Lisa Ritter, MA, LPC Co-Founder & Chief Clinical Officer
About Lisa
Lisa is a University of Oregon alum and licensed professional counselor with over twelve years of counseling experience. As a business owner of a private practice, Lisa is experienced in working with anxiety, depression, OCD, disordered eating, and trauma, and recognizes that psilocybin-assisted therapy is the next great opportunity for healing. Lisa implements her own integrative counseling approach, recognizing the importance of all domains of life (mental, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual) to one's personal well-being and evolution.
Lisa has spent most of her professional life in service to others, focusing on adding her voice to that of those most in need of being heard. Her work has included:
- 11+ years in non-profit organizations
- 6 years focus on LGBTQ+ community
- 5 years working in/with homeless shelters, serving unhoused and formerly unhoused families and individuals
- 5 years work with volunteers and donations programs
Her time and work continues to be dedicated to service of the underserved, including people and animals.
Jason Burdge, MNA - Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer
About Jason
Jason has over 17 years of non-profit leadership experience and has a Master's degree in Nonprofit Administration. His focus has been on increasing mental health services to underserved communities. Jason is an advocate for foster youth and military veterans to receive services that help them live full and productive lives.
He's changed legislature in Oregon to allow Equine Assisted Physical Therapy to be covered by OHP and hopes to take the same measurers to allow Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT) to be covered by insurance. Making PAT available to the masses.
Jason has personal experience in using psilocybin to overcome PTSD, depression, and anxiety. He believes using psilocybin with a trained mental health therapist can lead to breakthrough sessions thus allowing clinical clients to live productive lives.
Jason Burdge Psilocybin assisted therapy. mushroom therapy
L.J., Psychologist - Board Member
About LJ
LJ has more than 30 years of experience as a psychologist. Since 1997, they have been in private practice in the mid-west, working with individuals, couples and families. They counsels their clients in areas involving transitional life changes as well as helping those dealing with chronic conditions.
Before starting their own practice, they built an exceptional body of experience as a contract psychologist and therapist:
Yona Harrington - Board Member
About Yona
Yona Harrinton has over 25 years experience as a marketing, website design and social media business owner, contracting primarily with non-profit organizations. She is a light worker with first hand experience and knowledge of alternative health, healing, consciousness expansion and alternative lifestyles. She is connected to a large international spiritual community focused on spiritual ascension which includes the use of organic mind altering substances and how they can assist not only with spiritual growth but mental, emotional and physical healing. Yona is a writer and shares her journeys by sailboat and tiny trailer online.
David Moore - Board Member
About David
David is an Oregon State University alum with a Bachelor of Science in Management and a Minor in Finance. David works professionally as a project manager and has 5 years of non-profit experience helping underserved communities. Through his professional and non-profit work, David is skilled in event planning and execution, grant writing, organizational leadership, and financial literacy.
David is passionate about the potential that psilocybin brings to revolutionizing mental health therapy. He strongly believes that integrating psilocybin and mental health services is a critical step in addressing the country’s mental health crisis. David believes that everyone should have access to psilocybin to achieve their mental health goals, and that restricting accessibility to certain communities contradicts the philosophy of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Joel Brierre - Board Member
About Joel
Joel Brierre is the Founder and CEO of the psychedelic wellness companies Kaivalya Kollectiv and Tandava Retreats, as well as co-founder of the 5-MeO-DMT education and training platform, F.I.V.E.. Joel has been a leader in the modern psychedelic movement, specifically in the realm of 5-MeO-DMT and the Bufo Alvarius toad, and has spent years helping to create safe and effective protocols around this molecule. With a passion for preparation and integration, Joel and his team are involved in everything from clinical research and trainings to experiential retreats in Mexico and Jamaica.
Paul Antico - Board Member
About Paul
Paul Antico provides Psychedelic Integration through Panimus Integration, based in Los Angeles. He is also the Managing Director of PsychedeLiA Integration, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2016. He facilitates a regular integration circle on Dosage and Healing Trauma through PsychedeLiA Integration.
Paul is trained as a Certified Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner, Dr. Gabor Maté’s elegant and insightful approach to healing that fully supports plant medicine work. Paul is also trained as a Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Therapist, a powerful body centered trauma release modality from the Psychedelic Somatic Institute. He also provides Dr. Stephen Porges Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), a practical bottom-up approach to help people regulate their nervous system. Paul is also an advanced student of the powerful hands on Rosen Method Bodywork modality.
Appreciating the value therapists can bring to the psychedelic experience to help create and sustain the healing process, Paul supports the goals of PATA to inform and advocate for the use of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy, reduce the stigma of using psilocybin in general and as a therapeutic modality, and providing clinical resources and information to consumers and mental health therapists.
Dr. Aryan Sarparast M.D.
About Aryan
Dr. Aryan Sarparast (he/him/his) is a board-certified psychiatrist who practices both medication treatment and psychotherapy for adults with mental health challenges. He practices in Portland, Oregon, USA as Assistant Faculty at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic, and he is the Founder of Penumbra Psychedelic Consultation. In addition to his traditional medical training, he has completed Part A of MDMA Therapy Training through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Science(MAPS) and has received training in Psychedelic Equity through the Portland Psychedelic Society(PPS). He is an ongoing collaborator with the Social Neuroscience and Psychotherapy Labled by his research mentor, Dr. Chris Stauffer, and he is a Study Physician for the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of social anxiety led by principal investigator, Dr. Jason Luoma. He has served as an Expert Consultant for the City of Lake Oswego’s Planning Commission on Oregon Psilocybin Services through Oregon Measure 109, as well as lectured in a diversity of both community and academic spaces.
Christine Caldwell
About Chris
Christine Caldwell is the Founder, End of Life Psychedelic Care, a nonprofit whose mission is to educate and help people safely use psychedelics to ease existential and psychological distress over the fear of dying. She most recently was Manager, End-of-Life Programs for the Diaspora Psychedelic Society, a psilocybin retreat in Jamaica, and the former owner of a 250-client home healthcare agency in Sarasota, Florida. She has received a certificate of completion from the 12 month Psychedelics Today Vital Psychedelics Training Program and is enrolled in the ACER integration program developed by Dr. Rosalind Watts, a leading psychedelics-trained therapist and researcher. She also is certified as an Ayurveda and Meditation Instructor and Total Wellbeing Coach through the Deepak Chopra Program. Christine is most interested in the intersection of neuroscience, quantum mechanics and psychedelics to advance the understanding of the field of consciousness.
Jeffrey Haney
About Jeff
I have over 30 years in the television industry, including sales and marketing. My background includes various experiences in the psychedelic realm, and I want to do what I can to help others benefit from the Psychedelic Renaissance. I am incredibly proud of my empathy, strong work ethic, and continued desire to make myself a better husband, father, person, and human through compassion and intellectual curiosity. I am a Harm Reduction volunteer at Deschutes County Health Services, as well as a volunteer at the Bend Film Festival. I love hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, independent films, and I still love the Grateful Dead. I have been happily married for twenty years, and I have a daughter who is graduating from Bend Senior High School this year and intends to start her college career at The University of Oregon this fall.
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