Cardea

Live Sound Guided Group Ketamine Session
2024-07-07 12:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
Live Sound Guided Group Ketamine Journey

The Cardea team and its unique Ketamine Space provide a safe and supportive environment for exploration and transformation. Our facilitators and sound practitioners will guide you through this unique fusion of therapies, offering their insights, wisdom, and compassionate care, while holding space for you to have your own individualized and self-directed journey.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introductory Call
You will begin with a 30-minute introductory session with one of the space holders. This is a time for us to begin the process of getting to know you and understand your interest and intentions. We will share more information about the group experience and answer any questions you may have. If it feels like a good fit, we will schedule a medical intake session and send you some intake paperwork through our client portal.
Medical Intake Session
You will then meet virtually with our doctor for a medical intake session where we will explore your medical and mental health history with you to ensure a safe and therapeutic process. At this point, if there aren’t any unresolvable contraindications, our doctor will write you a prescription for a ketamine nasal spray which will be delivered to your home prior to the first session. You will need to bring your prescription with you to each group.
The Group Experience – Here’s How It Works:

1. Open the Portal: With the guidance of a licensed therapist, we’ll gather around a blank canvas and together create pressure-free flowing art. Afterward, we invite guests to share reflections and intentions as they relate to the experience. This playful use of our imagination and improvisation creates a state of openness, curiosity, and connection to help prepare you for the ketamine session.
2. Gather in the Grotto: Our hour-long ceremonies take place in a specially curated room created for psychedelic therapies, where each guest has a designated space to lay down and get comfortable with plenty of pillows and blankets. Once everyone self-administers their ketamine nasal spray, the group will receive live vibrational sounds from our experienced sound facilitators, to deepen the experience. Eye masks will be provided and are strongly encouraged to be worn throughout the session.
3. Process after the Journey: Honoring this communitas, we invite everyone to gather in our recovery lounge over fruit and tea as they begin to explore their shared, yet inward experience. We also allow quiet space for solitude for those who’d like to remain in their processes. Cardea provides an additional integration opportunity the following week in an hour-long virtual session facilitated by a licensed therapist.
4. Ongoing integration: We believe change and growth don’t happen in isolation, but in the container of relationship. We want to promote connection between individuals, ideas, and communities. Our weekly virtual integration group is a place to breathe life into the work you’ve done at Cardea and beyond, and to be held by a collective. We hold this weekly integration group virtually each Wednesday evening, from 7-8pm. It’s an open group available to all our clients. You do not need to sign up in advance and you can join as frequently as you want. It will be facilitated each week by Zach Rieck, LCSW, our Clinical Director.

TUITION
Session Fee: $350.00
Medical Fee: $100.00
Nasal Spray: $100.00

Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Group Ketamine with Acupuncture
2024-06-28 12:00 - 15:30 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
A Session Combining Ketamine-Assisted Care and Acupuncture Treatment
With Zach Rieck, LCSW and Margie Navarro, LAc
TUITION
Session Fee: $350.00
Medical Fee: $100.00
Welcome to an extraordinary event that combines the power of ketamine-assisted care with the ancient art of acupuncture.
The therapeutic force of ketamine comes from its ability to help you open up a little – or a lot, giving you the capacity to see the world differently and adding some nimbleness to your thoughts.
Acupuncture works on a mind-body level and pairs well with psychedelic experiences. The benefits of a group acupuncture session stem from the synergy of people collectively receiving treatment along with the effects of the individualized point selections. After the ketamine experience, everyone will have an opportunity to share a few words about what they are feeling in their body or something they’d like acupuncture to help them work through. Afterward, Margie takes each participant’s pulse and selects fitting acupuncture points. Acupuncture treatment will take place during the “recovery” hour after the ketamine experience.
The Cardea team and its unique Ketamine Space provide a safe and supportive environment for exploration and transformation. Zach and Marjorie will guide you through this unique fusion of therapies, offering their insights, wisdom, and compassionate care, while holding space for you to have your own individualized and self-directed journey.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introductory Call
You will begin with a 30-minute introductory session with one of the space holders. This is a time for us to begin the process of getting to know you and understand your interest and intentions. We will share more information about the group experience and answer any questions you may have. If it feels like a good fit, we will schedule a medical intake session and send you some intake paperwork through our client portal.
Medical Intake Session
You will then meet virtually with our doctor for a medical intake session where we will explore your medical and mental health history with you to ensure a safe and therapeutic process. At this point, if there aren’t any unresolvable contraindications, our doctor will write you a prescription for a ketamine nasal spray which will be delivered to your home prior to the first session. You will need to bring your prescription with you to each group.
The Group Experience
At Cardea, we believe that human growth and transformation are improvisational events, each person’s emergence a unique journey. Prior to the ketamine experience, we’ll engage in a group creative process using a method aimed to evoke curiosity, reflection, and artistic expression. During the group ketamine session, you’ll be invited to get comfortable in your designated space in our group room. We’ll provide an eye mask for you to wear, and our space holders will provide all necessary instructions. Our sound practitioner will play live vibrational sound throughout your hour-long experience.
ABOUT THE PRACTITIONERS
Zach Rieck, LCSW
Zach holds the position of Clinical Director at Cardea, where he serves as both lead psychotherapist and guide for the Ketamine Care program. A licensed clinical social worker with over 13 years of experience in psychedelic communities, Zach is also an advocate and active proponent of psychedelic harm reduction. He has applied his extensive personal experience and training to educate and guide others, through trip-sitting and integration work. Zach’s work is heavily influenced by his own transformative experience using iboga to move beyond years of intravenous drug addiction.
Marjorie (Margie) Navarro, LAc
Marjorie is the founder of Vivacity Acupuncture (vivacityacupuncture.com), an organization devoted to acupuncture and holistic care that helps individuals meet their wellness goals and live more vibrantly. Her private practice in Union Square/Chelsea & FiDi NYC focuses on integrative sports medicine, chronic pain and illness. In addition to her clinical work, Marjorie performs research on acupuncture for psychedelic integration. Marjorie’s career has been heavily inspired by the work of Dr. Mutulu Shakur in bringing acupuncture to underserved communities in NYC.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Planetarium: An Immersive Hi-Fidelity Sound Experience at Omega Institute
2024-06-21 16:00 - 2024-06-23 13:00 | Omega Institute, 150 Lake Drive, Rhinebeck, NY, 12572, United States
Explore the inner cosmos in a new deep listening experience, a collaboration between Omega and Planetarium, with vintage hi-fidelity audio.
Planetarium is a deep listening event series run by the creators and artists behind Nowadays, Mister Saturday Night, and Mister Sunday in New York City. We set up a hi-fidelity sound system in a special location, invite you to bring pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, and anything else you need to get comfortable, and present music to explore the inner cosmos.
TUITION
Member: $380.00
Standard: $425.00

For those who wish to attend but require a lower financial burden, please use promo code WELCOME.

