Maureen Betz, IFS Therapist
I’ve been a licensed social worker since 2009. My career started in Washington DC, where I had the opportunity to work directly in the community as well as in clinical leadership positions in nonprofit social service programs.
Helping people access hope has been the common denominator of my career and my passion. I started studying Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy in 2018 and it has since become my primary way of practicing psychotherapy.
I have found no better method to systematically offer hope, release shame, and compassionately open the hardened, inner walls of mind that imprison as much as they protect. I love helping people see the beauty of life in a new way. Delivering IFS therapy with psychedelic medicine is a powerful combination, as the brilliance of each is magnified by the other.
I’ve seen both the potential and the pitfall of traditional psychological interventions—talk therapy and standard medication management. For some, these treatments are life changing. Yet others engage with the same “standard” regimen for years, but continue to struggle.
I was diagnosed with depression as an adolescent and, over the years, had the same experience of many of my clients—trying one medication after another, dealing with one set of side effects after another, experiencing one disappointing attempt to come off meds after another. The sum of my life’s experience with mental health care was a refrain I hear often from my clients: Settle for reliance on drugs that are just okay, but never great—one after another.
When I first learned about psychedelics being used in treatment of depression and PTSD, nothing could have made more sense. I had used psychedelics on a few occasions before, each time finding myself facing the world with curiosity and engagement. From my baseline of depression, this shift was profound: I found a path that helped me encounter the world from a new and hopeful perspective.
I look forward to helping you find your path to hope and healing.