I empower you in finding your resonance with the world by deeply knowing the rhythm within yourself
counseling services
My career path has led me down many roads and I am comfortable working with a wide spectrum of life experiences —
whether that means moving out of the shadows or expanding into your own sense of aliveness.
With a background in community mental health and the criminal justice system, I have been trained in a wide variety of modalities.
I currently focus on Internal Family Systems (IFS/parts work), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP). I integrate somatic and attachment-based principles throughout, allowing the work to respond to what is needed rather than adhere to a single approach.
I view exploration of existential questions as central to the therapeutic process and weave in spirituality where it is meaningful to you. My intention is to help you get out of your head, into your heart and a more grounded, embodied relationship with yourself — however you define that experience.
While insight matters, this work is not only about analysis and talking our way through things. We are here to engage in the sacred work of reconnecting with your core Self, your pure essence of being, and translating that awareness into meaningful change.
Approaches
IFS
Internal Family Systems or Parts Work
Used as a foundational framework to access and understand the inner child parts of you that protect you from moving forward.
This work helps unburden patterns that no longer serve your needs as an adult living in the here and now.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing
An evidence-based psychotherapy that has proven effective for the treatment of trauma and other distressing experiences.
EMDR helps reduce symptoms and reprocess experiences that continue to impact your present life.
KAP
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy & Psychedelic Integration
A structured process including Preparation, Intention Setting, 2.5-3 hour guided Ketamine Sessions, and Integration.
Additional Intention Setting and Integration for other medicines is also available.
Existential
Spiritual Exploration & Meaning Making
A process of curiosity and inquiry focused on meaning-making, self-understanding, and connection to a larger sense of purpose.
When appropriate, this may include other modalities that open access to deeper knowing.
IFS / Parts Work
IFS is a dynamic and empowering approach that I use as a foundational framework with all clients. While I may not use EMDR or KAP with every client, all three approaches rely on your internal system as a guide.
This work helps you reconnect with your internal wisdom and build trust in your own process. It integrates emotional, cognitive, somatic, and spiritual elements to support whole-person healing.
IFS invites you into relationship with your internal “parts,” understanding their roles and the ways they may contribute to distress. From there, we move toward greater internal coherence and integration.
I have found IFS to be a gentle teacher, one that is filled with compassion, curiosity, courage, clarity, creativity, connectedness, confidence, and calm (the “8 C’s” of IFS.)
IFS teaches you to connect with your own internal “family” of “parts” that are innate to all humans. Our work is to learn to connect with the various “parts” that might be causing confusion or difficulty for you. We see all “parts” as holding valuable information and we seek to understand them and what they are trying to tell us more fully. With the help of the Capital “S” Self, your True Nature and Essence — where your deepest compassion and curiosity is generated from, we are able to help heal and integrate layers of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors in a way that moves towards wholeness and harmony within your internal and external world.
I am IFS Level 1 Trained by the IFS Institute.
EMDR
No one knows how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes frozen in time and remembering a trauma may feels as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed and new memories with similar themes get trapped in a traumatic memory network. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.
EMDR appears to have a direct effect on the way the brain processes information. It does so similarly to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. When the brain is in this state, it can make connections across both hemispheres of the brain; it organizes and understands at many levels and takes on new perspectives. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting. EMDR can be thought of as a psychobiological based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.
I am a Certified EMDR Therapist by EMDR International Association.
Psychedelic Integration
Integration support helps translate meaningful experiences into lasting change. Whether you are processing past experiences, seeking greater clarity in the present, or navigating future direction, integration provides structure, accountability, and support and creates a bridge between insight and action.
This process focuses on making meaning from your experiences and applying those insights in practical, embodied ways.
Integration begins with the intention-setting process and being prepared for the unexpected. Psychedelic journeys are known to sometimes bring out your deepest fears and also to offer incredible healing and growth on the other side of them. To prepare yourself to meet the challenges that may arise is to be willing to face your fears and have support to do so.
Rather than navigating this alone, working with a guide allows for deeper reflection and more effective integration.
Integration may include practices such as reflective dialogue, journaling, creative expression, music, movement, and somatic awareness.