This weekend retreat at Omega Institute, our first-ever long-form excursion, will begin on Friday night with a performance from 7038634357, aka Neo Gibson, an artist whose 2023 album, Neo Seven, has been hailed as a masterpiece of modern electronic and ambient music. In the words of Pitchfork, Neo “makes music that feels simple on the surface—wistfully nostalgic, with imagistic titles and childlike themes—yet harbors more ambiguous emotions in its hidden depths.”
On Saturday morning, we start the day in conversation with Dimitri Mugianis, who speaks on the binding, healing powers of music, creativity, community, and care.
We reconvene in the late afternoon for an 8-hour deep listening session led by Justin Carter, the cofounder of Planetarium. Justin will play full albums and sides, allowing for silence between songs and records, revealing intimacy in the music and the space.
As part of the 8-hour session, Dimitri will perform live with browndevin, sharing a musical practice with vibrational instruments that Dimitri has developed over his 20 years as a psychedelic facilitator and that browndevin has developed through his own sound healing practices as well as work on stage with artists such as Pharrell Williams and The Roots.
After the extended session, we walk together to the Sanctuary at the summit of Omega to experience a sound bath held by Rena Anakwe. Rena’s practice incorporates traditional vibrational instruments with modern electronic equipment, as well as scent, activating the olfactory in ways that heighten the sonic experience. After Rena’s sound bath, we head outside and close the night with stargazing.
On Sunday morning, before we depart, new age pioneer Laraaji sends us off with a meditative opening to inner laughter through guided chanting and laughter exercises, a final opportunity to deeply listen to ourselves and each other.
All amplified sound for the weekend will be on a combination of contemporary and vintage audio equipment that is either an example of, or in the tradition of, the great hi-fidelity technology of the 1920s through the 1950s – Western Electric and RCA theater systems and playback equipment designed by EMT. The hi-fidelity audio equipment includes giant horns and big, glowing tubes that reproduce music in the most beautiful way.
Throughout the weekend, there is ample time to enjoy the nature and facilities at Omega, such as canoeing and kayaking on the lake, perusing the Ram Dass library, walking the labyrinth, exploring hiking trails, or booking a treatment at the Wellness Center. All meals at the Omega Dining Hall are included in the price of the all-inclusive-stay.

Things to Bring

Please bring whatever you need to be comfortable in the listening space: blankets, sleeping bags, bean bags, pillows, etc. Omega has yoga mats and yoga blankets on site to borrow. The space at Omega is larger than the loft where Planetarium happens in NYC, and the capacity will be lower, so there will be room to spread out.

Schedule

Please note this course has a special schedule:
FRIDAY
4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Check In (Rooms available after 5:00 p.m.)
8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
Live Performance by 7038634357

SATURDAY
10:00 a.m.–Noon
Conversation and Performance by Dimitri Mugianis
2:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
Extended Planetarium Deep Listening Session with Justin Carter
10:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m.
Nighttime Walk to a Sound Bath by Rena Anakwe in the Sanctuary

SUNDAY
10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
Laughter Workshop and Farewell with Laraaji
1:00 p.m.
Check Out

The above schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the faculty.

MORE INFORMATION
Please note: The use of psychedelic substances is not part of this program

The Art of Play: What Play Can Teach Us About Psychedelics with Dr. Ross Ellenhorn
2024-06-20 19:00 - 21:30 | Psychedelic Assembly, 222 E. 46th Street, New York, 10017, United States
Join Dr. Ross Ellenhorn PhD, for an evening of play discussion on what Play can teach us about psychedelics.
Tickets Here <- A percentage of ticket proceeds will be donated to Cardea’s non-profit The Furthur Fund.

Drugs like MDMA and psilocybin are being ushered into mainstream medicine, promoted as miracle cures for a host of psychiatric woes. But as psychedelics come to be seen as treatments for various types of psychological suffering, we are overlooking one of their most precious offerings: the potential for play.

Through play, the invisible landscapes of our inner lives merge with the visible world we all perceive in our own unique ways. When we play, we always play with someone or something: it’s always a relationship: an encounter. And in this, and so much more, play is the Marrow of our compassion. To not play? Well, the best word for that is alienation: the estrangement from our own power to summon life in ourselves and an estrangement from other living beings. To exist as if everything is same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Dr. Ross Ellenhorn PhD
Dr. Ross Ellenhorn serves as the owner and CEO of Ellenhorn, a psychiatric recovery program, and is the co-founder of Cardea, a psychedelic-based growth and recovery program, with offices in New York City and retreats in Jamaica. An author of three books on human change, his latest work, “Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life,” published by Harper Collins, emphasizes the significance of play in human experience and its potential as a gift of modernity.
Ross challenges the prevailing trend of standardization in human transformation, critiquing the evolution of therapy from an improvisational art form to a push for normalization and sameness. Rejecting such standards, he endeavors to heal the wounds of “problem saturation,” wherein individuals feel defined by their issues rather than their inherent vitality. Advocating for an authentic, artistic existence, Ross rejects societal expectations in all his endeavors and will be central to the “Art of Play” event and discussion.
His recent article in Time Magazine underscores the need for a play-oriented approach to psychedelic-assisted therapies. He frequently speaks nationwide on the relationship between play and experiences of aliveness and authenticity in people’s lives.
Visit his website to learn more.

Cardea Space is an innovative approach to growth, healing, and transformation, guided by leading practitioners in the psychedelic and psychotherapeutic arts, using space holding techniques coupled with ketamine, arts, and dialogue. Experts in holding the right space for change, our signature model focuses on your courage in the face of your challenges, and your humanity in your suffering as we walk beside you on your path towards growth. Cardea’s mission is to support social change and make ketamine therapy accessible. Through their privately funded non-profit arm, The Furthur Fund, they have treated over 60 frontline care professionals who are positively impacting their communities. We hope to hasten the healing impact of the psychedelic movement by training these professionals in psychedelic therapies and we want to support organizations who do good in the world. We serve first responders, doctors, social workers, shelter managers, EMTs, and other professionals who suffer from the inevitable burnout and trauma caused by their work. We also train members of this group in providing psychedelic-assisted care. Support the mission or apply today!

Guided Meditation & Sound Bath
2024-06-13 19:00 - 20:30 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join us at Cardea space for a guided meditation and soud bath by two of our facilitators Johanna Verley and Chuck Richards. Expect to surrender to the sounds of bowls, gongs, flutes, chimes and more, as you nestle into our gatherings grotto. Floor mats, pillows, blankets, and eye masks can be provided. Hot tea and light snacks will be served.
Please arrive on time :)
This is a limited ticketed event. Tickets are donation based and all proceeds will be donated to our non-profit, The Furthur Fund, to support front line workers with free ketamine treatments at Cardea. Suggested donation of $30. We do not want to turn anyone away due to funds, so please donate within your means. If you can contribute more, THANK YOU, as you supporting a worthy mission. Read more on the Furthur Fund below.
RSVP here

Ticket proceeds will be donated to Cardea’s non-profit. Please consider donating.
Cardea Space is an innovative approach to growth, healing, and transformation, guided by leading practitioners in the psychedelic and psychotherapeutic arts, using space holding techniques coupled with ketamine, arts, and dialogue. Experts in holding the right space for change, our signature model focuses on your courage in the face of your challenges, and your humanity in your suffering as we walk beside you on your path towards growth. Cardea’s mission is to support social change and make ketamine therapy accessible. Through their privately funded non-profit arm, The Furthur Fund, they have treated over 60 frontline care professionals who are positively impacting their communities. We hope to hasten the healing impact of the psychedelic movement by training these professionals in psychedelic therapies and we want to support organizations who do good in the world. We serve first responders, doctors, social workers, shelter managers, EMTs, and other professionals who suffer from the inevitable burnout and trauma caused by their work. We also train members of this group in providing psychedelic-assisted care. Support the mission or apply today!

Birth Death & Liminal Space: What Doulas Can Teach Us About Psychedelics
2024-05-29 18:30 - 20:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join us at Cardea Space for a thought-provoking panel conversation on the intersection of birth and death doulas, psychedelic practitioners, and the for-profit medical system.

All ticket proceeds will be donated to Cardea’s non-profit. Please consider donating.

