Our Why

We believe healing and knowing the goodness of life is our nature and birthright, we have a training mission dedicated to making high quality, legal psychedelic therapy available to all who seek it. 

Saj Razvi is the Founder and Director of Education at PSI. He is a former clinical researcher in the MAPS Phase 2 trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. He is faculty at Synthesis and taught PTSD studies at the University of Denver, and a PhD course at the University of Copenhagen. He is one of the primary developers of the Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) modality which is a next generation, primary consciousness oriented psychotherapy. The focus of PSIP is to maximize the relational and autonomic healing capacity of psychedelic medicine to treat complex, childhood developmental trauma.

Saj's primary focus is to train clinicians to provide legal, effective psychedelic treatment in their private practice settings utilizing readily accessible medicines such as cannabis and ketamine. He provides PSI trainings and supervision to students internationally. In 2015, he was part of a harm reduction effort that was unsuccessful. Saj is open about these events and invites you to read his story here.

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Jackie Meltz is a Clinical Social Worker and holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She has been a practicing psychotherapist for 25+ years. She specializes in treating developmental trauma, using a psychodynamic, somatic and psychedelic therapy approach. She has extensive training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), an accelerated, somatic based, psychodynamic approach, and provides clinical supervision and trainings to therapists learning this therapy modality. She has found that ISTDP and Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy, combined, provide a very comprehensive approach to treating developmental trauma, as both access and work with trauma directly in the body. Jackie has also taught psychology and social work at California State University Los Angeles, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Colorado State University Fort Collins. She is now teaching faculty with the Psychedelic Somatic Institute, providing immersive trainings to therapists wanting to learn this model of psychedelic therapy. She feels passionate about teaching this type of therapy to therapists and using it with clients, seeing that it has the ability to access and help people work though trauma that no other type of therapy modalities currently out there does. She is based in Boulder, Colorado.

Jackie also provides PSIP supervision to students wanting to enhance their proficiency in the model.

Paula Brandt, MS, LSW, CCDP-D, has developed programs that serve people with mental illness and/or substance use issues for over 40 years. She has dedicated her career to advocating for person-centered, common sense, compassionate care.

She has provided both leadership and clinical services in a variety of settings that include case management, community support, recovery community organizations. intensive residential/outpatient treatment, and the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center. She also taught for 4 years at the U of M Master Level Integrated Behavioral Health Program.

She is the founder of Minnesota Alternatives (outpatient treatment for both mental health and substance use), which was acquired by Mental Health Resources in 2018.

She is currently a co-owner of Expanse MN, a state-of-the-art mental health clinic that opened in January 2022. She has a master’s degree from Boston University in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counseling and is a licensed social worker and is certified as a Co-Occurring Disorders Professional Diplomate.

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Robin Temple, MA, MSW, Applied Existential Coaching. With her roots in Transpersonal Psychology and Gestalt Therapy, Robin has been in practice for 28 years as a couple's therapist and experiential workshop leader.  She is a Master Teacher and Trainer for PAIRS (Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills) and co founder (along with her husband Michael) of Couples.us--Tools for True Love.

After decades of helping thousands of couples, as well as training other therapists and clergy to do so, she sees intimate relationships as the most fertile ground for healing attachment trauma and working with transference. She is passionate about the unparalleled ways in which PSIP dramatically accelerates the healing of attachment trauma, and the promise of using this modality to help individuals to experience secure and meaningul love relationships. Incorporating PSIP into her life, both personally and professionally, has been deeply rewarding. She is enlivened by facilitating this work and equipping other mental health professionals with this profound tool to expand the capacity for joy in the lives of their clients.  Robin is based in Longmont, CO.

Dr. Fekete has been a teaching assistant in numerous PSI trainings as an instructor candidate. She has extensive training and professional experience in clinical psychology, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, psychoanalysis, couples/marriage therapy, CBT, EMDR, systemic constellations, psychedelic assisted psychotherapies, as well as life and business coaching.She has 25+ years of professional experience, having worked with a broad range of psychological and relationship issues, psychiatric disorders, and neuropsychological conditions both in clinical and in private settings. She specializes in anxiety, depression, trauma/PTSD, grief, relationships, life transitions, and psychedelic processing and integration.

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Daniel (SEP) works with developmental trauma, attachment trauma, and Complex PTSD through a somatic and relational lens. Over 9 years of working with various psychedelic medicines emphasized to him the necessity of integrating the body and the therapeutic relationship to effectively resolve complex trauma.



His passion for PSIP is fueled by his own depth of healing he received within this model. During his training, he experienced a profound reparative experience around an early attachment wound he was unable to access despite previous psychedelic retreats and years of somatic therapy. This led him to fundamentally shift his private practice and understanding of trauma resolution. 



Daniel is based in Los Angeles and has started his PSI instructor training. He looks forward to sharing PSIP and its healing potential with future students.

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Hillary L. McBride (PhD) is a Registered Psychologist, a researcher, and podcastor. While her expertise that includes working with trauma and trauma therapies, embodiment, perinatal mental health, and the intersection of spirituality and mental health, all of her work centres around how to help people experience themselves as more at home and at ease in their bodies. Her published books include Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are (2017),  Embodiment and Eating Disorders: Theory, Research, Prevention, and Treatment (2018), The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding wholeness, healing and connection through embodied living (2021), and Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom Of Your Body (2024). In 2017 she was awarded the International Young Investigators Award for research contributions so early in her career. She is on teaching faculty at a number of universities around BC, is an ambassador for Sanctuary Mental Health, is the CBC's award winning podcast Other People's Problems, and is the co- developer and director of Katalyst Mental Health, a group Ketamine Assisted Therapy program. Hillary makes her home on the land of the lək̓ʷəŋən People, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, and you can often find her near or in the ocean.