While many focus on the medicine experience itself, meaningful change often occurs through the integration process that follows. I have found that integration is often the place where deep understanding unfolds. If we don’t pause long enough to consider the nuances of the impact of an experience before we are on to the next one it doesn’t support a new way of being.
I would be honored to support a slower meaning-making process that brings insights beyond the medicine session alone.
KAP FAQs
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The Inner Calling: Being stirred to wake up to something in your experience and seeking support to explore ways to find deep transformation.
Assessment: Meeting with a licensed provider for medical & psychiatric risk assessment to determine the appropriateness of KAP for you and obtaining a prescription if you are moving forward. Completing a separate intake and assessment with a psychotherapist.
Prep: Learning more about the details of the process and exploring any questions or concerns about it. This is also the time for your therapist to learn more about your background and how they can best support you during this process.
Intention Setting: Getting clear about the golden thread that you want to weave through each Medicine Session and back into the tapestry of your day-to-day life.
● Can create more understanding and meaning of your experience
● Helps to anchor you and move you through unexpected places you may go during the journey
● Insights that come after the journey day will be easier to integrate
●Reflecting on the intentions you set and how they are showing up will help solidify your understanding of changes that are occurring
While it is best to form an intention for your journey before you start, you may or may not be able to hold onto that. An expectation of what will happen is different than an intention. An expectation forms an attachment that can keep you stuck and you need to be mindful of them, while intentions help you get clear about why you are entering the journey space.
In general, it helps to remain an open and allowing witness to the organic unfolding of your process. Indeed, no holding on is best as holding on is often the main source of anxiety in journeys. The journey will flow whether or not you hold on and resist or if you follow the path that unfolds and relax into it—so being prepared for a state of surrender may be a part of the prep process as well.
Setting the Container: Co-creating the set and setting with your therapist. (See “Journey Space” below for more information.)
Set: The mindset we are in when we arrive to any experience.
Setting: The environment that creates the container you enter into for the experience.
Journey Space: Your experience will be unique to you and each of your sessions will likely be different, even if there are some similarities. In other words, the landscape may be familiar, but we cannot predict the weather on that day until it has arrived.
Psychedelic journeys are known to sometimes bring out your deepest fears and also to offer incredible healing and growth on the other side of them. To prepare yourself to meet the challenges that may arise is to be willing to face your fears and have support to do so. This process will begin during the assessment and prep phases and this is why we don’t step into the Journey Space right away. We honor the process and its timing.
On Journey Day, you will arrive with comfy clothes, nesting gear (personal items you may want for comfort,) and any totems, tokens, and/or pictures that you would like to place on your altar. You may also want sunglasses to protect your eyes post-journey.
There will be headphones and a curated music playlist to guide you through the experience, and eyeshades to support you to go inside. There will be blankets, pillows, and the ability to lay down comfortably. There will be some art supplies available if desired.
*Totems or token items: In order to build a sacred ceremony space, you may want to bring items of significance to have with you during the journey that honor you. Examine what you hold sacred and what this means to you. Often, it can simply help you to enter the space with reverence. Some people like to have an item or items that accompany them to each journey as a shared anchor to their different experiences.
After Care: This is a time to rest, nourish, be gentle, and hold the experience and the stories of your journey with care. This is not a day to over-schedule, jump back into work, or strenuously exercise. This is sacred time with yourself to be honored as such.
To support your physical body as you re-emerge, consuming snacks and water is an important part of the transition from the journey space. Some light snacks will be available to you, or you can bring your favorites with you.
You cannot drive on the day of your journey. Part of aftercare is having a supportive person drop you off and pick you up, and be available to you for the first couple of hours post-journey for support as needed.
Integration: Processing and understanding an experience in order to make meaning that can be brought into one’s life.
Some examples of tools to support this process: talking to others, journaling, art and/or creativity, use of music (participating or listening), and movement practices such as yoga, dance, breathwork, etc.
Embodiment: The step beyond integration when information has landed deep within and flows out of you. When a truth or a way of being has become embodied, you no longer have to think about it, and it naturally emanates from you and can be seen by others.
