Today we’d like to introduce you to Gerardo Gonzalez.
Hi Gerardo, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Owning a natural medicine healing center that offers guided psychedelic medicine journey experiences is definitely not a destination I mapped out.
I was born in Laredo, Texas. My parents raised my sister and I with my hard working immigrant grandparents in a family culture with strong traditional Mexican and Catholic moral values. I was a good Catholic kid who always had straight A’s and did what was “right” to please my family. I never drank alcohol or consumed any drugs. I used to look down on people who drank alcohol and used drugs in high school. I planned on becoming a sports medicine doctor for the NBA, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.
At the age 20, I experienced an episode of depression that sparked a deep search for meaning and answers to the big existential questions in life. I changed career paths and started to study psychology and philosophy in an attempt to understand why I was suffering and what the point was to this whole experience of life. I suspect this is a common origin story of many mental health professionals who suffer and want to help others by passing on what they’ve learned in their healing journey.
I questioned everything and rejected the existing structures of beliefs and systems that promoted conformity. One day, in a rebellious mood I smoked marijuana and experienced profound changes in the experience of my consciousness that opened my mind to the possibility that there was mystery in the world and more to explore about our minds and the experience our reality than what I was led to believe.
Through a series of unexpected synchronicities, the universe led me to discover the works of psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, and also prompted a curiosity about meditation as a potential answer to some of my questions about the nature of our reality. Carl Jung provided answers about the psyche and universal truths of the human condition that offered a structure and direction for a future career. After practicing meditation for months, I eventually figured it out and found that there were changes in my state of mind that meditation could provide entirely without drugs which offered a path to profound peace. I found my way out of depression and wanted to learn more about professional psychology and help others to learn about the power of meditation. I still carried the stigma and fear that other drugs were addictive and dangerous and would ruin my life, and even now I find myself wanting to inform the reader that I remained a straight A student throughout my academic career out of concern about the stigma of using cannabis. A few years later, I experimented with psilocybin mushrooms a handful of times in recreational settings. I found the first few times to be enjoyable social experiences with friends, having taken small doses with only positive mood changes and mild perceptual distortions comparable to cannabis intoxication. But, one day, I definitely over did it. I took more than a heroic dose of psilocybin with cannabis edibles and went to a concert. I had one of the scariest experiences of my life before the fear and ego-dissolution transitioned into one of the beautiful experiences of my life. I didn’t try psychedelics for a long-time afterwards, and I can’t say that experience was the motivation guiding what I’m doing now because it wasn’t, but it gave me an experiential understanding of a greater range of non-ordinary states of consciousness and the risks and benefits of psychedelic medicines that informs my work today.
The long training road from master’s and doctoral programs, internships and fellowship kept me in Texas. I applied to the University of Denver graduate counseling program on two occasions and was denied. I’ve wanted to move to Colorado for a long time, but I guess it wasn’t my time. I met my wife in grad school at Texas A&M, so I’ve trusted the universe has its plan for me. I trained and worked at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, TX helping Veterans with the most severe mental health issues from 2014-2021, then I transitioned into a private practice with a friend I met while on residency at the VA. Dr. Johnston, psychiatrist and CEO of the Phoenix Mental Health clinic is an innovator and brilliant doctor who was offering ketamine treatment in his practice when I joined him in early 2021. My extensive professional psychology training prepared me to work with any mental health conditions I encountered in the outpatient setting and my personal experiences with meditation, psychedelics and Jungian psychoanalytic theory helped me implement the fundamentals of ketamine assisted therapy for our patients, and I eventually added psilocybin assisted psychotherapy to my practice. I was honored to be selected by Tom Eckert, CEO of InnerTrek – the first legal healing center and facilitator training program in the US – to be a part of their first Colorado facilitator training cohort. The rest is history I guess.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been far from a smooth road, but going off road is part of the what makes an adventure exciting and rewarding. Mental health still carries a stigma in our society. It’s also not the highest priority for people until they are suffering and in desperate need for relief. Therapists are poorly reimbursed by the majority of insurance companies as compared to most other health professions. Health insurance companies don’t pay much higher rates for psychologists than for master’s level clinicians regardless of cost and years of education. Psychedelic medicines and psychedelic therapy carry an even greater stigma than general mental health, and the costs associated with the training and fees for a facilitator license are quite high. The license for operating a natural medicine healing center is even more expensive. Taken together, the licensing and operational costs for practicing in the legal regulated model makes these services expensive for clients, and almost none of the natural medicine journey appointments or costs are reimbursable by health insurance companies. When you consider that Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act also allows for legal recreational use of psychedelics and the underground practice of unlicensed, unregulated psychedelic life coaches remains a pervasive backdrop of competition that offers much more affordable rates, we are faced with the real possibility that healing centers will go out of business or sell out to private equity firms, and licensed facilitators will let their licenses lapse to retreat to the underground once again.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Mindful Elevation Natural Medicine Healing Center?
