)