Charlie Shockley, LCSW

Charlie Shockley is a licensed clinical social worker in Athens, Georgia, who has offered ketamine-assisted psychotherapy since 2019 and also provides psychedelic preparation and integration on harm reduction lines. He runs the practice Kind Recovery and works largely online with clients in Georgia and South Carolina.

Approach

He calls himself a psychedelic-oriented counsellor who helps clients turn towards what they avoid rather than manage their defences. With a local prescriber he offers oral troches, ideally in a two-hour session of preparation, dosing and integration; low-dose oral ketamine can deepen a guided meditation in therapy; and IV programmes run with local infusion clinics, usually six infusions about three days apart. He supports clients through Spravato too, and uses EMDR, IFS, ACT and motivational interviewing.

Who it is for

His clients often carry trauma that shows up as rigid patterns: depression and anxiety, avoidance, perfectionism, people-pleasing or substance misuse. He started out in addiction work and sees people in recovery, if they are honest about use and have had a period of abstinence or moderation. He also supports people who have chosen to use illegal psychedelics on their own.

Practical details

Sessions cost $150 an hour, after a free 15-minute consultation booked through Kind Recovery. A group programme of three Saturday sessions for five people is the cheaper option and has a waiting list.

Care and safety

He provides no medicine himself. He holds a master’s in clinical social work from the University of Georgia and the year-long psychedelic-assisted therapy certification of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute, with ketamine training from PRATI and Fluence. He notes that ketamine is legal while classic psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine are not, warns that psychedelics can trigger severe distress, mania or psychosis in some people, and says people with PTSD should never use them alone.