I am a certified and licensed psychedelic trauma therapist, merging novel technology, art and science. This alchemy fosters deep and enduring positive change. The world is in a psychological crisis, trauma is an epidemic, and mental healthcare is inaccessible for most. I develop novel approaches to healing by delivering therapy, speeches and interviews, training, retreats, virtual reality and mobile app content, and psychedelic exploration to optimize and expedite positive outcomes.
Utilizing effective and attuned communication and support, we can remove the blocks of trauma, cultural conditioning and self doubt. Then, the true self yearning to step forward is not only revealed, but activated. I serve to inspire all people, including therapy clients, mental health clinicians and other professionals through the exploration of consciousness and self actualization.
When the message received resonates with what the inner self already knows, we feel deeply seen and inspired. By creative thinking and leaning into challenges, we learn to trust ourselves more than the limitations by which we’ve been conditioned. Using my multidisciplinary expertise, there is movement toward wholeness. We may then see the magic and potential in everyday life. I hold a lantern to illuminate your path towards what you are meant to become.
Sunny Strasburg is a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, licensed in Utah and Maryland. She is an EMDR Certified trauma specialist. She is a graduate of the Certification for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Sunny utilizes Gottman Couples Method, attachment theory, Jungian Depth psychology Internal Family Systems, and Ego State work. Mrs. Strasburg offers Ketamine Assisted Therapy and retreats. Please visit her retreat website HERE
This week, Sunny Strasburg LMFT, Certified Psychedelic Trauma Therapist & Clinical Director at TRIPP, joins Rob Kalwarowsky. We talk about the Hero’s Journey, psychedelics, therapy and more.
In this episode, you will learn:
⊛ How the Hero’s Journey applies to your leadership journey
⊛ The intersection of leadership, psychedelics and therapy
⊛ How to open your parts up for journeys
I’m very inspired to be among the presenters for the upcoming Expanded States of Consciousness World Summit My friends at Heart Mind Institute and Neurodynamic Institute have created a extraordinary, Free, online Summit to explore the many vehicles humans have used for millennia to access expanded states of consciousness and benefit from their potential for deep healing, profound transformation and spiritual awakening, including meditation, breathwork, psychedelics, plant medicines, shamanism, music, chanting and more…
Over nine powerful days, you will have the opportunity to learn strategies for accessing and integrating expanded states of consciousness with over 65 world-class experts, practitioners, scientists, philosophers, researchers, meditation teachers, and wisdom holders including…
Sharon Salzberg, Deepak Chopra, Marisa Peer, Wim Hof, Sunny Strasburg, Andrew Weil, Grandmother Flordemayo, Dan Siegel, Joan Borysenko, Paul Stamets, Luisah Teish, Adyashanti, Ella Manga, Thomas Hübl, Sandra Ingerman, A. H. Almaas, Diana Quinn, Ken Wilber, Rosalind Watts, John Vervaeke, Marie Mboumi, Krishna Das, Amoda Maa, Dawson Church, Monica Williams, James Fadiman, Gangaji, Dennis McKenna, and many more…
She has co-authored trauma protocols for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Sunny hosts training and retreats with Dr.Richard Schwartz, the creator and founder of Internal Family Systems. Mrs Strasburg has led trainings with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk focusing on somatic and trauma psychedelic assisted therapy. She gives presentations, offers training and consulting in Ketamine combined with EMDR, Internal Family Systems and archetypal psychology. Mrs Strasburg has completed training with Compass Pathways in psilocybin assisted psychotherapy and completed a volunteer residency at Synthesis with psilocybin, and trained at the Ketamine Training Center in Ketamine Assisted Therapy. She was trained in MDMA Assisted Therapy by Michael and Annie Mithoefer through MAPS, and co-facilitates Holotropic Breathwork Workshops. Sunny lived near an ayahuasca retreat center in Latin America, and served to help participants to both prepare for and integrate their experiences. Mrs Strasburg is also a visual artist and her paintings were recently featured on the MAPS yearly bulletin for 2019.
Ketamine is already established as a remarkably safe anesthetic. A growing body of research and practice is showing great promise for the mental health-enhancing effects of sub-anesthetic Ketamine alone. Additionally, with psychological and ritual support, the pharmacological benefit can expand greatly. What is referred to as the “psycholytic dose” (low dose so the patient can usually talk during the experience) or “shamanic dose” (mid-dose where the body is relaxed and the journeyer feels as if their mind is lucid and out of body) enables powerful psychedelic exploration and integration.
Ketamine is a legal prescription drug (Schedule 3) in the USA used off-label to treat diagnoses such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. Sunny is a licensed and certified psychedelic assisted psychotherapist and a Lead Trainer at the Ketamine Training Center with Dr. Phil Wolfson. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is supported by integration, and individual and group therapeutic processing utilizing the techniques of EMDR, Internal Family Systems, Ego State, healing of patterns of attachment as well as Jungian archetypal psychology..
Ketamine IM Injection One Day Retreat for Established Therapy Clients with Diagnoses of Depression, PTSD and/or Anxiety. Hosted by Karen Madigan CNRA and Sunny Strasburg, LMFT More Info: One Kay KAP Retreats
Sunny Strasburg, LMFT and Dr. Richard Schwartz, the originator of Internal Family Systems have joined forces to cocreate many offerings in 2022, 2023 and forward in Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems. Watch for future events in Sunny’s NEWSLETTER, News page and Linked In.
