Your Therapist Needs Therapy 61 - Reclaim F*cking Everything with Kayla Felten

This week Jeremy is joined by clinical social worker and co-founder of the Reclamation Collective Kayla Felten. Kayla talks about her journey through deconstruction and starting the Collective, and She emphasizes the importance of non-clinical interventions and community care for individuals dealing with religious trauma and spiritual abuse. The Reclamation Collective aims to provide accessible and supportive environments for healing and spiritual reclamation through various therapeutic and advocacy initiatives, and Jeremy and Kayla talk about some upcoming events. They also briefly touch on psychedelic therapy, and the importance of avoiding dogma and fundamentalism in healing spaces.

To learn more about Kayla’s work or the upcoming events with the Reclamation Collective, head over to reclamationcollective.com Be sure to bookmark the therapist directory, and check out the details of the upcoming Comunidad Fiesta and the support groups running this fall.

Jeremy has all his practice info at Wellness with Jer, and you can find him on Instagram and YouTube.

Head over to Patreon to support the show, or you can pick up some merch! We appreciate support from likes, follows, and shares as well!

-----

Podcasts about therapy do not replace actual therapy, and listening to a podcast about therapy does not signify a therapeutic relationship.

If you or someone you know is in crisis please call or text the nationwide crisis line at 988, or text HELLO to 741741. The Trevor Project has a crisis line for LGBTQ+ young people that can be reached by texting 678678.

Transcript

Your Therapist Needs Therapy - Kayla Felten (2024-06-19 11:04 GMT-5) - Transcript
Attendees
Jeremy Schumacher, Kayla Felten
Transcript
This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors. People can also change the text after it was created.
Jeremy Schumacher: Hello and welcome to another edition of your therapist needs therapy the podcast where mental health professionals get together and talk about their mental being while working in the mental health field. I'm your host Jeremy Schumacher licensed marriage and family therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: Felten Kayla. Thanks for coming on today.
Kayla Felten: Hey Jeremy, yeah it's an honor to be on the therapist needs therapy podcast that spoke to me resonated hit. Yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: So there's a lot of stuff. I want to talk to you about because you are doing so many cool things, especially in the religious trauma Community, but I always start with the same question, how did you get into the mental health field?
Kayla Felten: I will say I grew up kind of preface the whole journey of how I got to where I am on my mental health journey. I was raised in a fundamentalist Evangelical culture called the Plymouth Brethren.
Kayla Felten: And I grew up in Chicago suburbs and I moved out to Minnesota to attend Bethel University when I was 18 and that of course is another extension of my religious trauma narrative, but I will say when I was growing up. I kind of knew I wanted to either be a missionary or I wanted to be a social worker and so I'm very grateful that I ended up taking the social work route. But as a means of that when I told my parents I wanted to be their missionary or a social worker they were kind of concerned that if I were to go to a state school and pursue social work that I might lose my family values so future Kayla and my parents put a ton of money down for me to be able to attend Bethel University where I still became the best and worst possibility in both of our minds well reminds.
Kayla Felten: And I pursued social work and from that I've become a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Minnesota. I've been here for about 15 years in Minnesota. And now just in the last couple of years. I've been bopping back and forth between Minneapolis and Playa del Carmen Mexico where I more formally reside Even though I'm in Minneapolis right now as we're interviewing.
Jeremy Schumacher: very very different locations
Kayla Felten: Yes indeed.
Kayla Felten: when the recreation Collective was birthed, me and a colleague Kendra Snyder who's a therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, yeah, and we will jump in a little bit more in depth about Reclamation Collective and all the cool stuff you have going on. I'm curious I grew up fundamentalists Evangelical. We didn't have a cool founding name. I grew up Wells which in the midwest is a little bit more known and outside of the Midwest. No one's ever heard of but my wife went to Martin Luther College, which is in New Ulm Minnesota and I believe is Beth bethels in Mankato. Am I thinking of the right Bethel?
Kayla Felten: Saint Paul
Jeremy Schumacher: Okay, there's a Christian School in Mankato. But I was in the Twin Cities. my wife was a new album, so I'm familiar with that. Minnesota small Christian School Loop exists over there, so
Jeremy Schumacher: I'm curious kind of in that social work Journey for you. where did you become aware of religious trauma or was that later in your career? when did that become a thing that you were aware of and then shifting into kind of specializing in working with that building out the Reclamation Collective?
Kayla Felten: I would say this was very personal Journey work for me for about 10 years prior to recognizing there's actually some professional and advocacy need here. I'm by no means alone or particularly unique in the way. I've been navigating my deconstruction and Reclamation work, but ironically enough because I went to Bethel University coming from a very fundamentalist culture. I think that that was an important step for me those four years there.
