Ellis McCauley, LMFT

Ellis McCauley, MS, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist in San Rafael, California, who offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, psychedelic integration and harm reduction, at the office and online. It also specialises in OCD, hair-pulling, skin-picking and trauma.

Approach

McCauley studied psychology at UC Santa Cruz and counselling at San Francisco State University, after more than five years of somatic bodywork with trauma survivors. Later training includes Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, exposure and response prevention for OCD, a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy certificate from the California Institute of Integral Studies, ketamine training at Polaris Insight Center and harm reduction training at the Center for Optimal Living. In a ketamine session the client holds a lozenge in the mouth for 15 minutes, then lies down with eyeshades and music; the effects last about an hour and a half, and an hour of integration follows, through talk, art, sandtray or somatic work.

Who it is for

Clients include people with PTSD, anxiety, OCD, grief, addiction or end-of-life concerns, autistic and ADHD clients, adoptees and LGBTQIA+ clients. Ketamine work is open only to people in California.

Practical details

Standard sessions cost $225 for 55 minutes, and ketamine sessions run about three hours. The psychiatric assessment costs $350 to $450, and the medicine, sent by a compounding pharmacy, around $100 to $150 to start. A course is usually four to six ketamine sessions, one to two weeks apart. McCauley is not on insurance panels but gives superbills, and cancellations need 48 hours’ notice.

Care and safety

Before any medicine work, clients meet a collaborating psychiatrist online for a medical and psychiatric evaluation of 45 to 60 minutes, and have several preparation sessions. Untreated high blood pressure, seizures, mania, psychosis, vascular disease or stroke, and cystitis rule ketamine out. Doses start low, and clients need a trusted driver home, not a ride-share.