In subsequent years, Mrs Strasburg has been fortunate to learn directly from a few leaders in the psychology field, including; Dr Dick Schwartz, Dr Phil Wolfson, Dr. Brian Richards, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dr. Brian Weiss, , Dr. James Hollis, Dr. James Hillman, Dr. Michael Meade, Dr. William Richards, and Dr. Marion Woodman. Due to the diversity of my training, Sunny uses an eclectic approach to psychotherapy, weaving EMDR, Internal Family Systems, Jungian Depth Psychology, Hypnosis, Dream Analysis and Attachment Theory into treatment.
As a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah, and also licensed in Maryland, Sunny is a certified as a trauma specialist, certified in EMDR (Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing) for treating single episode and complex PTSD. Additional training includes Internal Family Systems, Gottman Couples Method, Attachment Theory, Ego State work and Jungian Depth Psychology.
Before establishing her private practice, she was a family, group and individual therapist at an in-patient adult drug and alcohol treatment facility. This site provided in-depth training on how to build rapport, help clients internalize motivation, and the opportunity to process a myriad of different co-morbidities that tend to occur with addiction, most commonly PTSD.
Mrs Strasburg has served a broad spectrum of clientele, working with licensed clinicians as a consultant, LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples, diverse age groups and developmental stages, as well as racially and culturally diverse individuals. Sunny has worked and volunteered in sites serving populations including autism, hospice, refugee populations homeless, veterans, and abuse. I specialize in treating complex and single episode PTSD, DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), conflicted relationship communication, attachment trauma, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, addiction, OCD, anxiety, depression, grief, awakening a sense of purpose, gender dysphoria, and life and developmental change.
Mrs Strasburg has been trained in psychological assessment and diagnosis, and frequently uses several methods of assessing clients for relationship conflict, attachment styles, dissociative disorders and PTSD. Her goal in therapy is to work collaboratively with clients, and to trust the natural unfolding of the psyche. The psyche has a natural inclination to move toward wholeness and health once the proper container is provided. That container is formed by a strong therapeutic alliance, and a safe psychological space to explore the shadowlands of one’s psyche. As she gained more experience, Sunny came to realize realize she is not the “expert” in the therapeutic relationship, providing the right answers to misguided clients. Rather, the human psyche is wonderfully wise, and as long as she remains curious, open and supportive, subjective distress is soothed and clients move toward mental health.
In addition to being a psychotherapist, Mrs Strasburg is also a visual artist and incorporate art and psychology into many of her endeavors. Sunny is a MAPS supporter, and her paintings have been on the cover of the annual bulletin and displayed at MAPS fundraiser events. In 2009, she had an art exhibition at COSM, Alex Grey’s gallery in New York City. She has illustrated the cover and art for several books, and often have art exhibitions in California, Denver and Salt Lake City. Several years ago, Sunny and her family lived in Costa Rica and she had direct experiences under shamanic and indigenous leaders.
Mrs Strasburg has had a longtime vision of potentiating therapy offered to clients with PTSD by creating a treatment plan which incorporates psychedelic medicines, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, hypnosis and dream analysis. IFS and EMDR are effective tools for processing trauma, but the ability to support that experience with psychedelic medicine alleviates suffering for many more clients in significantly less time. These medicines often evoke what she calls the “Observer” part of the psyche. This wise part has the distance to feel a deep sense of empathy toward the traumatized parts of the psyche. Practitioners of psychedelic assisted therapy require the best training in how to properly and legally support clients using these medicines, and to follow empirically-based protocols which have been proven safe and effective. This is particularly essential for fragile, traumatized clients.
Sunny is a lover of nature and spends time hiking, climbing Via Ferrati, trail running and mountain biking in the gorgeous Wasatch Mountains, Costa Rica, Europe, and the deserts in Southern Utah. She enjoys fitness, research in psychology, philosophy and the philosophical implications of nascent areas of research such as the juxtaposition of psychedelics and artificial intelligence.
Mrs Strasburg received a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute, an institute which focuses on Jungian Depth Psychology and houses the library of comparative mythologist, Dr. Joseph Campbell. This education was fortunate because of its holistic psychological orientation. The breadth and depth of learning at Pacifica was truly unique. Students were trained in Jungian and Freudian concepts. There, she learned about transference, counter-transference and the importance of holding the tension of opposites. At Pacifica, Sunny came to understand that humans are complex archetypal beings, storytellers, and myth makers.
See You On The Other Side Podcast: Join us as we talk about virtual reality in the psychedelic space, ketamine therapy, the importance of having support before and after a psychedelic experience, what it means to be trauma informed, and why it’s important to interview your therapists!
Sunny Strasburg, LMFT
Specializing in individual, marriage and family counseling, Strasburg earned her professional stripes at an in-patient adult drug and alcohol treatment facility. Strasburg’s focus is energizing and inspiring people; she feels a calling to bring psychedelic medicine to people recovering from trauma, depression and anxiety. She has a deep knowledge of psilocybin, a growing treatment in the country.
Sunny Strasburg, LMFT is the cofounder and owner of PsyAssist with DJ and musical composer, David Starfire. PsyAssist was recently acquired by TRIPP, Inc. Sunny is now the Clinical Director of Operations at TRIPP, Inc overseeing psychedelic development and clinical therapy support using virtual reality and mobile app technologies. This article published in FORBES talks about our company. TRIPP PsyAssist develops virtual reality and mobile tools to support therapist supported psychedelic journeys.
Jung saw the task of the therapist in helping to establish a dynamic interaction between the client’s conscious ego and the Self, a higher aspect of the client’s personality; this interaction takes the form of a dialectic exchange using the language of symbols. The healing then comes from the collective unconscious and it is guided by an inner intelligence whose immense wisdom surpasses the knowledge of any individual therapist or therapeutic school. This is the essence of what Jung called the individuation process.
Stanislav Grof
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