Daniel Ahlers, MD

MY APPROACH I hold that you already have everything within you necessary for healing. By building a unique and meaningful therapeutic relationship over time and creating an environment that fosters emotional honesty, I aim to help you connect to what is known in the Internal Family Systems model as your "Self". During our sessions, you will be encouraged to notice your thoughts, feelings, body sensations, fleeting fantasies, and whatever other parts of yourself you notice arising in the moment. I view my role in the healing process as similar to that of a wilderness guide. As we embark on this journey, I will use my experience with the process of exploring to be of assistance; however, I have never been to your unique wilderness, so what we will discover is a mystery for us both! Our main duty is to face what we find on the path with curiosity and compassion, so that your innate healing capacity may flourish. My approach is eclectic and draws from a variety of theoretical frameworks. Medications are often an important part of mental health treatment. However, according to my clinical experience and study of the available scientific evidence, I have found that medications are rarely sufficient on their own to treat the complexities of human suffering, and are rarely a long-term solution. I believe that I can best help people by approaching the whole person- including biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual factors. We will decide together whether a medication is right for you by weighing the potential risks and benefits along with an exploration of what the act of taking a medication means to you. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is a powerful modality to assist the healing process, and I have years of experience practicing and teaching other clinicians about this modality. I am knowledgeable in non-ordinary states of consciousness and understand the importance of integration work- whether or not we're working with ketamine directly, I am happy to provide a space to process and weave these profound experiences into our everyday mindset in order to promote psychospiritual wholeness. Although carrying a specific diagnosis is not necessary for treatment, I often work with those who have been diagnosed with conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, substance abuse, and personality disorders. Others prefer to think beyond the medical model of traditional psychiatric diagnosis and seek my services to: --Explore how the past affects us in the present --Learn about and practice mindfulness and meditation --Gain a psychological understanding of spiritual experiences --Discuss how dreams can meaningfully be integrated into waking life --Get in touch with creativity --Heal from religious trauma --Work through relationship struggles including non-monogamy and LBGTQ+ matters. EDUCATION AND TRAINING I earned my medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 2015 and completed residency training in general psychiatry at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in 2019. I went on to complete the Level 1 Internal Family Systems Therapy Training at the IFS Institute, the Certificate for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.