Birth and death doulas have long faced resistance from medical professionals in hospitals and medical facilities. Yet, they have been instrumental in creating safe and nurturing spaces. Now, with the rapid legalization and medicalization of psychedelics, we ask: What can psychedelic practitioners learn from doulas about creating a similar safe and nurturing holding space within the cold confines of a for-profit medical system?
Panel Moderated by Caroline Dorsen
Caroline Dorsen PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN (she/her) is a nurse scholar, educator, and clinician whose passion is the intersection of health, substance use and social justice. She is currently the Associate Dean for Clinical Partnerships and Professor of nursing and public health at Rutgers University.
Caroline has been a nurse practitioner for over 20 years. She is on the Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies (BPMT) and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Community Health Network (CHN) in NYC and is a Senior Associate Editor of the journal Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health. She has been a member of numerous diversity, equity and inclusion task forces, including for the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, and is a member of the Psychiatric Mental Health Expert Panel for the American Academy of Nursing. Along with her research related to the impact of stigma and bias on health inequities, Caroline’s research has focused on the underground use of psychedelic medicines for health and healing. Her current study is examining nurses’ attitudes towards the use of psychedelics in clinical settings. She has authored or coauthored numerous papers on the use of psychedelics, including the first article on psychedelics in the American Journal of Nursing since 1964 (with co-authors Andrew Penn, Stephanie Van Hope and William (Billy) Rosa). She spoke at the 14th annual Horizons Psychedelic Conference on the role of community in psychedelic science and was an invited panelist and expert reviewer for the 2022 National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s workshop “Exploring Psychedelics and Entactogens as Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders.”
Caroline received a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, a BS in Nursing at NYU, a Master’s degree at Yale, and a PhD in Nursing Research and Theory at NYU. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in translational science at NYU Langone Health. In recognition of her expertise as an educator, Caroline was the 2020 recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award at NYU Meyers College of Nursing. In 2020, she was also the recipient of NYU’s MLK, Jr Faculty Award sponsored by the President and Provost for “exemplifying the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through teaching excellence, leadership, social justice activism, and community building.” At Rutgers, she received the “Beloved Community” Award in 2021 with colleagues from around the university for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2021.
Caroline is joined by Panelist Cassandra Biron & Ceridwen Morris:
Cassandra Biron, LCSW is a social worker, psychedelic therapist, certified death doula, and end-of-life and grief educator. She works as an individual therapist specializing in LGBT+ identity, somatics, and grief. She also co-runs a death & grief literacy company, Your Morbid Friends, which provides educational services for private and community education. Outside of work, she loves trees and aerial yoga.
Ceridwen Morris has been a doula and childbirth educator for over twenty years, working with thousands of expectant parents in New York City. She is the author of the forthcoming How to Give Birth (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2025). Morris served on the board of The Childbirth Education Association of Metropolitan New York for five years, and ran the education program at Tribeca Pediatrics for ten years. She has taught at Real Birth, City Births and NYC Birth Prep. She is also deeply involved in the arts, having started out as a curator of emerging artists in the DC punk scene in the 1990s. As a photographer and writer, her engagement with the arts is ongoing. Mostly she works at night, in hospital rooms around the city, helping people give birth.
All ticket proceeds will be donated to Cardea’s non-profit. Please consider donating.
Cardea Space is an innovative approach to growth, healing, and transformation, guided by leading practitioners in the psychedelic and psychotherapeutic arts, using space holding techniques coupled with ketamine, arts, and dialogue. Experts in holding the right space for change, our signature model focuses on your courage in the face of your challenges, and your humanity in your suffering as we walk beside you on your path towards growth. Cardea’s mission is to support social change and make ketamine therapy accessible. Through their privately funded non-profit arm, The Furthur Fund, they have treated over 60 frontline care professionals who are positively impacting their communities. We hope to hasten the healing impact of the psychedelic movement by training these professionals in psychedelic therapies and we want to support organizations who do good in the world. We serve first responders, doctors, social workers, shelter managers, EMTs, and other professionals who suffer from the inevitable burnout and trauma caused by their work. We also train members of this group in providing psychedelic-assisted care. Support the mission or apply today!

ARTemple with Ross Ellenhorn May 18th
2024-05-18 11:00 - 13:30
Join Cardea’s co-founder and master of Play Dr. Ross Ellenhorn at ARTemple—a space to co-create art from a place of inner guidance, instead of guidelines. This space is fitting for anyone, no art experience required. Through pen, pencil, charcoal, and paint, we’ll meet each other in a place of creativity, improvisation, and connection.
RSVP Here to save your spot!
“It’s not what you see that is art; art is the gap,” wrote great Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp. Art is always about the middle land we call relationship or encounter—the ineffable terrain of the in-between—that space we all know as real since we all feel most real when we’re there. At Cardea, we see this space as a kind of holy site, a secularly sacred realm in which we “encounter encounter,” or have a “relationship with relationship,” as we put it. And we see it this way because we believe that it is in the land of the threshold where we come alive, experience the aliveness in others, and—again—encounter the life that courses between us.

The famous theologian Martin Buber wrote that “All real living is meeting.” We think he’s exactly right. And at our monthly ARTemple, we meet in the deepest way through the making of art. Expect no sermons, no hagiarchy or hierarchy, and only the graceful act of conjuring life through pen, pencil, charcoal, and paint.

This process is less “art for art’s sake” than art for relating, connecting and the experience of the “thou.” There is absolutely zero need for artistic skill at ARTemple and you will not learn new skills either! Also, feel very free to bring the kids. They have a lot to teach us.

Mushroom Thinking: Salon Talk at Cardea Space with Forest Russell
2024-04-25 18:30 - 20:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Forest Russell proposes that human involvement with mushrooms—whether through mycological research, psychedelic experience, or foraging in the wild—may result in a peculiar kind of thought otherwise known as Mushroom Thinking. (The artist John Cage is a preeminent example of a mushroom thinking in action). Recent anthropological work around human/mushroom interaction highlights an “interspecies alliance” and what appears to be a cultural transmission from fungi to humans, exemplified by the common injunction to “become fungal.” This movement, often referred to as Radical Mycology, is a return to a new kind of animism in which the mushroom is a guide offering non-human wisdom to humanity. While there are many paths to Mushroom Thinking, its chief epiphany is, of course, the magic mushroom—psilocybin. These ideas will offer a springboard to a salon-style discussion.
Forest Russell is a writer and psychoanalyst-in-training in NYC. You may find many of his mushroom theories at spacewhy.org.

FREE with RSVP

Transcend Sings: Be Still, My Heart (Acapella Performance)
2024-04-20 19:30 - 20:30 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Cardea Space is honored to host our 2nd annual spring concert from TRANScend Sings! New York’s first trans / gender-expansive classical vocal ensemble, exploring the unique aural aesthetic of trans and other gender-atypical voices singing a thousand year-old canon of concert, liturgical and art music from around the world.
Be Still, My Heart – Whether it’s delight in spring, feelings of loss in the autumn, or relief that winter is past, nature has always had a prominent place in poetic metaphor and music. Come celebrate the renewal of spring with the TRANScend Ambassadors as we explore the seasons through choral music.
Cardea Space is an innovative approach to growth, healing, and transformation, guided by leading practitioners in the psychedelic and psychotheraputic arts, using space holding techinques coupled with ketamine, arts, and dialogue. Experts in holding the right space for change, our signature model focuses on your courage in the face of your challenges, and your humanity in your suffering as we walk beside you on your path towards growth. Cardea’s mission is to to support social change and make ketamine therapy accessible. Through their privately funded non-profit arm, The Furthur Fund, they have treated over 60 frontline care professionals who are positively impacting their communities. We hope to hasten the healing impact of the psychedelic movement by training these professionals in psychedelic therapies and we want to support organizations who do good in the world. We serve first responders, doctors, social workers, shelter managers, EMTs, and other professionals who suffer from the inevitable burnout and trauma caused by their work. We also train members of this group in providing psychedelic-assisted care. Support the mission or apply today!

