Karen Cooper, RN, BSN, MA, has been a Sub-investigator in Therapy Dyad and Project Manager at the Fort Collins MAPS study site since 2016. She was Lead Guide and Clinical Research Nurse for the University of Wisconsin’s Psilocybin Pharmacokinetic Study and served as the study trainer for Usona Institute in Madison, WI from 2013-2016. She has served in various capacities for the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at CIIS, including mentor, guest faculty, admissions and advisor, and helped to launch their inaugural program.
Karen’s Master’s degree in Holistic Health Education at John F. Kennedy University included a focus on transpersonal and somatic psychology; she’s a Licensed Bodyworker and Massage Therapist is certified as a yoga teacher, Reiki and Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, and public health nurse. Some say she is “Wise Woman,” “Medicine Woman,” or a “Healer,” but she self-describes as a Guide helping others to navigate their inner terrain towards cultivating acceptance and tenderness towards self and others. She offers consultation, mentoring, and coaching in private practice to those curious investigating guiding in the research setting, or finding meaning from psychedelic and alternate reality experiences.
Karen’s nursing career spans more than 30 years in acute, community, clinic, research, business, and academic environments serving patients and clients from prenatal to end-of-life, and has supported her love for teaching, science, consciousness, psychology, psychedelics, and spirituality. Her outside interests include gardening, fiber arts, painting, cooking, and exploring the natural beauty and outdoor activities near her home in Northern Colorado with husband Dan Muller and their pup, Zev.
January 27, 2021, in conversation with Elizabeth Willis, PMHNP
Annie Mithoefer, RN, BSN is a Registered Nurse living in Asheville, NC. She was co-investigator on two of the MAPS-sponsored Phase 2 clinical trials for individuals with PTSD and a pilot study treating couples combining MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy for PTSD. She is currently co-investigator in MT1, a protocol allowing MAPS-trained therapists to receive their own MDMA-assisted session, she conducts MAPS Therapist Trainings with her husband, Michael, and is a supervisor for Phase 3 therapists. She is a Grof-certified Holotropic Breathwork Practitioner and is trained in Hakomi Therapy.
February 17, 2021, in conversation with Andrew Penn, PMHNP
Dr Robert Krause graduated from the Yale School of Nursing with his MSN in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing in 1998. In 2017 he received his DNP from Quinnipiac University. He lectured in psychiatry at Yale University in the Nursing and Medical School for twenty years before leaving in 2019. Dr. Krause was an instructor and adjunct assistant professor of philosophy at Western Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University. Currently he precepts for Stony Brook University and is Visiting Faculty at the Graduate institute where he teaches in the Holistic Health and in the Consciousness Studies department.
Currently he is lead therapist and co-author of the treatment manual for the Psilocybin - Induced Neuroplasticity in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder at the Yale School of Medicine. He is also a facilitator and co-researcher in a study of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy using Psilocybin for personal development at Regent’s University in London and taking place in Weert, The Netherlands. He maintains an integrative private psychiatry and therapy practice in New Haven. Dr. Krause has certifications in Trauma Therapy from Harvard University, Psychedelic Assisted Research and Integration ‘2016 and in Sex Therapy ‘2017 from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He studied to be a yoga instructor with Aum Pradesh Guar in Goa, India.
March 24, 2021, in conversation with Wendy Marussich, RN, PhD, PMHNP(c)
Julie D. Megler is a board certified nurse practitioner in psychiatry and family medicine. She received her Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Miami, Florida. After graduating she worked at an emergency room (ER) in Detroit, Michigan. Her ER experience illustrated the gap between medical and psychiatric care, and how the mind/body connection is often ignored. These gaps in care encouraged Julie to pursue a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner certificate at the University of California, San Francisco so she could develop a practice that integrates medicine and mental health.
This path ultimately inspired Julie to co-found Sage Integrative Health, an integrative mental health and wellness center in Berkeley, CA. Sage Integrative Health strives to weave together allopathic and holistic approaches to health incorporating psychedelic assisted therapy as is legal. She is an approved therapist by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) for their upcoming expanded access program using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment resistant PTSD. In addition to her clinical work, Julie has completed the Somatic Experiencing trauma training, is a mentor in the California Institute of Integral Studies Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research program, board member of ERIE (Entheogenic Research, Integration, & Education), has trained in ketamine assisted therapy with KRIYA Institute, and was program director for the Femtheogen Collaborative sponsored by the Riverstyx Foundation. Her current work focuses on ketamine assisted therapy, medication management, somatic therapy, and teaching about psychedelic assisted therapy. She also has spoken at several conferences, facilitated workshops, and co-authored book chapters on the therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines and integration.
April 14, 2021, in conversation with Angela Ward, BSN, RN, CPTR
Sara Gael, MA received her Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University, and soon after Sara began working with MAPS in 2012, coordinating psychedelic harm reduction services at festivals and events worldwide with the Zendo Project. Sara was an Intern Therapist for the recently completed MAPS Phase 2 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in Boulder, CO.
She maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Sara believes that developing a comprehensive understanding of psychedelic medicines through research and education is essential for the health and well being of individuals, communities, and the planet.