From shifting mandates and new administrations to a fluctuating economy and evolving values, one thing that everyone has had to come to terms with in the last couple of years is that change is a constant. And since the onset of mental illnesses is associated with major life changes, it’s no surprise that our society is facing a mental health crisis alongside the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mental Health America reports staggering statistics summarizing the severity of this issue and highlighting the increase in incidence since the start of the pandemic. Their data points to a steady increase in suicidal ideation since early 2020, which is exacerbated by the shocking fact that more than half of adults with mental illness do not receive treatment for their symptoms.
This is a deadly combination, and both of these figures had already been steadily increasing since 2011 – well before all of the social, economic, and psychological implications of COVID-19. Forced isolation, increased stress and distress, and inaccessible or ineffective treatments combine to create a unique mental health emergency in our society.
While these stats certainly paint a grim picture, new innovations in psychiatric science have emerged that offer healing and hope. Austin-based service FindingMetis is a concierge ketamine treatment option and innovative mental health intervention that treats depression, PTSD, OCD, dysphoria, anxiety, and suicidality.
Founded by physician and thought leader Shelia Newsom MD, FindingMetis is distinct from other ketamine clinics in that it facilitates a private, customized, and intimate experience between the practitioner, the patient, and the medicine. The entire process takes place in the patient’s home, and the patient’s deeply personal journey is monitored and facilitated by an experienced and empathetic physician – Dr. Newsom herself.
Photo by Jay Galvan
Dr. Newsom’s knowledge about mental illness and passion for healing others stems from her education as well as her professional and personal experiences. As a veteran and an M.D., Dr. Newsom spent 22 years in a private medical practice following her military education at West Point and service as an Airborne Ranger. After almost dying from alcoholism at 42, Dr. Newsom began her journey of recovery and has been sober for more than 28 years. Recovery was the first experience that prompted her to confront her mental health issues, but it wasn’t until years later that she was introduced to ketamine treatment.
In 2018 Dr. Newsom underwent a later-in-life gender transition at 65 years old, and began battling severe dysphoria and suicidal ideation. She sought treatment but the traditional routes of SSRIs and talk therapy weren’t having any significant effect. The statistics around Dr. Newsom’s life experiences emphasized the severity and urgency of her mental state and symptoms: almost half (48%) of trans folks attempt suicide at least once while 84% have considered it; an average of 17 veterans killed themselves each day in 2019; physicans suffer from higher incidence of depression and suicide; about one in seven (13%) of alcoholics achieve long-term recovery.
With no time to waste, Dr. Newsom’s psychiatrist ultimately suggested ketamine treatment. It was a very avant-garde treatment at the time but, desperate for relief and worried for her life, Dr. Newsom consented. Her experience with medicinal ketamine saved – and changed – her life.
“Ketamine took suicide off the table immediately,” Dr. Newsom explains, describing the radical results from her first treatment.“That’s the whole thing this is – [Ketamine] is an essence offering people some degree of hope in settings where there perhaps isn’t any.” Her own journey with ketamine treatment led her to establish FindingMetis so that she could share that same relief and healing with others.
Dr. Newsom describes ketamine as having its own consciousness, and named the injections she administers to patients “Metis” after the mythological Greek goddess of wisdom. She explains the psychedelic experience is akin to a spiritual experience and ketamine, in this type of setting, can facilitate the creation of a consciousness that enfolds hope and purpose to the patient.
Many people describe experiencing an “ego death” during their psychedelic experiences with ketamine. Dr. Newsom acknowledges this and frames it instead as a connection to something outside of the ego – something greater than the individual. This connection with something bigger than the self frees the patient from their disturbed, self-effacing lines of thinking and replaces them with life-affirming sensibilities. “Metis seems to open up portals to the regions of the psyche that are able to help provide a sense of hope,” Dr. Newsom explains.
Ketamine was initially developed in the 60s as a dissociative anesthetic for soldiers in Vietnam who had been injured in battle. Ketamine would be injected into the shocked and wounded soldiers so that they could be sedated without suffering any adverse physical effects while they were transported to a hospital. The soldiers would report revelatory psychedelic experiences, but these were largely dismissed until the 90s when doctors began exploring the mental health benefits of ketamine injections. Since then, more and more studies have revealed the efficacy of ketamine treatment for a wide range of mental health afflictions. Ketamine is legal in all 50 states and has always been categorized as a class three drug, which is the same category as Tylenol with codeine.