Guided Meditation & Sound Bath
2024-03-27 19:00 - 20:30
Join us at Cardea Space for an evening of meditation, relaxation, and tapping into the somatic expereince of live vibrational sounds, facilitated by two of our sound facilitators, Johanna Verely & Chuck Richards.

RSVP here – limited spots!
Suggested donation of whatever amount you are comfortable. We’ll provide fresh brewed tea, light snacks, and floor mats, pillows, and blankets. Come as you are.

Psychedelics and Social Class: An Avoided Intersection
2024-01-24 18:30 - 20:30 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join Olivia Marcus, Yarelix Estrada & Nick Powers at Cardea Space for an intimate salon style talk & panel disucssion. Enjoy light bite and drinks as you nestle in our gathering grotto and engage in conversation on the topic
Psychedelics and Social Class: An Avoided Intersection

The topic of social class is often avoided in US conversations, and is glaringly absent in discussions of the so-called psychedelic renaissance. Whereas talk of revolutions might have once stimulated imagery of embattled workers struggling for dignity and autonomy, the imagery of revolution is now concerned with how efficient we can design molecules to achieve a bourgeois sense of wellness. As Dr. Carl Hart and others have bemoaned, ‘psychedelic exceptionalism’ draws our attention away from psychedelics as drugs, a class of substances that have historically been associated in very specific ways with race and class. In this discussion, we consider the problem of class in multiple ways: first, as a social determinant of health and access to certain psychedelics and their associated therapies; second, as a social status that intersects with race, ethnicity, and gender that are fundamental for how people experience a psychedelic, set, and setting; and third, we discuss why class should be part of every research and policy discussion concerning psychedelics.

Panel Moderator:
Olivia Marcus completed her PhD in Medical Anthropology and an MPH in sociomedical sciences. She is a T32 postdoctoral fellow at the NYU, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, where she is conducting mixed-methods research on the design and evaluation of complex interventions to address substance use and mental health issues in Indigenous/First Nations communities in Mexico and Canada. Her areas of interest are in health-seeking behavior, intervention design and evaluation, and exploring the discourses surrounding traditional and alternative medicines in relation to biomedicine. She leads the qualitative component of the mixed-methods Ayahuasca Treatment Outcome Project to assess outcomes for addiction recovery in an all-male therapeutic community in Peru. Olivia conducted her doctoral fieldwork in the upper Peruvian Amazon, where she investigated perceptions of mental wellness and healing among mestizo curanderos (i.e., vegetalistas) and their clientele.

Panelist:
Yarelix Estrada, MSPH, is a first-generation Central American, drug policy and harm reduction researcher, advocate, and community outreach worker. Yarelix has been a part of the underground nightlife and rave scene through peer-based harm reduction programs such as DanceSafe, and now works as a City Research Scientist and Special Projects Coordinator at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, conducting community-based substance use harm reduction outreach and research. Her work is currently largely focused on implementation of the first higher-technology drug checking research study using an FTIR machine. This work allows for hyperlocal, real-time warnings to organizations and participants about a batch of drugs that’s branded with a particular stamp, for instance. Yarelix is passionate about supporting people throughout the full continuum of drug use, from use for pleasure and healing to overdose prevention. She is dedicated to improving the quality of care for people who use drugs and historically oppressed communities by working to understand the intersectionality between health policy and the societal factors that impact the lives of people who use drugs.
Nicholas Powers, PhD is a literature professor, novelist and journalist. He has facilitated workshops from Occupy Wall Street, PEX, Burning Man and the California Institute for Integral Studies, and his writings have appeared in The Village Voice, Huffington Post, The Raw Story, Truth-Out, The Indypendent, Business Insider, Chacruna, Double Blind and the MAPS Spring 2018 newsletter. He has been interviewed by Naropa University’s “The Root” program on psychedelics and race. His latest book, a political vampire book titled, “Thirst” just came out, and his prior book “The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street” was published in 2014 by Upset Press.

Live Sound Guided Group Ketamine Experience Journey with John MacLean
2023-12-14 12:00 - 15:00, 2023-12-10 12:00 - 15:00 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
Live Sound Guided Group Ketamine Journey
TUITION
Session Fee: $300.00
Medical Fee: $100.00
The Cardea team and its unique Ketamine Space provide a safe and supportive environment for exploration and transformation. Our facilitators and sound practitioners will guide you through this unique fusion of therapies, offering their insights, wisdom, and compassionate care, while holding space for you to have your own individualized and self-directed journey.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introductory Call
You will begin with a 30-minute introductory session with one of the space holders. This is a time for us to begin the process of getting to know you and understand your interest and intentions. We will share more information about the group experience and answer any questions you may have. If it feels like a good fit, we will schedule a medical intake session and send you some intake paperwork through our client portal.
Medical Intake Session
You will then meet virtually with our doctor for a medical intake session where we will explore your medical and mental health history with you to ensure a safe and therapeutic process. At this point, if there aren’t any unresolvable contraindications, our doctor will write you a prescription for a ketamine nasal spray which will be delivered to your home prior to the first session. You will need to bring your prescription with you to each group.
The Group Experience
At Cardea, we believe that human growth and transformation are improvisational events, each person’s emergence a unique journey. Prior to the ketamine experience, we’ll engage in a group creative process using a method aimed to evoke curiosity, reflection, and artistic expression. During the group ketamine session, you’ll be invited to get comfortable in your designated space in our group room. We’ll provide an eye mask for you to wear, and our space holders will provide all necessary instructions. Our sound practitioner will play live vibrational sound throughout your hour-long experience.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Nowadays Community Night - Dr. Ross Ellenhorn on Play and Psychedelics
2023-12-13 20:00 - 22:00 | Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave, Ridgewood, NY, 11385, United States
For this one year anniversary edition, Cardea Co-Founder, Dr. Ross Ellenhorn, returns to nowadays for his powerfully enlightening talk on the role of “play” and improvisation in life.

Ross is a sociologist and psychotherapist; the owner of Ellenhorn, a program that provides non-stigmatizing care for individuals experiencing extreme events of mind and mood; the co-creator of the Lascaux Method for psychedelic journeying and the author of three books on human change. His most recent book, Purple Crayons is published by HarperCollins and explores the psychological, socio-political and religious elements of play. In tonight’s talk, Ross will explore the nature of human play, its role in human transformation, and its relationship to psychedelic experiences. In the current renewal of more mainstream interest in psychedelics, substances like MDMA and psilocybin are being ushered into western medical models, promoted as miracle cures for PTSD, depression, anxiety and a host of other woes. Ross believes that the more psychedelics come to be seen as treatments for diseases, we are potentially losing sight of one of their most precious offerings: the potential for play. In his words: “We can mistake play for ‘fun.’ But even though fun is definitely something we do that is playful, play is very serious business. For children and adults alike, play—which includes the creation and contemplation of art—transforms that which appears solidly unchangeable into something pliable, loosens the hard earth of habit, and awakens us to the world and all its novelty. It is also the threshold through which we access our vitality–that ineffable experience of being alive–and it’s from play that we experience the life of other living beings.
Play is the marrow of compassion and empathy, and it is the antidote to alienation, dehumanization and a deadened approach to nature. Without play, it’s all: same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was… “Play is usually understood as the opposite of work, and psychedelics are increasingly being promoted as tools to increase productivity, or cure “dysfunction,” rather than as threshold to what makes us most human, and opens our eyes to the humanity in others, and the life in the natural world. Psychedelics can help return play to its rightful position as an essential part of our humanity.” Through a talk, some Q and A and playful exercises, Ross aims to give some form and frame to the human activity that always fights form and frame, and show how psychedelics are tools that can bring us to that first moment when we conducted the magical act of conjuring life in our toys.