00:05:00
Kayla Felten: Even though it was still a very homogenous homophobic Etc, container of learning. I will say that I recognize that I was raised in the minority of thought that was kind of the first step of okay, the way I was raised was particularly fundamentalist was particularly exclusive and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: during those years. I was coming to the recognition that I really don't associate or connect with or resonate with the spirituality of my culture of origin and so it was still a few years after I graduated from Bethel that I recognized to myself that I did not identify as a Christian in general but there was of course a journey of me, exploring with other churches with other denominations right to see if something else fit better and certainly churches that had women, the feminine Divine insights spoken from a platform.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yeah, that was definitely felten that after a few years. I just recognized I am really grumpy activated triggered for most of my Sundays. I recognized for the last 18 months that I was attending a Vineyard Church in the Twin Cities. I had to do some self-reflection that I would smoke up in my car on my way in I would have alcohol in my mug that I would fill up with coffee and I was like this is not expansion or spiritual practice, and at that point I know we'll get to this later in the chit chat. But by that point, I'd already had a few very spiritually activating and experiences with psychedelics with mushrooms specifically and so I think at that point I was able to recognize if I'm doing this as an investment in my spiritual practice then actually these
Kayla Felten: this ritual is really not about expanding my sense of connection to the world around me.
Kayla Felten: And so I was probably in my mid-20s when I admitted to myself and eventually to my family that I no longer identified as Christian at large. I also will say in undergrad at Bethel University. I had the opportunity to study abroad in Guatemala my sophomore year.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah where I always am curious…
Kayla Felten: So I was 19 when the youngest folks on that semester abroad and…
Jeremy Schumacher: where did the deconstruction language find you like?
Kayla Felten: that time in space so far away from my culture of origin from any of those influences and…
Jeremy Schumacher: When did that become a thing? Because I feel like that's really helpful for people but they've often done so much work already. locate that other people are doing this too.
Kayla Felten: ideologies while still being there with a short-terms missions organization.
Jeremy Schumacher: This is like a thing.
Kayla Felten: I will say again similar to going to Bethel going and being a part of this short curves missions organization and studying there all so brought to my conscious awareness what ethnocentrism looks like how the United States of America specifically has been involved in the colonization of Guatemala and across a lot of Latin America. And so even though the Containers still had its problematic elements.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I think that those containers were allowed me to go at a pace of deconstruction before I was even consciously deconstructing or had any intention of deconverting.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yeah, I don't actually know when I first started using that language. I feel like there was a part of me that caught on consciously after I returned from that study abroad experience in Guatemala. I think that there was a big shift in me energetically and I feel really activated around people talking about ABC XYZ theology at large,
00:10:00
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: and just organizing this is actually not going to be a container of expansion or of safety for me, and so I think at that point I was at least conscious that I was
Kayla Felten: My culture of origin would probably use the language of walking away abandoning. there's a lot of words that I think I was already consciously though looking for something else and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I think that's where deconstruction for me. I'm grateful life. Eventually come to that language of understanding because I think for so long I was just trying to replace and I've seen this in a lot of folks who've navigated deconstruction or deconversion right that you might deconvert from an ideology from a community. You might stop practicing with a certain ritual and…
Jeremy Schumacher: And yeah,…
Kayla Felten: then you can swing a pendulum and…
Jeremy Schumacher: yeah. So while all this is going on,…
Kayla Felten: we can still find fundamentalism in these other Realms of thought right?
Jeremy Schumacher: you're also starting your career…
Kayla Felten: And so I think I definitely played with that pendulum swing for a couple of years of …
Jeremy Schumacher: then as a social worker.
Kayla Felten: I don't believe this and so people who do believe that are problematic are idiotic our ignorant, our belligerently, oppressive and not even recognizing the ways that I was still embodying this ideology of fundamentalism of supremacy of thought right that I have the Supreme relationship to ethics to God, to plants To awareness. And so I think that once I was able to come to that language of deconstruction and also grieve what's very hard to grieve which is I will not be replacing. What I have lost I have to grieve that I have lost this sense of community that was really informed by a lot of both the premises…
Jeremy Schumacher: Sure.
Kayla Felten: but also codependent narratives.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah. Yeah, what was before we jump into that what was like that I'm curious at that point. What was your self-care…
Kayla Felten: Yes, so my first few years in the mental health field.
Jeremy Schumacher: because I'm sure self-care has transitioned and grown a lot throughout your career doing these different things.
Kayla Felten: I first broke as a case manager working with highly mobile and…
Jeremy Schumacher: But I'm curious kind of still like deconstructing trying to build a newer healthier spirituality while doing Social work stuff…
Kayla Felten: homeless families in the Saint Paul Oakdale Maplewood school district. And then from there. I was actually hired to work for a middle school and…
Jeremy Schumacher: which can be really heavy working with families…
Kayla Felten: I worked at a middle school in Oakdale for seven years as a social worker and…
Jeremy Schumacher: who are dealing with homelessness and then working with in that school setting there's a lot of stress that comes with that while doing all this personal work.
