Sign up to get updates from us
This episode delves into the use of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy with Dr. Alya Ahmad and Dr. Tasnim Khan. We discuss how this approach helps in treating PTSD, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. The conversation highlights the transformative potential of ketamine in therapeutic settings for deep mental and physical healing.
I have always been an explorer with regard to self-help, personal growth, therapy, recovery and the like. This year I began hearing of people’s experiences with plant medicines as a means of doing deeper work on the mental and physical pain that can significantly impact our lives. AND then I met Dr. Alya Ahmad and Dr. Tasnim Khan - two physicians (and sisters) with stunning resumes and extensive experience in medicine and patient care - who left conventional medicine and started their own practice providing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Their team is alleviating their clients’ suffering from conditions such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, chronic pain and more. What I LOVE is the path that brought them to this space. These are two doctors who finally acknowledged that they, as healers, needed help too. In their words, “We can only be as good for our patients as we are for ourselves…” Yes, to that, count me in.
Ketamine is legal and many are familiar with it as an anesthetic. But when used in a supervised and intentional setting it also relaxes a patient to a place where the nervous system is disarmed, mental chatter can be quieted, and deeper therapeutic work can begin. We talk all things Ketamine as it relates to our personal healing journeys and my mind is forever shifted as to what is possible.
Our Guests:
Dr. Tasnim Khan is a Primary Care Physician and Harvard University trained health care executive with over 27 years of experience in the healthcare field. She has owned, operated, and profitably exited health care practices and an IPA in the US and in the Middle East.
As a healthcare executive, Dr Khan has held leadership roles in private and public organizations in the US and abroad in countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. She led key nationwide innovative initiatives such as building a social health insurance scheme in Qatar ahead of the FIFA world cup event, private equity greenfield and brownfield launches of multispecialty clinics and hospitals in Dubai and the UK. Dr Khan also has deep experience in the health insurance sector, with her experiences working for United Healthcare, Aetna International and a large independent physician association in the Bay Area. She has also been a key member of the non-profit health sector in Sacramento, providing healthcare access to the underserved, uninsured and refugee populations.
Yet, her deepest passion lies in helping people optimize their wellbeing and advocate for their health despite a very complicated and fragmented health care system. She is constantly seeking ways to extend health span and focus on prevention rather than the sick model of care that is embedded in current treatment paradigms of our health care system. The opportunity to offer people a refreshed model of care also includes mental health. The modalities to address mental health are rapidly changing and replacing the dated therapeutics and approaches that are no longer serving peoples needs to heal from within. Dr Khan is excited to be able to learn, teach and offer these new treatment paradigms to people in need. IN 2021, she partnered with a colleague to open one of Sacramento’s first holistic mental health center, providing legal psychedelics with therapy and holistic wellness.
Dr. Alya Ahmad is a former Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, with experience in academic and private settings overseas and in Texas and California. She is fellowship trained in Integrative Medicine, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and Ketamine-assisted therapy. She is also training as a MAPS provider through the Integrative Psychiatry Institute.
Dr. Ahmad is also a mother, immigrant, and woman of color who remains a continuous learner and educator. Having witnessed the effects of trauma and social inequities, her journey as a healer focuses on treating the neediest of populations.
As clinical faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and UCSF, Dr. Ahmad teaches better ways to care for children and their families. She founded programs that emphasize “whole” person care and the narrative medicine process for children with special needs, Down syndrome, obesity and other patients requiring complex care consultation services.
Dr. Ahmad harnesses the methodology of Narrative Medicine learned during her training at Columbia University to teach and practice medicine through compassion-based inquiry as a means of addressing illness in light of the overall landscape of a patient’s life. She believes natural and holistic paths to healing are possible with integrative and psychedelic medicines and therapies. Her mantra for care is simple; healing the self and others must include empathy and the respectful fusion of self-wisdom, ancient and novel therapies.
Website: https://shamynds.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shamynds.healing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shamynds
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shamynds-healing-center/
Jen holds space for those who want to elevate and amplify their voice. If you desire support in speaking your truth and want to explore the ways you can work with Jen, let's connect:
email: Jennifer@beingREAL.me
podcast website:ListenForREAL.com
website:www.REALJenOliver.com
Instagram@REALjenOliver
TikTok@realjenoliver
Facebook@realjenoliver
If you believe conversations like these belong in the world, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast - and even better, share it with someone else as a REAL conversation starter. Subscribe to all things Jen Oliver at REALJenOliver.