The Anesthetic Revelation: The Origins of the Dissociative Experience
2023-12-07 19:00 - 21:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join us for a Salon Talk at Cardea as we gather in the grotto with writee Dan Piepenbring.
Limited spots – Free with RSVP!

The Anesthetic Revelation: Benjamin Blood and the Origins of the Dissociative Experience
A century before ketamine was first synthesized—before the words “dissociative” and “psychedelic” had even been coined—Benjamin Paul Blood was overpowered by the remarkable connection between anesthetic drugs and “the old mysteries” of existential thought. Blood (1832-1919) was a true American eccentric: a farmer, inventor, newspaper columnist, and amateur philosopher, he hailed from Amsterdam, New York, a small town northwest of Albany. Around 1860, after a routine dental procedure, he came to believe that nitrous oxide and ether offered acute but fleeting insight into the secret of the universe, revealing what he called “the genius of being.” He self-published a pamphlet calledThe Anesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy that soon generated controversy in newspapers around the U.S. and England. “Mr. Blood’s most appreciative readers will be found in insane asylums,” one reviewer wrote. But more elevated readers, such as William James and Lord Tennyson, wrote to Blood at once, believing that he’d stumbled onto an exciting if bizarre new avenue for philosophy and psychology. Blood received hundreds of letters from patients in “every hospital and dental office” who recognized his moment of “cosmic illumination” and “had been put in mind of something they can’t think of,” he wrote, and soon he was the most infamous man in Amsterdam. This talk will explore Blood’s thinking, his supporters and detractors, and the shape his pamphlet gave to what we now think of as the dissociative experience, with parallels to the present-day framing of psychedelic therapy and of k-holes in particular.
Dan Piepenbring is the coauthor, with Tom O’Neill, of CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties and the editor of Prince’s posthumous memoir, The Beautiful Ones. Currently he writes the New Books column for Harper’s and is working on a book about ketamine and dissociative anesthetics.

Ketamine Experience with Acupuncture
2023-12-01 12:00 - 15:30, 2023-10-29 12:00 - 15:30, 2023-10-16 12:00 - 15:30 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
A Session Combining Ketamine-Assisted Care and Acupuncture Treatment
With Zach Rieck, LCSW and Margie Navarro, LAc
TUITION
Session Fee: $300.00
Medical Fee: $100.00
Welcome to an extraordinary event that combines the power of ketamine-assisted care with the ancient art of acupuncture.
The therapeutic force of ketamine comes from its ability to help you open up a little – or a lot, giving you the capacity to see the world differently and adding some nimbleness to your thoughts.
Acupuncture works on a mind-body level and pairs well with psychedelic experiences. The benefits of a group acupuncture session stem from the synergy of people collectively receiving treatment along with the effects of the individualized point selections. After the ketamine experience, everyone will have an opportunity to share a few words about what they are feeling in their body or something they’d like acupuncture to help them work through. Afterward, Margie takes each participant’s pulse and selects fitting acupuncture points. Acupuncture treatment will take place during the “recovery” hour after the ketamine experience.
The Cardea team and its unique Ketamine Space provide a safe and supportive environment for exploration and transformation. Zach and Marjorie will guide you through this unique fusion of therapies, offering their insights, wisdom, and compassionate care, while holding space for you to have your own individualized and self-directed journey.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introductory Call
You will begin with a 30-minute introductory session with one of the space holders. This is a time for us to begin the process of getting to know you and understand your interest and intentions. We will share more information about the group experience and answer any questions you may have. If it feels like a good fit, we will schedule a medical intake session and send you some intake paperwork through our client portal.
Medical Intake Session
You will then meet virtually with our doctor for a medical intake session where we will explore your medical and mental health history with you to ensure a safe and therapeutic process. At this point, if there aren’t any unresolvable contraindications, our doctor will write you a prescription for a ketamine nasal spray which will be delivered to your home prior to the first session. You will need to bring your prescription with you to each group.
The Group Experience
At Cardea, we believe that human growth and transformation are improvisational events, each person’s emergence a unique journey. Prior to the ketamine experience, we’ll engage in a group creative process using a method aimed to evoke curiosity, reflection, and artistic expression. During the group ketamine session, you’ll be invited to get comfortable in your designated space in our group room. We’ll provide an eye mask for you to wear, and our space holders will provide all necessary instructions. Our sound practitioner will play live vibrational sound throughout your hour-long experience.
ABOUT THE PRACTITIONERS
Zach Rieck, LCSW
Zach holds the position of Clinical Director at Cardea, where he serves as both lead psychotherapist and guide for the Ketamine Care program. A licensed clinical social worker with over 13 years of experience in psychedelic communities, Zach is also an advocate and active proponent of psychedelic harm reduction. He has applied his extensive personal experience and training to educate and guide others, through trip-sitting and integration work. Zach’s work is heavily influenced by his own transformative experience using iboga to move beyond years of intravenous drug addiction.
Marjorie (Margie) Navarro, LAc
Marjorie is the founder of Vivacity Acupuncture (vivacityacupuncture.com), an organization devoted to acupuncture and holistic care that helps individuals meet their wellness goals and live more vibrantly. Her private practice in Union Square/Chelsea & FiDi NYC focuses on integrative sports medicine, chronic pain and illness. In addition to her clinical work, Marjorie performs research on acupuncture for psychedelic integration. Marjorie’s career has been heavily inspired by the work of Dr. Mutulu Shakur in bringing acupuncture to underserved communities in NYC.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Salon Talk with Nate Gorelick - Ecstasy at the End of the World: On Summers of Love and The Revolution That Wasn't
2023-11-29 19:00 - 21:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join Nate Gorelick back at Cardea Space for an intimate salon style talk. Enjoy light bite and drinks as you nestle in our gathering grotto and engage in conversation with professor Nate Gorelick on the topic…
“Ecstasy at the End of the World: On Summers of Love and The Revolution That Wasn’t”

Psychedelics have long been associated with revolutionary social upheaval, even liberation. During the Summer of Love in 1967, LSD was the holy sacrament of youth in revolt. In the Second Summer of Love, from 1988-89, the counter-cultural drug of choice was MDMA. Radical change was in the air. Altered states of consciousness promised to overturn our whole collective reality. So what happened? What caused these moments of euphoric hope and audacity to evaporate? Or are they still around, only dissipated into our general social atmosphere? Were they really drug-induced and drug-fuelled? Or was it merely mainstream moral panic that propelled acid and ecstasy to the vanguard of anti-establishment agitation? And what can this teach us about psychedelics’ revolutionary potential, or their counter-revolutionary uses, today, at the outer edge of our increasingly catastrophized, terrorized, medicalized present?

Nathan Gorelick is Term Assistant Professor of English at Barnard College. Previously, he was Associate Professor of English at Utah Valley University, and he holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has published widely on the intersections of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. His first book, The Unwritten Enlightenment, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press. He is currently researching the history of the relation between psychedelics and the Freudian field, as well as how this relation may be reinvented today.