After her initial healing experience with ketamine treatment, Dr. Newsom (a self-described ‘life-long student’) learned more about the drug and also went back to school to earn a Masters degree in Depth Psychology. This education combined with her years of medical practice and personalized connection to the treatment contribute to FindingMetis’ unique approach, distinguishing it from other ketamine clinics and creating the powerful triangulation between the Metis, Dr. Newsom, and her patient. She describes the entire process as a three-way communication between the willing patient, the sacred medicine, and the dedicated and knowledgeable physician.
FindingMetis is a concierge service, which means that the treatment happens in the patient’s home or an environment of their choosing. This is important to Dr. Newsom because the population of severely depressed, anxious, and suicidal patients that she serves may not be able to go to a doctor’s office, and the experience with Metis is deeply personal and profound and thus best facilitated in a place where the patient will be the most comfortable.
Dr. Newsom also conducts a unique and specially curated intake procedure that further deepens the specific, professional, and intimate relationship she offers to her patients. She developed this protocol through conducting trials and in accordance with NYU’s studies on ketamine treatment.
First, she evaluates her patients with a thorough medical and psychiatric history and background check, ensuring that ketamine treatment will be safe and appropriate according to their biology and psychology. She also conducts a typology test that informs her of her patient’s personality and their conscious and unconscious functions. This lets Dr. Newsom know how to communicate with her patients and help them integrate their experiences with Metis. She also supplements this typology test with an astrology chart. Dr. Jung used similar tools in his practice, and these give Dr. Newsom a sense of what’s going on in her patients’ lives before she begins treatment.
“It’s like I’m a weatherman, and I’m looking at the weather of people’s lives. So I’m able to approach a patient with an understanding of their history, their background, and a good idea of how they approach the world, and if there are any major life transits that are occurring,” Dr. Newsom explains. Once the intake is complete, the treatment can begin.
“I like the intramuscular approach of the medicine because oral or rectal intake may cause quite a bit of nausea and intramuscular intake has about the same absorption rate as IV,” Dr. Newsom explains. “And it’s not a party dose. It’s a specific dose and in a correct formulation that pretty much guarantees that this psychedelic experience will happen.”
Dr. Newsom will set intentions with the patient before administering the injection, and then the patient lies back and listens to a playlist that they have prepared of their own music. The medicine begins to take effect quickly, usually lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. Dr. Newsom stands by to supervise, and while some patients will talk to her or ask for reassurance, she smiles and says, “The work is done between Metis and the patient.”
The medication is incredibly safe and she’s never had any problems with an adverse reaction, although her experience as a physician in critical care facilities means that she is qualified to administer emergency care if she ever needed to. “Ketamine used in this way is just the safest medicine that you could think of, mainly because of how it was developed and what it was developed for,” Dr. Newsom explains, citing again that the drug was specifically designed to be administered to patients under severe psychological stress without causing any further harm.
While Metis and the patient work together, Dr. Newsom views her role as providing a “safe container” for her patients and whatever they are experiencing during their treatment. Strong emotions and images or questions about the patient’s experience may come up, and Dr. Newsom’s number one priority is that she facilitates a safe, validating, and affirming environment emotionally, physically, and spiritually for all of those phenomena to exist.
“Typically what I hear when people come out of it is, ‘I feel lighter,’” Dr. Newsom shares. She also says that, aligned with her own experience, if the patient was experiencing suicidality going into the treatment, it’s often completely gone after their first dose.
FindingMetis services typically involve three ketamine injections over three consecutive days, or three days as close as possible to each other. There are follow-up doses at two weeks after the first series, then a month later, and then monthly based on what the patient needs. Typically the patient will take between six and eight doses, depending on how the patient is integrating their experiences with Metis in their daily life. As a sober woman, Dr. Newsom is sensitive to administering ketamine in a way that will not promote or encourage addiction or dependence on any level, and many patients report that ketamine treatment aids their recovery.
Dr. Newsom also helps identify integration techniques as part of the follow-up process. These generally include lifestyle changes, meditation, and continuing work with mental health professionals and other psychiatric medications, although the details vary widely and are based on each individual’s personal needs and experiences.
FindingMetis is an appropriate treatment for many people experiencing severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, or suicidality, but especially those with suicidal ideation. “People say, that’s a pretty dangerous place to be working (with suicidal patients). And it is,” Dr. Newsom admits. But she also points out that timely treatments are of the utmost importance for suicidal patients, who need relief immediately or else they might not survive.
