Retreat: Elevate Your Psychedelic Group Leadership Skills - LA

Groups are essential in making psychedelic therapy more accessible and harnessing the power of community. 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 Cohort 2 of 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 processes and how to deepen relationships

• Practical concerns including dosing and route of administration

• Practice co-leadership in small cohorts (instead of working in dyads)

• We are offering a unique cohort model: Each participant will have the opportunity to work in partnership with a small team to develop, plan and facilitate a small group ketamine experience, and participate as a group member for two group journeys guided by other participants in the cohort - under the support and supervision of the retreat facilitators. This is an invitation to be creative, draw on your strength and explore what works and what doesn’t.

• 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

• How to deal with conflict, disappointment, frustration 

• 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

The need in our society for building conscious containers for group healing work is significant. We all are experiencing division and collective trauma. We are being asked to re-remember what it is like to be a collective, to belong, to heal and to have others be mirrors for our own growth and consciousness.  

We can evolve beyond the ego driven healing in isolation, 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 and Katja Cahoon 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. 

We will begin the learning journey with a 2h pre-retreat virtual session to get to know your fellow participants and start the small group leadership preparation. We’ll end our work together with another virtual meeting about 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 and Katja 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 12 people - need a minimum of 10 people to make it happen.

LOCATION: Home-LA in Santa Monica (LA): A beautiful practice space with outdoor and indoor space, surrounded by restaurants and a variety of accommodation options including Airbnb and hotels.

DATES:

Pre-retreat virtual gatherings: 11/22/2024 - 10am - noon Pacific Time

Retreat: December 4-8, 2024 - 9:00 - 4:30pm Pacific Time daily (exact time each day subject to some change)

Post-retreat virtual gathering: tbd

COST

4.5-day retreat, daily healthy breakfast and post ketamine session snacks (with vegetarian/vegan and gluten free options), one virtual preparation sessions before and one virtual integration after the retreat:

Apply and pay by September 15th: $3,999

Apply and pay by October 5th: $4,125

After October 5th: $4,250

PLUS medical evaluation and prescription by Dr. Altobelli: $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.

Katja Cahoon LCSW MBA started her career leading year-long closed trauma groups. In addition to ketamine assisted psychotherapy groups she is a yoga teacher and has guided mindfulness and meditation groups. She works as a lead therapist for FDA approved Phase I and III clinical studies (5-MeO-DMT and psilocybin) both in individual and group settings. She is a supervisor for Phase III groups. She is also a lead therapist for Compass sponsored Phase I trials. 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.