You do not need a diagnosis, a clear story, or the right psychological language. You can begin with something as simple as "I don't feel like myself" or "My life doesn't fit anymore." Part of the work is figuring out what has been hard to name. Confusion is a legitimate place to begin.
Your life does not have to fall apart before you pay attention to what is happening inside it. If you feel disconnected, emotionally absent, stuck in the same patterns, or unable to enjoy the life you have worked to build, that matters. Being capable can make it easier to dismiss your own experience for a long time. We can start with what you are noticing without making it bigger or smaller than it is.
Men come to me for many reasons. Alcohol is one of my specialties, but others come for depression, anxiety, grief, relationship problems, midlife reckoning, the big existential questions, personal or spiritual growth, or a sense that there is more to reach. Drinking may never enter the conversation. If alcohol isn't your issue, you're still in the right place.
Insight helps, but understanding a pattern does not automatically loosen its grip. You may know where the drinking, distance, overwork, or emotional armor came from and still keep repeating it. Our work goes beyond explaining the pattern by paying attention to what happens emotionally, physically, and relationally when it shows up. Then we work on making different choices where the pattern is actually operating.
No abstinence commitment is required to begin psychotherapy with me. We look honestly at what alcohol provides, what it costs, and what you want your relationship with it to become. I will not choose the goal for you. I will also be direct when what you tell me and what you say you want appear to be pulling in different directions.
You do not need to adopt a label to examine your drinking. We can talk about what actually happens, how much space alcohol occupies, and whether it is moving you toward or away from the life you want. A label can be useful for some people and alienating for others. Your honesty about your experience matters more than the word you use for it.
Most people who reach out have been carrying this privately for a long time. You don't have to walk in with a clear story or know what to say. We move at your pace.
I will respect your right to choose your goal, and will tell you plainly what I am seeing. My approach is from a harm reduction perspective and we can explore how and if alcohol is getting in the way of you living your best life and living according to your values. The goal is honest choice, which requires looking at the whole picture. This may or may not include total abstinence for you.
Yes, there is reason to take it seriously. In the strongest study so far, people who received two psilocybin sessions alongside psychotherapy reduced their heavy drinking days by about 83% from where they started. Over eight months, they reported heavy drinking on about one in ten days, compared with nearly one in four days for the active-placebo group (Bogenschutz et al., 2022).
Where psilocybin may be especially useful is perspective. It can bring the larger questions into the room: What matters to me? What kind of man do I want to be? What has drinking pulled me away from? Shame, disconnection, grief, and longing can come into view from a different vantage point. That shift can be emotional, existential, or spiritual.
Preparation helps clarify what you are bringing into the experience. Integration helps you make sense of what happened and decide how you want to live in response.
A few ways. Ketamine may create a brief period when familiar patterns feel less fixed and new choices become easier to imagine. That window is why the therapy around the medicine matters so much.
Two small studies give us a useful starting point. In one, people who received ketamine alongside therapy were more likely to stay alcohol-free and had fewer heavy-drinking days. In the other, researchers deliberately brought up alcohol-related memories before ketamine. Afterward, people drank less and alcohol cues did not have the same pull (Dakwar et al., 2020; Das et al., 2019).
What I see in my office is that the pattern can become easier to look at. Alcohol is usually doing a job. It may be managing depression or anxiety, keeping shame at a distance, or covering something that has been hard to face. With ketamine, old material can surface with less shame attached, and we can actually work with it.
I won't promise you an outcome. What it may do is open a door. Walking through it is the work, and you set the goal.
Stopping drinking can change a great deal without resolving every reason you drank or every wound that was waiting underneath it. Shame, grief, loneliness, relationship patterns, and questions about identity may become clearer once alcohol is gone. Recovery can include building a life that feels connected and worth living, rather than measuring progress only by what you no longer do. We can work on whatever remains unfinished.
I cannot define sobriety for you or answer on behalf of your recovery community. We would look at what sobriety means to you, what connection and safety your current path provides, and what you fear this decision could cost. I will not pressure you to abandon a recovery framework that matters to you. If the choice is not resonant with your values, this deserves special attention before you would proceed with this approach.
A recovery path can be deeply helpful and still stop fitting every part of your life. We can look honestly at what still supports you, what feels constricting or outdated, and what you are afraid you might lose by changing course. You get to decide what recovery means now. The work is to carry forward what remains useful while making room for the person you are becoming.
Ketamine can be misused and can lead to dependence, and a history of substance overuse may increase that risk. That history does not automatically rule out ketamine-assisted therapy, but it needs to be discussed directly and taken seriously. A separate medical provider determines medical suitability, and we would also look at your recovery, current stability, reasons for considering ketamine, and concerns about how it could affect you. The work includes preparation, supervised medicine sessions, and integration. If the risk is too high, we would choose another direction.
You do not owe me immediate trust or a convincing display of vulnerability. Trust develops from what actually happens between us, including whether I listen, tell the truth, and handle disagreement without becoming defensive. You can be guarded, skeptical, or uncertain and still begin. We will pay attention to the guard rather than trying to rip it away.
I will challenge you, but I will not force an interpretation or decide what your life should become. Sometimes I will say the thing other people have avoided saying. You remain free to disagree, reject it, or tell me I have missed something. Useful challenge should make the work more honest while preserving your ownership of it.
Ketamine may offer a different way of encountering thoughts, emotions, and protective patterns that have stayed fixed despite a lot of insight. The medicine can create an opportunity to experience familiar material from another angle. Preparation and integration are what connect that experience to the rest of your life. Ketamine is one possible direction, and talk therapy may remain the better place to work.