Live Sound Guided Group Ketamine Experience Journey
2023-11-19 12:00 - 15:00 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US

Community Night at Nowadays - John MacLean & Kim Ann Foxman
2023-10-18 20:00 - 22:00 | Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave, Ridgewood, NY, 11385, United States
Cardea Community Night at Nowadays
For the 10th edition of Cardea’s residency at Nowadays, Lead Ceremonialist and Sound Director John MacLean will return, this time with longtime friend and fellow DJ/Producer, Kim Ann Foxman, for a community conversation about the parallels and intersections between club music culture and psychedelic journeying.
This event is FREE with RSVP!
John MacLean, aka Juan MacLean / The Juan MacLean, is a ceremonial facilitator who has studied extensively both in the Amazon jungle of Peru and also various western contemporary modalities concerning the intersection of consciousness, sound and healing. He is also a multi-instrumentalist, Dj, and producer of electronic music, with an interest in exploring and questioning issues around recreational use of psychedelics and the ways in which, if any, the container of a club settings might resemble traditional ceremonies that involved repetitive rhythmic music as a way of entering into a trance state for healing and communal bonding.

Kim Ann Foxman is a DJ, electronic artist & producer. She has extensive experience working deeply with medicinal plants, and utilizing psychedelics together with sound. She believes music has the ability to transport you even further into psychedelic realms, and together they are a perfect combination for exploratory mind and body journeys, healing, and a powerful source of finding creative inspiration as well.

They will discuss issues relating to the influence of music and sound on the psychedelic experience, what it means to create a safe space for those experiences, the similarities between traditional ceremonial containers and dance music spaces, the use of psychedelics for healing and self-exploration, and in true psychedelic form whatever related topics spontaneously arise. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to share their experiences and ask questions.

Please note: The use of psychedelic substances is not part of this program.

Therapists & Behavioral Health Professionals Open House: Experience Our Lascaux KAP Method
2023-10-17 18:00 - 20:30 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join us at Cardea Space on October 17th for a Therapist open house! This will be a chance for all professionals in the Behavioral Health field to explore the Lascaux Method in depth with its founder, Ross Ellenhorn, and experience our dialogic techniques firsthand in our unique space. This event is free with limited capacity. Reserve your spot now!

The Lascaux Method is a short-term ketamine-assisted psychotherapy approach that integrates therapeutic principles with carefully guided ketamine sessions, all aimed at creating a fertile space for healing and expanding aliveness through a concept we call Play.

At Cardea, we see ketamine and psychedelic experiences in general, as a “key to a key.” They assist in helping us gain access to a sense of aliveness, in both ourselves and in others.
Our practice approach is most strongly influenced by a Finnish model called Open Dialogue and the “dialogic” process it initiated. In this approach, the therapist’s job is to avoid the certainty of expert formulations, analysis, and diagnosis in order to create the right environment for play. Working this way, we offer an innovative approach to an “old school” ethos, since we see psychotherapy as it was originally intended: an improvisational art form helping people contemplate “problems of living” rather than an attempt to remove symptoms surgically.
Our intention is to provide our guests with a chance to reconnect with their innate vitality and inherent ability to perceive the dynamic life in others; to feel more related to their relationships; to embrace head-on the life-enhancing potential of uncertainty; and to embark on a transformative journey of personal growth. The way to get there is to unleash the playful elements practiced in the best of psychotherapies and turn up the volume on these while seeing ketamine as an ally in this process, helping people open up to novelty and uncertainty, and a sense that their experience of themselves and others is ready to be sculpted into something new.
Enjoy light bites, drinks, and conversation. We will guide guests through their own Dialogic experience and of course, answer any questions about our methods.
Hope to see you there!

The Playful Power of Fungi Art & Architecture - An Evening with Artist Randy Polumbo!
2023-10-15 16:00 - 19:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Ketamine in Mushrooms? Art & design play a large role in a psychedelic journey’s set and setting. We invite you into Cardea, a ketamine space nestled right in the heart of Manhattan, where our mission is to help guests feel the power of play.
The entire space was designed in collaboration with installation artist, Randy Polumbo, who built the furniture, light fixtures, and custom soundproof shutters all from reishi mycelium, creating a unique atmosphere to ignite wonder and curiosity. Step into the brilliant and playful mind of Randy Polumbo while journeying into a multi-sensory experience at Cardea. Discover how fungi are being used as an artistic medium and learn about the mycology that makes it possible! You’ll hear about what inspired the creation of the space, the unique process of crafting the one-of-a-kind fixtures, and all the vintage items from his personal collection that fill the space.
We’ll have light bites and beverages accompanied by musical entertainment and “Philo Questioning”—a unique activity for inquiry and reflection.
Randy Polumbo is an installation-based artist who lives and works between Joshua Tree, California and New York City. His artwork has been shown nationally and internationally across metropoles and natural landscapes such as deserts, ruins, and caves. He is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, as well as a LEED accredited master builder and serves on the Board of Directors of New York Live Arts.Randy joins us with decades of experience in building spaces and immersive environments, using polished metal and blown glass, reishi mushroom mycelium, kaleidoscopic grottos, and cast glass. His projects range from museum installations, to public sculpture, to monumental renovation of New York mansions and apartments for clients and design luminaries around the world. Randy has designed and built our Tribeca Ketamine Space in New York City to enhance the calming, novel and imaginative environment for transformative experiences. The space’s design materializes our concept of “radical hospitality,” which places the guest and their goals at the visual, tactile, and acoustical center of the experience. All sensory interactions have been considered, from lighting, sound, scents and textures, leading each moment of a journey to a new discovery.

Jamaica Psilocybin Retreat
2023-10-09 - 2023-10-15 | Kotch Properties, Old Wharf Rd, Treasure Beach, Jamaica
Weeklong Immersive Psilocybin Retreat in Jamaica for Transformation and Awakening
Located in Treasure Beach
With decades of experience in psychedelic, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practices, CARDEA invites those seeking transformation and awakening to a weeklong immersive psilocybin retreat in Jamaica. Free of hype, liberated from diagnostic labels and one-size-fits-all practices, we will face uncertainty together and innovate something both wise and new that will be a creation all our own..
INTRODUCTION
Whether we notice it or not, we all stand on a threshold. One that begins in the space between who we are as original beings, and the cultural, social and natural worlds that exist independent of us. A world of you, and a world that is not you, but of which you are a part, and a grappling with where you rest between these two worlds.
Psychedelics have a long history of helping people examine this threshold between the Self and the world, and how to move through it in order to narrow the divide between an individual’s internal growth and a connection to a greater whole.
If you are looking for trusted and masterful allies in your pursuit of greater expansiveness, we’re the place to go. With over a century of combined experience in the psychedelic and psychotherapeutic arts, in psychedelic space-holding and sound-based ceremonies, we bring unprecedented wisdom from all these practices to help you journey to where you already are: the doorway between your inner life and the outer landscape in which you roam. Indeed, it is for this reason that we chose our name to honor Cardea, the ancient Roman “threshold” goddess of hinges and handles—the tools that make doors work.
This is not a one-off experience. This is not the break from day-to-day life–to return to how things were. We believe it is our job to help you improve your ability to pivot and master yourself at this in-between space long after your time with us.
To find out more or to reserve your spot, schedule a free consultation with a Cardea team member:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introduction to The Cardea Method
including Dialogic sessions – a reflection-based listening model for preparing and processing your experience.
Three Pre-Retreat Dialogic Sessions
and 1 group meeting prior to the retreat
Three Inward-facing Psilocybin Sound Ceremonies
guided by skilled facilitators who are trained in both traditional indigenous and modern sound healing techniques
Group and 1:1 Reflection Sessions
led by our facilitators the day after each ceremony to make meaning of your experiences and deepen your intentions
Luxury Accommodations
5-star private chef, on-premise concierge services, beach-front access, three private pools.
Life-infusing Art & Activities
Art-making, energetic bodywork, yoga, local hikes.
Community Building
Access to Cardea’s network of like-minded beings to continue enriching your work with psychedelics.
Post-Retreat Dialogic and Group Sessions
One Post-Retreat 1:1 Dialogic Session and one group Zoom meetup after you return home.

