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Ketamine-Assisted Compassion Training
Cultivating Compassion for Ourselves and Others
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy yourself, practice compassion.” –– H.H. Dalia Lama
Retreat Dates: February 21 – 25, 2025
Location: Portland Oregon
Therapists, Clients, and the Psychedelic Curious Welcome
Be the Change You Wish to See
As a society we are going through some growing pains, suffering from great division and our world could certainly benefit from more compassion. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Abundant scientific research confirms a core teaching of the great wisdom traditions: cultivating compassion is essential to our well-being.
Of course, it’s easier to be compassionate toward some people than others.
And when we fail, mess up, or feel rejected, many of us are quick to be self-critical rather than self-compassionate, talking to ourselves in ways we’d never speak to a friend or acquaintance.
Luckily, compassion can be cultivated. Using practices drawn from ancient wisdom traditions and modern psychological research, we can build our capacity to be understanding, caring, and kind toward both ourselves and others, shifting from postures of judgment, constriction, and defensiveness toward greater love and open-heartedness.
Ketamine-Assisted Compassion
While many compassion-cultivation techniques are well-established, there are ways to make them even more powerful. Recently, there has been a renaissance in research into psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, along with growing clinical experience using the legal psychedelic medicine ketamine. Administered in a safe, caring environment, with the intention to cultivate wholesome states of mind, ketamine can safely help us relax defenses, tolerate challenging emotions, and feel our interconnections with others. Oftentimes the external world is a reflection of our own internal landscape and our barriers to compassion for others stems from internal barriers to self-compassion. Under the right conditions, ketamine can powerfully enhance and enrich both compassion and self-compassion practices.
A Healing Journey with Ketamine-Assisted Practice
We invite you to join us for a comprehensive, experiential workshop in ketamine-assisted compassion practice, including a five-day in-person exploration preceded by two online preparation sessions and followed by an online integration session. There will be 3 IM ketamine experiential journeys throughout this retreat. The program is designed to create a safe, supportive, medically supervised environment in which to experience the compassion-enhancing properties of ketamine. You’ll learn compassion and self-compassion practices to prepare for the medicine sessions, support the ketamine experience, and enrich your life afterwards. We’ll use the medicine to soften blocks to compassion as well as bring compassion to unresolved issues in our lives.
We hope to make this a truly transformative retreat of focused, accelerated healing and contemplation designed to reconnect you with your deepest sense of Self and the compassion that is innate to your being. With expert guidance and powerful therapeutic tools, you’ll learn to heal from within so that you can “be the change you want to see in the world.”
Application and Participation
Apply early as we only have space for 24 participants. Clients will require a medical screening with Dr Steve ($300) prior to approval to ensure your safety and appropriateness for this retreat. A minimum of 12 participants is required to proceed with the retreat.
To learn more or register, email Regine at Regine@rainfallmedicine.com
If you have interest in an online Mindful Self Compassion Training prior to this retreat taught by Susie please inquire here: https://www.engineeringawareness.com/mscpsychedelictherapy
Dates: February 21 – 25, 2025.
Cost with sliding scale: Benefactor: $2900, Sustainer $2450, Scholarship (by application).
Location: The Heart of the Rose: 4314 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR.
Cost with sliding scale: Benefactor: $2900, Sustainer $2450, Scholarship (by application).
Location: The Heart of the Rose: 4314 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR.
Register Now
Leader Bios
Dr. Ronald D. Siegel
Dr. Ronald D. Siegel is Assistant Professor of Psychology, part time, Harvard Medical
School; serves on the Board of Directors and faculty, Institute for Meditation and
Psychotherapy; is author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday
Problems, coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic
Back Pain and Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy; coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition, and author of the new book,
The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary: Finding Happiness Right Where You Are.
Susie Fairchild, LMHC
Susie Fairchild, LMHC, is a psychotherapist in private practice in the Boston area.
She is on the board of the Institute for Meditation & Psychotherapy (IMP), and the
Associate Director of the IMP Certificate Program in collaboration with the Barre
Center for Buddhist Studies. Susie is a certified Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC)
Teacher through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. She teaches MSC at the Center
for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance, as well as Kripalu
Center for Yoga in Lenox, MA. She is particularly passionate about working with
veterans, and has taught MSC through the VA and Home Base Program at
Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapist and
trained with the Ketamine Training Center, Polaris & Fluence. She is a practitioner
of meditation in the Theravada tradition and committed to ongoing retreat practice
and dharma study.
Staci Berman, LMFT
Staci Berman, LMFT, provides a strong background of working with those with traumatic histories and who have struggled with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, among other challenges. Staci has taught courses in the Chicagoland area and online and has supported MSC participants on 5-day retreats in the US and Canada. She has also brought self-compassion to healthcare communities as a Certified SCHC teacher, and served as a consultation group facilitator for the Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy Program (SCiP). Staci received her certification in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies, is 100-hour MDMA-assisted therapy certified, and has additional ketamine-assisted psychotherapy training from Polaris Insight Training Center. She is passionate about combining her interests in MSC and psychedelics and offers a warm, compassionate, and humorous approach to her work.
Dr. Steve Rosonke, MD
Dr. Steve Rosonke, MD, was in the first ever training cohort for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in 2017 with the Ketamine Training Center (KTC). He was subsequently trained as a trainer in KAP and has become a lecturer and leader in the field. In 2018, he partnered with Polaris Insight Center to launch a cutting edge KAP training program and has led healing retreats across the US. Additionally, he founded Rainfall Medicine, a healing and consciousness center in Portland, OR. After years of this work he has learned to curate and craft conscious containers for optimal healing and believes group work is a massive and necessary accelerant for our healing and consciousness expansion. Dr. Steve also spent the last three years training with communal societies and indigenous healers around the globe. His particular passion lies where psychedelics intersect with spirituality for the common good of all humanity.
When we overcome the stigma and judgment of addiction, mental illness, and trauma, we can treat ourselves and others with empathy and compassion. With less shame and blame, recovery from any type of affliction can happen more easily and we can move into a state of grace and wellbeing.
Rainfall Medicine
Hood River Location
1029 May Street
Hood River, OR 97031
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