Melinda Halpern, LPC

Melinda Halpern is a licensed professional counsellor in Bend, Oregon, who has been a state-licensed psilocybin facilitator since 2023 under the name Headwaters Psychedelics. She also works as a therapist with trauma, anxiety and relationship issues, and offers ketamine-assisted therapy.

Approach

She keeps the two roles apart: psilocybin facilitation, she stresses, is not therapy and has no link to her therapy practice, though she says her clinical work helps her see how early development shapes adult life. She trained at the Integrative Psychiatry Institute in Boulder, Colorado, holds a master’s in counselling from Oregon State University, and is trained to Level 2 in EMDR and in PACT couples therapy. Her work in personal growth began about 25 years ago as a coach in rowing, skiing and swimming and as an Outward Bound educator. She describes her style as direct, with humour.

Who it is for

Her therapy clients often come with trauma, anxiety, autism, attachment or relationship difficulties, and she sometimes works with athletes on injury recovery, plateaus and motivation. Psilocybin services are open to adults aged 21 and over.

Practical details

Therapy sessions cost $150 to $175, in person in Bend or online. The psilocybin session itself takes place at a licensed psilocybin facility in Oregon, with preparation by Zoom beforehand. Bend is about three hours from Portland and Eugene, and Redmond Airport is the nearest.

Care and safety

Work begins with a phone call in which she checks that psilocybin is suitable, since some situations rule it out. Every psilocybin session has at least two preparation sessions beforehand and integration afterwards.