Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins

Ketamine-Assisted Therapy: A New Frontier in Mental Health

• Nick George • Season 1 • Episode 112

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Ever wondered how modern therapy approaches can help create breakthrough moments for those struggling with mental health challenges? Therapist Allie Quaed opens up about her decade-plus journey in counseling and the innovative treatments she's bringing to Fort Collins.

Quaed takes us beyond traditional therapy, explaining how ketamine-assisted psychotherapy works as a powerful tool for treatment-resistant depression. "It's like summiting a mountain," she explains, describing how this approach helps clients gain fresh perspectives by creating new neural pathways. Her detailed explanation demystifies this cutting-edge treatment that's gaining traction in Colorado's therapeutic community.

One of the most powerful segments addresses a widespread misconception: that therapy is only for those in crisis. "There's never any issue that's too little to start therapy," Quaed emphasizes, challenging listeners to consider mental health support as preventative care rather than last-resort intervention. She also speaks passionately about supporting the supporters – those caring for loved ones with addiction or personality disorders who often neglect their own wellbeing while focused on others.

Whether you're curious about innovative mental health treatments, supporting someone through addiction, or simply want to understand how therapy might benefit your everyday life, Quaed's compassionate approach offers valuable insights. Reach out to Allie Quaed Counseling through her website or by phone – as she notes, sometimes the hardest part of healing is simply making that first contact.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a good counseling service? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, allie Quaid. With Allie Quaid Counseling Allie, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Really good, thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 2:

No problem, glad you're here. Tell us all about your counseling service and what might separate it from what's in people's minds when they think about calling one.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I started this practice in 2022, and you know I have a lot of different specialties actually, just because I have been a therapist for well over a decade now. So my background is primarily in the addiction recovery as well as trauma realms. I also do treat a lot of general issues such as anxiety, depression, relationship challenges and, most recently, one of my another really big part of my counseling is to do ketamine assisted psychotherapy. So you may have heard about that, but that's kind of a big cutting edge thing in the world of therapy to do psychedelic therapy. Especially here in Colorado, there's actually like quite a big community of psychedelic therapists, sure. So that is something I really enjoy being able to offer to not everybody, because it's not just for everyone, but people that I feel like would benefit from it.

Speaker 2:

So I just didn't group ketamine with psychedelics for some reason. Can you explain that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it is a anxiolytic actually and it's also, you know, an anesthetic at times, because it is used in medical settings for those purposes.

Speaker 3:

But taken at a very specific lower dose it's actually has really amazing antidepressant properties and you can have either what's called a psycholytic experience, which is kind of just like a low level, just kind of like relaxed state that really just allows you to make neural connections, and then people that are really struggling with treatment resistant depression will do at a higher level where they're actually dissociating and they're able to again it's like almost take like a fast acting antidepressant, so it acts on the NDMA receptors in your brain, which is also how SSRIs actually operate, and it's just going to help really again create new neural connections so that you're able to kind of zoom out and, as if you're almost summiting a mountain, like able to see things from a different point of view, and you're able to come back from that journey, which typically lasts like an hour to an hour and a half, and take some of that experience with you.

Speaker 3:

And it's so important to have therapy alongside of that, because you want to really integrate everything that came up and continue to infuse it with all the work that you've already been doing with your therapist. You're in Fort Collins, I am yes.

Speaker 2:

Cool. How did you get into this in the first place?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I actually did some counseling myself as a teenager, just through going through some difficult times, and it was so helpful and I just thought, you know, that's something I want to get to do someday. And so that's eventually what brought me out to Colorado back in 2010 to go to grad school in Boulder, and I'm just so grateful that I found a path that just feels authentically, just kind of something that I really enjoy doing and I'm passionate about.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. What are some myths or misconceptions in the awesome? What are some myths or misconceptions in? The especially in the specific niche that you're in in counseling with ketamine and the exploratory areas of what you do.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say just overall. A huge myth, I find, is that people think that their problems need to be dire and they need to be in severe crisis to start therapy. And that has changed. I think people have normalized and it's become a lot more mainstream and accepted to do therapy. But I have still come across clients when I'll do a consultation where they're like is this below your pay grade, should I even be in therapy? And you know the answer is always yes. There's never any issue. That's too little to start therapy and it's just something that I think is so helpful for anyone to just have a neutral party that can reflect in a professional manner back just what they're hearing and offer different perspectives, give you new tools of things that you can work on. So, yeah, I think just that's. A really important thing to know is that you don't have to, you shouldn't wait until you're severe crisis to go to therapy.

Speaker 2:

We know that marketing is the heart of every business or practice. Can you tell us who exactly your target customer is? I mean, I'm sure there's a well-rounded just by virtue of you existing. I'm sure there's certain people that know to call you with confidence. But who are you targeting as a group that may not know that they need your services? Who are you actively targeting as that target and how are you targeting them with marketing right now?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, my Psychology Today page is a great way to hear just more about my specialties, and I just want to point out that that's a great directory when you're finding a therapist for people that don't know about that.

Speaker 3:

But I do have a paragraph in there that I think really speaks to a very specific population, and that is the partners or family members of someone who is struggling with addiction, recovery or some sort of possible personality disorder like narcissism or borderline personality disorder.

Speaker 3:

I really like to work with the supporting people in the lives of somebody who's struggling with one or both of those issues, because a lot of times what happens is they get really swept into rescuing, caretaking, codependency, and they're not able to take care of themselves because they're so sucked into the intensity of what their loved one is going through, and so I really like to educate people around. How can you be supportive without enabling, how can you have healthy boundaries for yourself while still providing love and support to that person that's going through something or maybe has maybe something deeper going on or, you know, with whatever is presenting? But I really think it's so important to recognize that it's not just about the person that's in the throes of an addiction or something like. It's also about how can you help yourself in those moments as well, when you're somebody in your life is struggling.

Speaker 2:

So have you thought about doing your own?

Speaker 3:

podcast. I have not, but I have always wanted to be on a podcast and maybe in a day that I have more time on my hands, I think that would be a really fun thing to do.

Speaker 2:

What do you do for fun when you're not working?

Speaker 3:

My family loves to go skiing. We love to go camping Kind of a lot of the typical Colorado things, I would say Backpacking and just being with our dogs going out, paddle boarding, all the fun things that Fort Collins and greater Colorado has to offer.

Speaker 2:

So if there's one thing that people should take away from our interview in this podcast, Allie, what? What do you think that they should remember about Allie Cade counseling?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I think just to remember that the hardest part is to reach out, and I think that can be really intimidating for people. But a great way to you know, just get in touch with me is to find me on my website, which is aliquadecounselingcom, and that's A-L-L-I-E-Q-U-A-D-E counselingcom. You know it's again, there's never too small of an issue. Reaching out is the hardest part and then I'm always happy to do a consultation where we can either meet on the phone, virtually, or in person to just chat and kind of get a sense. And you know, you just want to make sure you have the right chemistry, in a sense, with someone that you want to be able to go to with any of your issues. And I think it's really important to just get a little intro to get a sense of who you're working with before just kind of taking that leap.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's what introducing yourself through this method is all about, for sure.

Speaker 3:

Is there a phone number? Yeah, it's 970-364. 4, 3, 7, 7, 8. Um and but email is really the best way to get in touch with me, which is Allie Quaid counseling at gmailcom.

Speaker 2:

Awesome Allie. It's been great having you on our show and we really wish the best for you and Allie Cade. Counseling moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Great. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortcollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.