Kayla Felten: it was probably my last year there working as the social worker at the middle school that I started to launch the Reclamation Collective and…
Jeremy Schumacher: So if you don't mind sharing I'm curious what that looked like for you. And then we'll go into Reclamation Collective stuff.
Kayla Felten: also it was in that year that I started to be connected to Academy Clinic That Was preparing to launch and so I was able to make a pretty complete transition out of school social work into psychedelic therapy as well as founding the nonprofit.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yeah. I would say for me self-care has always been centered around being connected to a sense of community a sense of chosen family.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: And overall, I think I always have had some connection to that. I think that.
Kayla Felten: Because I also come from a family. This is something that I really appreciate I come from a family that's always really prioritized Community, all of our family holidays, by eight o'clock turns into the whole church and everyone who's in town, being in our home and so I grew up in that sense like a party family. And so that was a part of my Reclamation journey is even…
00:15:00
Jeremy Schumacher: Okay. Yeah, and…
Kayla Felten: though it's not coming as ease fully to me.
Jeremy Schumacher: I love hearing your story the awareness that you're cultivating throughout of being activated by certain things and…
Kayla Felten: That I'm no longer a part of the community the culture of origin that I was born and raised into which just birth me into connections networks of Plymouth.
Jeremy Schumacher: then something like dance being this kind of embodied practice. I think that's really hard for a lot of people.
Kayla Felten: Brethren folks.
Kayla Felten: I was related to a lot of them by the way, that's another clue but all over the country.
Jeremy Schumacher: To gather that awareness.
Jeremy Schumacher: It's a thing I talk about in therapy a lot with folks is so the thing I can't give you in therapy.
Kayla Felten: And so I think there's something to be said then about …
Jeremy Schumacher: I can't there's no technique or…
Kayla Felten: yes, there was a grief of like I'm losing that I'm not feeling connection.
Jeremy Schumacher: practice. if the awareness isn't there we're gonna miss when we need to apply these things.
Kayla Felten: I'm not feeling actually super supported or…
Jeremy Schumacher: So cultivating that awareness I think is awesome.
Kayla Felten: not feeling like all of me as welcome through the doors that I had once, had bringing but I think just having Friendships and making plans and going out and about I am an extrovert. I also think that for me.
Kayla Felten: Let's I also was really into salsa dancing for a while. I think that that was a big piece for me is having this reclaimed idea of going out and partying but still in spaces and with groups of powerful women that there was still a lot of safety built into that, being a naive woman Who had never really drank? I had never really sat with too much of drugs or alcohol. I think that going out and the party culture was really attractive to me and I also Had a lot of friends who we were able to do this and it was a great way to embody movement as well and expression and practice my Spanish which I had a little bit…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: since bottom Allah.
Kayla Felten: I have two more things too. I can think of that one is also traveling alone when I was 23. I had the opportunity to go to Nicaragua by myself for a month and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I feel like just having that sense of independence of self-sufficiency of I can get around I can take care of myself and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I'm on this huge Amazing Adventure. I think that was quintessential for the identity development work that I've done as a powerful queer woman, I think being able to travel alone and then also therapy, of course, I had a friend of mine who actually has a PhD in Psychology and she is helping when I started grad school for my MSW at the University of Minnesota. She had said Kayla when you're starting a graduate program in any mental health, you must take advantage of free mental health care that you can get through the university while you're there and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I'm so grateful that she and I have this conversation when we did because I hadn't ever gone to committed to any therapeutic process and
Jeremy Schumacher: For Yeah That all sounds lovely.
Kayla Felten: Certainly that I had attended. I think a couple of sessions with a therapist. n
Jeremy Schumacher: Shout out to University of Minnesota. It's my alma mater where I did my undergrad. This is a awesome psych school. I didn't take full advantage of that because I was 20 years old and an idiot still
Jeremy Schumacher: Reclamation Collective kicks off. You said one of the things you mentioned earlier that I kind of highlighted in my brain was noticing there's a need for this. So can you walk us through kind of the blossoming of the idea into the actual Collective launching and…
Kayla Felten: The mass Exodus but also the mass holding to this is who we are. This is what we believe even watching.
Jeremy Schumacher: kind of what that process looked like?
Kayla Felten: I don't even know that five years ago. You did believe that immigrants were a problem. So interesting that now all of a sudden this is a big problem for you. That's just one example of what I witness. So 2016 was really heavy and my licensure supervisor actually had told me in one of our supervision sessions, I'm curious if you have a therapist needs therapy. I at one point decided that I was gonna look for a different kind of trauma resolution model and I was gonna work with the different therapist.
