Sequoia Center

ABOUT US:
Sequoia Center was founded as a response to the growing disparity between the need for psychedelic-assisted therapies and access to affordable and relevant services. As for-profit retreat centers continue to proliferate across the country, many people who are most in need of psychedelic services find them financially out of reach. Our goal is to remedy this growing gap by pouring our funding directly into the services we provide, as an investment in our community.

To ensure that the future of psychedelic-assisted services is ethical, accessible, and evidence-based, we value conducting outcomes research (client opt-in only!) in addition to providing services to the community. We aim to help the larger psychedelic ecosystem define best practices, develop clear ethical standards, train new practitioners, and educate the public.

Our current service offerings include ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as well as psychedelic preparation and integration services. We specialize in individualized treatment planning and care coordination (with organizations within and outside the 'healthcare system'), so that *all* clients who wish to access psychedelic services can receive the highest potential benefit for their unique needs. Our focus is on serving clients with complex or co-occurring medical and/or mental health conditions, as well as clients who hold marginalized identities or come from historically under-served communities (e.g., BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Veterans).

FIRST YEAR PROGRESS:
Sequoia Center incorporated as an Oregon nonprofit corporation in January 2022, and is now officially recognized as a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. We received grant funding from the Educational Foundation of America (EFA) to build our basic infrastructure and pilot our ketamine-assisted psychotherapy programs, offering subsidized funding for individuals identifying as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+.

Since April 2022, we have completed 75+ ketamine-assisted sessions (plus assessments, preparation, and integration sessions); all with clients identifying as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+. The most common indication treated was complex trauma & PTSD; others included eating disorders, addiction, severe anxiety, medical trauma, and relationship issues. Clients chose their own hourly out-of-pocket fees according to a restorative justice-informed sliding scale model. This proved quite successful; we used grant funding to reimburse any difference between clients' chosen hourly rates and our practitioners' hourly rates for services.

In addition to providing individualized services in our offices, we are collaborating and consulting with diverse organizations in the Portland community to bring ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to existing programs and sites.

WHY DONATE TO SEQUOIA CENTER?

1. As bridge builders between local and national psychedelic communities and the health care system, our network reaches far and wide. We are regularly approached by a wide variety of individuals and organizations looking for services, education, training, and advising in adapting psychedelic services to their particular needs. Our mission is first and foremost about accessibility, not just within our own clinic walls (i.e., through making our own services affordable and available to all), but beyond - through helping individuals find the route to psychedelic services that is *best for their unique needs*. Often, this means getting creative and collaborating with other providers, organizations, and resources, and facilitating communication and cohesion among people with different backgrounds and approaches.

2. We are a heart-centered team with a wide diversity of skills, expertise, and training backgrounds, including clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, naturopathic medicine, shamanic healing, art therapy, harm reduction, and peer support. We value bringing together our diversity in the service of a truly interdisciplinary approach where all perspectives are not only valued, but viewed as crucial to success.

3. We value public education and training for new practitioners; our team has vast expertise within these arenas. In our next year, one of our primary goals is to build out a robust training site, for graduate students, interns, and new practitioners to gain hands-on experience in psychedelic modalities. This will not only keep our costs down, allowing us to serve a higher volume of clients, but it will provide crucial experience and supervision for trainees.

4. We value real-world research, particularly where psychedelic services are being offered in new or innovative ways that differ from how they are offered within existing clinical trials. That is, we aim to improve our own services while simultaneously contributing to a greater understanding of the effectiveness of psychedelic services across contexts. Data is only ever collected with full consent from the clients we serve and never used or shared for commercial purposes. We view participating in outcomes research as a commitment to our own ongoing learning as well as to improving results for the clients we serve.

**Demand for psychedelic-assisted services and education is currently greater than available resources, and this gap is expected to intensify for the next several years, as the infrastructure for services must catch up to existing public and political hype. Your donation will go directly towards resource and service expansion, allowing us to serve more clients, train more new practitioners, and educate more communities**