An Invitation to Transform
So much of therapy asks us to focus on what hurts. Psychedelic therapy can easily follow the same path, centering trauma, symptoms, and the parts of ourselves we want to change.
Queer Joy asks a different question:
What happens when pleasure and joy are part of the healing, too?
This six-week ketamine-assisted psychotherapy group brings queer adults together to explore that question through preparation, psychedelic experience, and integration. There is space for grief, fear, anger, and whatever else emerges, but those experiences do not have to be the whole story.
Together, we’ll also explore pleasure, connection, embodiment, play, and what it feels like to make more room for joy in a queer life.
What Becomes Possible
Across six weeks, you’ll have space to:
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Expand your capacity to experience joy, pleasure, connection, and aliveness, both within the psychedelic experience and beyond it.
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Deepen your relationship with your body and explore what becomes possible when sensation, pleasure, and embodied knowing are given more room.
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Explore parts of yourself through an expanded state of consciousness with curiosity about what you might discover, rather than a predetermined idea of what needs to be healed.
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Notice what emerges when queer joy is centered intentionally and consider how you want to carry more of that joy into your relationships and everyday life.
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Experience psychedelic work alongside other queer people, allowing your individual exploration to unfold within shared connection, witnessing, and community.
Your Psychedelic Providers
All workshop facilitators identify as queer and bring lived experience, clinical training, and community care into this work.
Dr. Nicole Thompson (She/her), Psy.D, MA.
Clinical Psychotherapist
Host of Modern Anarchy
Author of The Psychedelic Jealousy Guide
Founder of The Pleasure Practice
Meggie Twible (She/her), LCSW, SEP
Rick Clark (He/Him),
CRNA, APRN
Board Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Provider
Founder of Ayafusion Ketamine Clinic
Begin with Your Assessment
Working with Dr. Nicole begins with a complimentary 20-minute Assessment Call. After reserving your call, you’ll receive the Pleasure Liberation Assessment, a series of questions designed to help Dr. Nicole understand what you’re navigating, the patterns shaping your relationship with pleasure, and what you’re hoping to create next.
During the call, you and Dr. Nicole will explore your assessment together, clarify what you’re seeking, and consider what kind of support could best serve where you’re ready to go. If there’s a strong mutual fit, you’ll receive an invitation to work together.
What's Included
Medical Intake + Safety Screening
Meet medical provider Rick Clark to review your health history, medications, and eligibility for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
Three Preparation Sessions
Build relationships with the group, clarify intentions, and prepare for the psychedelic experience.
Somatic + Pleasure Practices
Explore embodied practices designed to deepen awareness of sensation, pleasure, and your relationship with your body.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy
Participate in a four-hour, in-person group medicine session in Chicago with therapeutic and medical support.
Three Integration Sessions
Return to the group to reflect on what emerged and explore how you want to carry insights from the experience into your life.
Queer Community Healing
Move through the experience alongside a small cohort of queer adults, with space for connection, witnessing, and shared reflection.
The Six Week Experience
Part I:
Preparation
May 26, June 2, + June 9
Wednesday 12:30-2:30pm CT
Virtual
Part 2:
Medicine Day
June 12th
Saturday, 9am - 1pm CT
In Person - Chicago
Part 3:
Integration
June 16, June 23, + June 30
Wednesday 12:30-2:30pm CT
Virtual
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Next Steps
1
After reserving your call, you’ll receive the Pleasure Liberation Assessment to help Dr. Nicole understand your relationship with pleasure. During the call, you’ll explore your assessment together, discuss your intentions for Queer Joy, and determine whether the program feels like a strong mutual fit.
2
Complete Your Clinical Intake with Meggie
Meet individually with Maggie for a clinical intake to explore your history, intentions, and what you’re hoping to experience through Queer Joy.
3
Complete Your Medical Screening with Rick
Meet separately with Rick to review your medical history, medications, and other relevant health information and determine whether ketamine is medically appropriate for you.
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Join the Cohort
Once clinical and medical eligibility are established, you’ll complete enrollment and receive everything you need to prepare for the six-week Queer Joy experience.
FAQs
No. Queer Joy is designed to support both people who are new to psychedelic experiences and those who have previous experience. The preparation sessions are an important part of helping everyone enter the medicine experience with intention and support.
Yes. Queer Joy is intentionally created by and for queer and LGBTQIA+ people. Everyone participating in the group must identify as part of the queer and/or LGBTQIA+ community.
This shared context is an important part of the experience. It allows us to enter the work without needing to explain or translate our identities, relationships, bodies, or experiences, and to explore what becomes possible when queer joy, pleasure, connection, and belonging are centered from the beginning.
Before participating, you’ll complete a clinical intake with Maggie and a separate medical screening with Rick. Rick will review your medical history, medications, and other relevant health information to determine whether ketamine is medically appropriate for you.
There is something fundamentally different about exploring an altered state alongside other people. While your ketamine experience is your own, you are moving through a larger process together. You prepare together, experience medicine alongside one another, and return to integrate what emerged. That creates opportunities for witnessing, resonance, connection, and discovering yourself through experiences beyond your own.
Queering Psychedelic Therapy?
Watch this free Queering Psychedelics 101 workshop led by psychotherapists Dr. Nicole, Meggie, and nurse anesthetist Rick Clark as we explore ketamine-assisted psychotherapy through a queer, relational, and trauma-informed lens.
Ready to Begin?
What if your next psychedelic experience wasn’t only about what you wanted to understand or work through, but about what you wanted to experience more of?
More pleasure. More connection. More embodiment. More joy.
Queer Joy is an invitation to explore what becomes possible when queer people come together and give those experiences our attention, too.
If you’re curious about what that could open up for you, begin with a complimentary 20-minute Assessment Call with Dr. Nicole.