Gwen Pelfini, LMHC, LPCC, NCC, PATP is a Journey Clinical Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Provider based in California and New York. Since joining Journey Clinical in June 2023, she has become a Bay Area ambassador and was recently a featured panelist on our San Francisco Bay Area Collaborative Care Panel. You can contact her through her website.
September 2024 Update:
Some exciting news is that Gwen recently launched a new business venture: Rooted Ethos! Rooted Ethos is an integrated wellness space that provides group KAP through the KAP Together program, along with events, workshops, and programming both online and in the Bay Area.
On September 26th, Gwen will be hosting a free online educational webinar, “Conscious Pathways: Unpacking Ketamine” with Reveal, a global women’s psychedelics community. The webinar will discuss the safe and ethical use of Ketamine while unpacking misconceptions and risk reduction practices. You can RSVP here.
Why did you become a Journey Clinical KAP Provider?
“I joined Journey Clinical when I opened up my own practice after having left a group practice. I had recently graduated from IPI, the Integrative Psychiatry Institute’s certification program, as a certified Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy provider. I wasn't interested in working with ketamine until the required KAP experiential as part of the IPI training. Once I experienced KAP myself, it was a no-brainer to offer it in my practice.
The clients that I started to do KAP with were my pre-existing clients who I'd been working with for some time, so I already had rapport with them and had been planting the seeds around the direction I was going in with my training and future specialty with Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. Currently, my KAP clients are all virtual. Contrary to my expectation, I'm finding remote work to be really conducive to my clients feeling most comfortable and safe in their own environment.”
What does your KAP offering look like?
“The clients that I've started to do KAP with were my pre-existing clients who I'd been working with for some time, so I already had rapport with them and had been planting the seeds around the direction I was going in with my training and future specialty with Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. Currently, my KAP clients are all virtual. Contrary to my expectation, I'm finding remote work to be really conducive to my clients feeling most comfortable and safe in their own environment.”
What outcomes have your KAP clients experienced?
“It’s been encouraging to see how clearly my clients feel connected with themselves. The phrase that I use is ‘connecting with our inner healing intelligence’. As a provider and advocate for this work, I don't think it's the medicine doing the work. It's them. The dosing session creates a bridge to themselves, where then the rest of the integration work can be woven into our work together. It's not always a seamless experience either. My own experience wasn't. And yet there's always seeds and gems and pearls of insight to pull. That’s what sets apart Psychedelic-Assisted therapy from just taking drugs. It's not the medicine doing the work – it's you. It's the integration of all of the insights gained from the sessions.”
How have you stepped up as a leader in your community as a Journey Clinical local ambassador?
“I enjoy being able to create community and I need it, too. Our first event had a really wonderful turnout. It was a low-key picnic in Washington Square Park here in North Beach in San Francisco. It was clear the moment the conversation spurred that we all had questions, resources, and topics that aligned. We took notes so that we could create a thread of resources for each other. It was really important for me to provide this platform for supporting one another. I had a women's event later that month that I invited everybody to, and others were hosting workshops in the area and online. I also recently attended another meetup in Oakland, where 20 Journey Clinical members met to leverage ideas and support each other.
In-person meetups have been a really great platform to share ideas, resources, and also shine a light on each other's projects and events, since we're trying to elevate ourselves and our own businesses, too.”
How has Journey Clinical supported you in growing your practice?
“It’s a really beautiful thing to share platforms – the ethos of Journey Clinical is all about community, building each other up, sharing resources, and platforming each other. When I first joined Journey Clinical, I didn’t feel confident in what I was doing, but I had access to an abundance of information and a large community. Every single person who I spoke with gave me direction, support, and resources. I’m still a part of the peer consultation groups, which have been a really strong source of support to keep me grounded in the integrity of my work.
There’s so much to learn [about KAP] that being supported in that process is crucial. In this work, we are on the front line of this particular specialty of mental health services, and the way that Journey Clinical has built an infrastructure to organize that is unmatched. It resonated a lot in who I am in my practice and as a human. I see things that could be done, and Journey Clinical not only listens, but also implements that change. They platformed me to be able to create solutions to those needs. Being partnered with an organization that dedicates themselves to evolution, growth, and community feels regenerative. It’s only ever felt more and more in alignment with my work.”
Can you talk a bit more about the creation of Rooted Ethos?
“The foundation of Rooted Ethos really is a clinician-focused approach for providing access to healing services. It’s grounded in equity, tended with integrity, and thriving on trust and transparency. I’ve worked really hard to create compensation structures, tiered systems that make a livable wage for pre-licensed clinicians, and a spotlight for self-starters, providers, and thought leaders in the community that need support. I’ve been able to do that thanks to my community in Journey Clinical, and I want to leverage the platform that I’ve created to collaborate with other providers.”
What is one thing that you would tell a potential patient about the power of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy as a tool?
“I would say that this work is all about the big questions – how can I live a more meaningful life? How can I become more in alignment with my inner healing intelligence? We often get disconnected with ourselves through intergenerational effects of vicarious traumas. Knowing is the goal, and psychedelics are one of many tools in my tool kit to explore that. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it’s not just about the psychedelic experience. There’s a lot of work that goes into preparing for that experience and then integrating the insights into your daily life. It’s all about connecting with the inner healing intelligence that you were born with and deserve to stay connected to. If there’s ways that people can work together to become more in alignment with that then I am here for it.”