Kayla Felten: there's a lot going on here. I would love to not have to catch up on the last four years of work that we've done together. So
00:20:00
Kayla Felten: yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yeah, in the year leading up to us organizing around this concept of the recreation Collective still one of my best friends Lizzie Rose,…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, So. for people who therapist needs
Kayla Felten: and we had been connecting for some time and having these meditation nights and recognizing that every single time. It was themes of religious trauma that was coming to Consciousness for us that we were embodying grief around and we decided to have a retreat it wasn't any formal entity. We weren't yet the recognition Collective it was just looking. Okay, and we rented an Airbnb and Osceola Wisconsin and we have a retreat and I think we had probably around a dozen maybe 15 folks attend that Retreat and it was so wonderful and we got such overwhelmingly positive feedback from that and from that weekend together that I just knew I wanted to run with this and make this actually a little bit more of like a therapeutic model.
Kayla Felten: And so it was within a year. I would say of that initial Retreat that Lizzy I call her my dream Doula. She actually spoke out the words Reclamation Collective and I was like that hits my body's reacting. I think that's a thing and so I also within that year met Kendra Snyder what aligns timing and we decided to go ahead and launch this as an entity. We started as an LLC, of course and we went back and forth for about two years deciding whether or not we wanted to go the nonprofit route. Just acknowledging that we both had experiences within Social Services of coming up against the nonprofit industrial complex also,
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Wine just to create something all together new and not sure how do we create something all together new with some of these models that can be very restrictive but also eventually coming to the recognition that survivors are not the ones who need to be payrolling this whole entity.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: So we recognized also that pursuing nonprofit status would allow us to likely look for grants in funding in donations in ways that hopefully big picture we're taking the burden of capitalism hopefully off of the backs of survivors.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yes, so we are an advocacy organization. We are here to support survivors of religious trauma and spiritual abuse. The primary offering that we have is we do virtual support groups. So we usually have at least three if not Four Seasons each year where we offer deconstruction support groups. We offer spiritual abuse support groups. We've offered a number of support groups that are more intersectional. So for example, we have queers deconstructing together. That's for the lgbtqia+ community we have
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, yeah.
00:25:00
Jeremy Schumacher: The directory's awesome I can say as a clinician when people reach out to me or contact when I work with religious trauma, but they're not in Wisconsin, which is where I'm licensed in practice. that's one of the resources that I share most often is start here and there are some spots that aren't represented still…
Kayla Felten: We have a support group specifically for bipoc and…
Jeremy Schumacher: because I'm always like if you can't find someone like we'll figure something out…
Kayla Felten: specifically for Trans folks and…
Jeremy Schumacher: but let's start here and use the resources out there and…
Kayla Felten: also our spiritual abuse support groups historically have been predominantly for women plus so women gender expansive non-binary and…
Jeremy Schumacher: before finding and joining the Reclamation Collective that wasn't a thing it was like Hey, let's spend some time on psychology today together and…
Kayla Felten: trans folks as well. Just honoring the many intersections of targets that…
Jeremy Schumacher: really try and filter it as best we can and then you're gonna have to do some digging to find out…
Kayla Felten: who are the communities…
Jeremy Schumacher: if this is going to be a good fit for you or…
Kayla Felten: who are the most deeply targeted and…
Jeremy Schumacher: not. and that's still part of it.
Kayla Felten: who may find the most barriers to Safety in accessing an online support group,…
Jeremy Schumacher: I think but that directive of people who know what religious trauma is who have either training or…
Kayla Felten: of course those of us…
Jeremy Schumacher: lived experience with it.
Kayla Felten: who grew up in communities where there was a lot of small groups bible studies,…
Jeremy Schumacher: That's such a thing that people need and…
Kayla Felten: youth group Retreats conferences,…
Jeremy Schumacher: I would say that's the thing that
Kayla Felten: I was all over all of that.
Jeremy Schumacher: Not with my clients,…
Kayla Felten: And so I think that also wanting to acknowledge that we can't promise anybody a safe space and…
Jeremy Schumacher: but for people who are just looking to get help has been the most useful piece.
Kayla Felten: that's something that I share at the beginning of each support group.