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Eric believes that working through trauma is one of the most courageous, meaningful, and beautiful things that humans do. With his training in Somatic Therapies, Attachment Theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology, and Nonviolent Communication Eric brings a wide range of skills and knowledge to his counseling work. For twelve years Eric has worked with various psychedelic medicines therapeutically and in ceremonies for his own healing. In July of 2023, Eric will begin training to become a PSIP instructor with the Psychedelic Somatic Institute.

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Eric is also a musician, community organizer with the Abundance Community Farm, and author of Meet Me In Hard-to-Love Places: The Heart and Science of Relationship Success.

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Dr Alana (Lani) Roy, Founder of The Signs of Life Psychology, is a psychologist, social worker, and therapist with extensive experience in mental health, suicide prevention, trauma, sexual abuse, family violence, and the disability sector. Lani provides Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) for clients accessing ketamine treatment in Australia and is actively engaged in research trials focusing on psilocybin and Ayahuasca. Specialising in complex trauma, disabilities, and dual diagnosis, Lani provides therapy in Auslan sign language for the Deaf community. She provides a range of educational and group-based psychedelic programs and is a board-approved psychology supervisor. Lani coordinates the psychedelic and plant medicine Mental Health Professional Network (MHPN) and has taught on Australian psychedelic programs. Currently, Lani is apprenticing under Saj Ravi from The Psychedelic Somatic Institute of Psychotherapy in America for cannabis and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

She is passionate about connecting with professionals and community members who have integrity, creativity, and innovation; people who can uphold the sacred nature of these medicines as we bring them safely into the clinical context. Most importantly; she is a mother of two young boys, an owner of two beautiful high-needs French bulldogs, and a wife of a sexual abuse detective.

Harley Conyer is a counsellor, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, meditation trainer, leadership coach, mentor and facilitator, with substantial experience working with individual clients and facilitating workshops, trainings, groups and retreats.
 

Harley is the founder of Menstuff (Australia) and The Transformation Space, and is currently a PSIP Instructor Candidate based in Sydney, Australia.
 

He has been in private practice for 18 years, and has over 10,000 hours of one-on-one client work.
 

He specializes in trauma-related presentations including addiction, dissociation, developmental trauma and attachment issues, gender and sexuality identity, depression and anxiety, spiritual emergence, life transitions, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
 

Harley has an integrated and client-centered approach. He works with a range of modalities including somatic, transpersonal, shamanic, ecotherapy, Brainspotting and psychedelic-assisted therapy, including preparation, harm reduction and integration.
 

He has his own extensive experience with cannabis and psychedelic healing (in legal settings) that has helped to process and dissolve trauma, reduce reactivity, increase empathy, improve relationships and provided a deep understanding from the inside about how plant medicines work, and how to work safely and effectively with plant medicines.
Harley is passionate about PSIP because of the efficiency, depth and breadth of trauma resolution that it offers, as well as the attachment and relational healing aspects.

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Georgeanna Lewis, MA, MSW, LICSW, brings experience and training in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, EMDR, Brainspotting, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and the Adult Attachment Interview. Her clinical foundation is in developmental theory and attachment. She has also completed graduate work in English and Creative Writing (Poetry). Georgeanna understands all early trauma to result in both an attachment rupture and a rupture within the self. PSIP has been a revelation for her, both personally and professionally, in the way it greatly facilitates processing the embodied energy of trauma, dismantles unconscious structures created to cope with the trauma, restores trust in and connection to the self, and fosters creativity. She has found her foundation in attachment-based somatic work invaluable in preparing clients to work with medicine, while conversely, her experience using PSIP has deepened her understanding of nervous system dynamics and in the process transformed her non-PSIP work. She feels a sense of mission about training others to do this work. Georgeanna is based in Minneapolis, where she co-owns Springbox Therapy, a group practice, with her husband, therapist Sean Toren.

Jenny Nordqvist has been practicing family/couple and individual psychotherapy for 15+ years. She specializes in treating developmental trauma, sexual abuse, relational problems and eating disorders

She has a long experience in mind-body modalities, trained in PSIP, CBT, systemic therapy, ACT, Mindfulness, Lifespan Integration, Bioenergetic and is also a Certified Humaniversity Therapist (somatic therapy).

Being introduced to PSIP has been like coming home for her, both personally and professionally. When dealing with complex trauma, talk therapy has not been enough in her work and PSIP has offered a somatic approach processing the embodied energy of trauma and bringing a deeper understanding of the nervous system.

For 5 years Jenny has worked with various psychedelic medicines for her own healing. She has a deep respect for the immense intelligence and healing potential that lies within our own body. Her intuitive and attuned abilities helps her connect with each client in a profound and respectful way. She is passionate about psychedelic assisted therapy and PSIP. She believes that we have only seen the beginning of this work in the mental health system. She is excited and dedicated to educate and spread her knowledge and experience in PSIP with all mental health practitioners in Europe for the wellbeing of all people suffering from mental illness.

Jean Clarin is the Enrollment Director at PSI. She is responsible for handling all the administrative and logistical needs of the students. She is also a Pastry Chef, Cake Artist, Entrepreneur, and Fur Mom who enjoys anything to do with food, fun, and flavor. Aside from knowing her way around a kitchen, she also enjoys organizing and supporting people as best as she can. She looks forward to making her best-selling cakes, pastries, and desserts for students during their training.