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Integrative Psychiatry

Mental Health is Communal

In highlighting the difference between illness and wellness, the spiritual teacher Swami Sivananda pointed out the ‘I’ of illness and the ‘we’ of wellness, all other letters being the same.

As we emerge from winter and head into the longer and warmer days, there are more opportunities to engage with our communities, whoever they may be— family, friends, teams, support groups, etc. Humans are innately social creatures, and in today’s modern society, the quality of our relationships is proven to impact human health. Feeling a sense of connection is linked to lower risk for cardiovascular problems, diabetes, infectious illness, cognitive dysfunction, depression, anxiety, and self-harm, among other dis-ease.

Being in community is a powerful healing modality, with implications beyond psychological support and wellbeing. Sociality impacts multiple physiological systems, including the nervous system, microbiome, and immune system. Ancient wisdom tells us of the power of being witnessed in the safety of a trusted group; honoring emotional states, accomplishments, events, and transitions as a collective, and sharing in experiences together, can be immensely healing for one’s mind, body, and spirit.

Witnessing and Being Witnessed in Relationship

Both witnessing and being witnessed are foundational to therapeutic relationships. This reciprocal exchange involves the attentive, validating observation of experience as well as vulnerable sharing and expression. Authentic relating requires presence, spontaneity, and compassion by all participants. The environment created in the safety between two or more people brings profound empathy, belonging, and acceptance. Learning the skillsets to cultivate such honorable space takes time and trust; however, these skills can be mastered with practice.

Communal Healing

The importance of community, connection, and ceremony in the support of mental health has been recognized for thousands of years. In many cultures around the world, this is still the orientation toward healing. Ritual and ceremony are typically embedded into social structures, aimed at restoring harmony within the individual, the collective community, and ancestors. Community healing might not only consider those within a close-knit social sphere, such as family (whatever that definition means to a person), but also connection to the earth and nonhuman beings in nature. 

The current model of Western medicine often works through an individualistic lens (e.g., the concept of “personalized medicine”). In America’s independence-driven society, it may be difficult to grasp the concept of incorporating community into what might be considered someone’s private affairs. Yet trusted companions who are invested in each other’s wellness can bring both validation and new perspectives to each person’s struggles. Sharing in communal vulnerability and care can deepen a sense of intimacy and meaning in this life. Adapted, culturally relevant rituals or ceremonies might provide structure for group-directed healing to occur.

Choosing Connectivity

Modern communities might be built through a variety of means, meeting contemporary needs and lifestyles. Passions and hobbies are one way to bring folks together, for example through sports, online gaming, or book clubs. Researching and attending pre-organized community experiences like walking events, sobriety meetups, meditation retreats, or dance groups might help establish a regular schedule for these relationships. Finding people that bring genuine joy is the most important part of authentically connecting.

For mental health clinicians, it may be supportive to incorporate communal elements into treatment. Group therapy sessions, community support groups, and therapy-based communal activities (such as nature-based retreats, wellness workshops, outreach programs, etc.) might provide shared spaces for collective empowerment. Researching and exploring culturally appropriate ceremonies with individual clients may also help support transitional states of change and transformation.

Conclusion

The idea of community mental health, and the responsibility of communal support, is not a new concept. Fostering connections can greatly enhance the therapeutic journey and contribute to more holistic healing outcomes. By weaving the threads of communal practices into the fabric of modern therapeutic approaches, clinicians might offer our clients a deeply rooted and expansive support system that honors both their individuality and their intrinsic need for community.

Sara Reed, MS, LMFT

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and CEO of Mind’s iHealth Solutions, a digital health company that provides evidence based and culturally responsible mental health services for underserved groups. As a mental health futurist and clinical researcher, Sara examines the ways culture informs the way we diagnose and treat mental illness. Sara’s prior research work includes participation as a study therapist in psychedelic therapy research at Yale University and the University of Connecticut’s Health Center. Sara was the first Black therapist to provide MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical trial and continues to engage in ongoing advocacy work around health equity in psychedelic medicine.

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Jeffrey Guss, MD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher with specializations in psychoanalytic therapy and the treatment of substance use disorders. He was Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Therapy Training for the NYU School of Medicine’s study on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of cancer-related existential distress, which was published in Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016. He currently is a study therapist in the NYU study on Psychedelic-Assisted therapy in the treatment of Alcoholism, a collaborator with Yale University’s study on psychedelic-assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder and a study therapist with the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) study on treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. 

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 has published (with Elizabeth Nielson, PhD) a paper on “the influence of therapists’ first had experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training” in The Journal of Psychedelic Studies, August, 2018. He is an Instructor and Mentor with the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Supervisor in NYU’s Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry. 

Dr. Guss maintains a private practice in New York City.

Will Van Derveer, MD

Will Van Derveer, MD is Co-Founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute and Integrative Psychiatry Centers. Dr. Van Derveer was co-investigator on a phase 2 MAPS study of Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant PTSD, and co-authored the publication of this study in 2018. He has also provided Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in two MAPS training studies. An active provider of KAP at his clinic in Boulder, CO, he has been teaching others KAP therapy for several years. Dr. Van Derveer contributed a chapter on mescaline in the 2021 "Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens" (edited by Charles Grob and Jim Grigsby). He is co-host of the Higher Practice Podcast.

Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant under-recognized root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass.


Scott has been a student of consciousness since his honors thesis on that topic at the University of Arizona in the 1970s under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Weil. Following medical school, Scott studied Jungian therapy and acupuncture while working as a primary care physician in a rural area for four years. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy became a facet of his practice before this medicine was scheduled in 1985. He then completed a psychiatry residency at Columbia program in New York. Scott studied cross-cultural psychiatry and completed a child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of New Mexico.

In 2010 he founded Wholeness Center in Fort Collins. This innovative clinic provides cross-disciplinary evaluation and care for all mental health concerns. Scott serves as a site Principal Investigator and therapist for the Phase III trial of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD sponsored by (MAPS). He has also published numerous articles about his research on (CBD) in mental health. Currently, Scott works extensively with psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy. He lectures all over the world to professional groups interested in a deeper look at mental health issues, safer tools, and a paradigm-shifting perspective about transformative care.

Will Van Derveer, MD is co-founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI), along with friend and colleague Keith Kurlander, MA. He co-created IPI as an expression of what he stands for. First, that anyone can heal, and second that we medical providers must embrace our own healing journeys in order to fully command our potency as healers.

Dr. Van Derveer spent the last 20 years innovating and testing a comprehensive approach to addressing psychiatric challenges which transcends the conventional model he learned in medical school at Vanderbilt University and residency at University of Colorado, while deeply engaging his own healing path.

He founded the Integrative Psychiatric Healing Center in in 2001 in Boulder, CO, where he currently practices. Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass. In addition to his clinical work and teaching, he was co-investigator in 2016 a Phase II randomized clinical trial, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He continues to support this protocol, now in a Phase III clinical trial under break-through designation by FDA.

Dr. Van Derveer is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine (ABoIHM) since 2013, and he was board certified in the first wave of diplomates of the new American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABIM) in 2016.