We begin with preparation so you understand the setting and the range of experiences that may occur. The medicine session happens in my Boulder office, with optional eye shades and music, and many people turn their attention inward. You might be quiet, describe what is happening, or move between the two. I stay with you throughout the session. Integration often begins in the last stretch of the medicine session itself, as you start putting words to what happened. We then meet on a separate day to go through it more fully: what surfaced, what has come up in the days since, and how it relates to your life outside the room.
A separate licensed medical provider handles medical clearance and determines medical suitability. My role includes exploring whether the work makes sense psychologically and how it would fit into your broader therapy. The medical clearance appointment is $250 to $400, billed separately by my medical prescribing partner.
My first job is to build a setting where whatever surfaces can be met safely. Before the medicine session we talk about what feels vulnerable and what you are carrying into the work. Tracking what you need once the session begins is my responsibility, and you can redirect me at any point. I stay with you throughout. No one can say in advance what ketamine will bring up, which is why the preparation and my presence matter as much as the medicine does. Nothing has to be interpreted or resolved in the moment, and integration gives us time to work with what surfaced at a pace that feels manageable.
Yes, ketamine is used recreationally, and its potential for misuse is real. It is also a medication used in medical settings. In ketamine-assisted therapy, it is prescribed by a licensed medical provider and used in a structured process that includes screening, preparation, supervised sessions, and integration. The therapeutic setting does not erase the risks. We discuss them directly and consider your history, current stability, and reasons for pursuing the work before deciding whether it fits.
The facilitated session itself typically lasts four to six hours and I will be with you throughout the entire experience. You'll be in a comfortable, private setting. Most people keep their eyes closed and turn their attention inward. Some experiences are visual. Some are emotional. Some are quiet and hard to describe. There's no right way for it to go.
Yes, under Colorado law. Colorado has a regulated natural medicine program that allows adults 21 and older to receive psilocybin services through state-licensed providers. I currently work within that program as a Facilitator-in-Training. The process includes screening, preparation, an administration session, and integration. My role in psilocybin facilitation is legally distinct from my work as a licensed therapist.
Psilocybin remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. Colorado law does not change that federal status, and psilocybin is not an FDA-approved prescription treatment. Before you proceed, I will explain the legal framework, my license status, and how the process works.
Nothing you say or do in a session gets treated as a verdict on who you are. Preparation covers what could surface, including intense emotion, fear, confusion, or unexpected material. Reading what you need as it unfolds is my job, and you can always tell me if something different would help. I stay with you throughout, monitor your physical and psychological well-being, and help keep the setting contained. Control tends to loosen during the experience, which is exactly what the preparation and the setting are built for. If something surprising comes up, we return to it during integration. You do not have to make sense of everything while it is happening.
Spirituality could be part of the work only if it matters to you, or it can stay entirely outside our work if it's not important to you. I will not steer you toward any type of belief system or treat skepticism as resistance. We can explore meaning, values, and connection in language that feels authentic to you.
That is possible. Psilocybin does not guarantee a dramatic experience or lasting change. If little or nothing seems to happen, we will talk honestly about it. Integration gives us space to examine what surfaced, what did not, and whether anything from the experience is useful in your life. If you feel unchanged, I will not ask you to pretend otherwise. We can decide together what, if anything, makes sense next.
The first step is a free 15-minute phone call. You do not need to complete forms or prepare a polished explanation beforehand. You can tell me what is bringing you here, ask questions, and get a sense of whether working together could be a good fit.
Yes. You do not need to choose before you begin. We can start with talk therapy and take time to understand what brings you in, what you have already tried, and what kind of support fits. Talk therapy may be the whole course of our work, or it may become a foundation for ketamine or psilocybin later. We would consider either medicine only if it eventually makes sense for you.
We would look at what you want from the work, depending on your physical and mental health history, medications, substance-use history, previous psychedelic experiences, and the time and cost involved.
Ketamine typically unfolds over a series of medicine and integration sessions and requires clearance from my medical prescribing partner. Psilocybin involves preparation, a longer facilitated session, and integration under Colorado's regulated natural medicine framework.
There is no universal better option. The right fit depends on your circumstances, and sometimes the best place to begin is talk therapy without committing to either medicine.
It depends on the work.
Depth psychotherapy is typically weekly.
Ketamine-assisted therapy starts with at least one preparation session, sometimes more if we need them. From there it's typically one medicine session and one integration session each week, over a series of weeks.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy involves two preparation sessions, then the psilocybin session, then two integration sessions.
For those who are visiting Colorado to do this work, we can create a customized experience. Reach out for more details.
Depth psychotherapy is $195 per 50-minute session. Sessions are typically weekly and available in person in Boulder or by telehealth in Colorado and Minnesota.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is offered as a package of seven sessions for $1,950. That covers one 50-minute preparation session, three 2-hour ketamine sessions, and three 50-minute integration sessions, each on a separate day in-between each medicine session.
The medical clearance appointment is not included in that figure. It is $250 to $400, billed separately by my medical prescribing partner.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy is offered as a package of five sessions for $4,000. That covers two 60-minute preparation sessions, one psilocybin session lasting four to six hours at a licensed healing center, and two 60-minute integration sessions.
I am in-network with Kaiser. For other insurance companies, I am out-of-network and can provide a receipt, i.e., superbill for you to submit to your insurance. Payment is due at the time of services.