Jeremy Schumacher: right
Kayla Felten: Is that as a facilitator. I cannot guarantee that this is going to feel safe be a trigger free environment for anybody including myself. but really emphasizing that we're here to create the energy of what is possible together in hopes that this will be a corrective experience a therapeutic exposure to…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: what is possible when we hold sovereignty over ourselves in proximity to support group setting. And the other piece too that we've been expanding…
Jeremy Schumacher: right
Kayla Felten: since our year one before we were in a nonprofit. We've been developing a religious informed clinician directory. And so we have clinicians from all over the country plus Canada. We're hoping to expand that even more so internationally in the upcoming years because we have had people from more than seven different countries hold space in our virtual support groups over the years and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: so we know that while Certainly, the United States of America is huge and we still have a handful of states that don't have any representation on our directory. We also recognize that we are creating something all together new and there may not be anything like the recreation Collective. Represented in globally, and so another piece too is that in this summer I'll talk a little bit later about a fundraiser we're gonna have…
Jeremy Schumacher: right
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: but our goal is to raise money to launch our first Spanish speaking support groups in Winter 25, and so recognizing that big picture long term we got to make sure that we can hold space for survivors in multiple languages across many times zones, with all kinds of intersections of identity that will deserve to have specialized processing
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, and you said this earlier but to reiterate in this specific context there's Dogma everywhere and so you can get a therapist Theology and bad therapy. There's a lot of overlap there.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Thank I mean that is something this is a free resource. We want this to be available to everybody and while the recognition Collective is specifically curating non-clinical interventions and I can share a little bit about why that's important to us. Just acknowledging that the clinical spaces often have a lot of barriers to access whether as clinician accepts insurance and I hold a lot of compassionate understanding us for why why insurance companies don't accept clinicians onto their platform and…
00:30:00
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: so onto their panels that is and so
Kayla Felten: There's that also Western therapy has a lot of other, dangers literally the way that we can pathologize we have historically pathologized trauma and told people that they're distress and symptoms are especially folks coming out of cultures with original sin Doctrine, right? We're all of these things that are uncomfortable for you are associated with some type of sin deeply rooted in your being and who you are and so I think that there's so much work that can be done still in the therapeutic container, but that's also part of why we have these different training CEUs. We have a collaborative practice event coming up for therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: In school are all male male and even to the representation for something like putting the DSM together like that medical model and some of those things are deeply colonizing and…
Kayla Felten: knew that supports folks who might be Already kind of conditioned and…
Jeremy Schumacher: patriarchical. So therapy as a space finding therapist needs.
Kayla Felten: doctrinated brainwashed right to believe that when I come into a space with a therapist.
Kayla Felten: And that's such a very dangerous ideology to have it it's not just dangerous for potential clients.
Jeremy Schumacher: And there's this back and…
Kayla Felten: It's also therap dangerous I think for therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: forth with that but I think holding that space and for practitioners I love some of the groups you offer for support therapist.
Kayla Felten: Yes, I think especially I let my clients know on my intake I said I don't identify as a counselor. I'm not here to provide counsel hot takes, directives that's not really my style. And I often think that's a first step in kind of deconstructing the narratives that have informed…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: but all of our Collective narrative beliefs, around Who has authority over me? What does sovereignty over self look like? How do I turn into my inner Healing Wisdom my intuitive? No. Okay n o w and that's been my primary focus and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: clinical care and hopefully creating some non-clinical supports and offerings that actually bring us more into Community Care. This is less about clinical intervention pathology diagnosis.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, yeah, let's talk about some of the cool stuff going on this summer later in the summer and…
Kayla Felten: This is far more the reputation Collective at least the services we offer in health.
Jeremy Schumacher: into the fall some stuff that's been building for five years and…
Kayla Felten: These are more about Community Care connecting people to community to other folks…
Jeremy Schumacher: some fun stuff some celebration the fundraiser. can you speak to kind of what's going on later this summer?
Kayla Felten: who are also navigating some type of Detachment. Perhaps loss perhaps abandonment of their culture of origin and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Happy Pride everybody.
Kayla Felten: I also will just say, I keep referring to both religious trauma and spiritual abuse. I think it's really important that we also acknowledge that there is so much spiritual abuse that can happen even in the clinical container. Let's be honest.
00:35:00
Kayla Felten: Outside of religious spaces, spiritual abuse is not holding organic to our organized religious institutions spiritual abuse is really any conscious or unconscious use of power to Direct Control manipulate exploit another person.
Jeremy Schumacher: No.
Kayla Felten: I think that I would refer to that being spiritual abuse when that power Dynamic is also informed by this person's, role within a spiritual Faith Guru medicinal right Community or by the beliefs Within that Community, So I use the example of patriarchy rights. It's easy and obvious, but I think that if I'm in a culture that's deeply informed by patriarchy then really any person. Who's a man. Would have this authority over me. So even if a man doesn't recognize that he is using this power Dynamic of being a man approximately to a woman to abuse manipulate exploit me.
Kayla Felten: That doesn't mean that ideology that belief of patriarchy being ultimately correct and supreme way of being isn't what's informing that our Dynamic and that creates space for Spiritual abuse.
