psychedelic therapy

Episode 17: New Frontiers in Holistic Psychiatry with Dr. Mark Shortt

Join us in today’s episode with Dr. Mark Shortt where we discuss holistic psychiatric approaches to mental health, specifically exploring ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Mark Shortt is a Naturopathic Doctor seeking to integrate holistic approaches to mental health with modern pharmaceutical options, embodying naturopathic principles of treating the whole person and removing the obstacles to healing. Dr. Shortt has studied at Bastyr University and with front-runners in the movement of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. He currently consults with Field Trip Health Inc, a mental wellness company at the forefront of the scientific re-emergence of psychedelic-enhanced therapies, where he assists in increasing access to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to patients throughout North America. He also continues to see patients in private practice and is available for consultation.

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Show Notes

  • 2:50: The current state of mental health care

  • 11:10: The history of ketamine- origin and uses

  • 19:30: The discovery of ketamine as an rapid-acting, long-lasting anti-depressive agent

  • 24:40: Ketamine treatment alone is a missed opportunity neurologically.

  • It can induce neuroplasticity.

  • 26:00 “Ketamine allows different routings to be possible. You have a whole potential world for behavioral change, change in thinking patterns and cognitive restructuring. You can change the way that you react to things in your life.”

  • "It’s great that depressive symptoms can stabilize and even lift [when using psychadelics] but if that’s all you’re doing then I really think it’s a missed opportunity. Because if you’re removing this obstacle to getting better, then why not walk through the gate? I think that’s the beauty and the power of psychedelics is that they offer that opportunity, but they don’t do it for you. They give you a vision of how your life can be different but then you have to walk into that."

  • 29:00: Story of patient with treatment-resistant depression

  • 32:50: How ketamine can influence neuroplasticity and cognitive re-patterning

  • 38:30: How our experiences early in life can set up our neurological patterning and how we respond to future experiences

  • 47:15: Different forms of ketamine and how they can impact effects of treatment

  • 56:20: What kind of policies should be enacted in our culture and country to improve the mental health of our nation?

  • 1:03: Recommended resources