Episode 16: McKinley Merchant, LCSW: You are the Medicine - Integrating Psychedelics into Today's Therapy Practices

In this episode we’re joined by McKinley Merchant. McKinley is a certified social worker practicing out of Salt Lake City, Utah. McKinley approaches her deep understanding of trauma work and how trauma affects our daily lives and relationships through a lens of mind-body bridging that aims to heal the whole self. McKinley also practices holistic modalities like sound baths and is passionate about the profound positive impact of ketamine assisted therapy for the right clients. She joins Ashley to talk about her life  and what led her to integrate ketamine assisted therapy into her practice, and its benefits when administered in the appropriate setting. She talks about how to find and interview new therapists, how to advocate and collaborate with your therapist if you do not feel you’re progressing and ultimately how you can build the tools and knowledge to become your own medicine. 

You can learn more about McKinley on her website becomingcounselingslc.com and on  Instagram.

Links to topics mentioned by Ashley and McKinley in today’s episode: 

• Circles of Grace or Life Star SLC 
• Psychology Today Directory 
• MAPS Research 
• When the Drummers Were Women by Layne Redmond
• How to Change Your Mind, lead by Micheal Pollan
• A Beginner's Guide to the End: How to Live Life to the Full and Die a Good Death by BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger
• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. 
• Loving What Is, Revised Edition: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life; The Revolutionary Process Called "The Work" by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell 
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle