Mary Barbour, LMFT

Mary Barbour is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Santa Monica who offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy alongside therapy for anxiety, trauma and eating disorders. She sees clients at her office on Ocean Park Blvd, at a second location in Valley Village and online.

Approach

Barbour combines Internal Family Systems, in which she has level 2 training, with EMDR, in which she is certified, as well as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy and somatic therapy, and she is also trained in Brainspotting. Her psychedelic training covers the MAPS programme in MDMA therapy as well as ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, in which she is certified. She is also a registered dietitian and certified yoga teacher, and she supervises and mentors pre-licensed therapists.

Who it is for

She works with individuals, couples, teens and men on anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, eating disorders, relationships and midlife transitions. She will not go ahead with ketamine treatment when a client’s situation does not support the process.

Practical details

A ketamine session lasts about three hours. It opens with a short therapy conversation of 20 to 30 minutes about the process, intentions and grounding, followed by the medicine experience of 45 to 90 minutes with an eye mask and music chosen for inner exploration, and time to talk afterwards. An integration session follows two to three days later. Fees are listed at $200 to $250. She is licensed in California as well as in Virginia, Florida, Arizona and Utah.

Care and safety

Before ketamine treatment she carries out a comprehensive intake, and partner psychiatrists perform the medical evaluation. Together they rule out contraindications, from medication and medical issues to psychological or trauma-related ones. A preparation session covers education about the medicine and a treatment plan.