ABOUT THE PRACTITIONERS
Ross Ellenhorn, LICSW, Ph.D
Ross is a Cardea co-founder, CEO of Ellenhorn Psychiatric Recovery Program, and a pioneer and leader in the development of community integration services. His work and therapeutic model empower individuals to achieve recovery and purposeful reconnection to real life while remaining in their own communities and outside institutional settings. His recent book, How We Change (And Ten Reasons Why We Don’t), published by HarperCollins in 2020, focuses on the science of human change, and how this science supports the argument that change occurs in collaborative and co-created relationships. Ross developed The Cardea Method and facilitates all Dialogic session pre, post, and during retreat.

Aisha Delfaus, PMHNP-BC
Aisha is a dedicated Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, wellness advocate, and holistic healer. She strives to deliver care that embraces a holistic and humanistic approach, intentionally nurturing the mind, body, and soul in an integrated manner. Aisha earned her Master’s degree in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing from Hunter College School of Nursing, completed a 200-hour Vinyasa yoga teacher training at Yogamaya and a 300-hour Kaula Tantra yoga and shamanism course at Durga’s Tiger School in Ecuador, as well as trained Thai yoga bodywork practitioner. She will be assisting our guests as our in house nurse practioner, as well as ceremonial space holder and co-facilitator for all dialogic sessions pre, post, and during retreat.

Le’ Jai’ La Troi
Le’ Jai’ La is a medicine woman based in Mexico who works with sacred plants and modalities to help others come back into alignment. She is a writer, coach, consultant, reiki master, herbalist and teacher. Le’ Jai’ La has worked in wellness and with entheogenic plants for the past twelve years, studying with indigenous wisdom keepers and learning traditional healing techniques from teachers worldwide. Her studies range from curanderismo, Native American, African healing, and shamanic practices to yoga, sound meditations, and more. Le Jai La returns for her second retreat with Cardea to bring her healing wisdom through Cacao and Psilocybin plant ceremonies.

John “the Juan” MacLean
John is an experienced ceremony facilitator, multi-instrumentalist, and international touring musician and producer. He has cultivated a deep interest in the ways in which sound and vibration interact with consciousness, particularly under the influence of psychedelics. John integrates both traditional ceremonial techniques of holding space and using sound as a guide with contemporary modalities that consider the construct of the Western psyche. John believes in the “Iso Principle,” a concept from music therapy that values an attuned approach to each person. He works intuitively in the ceremonial space in order to co-create the safest and most helpful experience with the participants for whom he is holding space. John returns for his fourth Cardea retreat to facilitate psilocybin and acupuncture ceremonies with live sound.

PHOTOS FROM OUR LAST RETREAT

PRICING, ITINERARY & ACCOMMODATIONS
For more information on pricing, itinerary and accommodations, download the brochure:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Safer Spaces for Expanding Consciousness: A Discussion
2023-08-16 20:00 - 22:00 | Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave, Ridgewood, NY, 11385, United States
A Special Presentation in Cooperation with Nowdats
For this month’s edition of Cardea’s residency at Nowadays, Cardea Community Manager, Paige Rothaus, will lead a panel with the top psychedelic community leaders in NYC to discuss the importance of community to support psychedelic experiences, and how these once underground community spaces can be more accessible and “therapeutic” without the need of a licensed therapist.

PANELISTS:
Kat Lakey
Kat Lakey is the founder and director of The Psychedelic Assembly. In 2017, Kat began an Ayahuasca apprenticeship in Peru with Jessica Bertram, an Ayahuasquera who came by strong personal reference from Dr. Dennis McKenna. She spent 3 years in and out of the Jungle as a student of plant medicine, before moving back to NYC in 2021, to work as the in-house videographer and events coordinator at The Blue Building in Midtown Manhattan. There she birthed the idea of the Psychedelic Assembly, an intimate NYC Psychedelic Conference which debuted September of 2022. In February of 2023, Kat transformed the Blue Building space to its next venture, and launched the Athenaeum, a member-supported psychedelic social club, co-working space, library, museum, and performance venue – making the Athenæum a central gathering place for all psychedelic community-based events, educational programming, and networking.
Doc Kelley
hristopher “Doc” Kelley received a PhD in Religion from Columbia University where he studied Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with Robert A. F. Thurman. He is a scholar of Buddhism and a part-time professor in religious studies at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School University, and Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. He is also the co-founder of Psychedelic Sangha, which he considers a “spiritual community without a guru.” The Sangha offers community of like-minded individuals through integration circles, dose-friendly Bardo Bath gatherings, pop-up BYO ceremonies, and retreats. Doc is an early pioneer in the NYC Psychedelic Renaissance and community builder with a mission to liberate the psychedelic experience from the underground allowing accessibility in a safe container.
Pammy Jackson
Founded The Psychedelic Sisterhood in February 2020 to establish a sacred space for growth, healing, and womxn’s empowerment through altered states. She divides her time immersed in the new wave of psychedelic research by co-creating in community as co-president of New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives (NYMHA), a Marketing Director of the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society, and an event organizer for the Global Psychedelic Society — a worldwide community of organizers offering guidance and resources to those interested in learning more about psychedelics and building thriving communities. Prior to founding The Psychedelic Sisterhood, Pammy began her healing journey with psychedelics in 2015 after a heart-opening spiritual awakening with Ayahuasca. Since then, she has vowed to be of service to plant medicines and strives to build heart-centered programming that serves womxn’s and non-binary’s holistic health by cultivating a balance of the divine feminine with us all.
Undrea (Dre) Wright
Dre is the Founder of the Ancestor Project, whose mission is to integrate ancestral Sacred Earth Medicine wisdom into the modern journeyers’ experience, to reduce harm and expand consciousness. He believes that Sacred Earth Medicine is key in liberating all oppressed peoples. The Ancestor Project facilitates online and in-person opportunities for learning that support radical self-transformation in the name of collective liberation. Dre has been working to heal himself with sacred medicines for over 15 years. He is a cannabis entrepreneur that was instrumental in the decriminalization and medical bill passed in Maryland. He focuses on equity and inclusion in all healing work and communities. Dre practices in the Traditional Amazonian ways, informed by the South American Shipibo-Conibo and Quechua-Lamista lineages, having trained with various global indigenous masters. In June of 2022, he completed his MAPS MDMA psychedelic-assisted Therapy Program and is currently enrolled in his Ph.D. program for transpersonal psychology.
(Teachers are subject to change.)

Please note: The use of psychedelic substances is not part of this program.