Kayla Felten: 
Jeremy Schumacher: awesome
Kayla Felten: And it's important for us that we have the therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah. Yeah, there's Dogma everywhere. the early atheists in the 2000s dealt with this too,…
Kayla Felten: There's so much that I can resonate with and…
Jeremy Schumacher: the out group dynamic that plagues human psychology.
Kayla Felten: but I didn't even consider how that f** me up. I got it.
Jeremy Schumacher: It's hardwired into our brain to group off and…
Kayla Felten: Okay. I'm and…
Jeremy Schumacher: have in out group dynamics.
Kayla Felten: so we want to have those spaces…
Jeremy Schumacher: And so even in spaces that are doing similar work this stuff pops up…
Kayla Felten: But also where clinicians can continue to refer their clients to our support groups and…
Jeremy Schumacher: but I love the fiesta and I'm so stoked. I'm hoping I can make it up there for us Midwestern folks new train line is open.
Kayla Felten: not have to hold that concern that they might end up finding themselves in a supportive space with a client.
Jeremy Schumacher: I'm going to the Twin Cities soon the next couple of weeks. I'm taking my two little boys.
Kayla Felten: It's important of course that therapist
Jeremy Schumacher: We're gonna try the train line from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. That's easier to get there Chicago Milwaukee Minneapolis a little bit more connected than it used to be so,
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, and here in the Midwest here and with Emma in the United States,…
Kayla Felten: Yes, so actually next Tuesday.
Jeremy Schumacher: we're like, hey public transportation.
Kayla Felten: So we're coming in the Twin Cities Pride week next week.
Jeremy Schumacher: We finally have some. But yes,…
Kayla Felten: And so next say yes.
Jeremy Schumacher: the fiesta the party and therapist.
Kayla Felten: Happy Pride. We are going to be having our second Community circle at the modus Locus location in South Minneapolis. And that will be just a time for folks to come and honor queer Joy. they'll be an altar blessing which I know might sound a little bit like activating to folks who are
Jeremy Schumacher: Being a human and having a party and finding community and celebrating things is also part of the healing process. It's not all sacrosanct and somber it is fun and community.
00:40:00
Kayla Felten: Maybe just not into the idea of reclaiming spirituality and I just want you to know that you are invited to this event.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Not any type of this is how we do things here. This is a created opportunity to be a part of a circle practice to be a part of a ritual where everyone gets to bring an item from home. Let the altar with that item adding kind of a wish a hope for the person who's gonna go home with that item at the end of the circle and everyone gets to go home with a different item and kind of speak as to this community Circle what that brought to conscious awareness and what that item is going to be kind of a reminder for them moving through Pride through party weekend.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: And so that is the first thing that we have coming up and then also on August 10th, we have our first fundraising Fiesta and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, which is so needed religious drama is everywhere.
Kayla Felten: that's gonna be at the most Locust expansion venue in Minneapolis.
Jeremy Schumacher: We talk about Dogma being everywhere religious drama is everywhere and…
Kayla Felten: I have some good friends who've opened up that venue.
Jeremy Schumacher: so the need for people…
Kayla Felten: It is gorgeous and…
Jeremy Schumacher: who are Aware of this stuff are trained in this stuff are doing their own work is still so high.
Kayla Felten: Excited to party because I have shared that I'm a career social worker.
Jeremy Schumacher: We have all this data that says people are leaving the church in record numbers and…
Kayla Felten: I've been working as a psychedelic therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: they need safe places to land.
Jeremy Schumacher: we want to do a quick plug for psychedelic work? we have a little bit of time.
Kayla Felten: the low risk environment of fiesta
Jeremy Schumacher: What was that? So in all of this you said you had some personal experiences.
Kayla Felten: And so also we deserve it we** deserve it the party and…
Jeremy Schumacher: What was your experience? I'm gonna Focus professionally on.
Kayla Felten: …
Jeremy Schumacher: Ketamine is legal.
Kayla Felten: we're going to be fundraising our goal of $10,000 to be able to launch our Spanish-speaking support groups in Winter 2025.
Jeremy Schumacher: So I think that's what you're working with and what was that introduction for you and kind of like the response to?
Kayla Felten: We're going to have a lot of sabatini…
Jeremy Schumacher: I don't know the social work communities may be a little different than the therapy Community…
Kayla Felten: who is the artist who does reclaimed hymns. They're gonna be performing we're gonna have a DJ we're gonna have snacks and…
Jeremy Schumacher: but there's a lot of overlap there. So I'm just curious kind of how you found your way to that space and…
Kayla Felten: we're gonna have a silent auction.
Jeremy Schumacher: what was like working in that space?
