Extraordinary Healing Experiences by Prescription

Brown Bag Lunch Online Presentation with Carrie Griffin, MD, and Michael Fratkin, MD:

Carrie Griffin, DO, and Michael Fratkin, MD, FAAHPM, will explore and explain the current state of legally available and approaching psychedelic-assisted therapy for people that suffer treatment-resistant mental health conditions, and the existential challenges of aging and approaching death.

They will review currently available use of ketamine-assisted therapy, and approaching FDA-approved treatment with MDMA and psilocybin.

They will also discuss the nuanced legislative and regulatory landscape, including local decriminalization, and how state-based legalization process is bringing access to medicine work.

They will also review the history of psychedelic use, explore its cultural context, and outline the dynamic clinical landscape with attention to safety, reliability, accountability, and the mystery of human consciousness.

Dr. Carrie Griffin has immersed herself in the study of transformative practices since her own healing crisis at age 19. She has studied yoga, yoga therapy and Ayurveda, Tibetan Buddhism, non-dual Shaiva Tantra, neo-Tantra, Somatic Experiencing, breathwork and psychedelic medicine all in pursuit of understanding the nature of healing, and how we can connect to our innate capacity to heal.

While she started her journey steeped in more alternative, primarily spiritual healing traditions, her curiosity about healing and desire to serve a broad population led her to become a physician. She chose to study osteopathic medicine based on its philosophy that the body has the capacity to heal itself and that mind, body and spirit are one as well as its tradition of manual medicine which resonated with her experiences as a yoga teacher and therapist.

Dr. Griffin is board-certified in family and addiction medicine. She is fellowship trained in maternal child and reproductive health. Since 2016 she has practiced obstetrics and addiction medicine. Her experiences with birth and substance use disorder in pregnancy led her to seek further education and training in trauma. She studied the counseling practices of Somatic Experiencing, NARM, and Internal Family Systems and lectures on trauma-informed care in medical settings. Prior to medical school she was a yoga teacher and therapist.

In 2017 she completed a year-long coaching training through the Tantric Institute for Integrated Sexuality.

She has studied psychedelic medicine as well, completing a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy training through the Psychedelic Research Association and Training Institute in July 2020, and the MAPS MDMA Therapy Training in April 2022.

Her clinical interests are the intersection between body, mind, and soul and the infinite ways that transformation can occur. Her work centers on activating and witnessing the innate capacity for healing inherent in all beings and choosing the modalities best befitting the individual before her.

She delivered babies for 10 years and still actively practices prenatal care and women’s health, newborn care, and addiction medicine in Humboldt County, California, and provides these skills in a variety of settings, including a federally-qualified health center, tribal clinics, and residential treatment center.

Michael D. Fratkin, MD, is a father, husband, brother, son, and palliative medicine physician. He has been dedicated to the well being of his community for nearly 30 years. Approaching life and the practice of medicine with love and respect, Michael is a builder, an innovator and a dreamer.

He has been a transformative and provocative voice for improving the experience of people and families facing serious illness, while ensuring that the meaningful professional experiences of those providing care are held in equal importance.

Standing on a foundation of inspiration and burnout, Dr. Fratkin previously built ResolutionCare as a way to expand access to home-based palliative care to people and families coping with serious illness -- and sometimes, an approaching death. He has worked for decades in an effort to bridge the psychedelic science to the care of people and their families facing the psychospiritual challenges of serious illness, approaching death, and complex grief.

Now he is inspired to begin a journey at the Center for New Growth to practically bring the benefits of psychedelic therapies to these same folks. Working with Dr. Griffin, an evolving non-profit organization based at the Center, and community leaders, Dr. Fratkin is specifically motivated to expand access to anyone that might benefit from these healing therapies.

Michael is also a national leader focused at where psychedelic therapy meets palliative care, he has been the chair of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, “Forum on the Safe Use of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy,” and an original board member of the Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies. Dr. Fratkin remains committed to ensuring that people facing serious illness and end of life issues have safe access to all therapies that may ease suffering, invite healing, and stimulate growth.

The Center for New Growth is an innovative community-based mental health practice with a focus on providing ketamine-assisted therapy in Humboldt, Trinity, and Del Norte Counties. Learn more at humboldtcenterfornewgrowth.com.

The Institute for Rural Psychedelic Care is a non-profit dedicated to providing access for psychedelic-assisted therapy and innovative models to serve folks choosing to live their lives in rural communities. Learn more at www.ruralpsychedeliccare.org.