Ketamine Experience with Acupuncture
2023-07-02 12:00 - 15:30 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
A Session Combining Ketamine-Assisted Care and Acupuncture Treatment
With Zach Rieck, LCSW and Margie Navarro, LAc
TUITION
Session Fee: $350.00
Medical Fee: $50.00
Welcome to an extraordinary event that combines the power of ketamine-assisted care with the ancient art of acupuncture.
The therapeutic force of ketamine comes from its ability to help you open up a little – or a lot, giving you the capacity to see the world differently and adding some nimbleness to your thoughts.
Acupuncture works on a mind-body level and pairs well with psychedelic experiences. The benefits of a group acupuncture session stem from the synergy of people collectively receiving treatment along with the effects of the individualized point selections. After the ketamine experience, everyone will have an opportunity to share a few words about what they are feeling in their body or something they’d like acupuncture to help them work through. Afterward, Margie takes each participant’s pulse and selects fitting acupuncture points. Acupuncture treatment will take place during the “recovery” hour after the ketamine experience.
The Cardea team and its unique Ketamine Space provide a safe and supportive environment for exploration and transformation. Zach and Marjorie will guide you through this unique fusion of therapies, offering their insights, wisdom, and compassionate care, while holding space for you to have your own individualized and self-directed journey.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

WHAT TO EXPECT
Introductory Call
You will begin with a 30-minute introductory session with one of the space holders. This is a time for us to begin the process of getting to know you and understand your interest and intentions. We will share more information about the group experience and answer any questions you may have. If it feels like a good fit, we will schedule a medical intake session and send you some intake paperwork through our client portal.
Medical Intake Session
You will then meet virtually with our doctor for a medical intake session where we will explore your medical and mental health history with you to ensure a safe and therapeutic process. At this point, if there aren’t any unresolvable contraindications, our doctor will write you a prescription for a ketamine nasal spray which will be delivered to your home prior to the first session. You will need to bring your prescription with you to each group.
The Group Experience
At Cardea, we believe that human growth and transformation are improvisational events, each person’s emergence a unique journey. Prior to the ketamine experience, we’ll engage in a group creative process using a method aimed to evoke curiosity, reflection, and artistic expression. During the group ketamine session, you’ll be invited to get comfortable in your designated space in our group room. We’ll provide an eye mask for you to wear, and our space holders will provide all necessary instructions. Our sound practitioner will play live vibrational sound throughout your hour-long experience.
ABOUT THE PRACTITIONERS
Zach Rieck, LCSW
Zach holds the position of Clinical Director at Cardea, where he serves as both lead psychotherapist and guide for the Ketamine Care program. A licensed clinical social worker with over 13 years of experience in psychedelic communities, Zach is also an advocate and active proponent of psychedelic harm reduction. He has applied his extensive personal experience and training to educate and guide others, through trip-sitting and integration work. Zach’s work is heavily influenced by his own transformative experience using iboga to move beyond years of intravenous drug addiction.
Marjorie (Margie) Navarro, LAc
Marjorie is the founder of Vivacity Acupuncture (vivacityacupuncture.com), an organization devoted to acupuncture and holistic care that helps individuals meet their wellness goals and live more vibrantly. Her private practice in Union Square/Chelsea & FiDi NYC focuses on integrative sports medicine, chronic pain and illness. In addition to her clinical work, Marjorie performs research on acupuncture for psychedelic integration. Marjorie’s career has been heavily inspired by the work of Dr. Mutulu Shakur in bringing acupuncture to underserved communities in NYC.
Schedule a FREE consultation to discuss the session in more detail with the Cardea team:

Cardea is dedicated to assisting individuals in their recovery from deep psychological anguish and supporting those seeking an awakened life. We believe that breaking free from standardized living and embracing uncertainty and novelty are key to personal growth and well-being. Join us as we explore the limitless possibilities for self-knowledge and increased wellness through the fusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine care, and acupuncture.

Nowadays Talk with Nate Gorelick
2023-06-21 18:00 - 21:00 | Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave, Ridgewood, NY, 11385, United States
Psychoanalysis and Psychedelics
In Gorelick’s words: “Freud’s legendary (mis)adventures with cocaine have drawn plenty of attention, but far less has been said about the fraught relation between the science he invented and the clinical history of psychedelics. In fact, psychoanalysis and psychedelics grew up together. At times they were even friends. Now that psychedelics are (again) going mainstream, we should return to this history and consider: what can the theory, clinical practice, and ethics of psychoanalysis learn, or relearn, from the psychedelic experience? And what can the science and big business of altered states of consciousness learn from the unconscious?”

Nathan Gorelick is Term Assistant Professor of English at Barnard College. Previously, he was Associate Professor of English at Utah Valley University, and he holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has published widely on the intersections of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. His first book, The Unwritten Enlightenment, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press. He is currently researching the history of the relationship between psychedelics and the Freudian field, as well as how this relation may be reinvented today.

What The Bodhis*ttva is Buddhist Mantra?
2023-06-02 18:00 - 19:30 | Cardea Space, 511 Canal Street suite 500, New York, NY 10013, New York, NY, 10013, US
What the Bodhis*ttva is Buddhist Mantra?
Explore the full-on healing power of Buddhist mantras with Benny Oyama, troubadour of the paradigm shift.
Our gathering is an immersion into the world of using our voices to open the heart and the portal to the Buddhist multiverse.
Benny Oyama is a singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from New York City who travels the world spreading connection and dharma through music. His mission is to aid in humanity’s process of becoming fully expressed and intimately interrelated beings through music and storytelling.
“I have been walking a path of deep inquiry, discovering pebbles of music along the way. Inspired by the openness of sharing, I join forces with others who are trailing the rocky road of collective awakening to embody the universal human value of stewardship.”

BangKlang: A Live Performance
2023-05-31 18:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
Join Us at Cardea for An Original Musical Experience…

RSVP here!
The duo known as BangKlang, a site responsive musical improvisations by AP Bergeron (@yearofyog) and Leander Knust (@mienardus), met during the Arctic Circle Residency program in June of 2022. Aboard the tall ship Antigua, which for two weeks meandered the shores of the Svalbard Archipelago, they found a sound that surprised all, and Bang Klang was born. Over the course of their residency, BangKlang performed five times in five locations: at the old trappers’ Villa Oxford cabin, the bay at Texas Bar, the Antigua engine room, the abandoned Cultural Center in Pyramiden, and the world’s northernmost church, Longyearbyen Chapel.

What To Expect
Armed with new music conceived at the Orient Point Lighthouse (designed and built by CARDEA’s own Randy Polumbo), BangKlang should feel right at home showcasing their “spritely and rigorous” sound amidst CARDEA’s cascading chrome couches and mushroom-infused interior. In addition to voice and banjo, BangKlang will make use of sound devices that adorn the walls of CARDEA. They’ll play intimately, loosely, and responsively to the environment for about an hour, give or take. Guests will be invited to lounge and luxuriate in the space, almost as if we are about to engage in a session of inner play.

The event is FREE for all attendees. Donations to the artists highly encouraged!
RSVP here!

Reiki Level I Training In NYC (Day 2)
2023-05-28 09:00 - 13:00 | 2277 3rd Ave, 2277 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10035, United States
With Le’ Jai’ La Troi And Paola Guerrero
We Are Honored To Extend An Invitation To Join Us For A Reiki Level I Training.

More Information

We encourage therapists, clinicians, space holders, facilitators, and practitioners in the wellness field to explore this training with those in the psychedelic and plant medicine world. Reiki is a great tool and ally for traversing the world of consciousness through energy healing.
Join the Reiki Training

Reiki is an energy healing technique with Japanese origins. Reiki can help ease tension or stress and nourish the body’s vital functions while releasing blockages. This energetic tool creates a calming environment for more profound physical, mental, and emotional healing.
The word reiki comes from the Japanese word “Rei,” which means “universal life,” and “Ki,” which means “energy.” Therefore, reiki uses the universal life force chi, prana, that flows within the physical body through pathways called chakras, meridians, and nadis to support one’s overall well-being.
This class is designed for those interested in learning Reiki as well as those who would like to refresh their training.
Exchange: $220.00 Includes Reiki Manuel