Kayla Felten: So if you are able to attend live that would be beautiful. They come to Minneapolis Minnesota for that weekend. Also, we have virtual tickets available. And then if you're gonna be able to come and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: travel and you are part of the therapeutic realm Community or on your educational path there we invite you to our collaborative practice event, which will be the following Monday August 12th, and that will be an opportunity to have lunch and connect with other clinicians. We're gonna be ting the reimagining abolitionist approaches to Survivor care
Kayla Felten: And in addition to the lunch and the four hour event all therapist.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: religious trauma activist Advocates who are all doing awesome cool work. We are not possessive of this work. We are protective of the many communities represented who have often been dismissed or denied validity to be a part of this table.
Kayla Felten: Mm-hmm
Kayla Felten: Okay.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: That's amazing. I didn't even know that I'm from Chicago. I don't really live here anymore. I live in Mexico. I have a female president. But that's good to know that there's now more connection across the Midwest beautiful.
00:45:00
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yes.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Speak it exactly. That's another piece of just like hey, we've worked really hard to bring this organization to what it is today. We have a lot of Big Dreams and Visions casted over what the next five years will bring and honestly, we just want to provide an opportunity as well for people who've ever attended a workshop a training a retreat or support group ever with a reputation Collective to maybe be able to have a little bit of a reunion meet the facilitator in real life, meet our board. We have some badasses from across North America's who are a part of bringing this forth. And so we're really proud of all of the labor and all of the courageous vulnerability that's been invested in bringing us to where we are and honestly just excited to hopefully make our offerings that much more accessible by adding an entire.
Kayla Felten: Language to what we offer and the languages that we offer those spaces in. Because that also extend eventually to also having trainings and consultation groups for clinicians in Spanish.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: mmm Yeah.
Kayla Felten: I think Eggs, Jeremy let's go.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Yeah, I will say first of all ketamine is not a federally legal substance only in the clinical space though in the medical space. It has long been federally accessible because of its use as an anesthetic for decades and it's actually used even more commonly as an anesthetic internationally in medicine.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: And so thankfully this was already long FDA approved before was even used kind of in a clinical setting as a mental health treatment. And so Academy is by no means the initial, psychedelic that I've communed with that was the inspiration for really wanting to explore how to integrate psychedelic experiences into
Kayla Felten: Reclamation and healing work. So my initial communion was with mushrooms and that I should say I've still had a long relationship with cannabis. I don't necessarily consider cannabis of pure psychedelic, but I will say that definitely has helped me access different Sensations and dimensions as well embodied Spirit, but mushrooms with certainly a medicine that gave me.
Kayla Felten: A totally different experience of spirituality spiritual connection spiritual activation in an entirely non-religious context container without any influences of someone trying to interpret my experience for me and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, I I went through training recently and I'm still doing some personal work around this because I work with so many people with religious trauma who wanted to go and interact with psychedelics as part of their own healing journey,…
Kayla Felten: tell me this is…
Jeremy Schumacher: and I was like,…
Kayla Felten: this is the spiritual application that you should be receiving from this medicine.
Jeremy Schumacher: I'm too naive in this I gotta go learn more about this so I can help people on this journey and…
Kayla Felten: It was just such a direct connection to my inner healing wisdom to my intuition and…
Jeremy Schumacher: and do it safely. But yeah, I think there's definitely a draw for people that want to reclaim spirituality that want to feel it connection to Source Spirit some version of spirituality that makes sense and…
Kayla Felten: for me that has been a big part of my work in reclaiming A spiritual framework, I guess I shouldn't say spiritual framework.
00:50:00
Jeremy Schumacher: feels authentic to them as opposed to somebody else's prescribed version of…
Kayla Felten: I don't know that I could even tell you what my framework is. I would just say my sensations of my own Spirit to feeling connected to people across the globe…
Jeremy Schumacher: what that should look like.
Kayla Felten: but also across time people who aren't even here anymore, And so I'd already been exploring a little bit with psychedelic medicines for a few years prior to being approached by a colleague…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yep.
Kayla Felten: who was in The Works of launching a psychedelic clinic in the Twin Cities and new that I was interested new that I was already in the works of launching the recognition Collective. I had actually hosted a
Kayla Felten: Psychedelicus is a Psychotherapy panel just a workshop and invited all the recognition Collective,…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: to attend that just to interview a panel of people who are working in psic. Advocacy in different ways. And that was the most highly attended event that we'd ever offered at the recreation Club about that time.
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: And so for me that was very validating that yep. People are curious also in the similar way that I think a lot of people from fundamentalist cultures really have a lack of sex education a bodily autonomy Concepts,…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: let alone sex education to me the very big recognition of I think I have work to do in harm reduction in drug and medication and education in addition sex and autonomy and bodily consent, education for this demographic of folks because certainly in time in my last four years working as a psychedelic therapist,
Jeremy Schumacher: That'd be so lovely having people who are trauma informed and holding created spaces. Yeah, that's the dream, right?