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Often, a minimum commitment of 3-6 medicine sessions are recommended (this does not include assessment, prep and integration sessions) as Ketamine is a medicine that compounds in its effects. In other words, each experience builds on the last both psychologically and physiologically.
Depending on spacing that works for your processing needs, this may take place over 3-6 months or longer.
More integration time between sessions to weave new insights into the fabric of your life may lengthen this time frame, while adding a richness to the experience. There is no such thing as too much integration!
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Each Medicine Session is 2.5 to 3 hours in duration.
The session begins with conversation to reconnect and discuss intentions, followed by a guided meditation tailored to your intentions to facilitate dropping in to the experience.
You will lay down with eye shades and headphones on, to a playlist curated for the experience to support your movement through the journey. Your job is to be curious and observe the unfolding.
During a session, you may feel relaxation from ordinary concerns and your usual mind, while maintaining conscious awareness of the flow of your mind. Sometimes you have a bigger experience and feel an overwhelming sense that you are one with the universe and the session moves you! Either way, this tends to lead to a disruption of negative feelings and obsessional preoccupations. It seems that this relief and the exploration and experience of other possible states of consciousness can be singularly impactful.
You may see memories, images and colors, like lucid dreaming, or you may have a more “psychedelic” experience of these things. Sometimes people feel in their body like they are a different shape or size. Sometimes people feel like they have become the embodiment of an animal or other figure that is not human. All of these experiences often alert the mind that consciousness is flexible and we can hold things with less rigidity. You may explore current issues in your life and find that symbolism and alternative perspectives arise to help you understand and relate to them in a new way.
Your therapist acts as a guide to the experience and helps you process its impact before, during, and after the sessions. All information that arises is rich and vibrant to the process (even if intense at times) and the therapist holds a container to make you feel safe as you explore your deep inner world.
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Chances are, you have done some amount of research and inner assessment if you find yourself here. That is already a step on the path toward change!
If you have a lot of hesitation and fear, you may want to pursue other types of therapies first to prepare yourself to go more deeply into the unknown places inside of you. I can support this process and can consult with you about what that could look like based on your needs.
If you are (mostly) excited about what you read here and find yourself being called forward, this can be an indicator that KAP may be a tool to support your transformation. It takes a mix of vulnerability and bravery to step into deep transformative work.
If you are feeling called, the next step is to have a conversation with me so we can assess together if ketamine is the right tool for what you’re looking to address. If so, I will refer you to a prescriber for further assessment. Then, we will decide what the pacing of treatment will look like to start.
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If we decide to pursue this type of treatment together, you will be given referrals for licensed psychiatric prescribers.
They charge from $300-$750 for initial consultations, and from $125-500 for follow-up appointments.
In this office, we typically utilize a prescription of Troches (lozenges) or Rapidly Dissolving Tabs (RDTs) that dissolve in your mouth.
During this assessment, you will be screened both medically and psychiatrically for any potential safety risks to determine if this treatment is an appropriate tool for you.
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The fees for this work depend on what type of session, due to the varying lengths of time and presence offered (i.e. medicine vs. non-medicine.)
I do not take any insurance but can provide a “Superbill” that you can submit to insurance for potential reimbursement after you have paid me first. I have a list of questions available to ask your insurance to determine if you have out-of-network benefits and what your coverage may be.
FYI: Most insurance companies do not cover the entire duration of a KAP session, but may cover the 1st hour as they would for any therapy hour. Assessment, Prep, and Integration Sessions may also be reimbursable as a therapy hour if you have coverage.
Please reach out for a consultation by email at cat@wildpresence.co or call/text at 415.857.2292 to discuss further.
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Contact Cat Jensen by email at cat@wildpresence.co or call/text at 415.857.2292.
If we decide to move forward, you will be referred to a licensed provider for medical and psychiatric screening and clearance.
Disclaimer for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy:I am unable to prescribe any medications as a therapist, but will refer you to licensed providers with whom I work closely. They will assess you for your appropriateness to work with Ketamine in a therapeutic setting, which is legally scheduled by the DEA for use. There is no guarantee that you will be given a prescription for medication if it is not appropriate.I do not promote or provide any illegal substances. I support harm reduction and integration of experiences but not the abuse or misuse of any illegal substances.