Mindful Elevation is a lakefront Natural Medicine Healing Center nestled in a valley of mountains on the serene Evergreen Lake. We offer legal psilocybin assisted therapy guided by licensed facilitators for individuals suffering from mental health issues and healthy people interested in self-exploration or the creative and cognitive benefits of psychedelic medicines. We have integrated medical and mental health screening with options for consultation with your mental health provider to improve coordination of care.
The center has two beautifully decorated rooms, both with mountain and lake views, designed for optimal comfort and relaxation, with spa-amenities that make this the ideal psychedelic journey location for a day trip or retreat weekend. There are trails around Evergreen lake and behind the healing center, along with rivers and a waterfall that make this healing center the perfect place for anyone interested in experiencing the healing power of natural medicine surrounded by the beauty of nature.
At Mindful Elevation, your facilitator will welcome you with a gift bag of special products selected for your medicine journey and to take home for after care.
Clients can choose between a love sac bean bag, plush pleather swinging recliners, or a TempurPedic mattress that makes you feel like you’re floating in the clouds. These beds are equipped with adjustable bases that offer the options to incline your head, raise your legs, experience Zero Gravity lumbar support and add sound therapy vibrations with options for different frequencies to soothe the body. We have premium quality sheets, cozy comforters and ultra soft pillows with options for heavy blankets, heating pads, and other self-care items.
You will be presented with a menu of options for food, drinks and sensory comforts available in your room, so you can choose the conveniences and ambiance for your desired experience.
Set the mood with lighting, music, fragrance, temperature, and settle into the spot that feels right to start your journey. Your facilitator will serve you the medicine in your preferred form with options for dried mushrooms, chocolates, gummies or tea, along with some light snacks. You will then be invited to a ceremony or practice that sets the mind on the path and intentions for your journey.
Your facilitator embarks on this journey with you, side by side, as your guide, providing whatever level of support you need throughout the duration of your experience. You then meet with your facilitator post-medicine journey to process your experience and discover how to integrate the insights of this peak experience into sustainable transformative life changes and well-being.
What’s next?
I believe in the power of natural medicines to heal so I want to promote the dissemination of the ethical and scientific advancement of psychedelics in the field of mental health and for the public good. I’m developing a training program for licensed facilitators that promotes the ethical practice of psychedelic assisted therapy and offers the opportunity for increasing access and affordability for more people to experience the transformative power of a guided medicine journey with discounted rates for trainee facilitators offering services under the supervision of experienced natural medicine practitioners. I also feel an obligation to join a larger movement of professional scientists and clinicians on the frontier of mental health treatment on a mission to educate the public about the science and remarkable healing benefits that these powerful medicines can offer so as to decrease the stigma around psychedelics that started with the drug war. I want to help promote the dissemination of a psychedelic renaissance that can save lives and improve the lives of our communities.
Pricing:
- Packages range from $2600-$4000
- Individual, Couple and Small Groups Packages
- Veteran and first responder discounts
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mindfulelevationhealingcenter.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardo-gonzalez-ph-d-9ba676211/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@elevationpsychology
Image Credits
Dr. G & Dr. Edgar Villareal