Kayla Felten: Being a spiritual abuse Advocate. I will be honest that I know many people who have been harmed in Altered States multiple people who have been assaulted by psychedelic guides and facilitators. I've unfortunately known facilitators who have…
Jeremy Schumacher: Yeah, and…
Kayla Felten: who have abused the power and…
Jeremy Schumacher: if you're not from the Midwest Minneapolis Saint Paul is super cool.
Kayla Felten: the possibility of holding that Sacred Space and…
Jeremy Schumacher: Don't let the Midwest is lame.
Kayla Felten: so for me,…
Kayla Felten: there's been a lot of connection in my work as a spiritual abuse Advocate while showing up in psychedelic spaces.
Jeremy Schumacher: Sneak in there somebody I went to University of Minnesota like Minneapolis is awesome.
Jeremy Schumacher: I have family up in Saint Paul Twin Cities are very cool.
Kayla Felten: And also I spoke at the psychedelics Symposium a few summers ago here in North Minneapolis.
Jeremy Schumacher: It's not brutal in as long as it's not winter. The summer is nice. So
Kayla Felten: We have a psychedelics symposium each summer via big psych…
Jeremy Schumacher: yes.
Kayla Felten: which is a local advocacy organization. And I spoke actually about how to recognize fundamentalism in psychedelic spaces because I still think fundamentalism Supremacy kind of the same thing. These can still forms some really really
Jeremy Schumacher: Yes, so later in the summer. Check out the fiesta get together with that Community Thanks so much for taking the time and chatting today.
Jeremy Schumacher: And to all our wonderful listeners out there. Thanks for tuning in again. We'll be back next week with another new episode. Take care everyone.
Kayla Felten: Dangerous abusive Dynamics in Altered States, especially and people taking credit for you only have this experience because I was here guiding you, or paying into playing gatekeeper or someone's relationship and proximity to medicine and exploration. I've had a number of clients that I've got to hold powerful potent incredible space and the ketamine Journeys with right. I've done too many drugs personally, but I also am not so arrogant to believe that they will only be able to experience expansion with this one medicine in this one clinical container. it's gonna be a beautiful opportunity for people to have their first communion, I'm reclaiming that concept a first communion with psychedelic possibility in a safe curated container with a therapist.
Kayla Felten: Some predictability in how they're going to show up and hold that space and vice versa. And I also think that one of my favorite things about being a ketamine therapist.
00:55:00
Kayla Felten: Absolutely figuring out what my connection to Spirit is but yeah, it's nuts. It's trippy, but being able to Bear witness to people who also grown up in similar fundamentalists cultures and ideologies or who have just suffered of spiritual abuse in different relational Dynamics to be able to have a holy and organic communion with themself. And maybe a different. Framework for what is possible expanding the Realms of what you ever thought was possible.
Kayla Felten: Mm- Yeah and to bring that back then to the recreation Collective that's one piece that whenever I'm facilitating the spiritual abuse support groups for women plus I'm also wanting to specifically invite folks who have been harmed in psychedelic spaces to attend that and I also have recently been connected with the shine Collective which is a psychedelic Survivor organization as well. And so I know that they are also looking to launch some different support groups and integration circles as this is unfortunately far more common and similar to what we see with clergy abuse. There's not a lot of safe platforms for reporting. There's not a lot of protocols that are actually about accountability but rather about protecting the powers that be protecting the reputation of Jesus Christ the lord and savior and also protecting reputations of the people who've been in power who
Kayla Felten: That access to the industry of it all and that also be another connection to the Psychedelic industry of it all the mental health industry of it. All. These are the pieces that the requisition Collective is hoping to imagine. What is possible when we are not looking to profit off of mental ness. Of religious trauma of spiritual abuse, but rather looking to create truly accessible. networks of connection of Community Care
Kayla Felten: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Absolutely, you can go ahead and visit Recreation collective.com. You should have a pop-up come up and you can certainly add yourself to our email list. That way you will be notified weeks before we open up registration for all of our upcoming support group Seasons. You'll know what are the support groups are going to be offered in the fall. What times are they offered who are the facilitators and also yeah any of our other events and offerings coming up and we have a specific. Mailing list as well for clinicians and therapist needs therapy and advocacy community.
Kayla Felten: 
Kayla Felten: Yeah.
Kayla Felten: Fighting all the come party with us in August so I don't live here past August. I live in Mexico after September. So yes, we're inviting you to come during one of the most beautiful months of the year to an incredible city. This city is Magic Minneapolis as well as Saint Paul the cities are magic
01:00:00
Kayla Felten: Thank you so much. Jeremy the sacred of me honors the sacred and you.
Meeting ended after 00:53:36 👋