About

I believe when we enter a shared reality with a shared purpose, we can imagine, explore and co-create a new world of possibilities.

My love of the creative and mystical began early on, from entering flow states via imaginary play in my family living room to children’s theater, dance and sacred choir, to adult gigs as professional improviser, musician and actor. Formative experiences include performing with my high school choir at the Vienna Opera House, and soon thereafter, singing at a friend’s funeral, days before graduation. These divergent experiences had a profound effect and inspire me to this day. For graduate school, I was drawn to Drama Therapy as a specialization for my M. A. in Counseling Psychology and have incorporated trauma-informed, arts-based modalities into my clinical private practice and consulting work since. Currently, in this modern era of psychedelic science, the trained and skilled use of Expressive/Creative Arts therapies are recognized Best Practices for adults seeking Preparation, Integration and Risk/Harm Reduction.

Whether working in social justice non-profits, teaching graduate students, or corporate consulting, I have concurrently maintained a clinical private practice. This multiplicity of experience with diverse clientele allows for an informed, unique perspective to “walk-the-talk”, in partnership with therapy clients and mentees, corporate partners or peer-therapists in consultation.  When working with adults seeking psychedelic KAP therapy Preparation, Integration or Risk/Harm reduction support, our work is equally informed by academic rigor and paradoxically, often inspired by the ineffable.

In my post-grad work with the Institutes for Arts in Psychotherapy (NYC and Berkeley, CA), I developed the Paradoxical Playspace (PPS) methodology. Initially inspired by David Read Johnson’s Developmental Transformations (DvT), the PPS is informed by current research from multidisciplinary fields ranging from developmental psychology, traumatology and neuroscience, to peak-performance leadership and creativity enhancement. Incorporating classic DvT, PPS curriculum expands the playspace by utilizing novel best practices and multi-dimensional, arts-based and interactive processes for flow-state integration. See the original article, Cohn W. Kim (2011) The Paradoxical Playspace:  The Intersection of Boundaries and Liminal Concepts in DvT Drama Therapy.  (Dramascope, Vol. 32, No.1.) 

This approach continues to inform my work to this day: It’s an applied framework for how I think about and engage in my practice, whether that’s in classic “talk” psychotherapy or more active and embodied methods.

The PPS is trauma-informed and systems-driven: It values  personal complexity while exploring our expansive potential. It centers our multiplicity as humans with many parts, while our various roles intersect and diverge amidst ever-evolving developmental, physiological and psychological states.

The method is both a mindset (a reverent and playful, intentional way of working together) and a setting (a co-created realm, both real and imaginal “playspace”). It can occur online, via Telehealth, or ideally, facilitated in person, as sacred ritual or improv theatre-like space when desired and indicated.

It is appropriate with people of all ages and abilities: From the shy to the extrovert, the under-employed to the high-performing and those in-between. I’ve engaged in this work with a range of clients including: People living with AIDS, Alzheimer’s and neuro-diversity; with stroke survivors, the Deaf using ASL and clients with PTSD, mild depression and/or anxiety.

Additionally, the PPS is exceptionally aligned with KAP for anyone from psychonauts to psychoNOTs, (an inclusive, playful term I created for those who are medically or legally prevented from, or uninterested in using psychoactive substances, yet seek accessible expansive states of consciousness, like Breathwork or Improv). Regardless of one’s personal identity or intersectional complexities, I strive to join my clients where they are. And wherever we may go together, choosing creativity and curiosity, we often discover an enhanced outlook, with a greater sense of personal agency, spontaneity and ease. 

 MFT, RDT/BCT

As a Marriage, Family Therapist, my license remains in “good standing” (since obtained in 2008) with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. As a Registered Drama Therapist (2005) and Board Certified Trainer (2009) with the North American Drama Therapy Association, my work is informed by evidence-based clinical protocols for “talk therapy” and best practices in expressive, creative arts approaches and flow state research.

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Certifications: CPTR/MAPS, MDMA

I hold certifications in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS 2023) and have completed all legal/ethical training available to date with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). This includes their 100 Hour- online course as pre-requisite to the week long, in-person training with Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Annie Mithoefer (MAPS, 2022). As lead clinical investigators researching treatment of PTSD using MDMA, their work lead to the 2017, FDA approval of MDMA as a  “Breakthrough therapy” for PTSD, with combat veterans and other trauma survivors. 

Currently, I offer therapeutic Integration services for adults seeking Psychedelic Integration/Harm Reduction therapy in conjunction with currently legal Ketamine/esketamine treatment and those seeking personal/spiritual growth from past experience.

Coming soon…

Grove Preparation: Entering the Paradoxical Playspace for KAP Inquiry and Anxiety      Launching Fall of 2023, this embodied practice is for anyone curious about the expansive-state process, from legal, non-medicated methods like Breathwork, Improv and past journeywork or other peak experiences, to KAP (Ketamine/esketamine), the only currently legal psychedelic treatment.

I do not offer or perform psychedelic services using medicines, as this practice remains illegal in the US, outside of approved, clinical trials. I do not make referrals to or have resources for illegal practices or unregulated activities. 

You can see my full CV here.