When only 40% of patients who use SSRIs show an improvement in their symptoms, and these types of medications take up to four weeks to ‘kick in,’ many suicidal patients can not view those routes of treatment as viable options. “So is it crazy for me to be in this space? I think it’s crazy for me not to be in that space,” Dr. Newsom points out. “If I have the capacity to work with people at that level – and I’m not the only catcher in the rye here – but I can provide an intervention that at least buys some time so that these people can continue treatment with a therapist and psychiatrist.”
Photo by Jay Galvan
Patients’ experiences with ketamine are, simply put, spiritual. As an inherently ineffable experience that evades description, it’s hard to explain what the psychedelic accomplishes, but Dr. Newsom doesn’t ask that her patients believe in anything or practice any religion. She only asks that they go into the treatment with an open mind and an understanding that the medication works on conscious and unconscious levels of the psyche.
Drawing from her psychoanalysis studies, she describes every person as having an ego that guides the persona that we present to the world, and a connection between that ego and a Higher Power, or Higher Self, that is larger than the ego. Throughout our lives, the connection between the ego and the Higher Power becomes clouded with trauma, life experiences, and pain. As we lose this connection we begin to experience distress and pain in the form of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, and the ego becomes bigger and bigger as a result, creating a viscous cycle. When a patient introduces Metis into this psychological plane, it can function to clean up the muddled connection between the Higher Power and the ego.
“The ego becomes right-sized and finally is able to realize that it does have this connection with something larger. That’s the description that I give to people, but it’s also something that I have commonly told back to me – “Sheila, I don’t know how this happened, but I just feel connected to something larger.” Well, that’s a right-sized ego and a relationship with something larger, and that’s the best way to describe it,” Dr. Newsom explains.
With this connection reestablished, the painful symptoms may disappear, and a sturdy foundation is laid that the patient can use to go forward and build a happy and meaningful life. “I think that’s what’s at the core of what I’m offering, is this essence that seems to be helpful in very specific mental and medical conditions, especially those that are refractory to treatment with talk therapy – that deep depression, suicidal ideation, and trauma – and this essence works in that spiritual or deeper realm to open up some crease at that deeper level, and something moves in,” Dr. Newsom explains. “I call it spirit, and we’ve named the medicine Metis because there is a wisdom behind this treatment – there is a force greater than just me and the patient that’s participating in this exchange.”
Dr. Newsom admits that it’s hard to describe, but the results in her patients are undeniable. “The Metis provides a psychic change,” Dr. Newsom explains, enabling patients to not only survive, but thrive in the wake of their healing work. “The major thing is – let’s try to find a way to help us live life more fully,” she says, describing a healing that creates a more authentic relationship between the inner and outer, the conscious and unconscious, and the ideal self and lived experience so that “the soul is in rhythm.”
Finding this rhythm is especially important for the entrepreneur who is hoping to effect positive change in the world through their work. An entrepreneur herself, Dr. Newsom understands that innovators make difficult decisions everyday, and her number one piece of advice for other founders is to make sure that their actions are coming from a place of love rather than fear.
“Don’t do anything out of fear. Do it based on deeper wisdom, a deeper reasoning. Once you’re trapped in that fear and you make that decision, then inevitably there will be a consequence,” she cautions, saying that fear-based decisions create a “foundation that is never solid enough to last.”
Instead, she encourages entrepreneurs to get in tune with their Higher Power or Higher Self. “There’s such a creativity in each of us, and we forget that each of us holds this seed of something larger,” she says, encouraging founders to be motivated by hope and love instead of fear.
Another suggestion she has for everyone, entrepreneur or otherwise, is to get comfortable with change and rather than resisting it, let it make you a better, kinder person. “We’re all in transition. I didn’t go through this gender transition until later in life and the main thing that I’ve learned is that all of us are in some form of transition,” Dr. Newsom shares. She encourages everyone to embrace change and grow through it rather than be afraid of it, saying, “The one thing that I have been gifted with going through this is a sense of compassion. We’re desperately seeking an open-heartedness filled with compassion that helps us look for the best in each other.”
As we process last year’s changes and face the inevitable transitions approaching, let’s all try to keep an open heart and make decisions from a place of love and compassion, striving to connect with something larger than ourselves everyday.
Written by Catherine Casem
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