Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Campbell.
Hi Anna, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m Anna, trauma therapist, psychedelic therapist, and yogi, originally from Colleyville, TX but I’ve now lived in Austin for over 11 years and built my practice here. I have been a licensed psychotherapist since 2017, and I have been specializing in my passion, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy since 2020.
I began my career after graduating from LSU with a bachelors in psychology and from St. Edward’s University with a master of arts in Counseling by working as an associate in an inpatient psychiatric hospital here in Austin. This inpatient hospital was my first real-world experience in the therapy world, and it was brutal. I was leading group therapy for patients who had been admitted for acute mental health crises, such as attempted suicide, psychosis, and substance abuse among other things. I became quite resilient as a mental health professional and I would say even good at working with folks who were in their darkest hour. I often counseled people on the worst day of their lives, and collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of doctors and nurses to provide life-saving care. It was both one of the most meaningful, and exhausting phases of my life. The “rapid readmits” – patients who would respond well to treatment, discharge with optimism, then quickly land back in the hospital in a worse off state – particularly pulled at my heart strings. As an empath, I poured everything into supporting the folks I could, and felt disappointment when it seemed we (the hospital staff) had “failed” them as a system. I would eventually go on to notice a disheartening trend in the population of patients who were rapidly readmitted to the hospital for psychiatric reasons – a review of these patients’ charts would show a couple similarities. (1) They typically were enduring “treatment-resistant” mood disorders i.e. a disorder that hadn’t responded to multiple rounds of traditional psych meds from various classes, and (2) They ALL had trauma in their histories.
The intersection of trauma history and biological med-resistance equaled a bleak treatment outlook – that was my interpretation of this data. I was beginning to become disillusioned already as a brand new therapist as I could easily see where our systems as a society fail to address trauma, and fail to provide access to integrative and alternative treatments for med-resistance in traditional psych clinics/hospitals. Enter psychedelic therapy.
It was at this crossroads in 2019 when I became connected with Transcend Health Solutions, a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic in Austin, TX. The more I learned about this clinic’s groundbreaking model of integrative mental health care that leveraged a then-novel use of ketamine for off-label psychiatric indications as an adjunct to the psychotherapeutic process led by a licensed therapist, the more I realized this was a solution to the pain points I had been witnessing and struggling with at the hospital. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, but has off-label use as a rapid-acting antidepressant and is particularly efficacious for treatment-resistant mood disorders. Transcend’s model of KAP combined psychotherapy and this medication, and also included comprehensive support in the form of preparatory sessions, integration therapy sessions, and lifestyle/nutrition coaching. I immediately noted that the patient population seen for KAP is a population of folks in high distress, suicidal, or typically experiencing acute crises – just like the folks I was seeing at the hospital. They were also typically folks who had come in at the “end of their rope” and desperate because they felt they had tried every traditional treatment or medicine under the sun for their mental health issues – just like the folks at the hospital. And lastly, I noted that upwards of 80% of the folks coming in for KAP had endorsed experiencing a traumatic event(s) – just like the folks at the hospital. And what I was seeing, was that these folks who had tried everything and seemingly been failed by the traditional mental health system, were having exceptional, notable, and almost unbelievable rapid positive treatment responses. They were getting better. Measurably, and reliably, evidenced by the data. I knew immediately I would pivot my career to be a part of this. I had to be involved. The idea of solving a systemic problem with my individual, boots-on-the-ground efforts in an industry-leading clinic quietly saving lives right in the heart of central Austin ignited a sense of purpose in me that still burns to this day. I had a better way to help people who had fallen through the cracks.
I left the hospital systems, completed KAP training, started my private practice, and began partnering with Transcend Health Solutions as a KAP therapist. I began specializing in trauma’s effects on the nervous system, and specializing in psychedelic therapies for trauma. This was in 2020, right as COVID was rearranging life as we knew it. Some of my earliest KAP sessions were facilitated during the COVID lockdown, and my patients were first responders like ICU nurses and paramedics who were experiencing vicarious trauma from being on the frontlines of COVID during that time. Now it’s 6 years later, and I have facilitated over 3,000 trauma-informed KAP sessions to date, for folks from Central Texas but also for folks who flew in to Austin specifically to work with Transcend, from other states and even other countries. After years of helping with folks who had been failed by the traditional mental health care system, and seeing them actually progress, I began to hone my personal protocol for trauma-informed ketamine therapy and ended up training other therapists in kind. This protocol centers the nervous system and incorporates several of the gold standard somatic therapy modalities for trauma.
As I began to make a space for myself as a subject-matter expert in psychedelic therapies, I also continued to develop professionally by becoming formally trained in trauma-informed psychedelic therapy and Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration (PHRI) under leading researchers in the field, including Dr. Elizabeth Nielson, and I also traveled to Oregon to complete a year-long program to be a Certified Psilocybin Facilitator in the state of Oregon, where psilocybin services are legal.
Today, i still facilitate 1:1 trauma therapy sessions in my private practice and trauma-informed KAP sessions here in Austin, but I have broadened my focus to now also include training and supervising other fellow therapists. This felt like the natural next step to continue contributing to my purpose of solving the systemic issues with access to integrative and holistic mental health care. More therapists need to be trained in ethical and clinically rigorous methods for working with trauma and working with patients who may be receiving psychedelic therapy. I believe integrative modalities such as this are the future of mental health care in a rapidly changing world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, not a smooth road. Beginning a career as a KAP therapist during COVID lockdown times presented a significant barrier. Everywhere, even clinics, were halfway locked down or had very specific procedures to limit human-to-human contact during this time. When most other therapists were beginning to figure out the whole tech side of becoming a virtual therapist, I was beginning to work in a type of therapy that DEMANDED in-person work. So I had to be in-person all suited up with a face-shield and N95 during therapy, or we had to get very creative with the use of technology to have me pulled up to render therapy on a laptop via Zoom from the other room while a nurse and my patient were in a separate room to limit the amount of people in the small space at a time. We facilitated KAP sessions like this a few times during the initial wave of COVID.
It was also quite difficult to start a private practice as a psychotherapist. Neither my bachelors or masters degree program prepared me to actually run a business. I run a private practice wherein I provide traditional psychotherapy and psychedelic integration therapy, specifically for folks with burnout, trauma, anxiety, insomnia, or chronic stress primarily. One of my specializations is the effects of trauma and stress on the nervous system, so any disorder arising from nervous system dysregulation is something that I treat. Anyway, it gets challenging given the heavy nature of the type of work I specialize in to also wear every hat as a solo practitioner – you must be your own marketing director, your own accountant/bookkeeper, social media manager, etc. all at the same time. But that’s what many therapists in private practice do. I’ve certainly had run-ins with burnout a time or two. But when I get tired, I remind myself of my purpose – to advocate for increased access to integrative and holistic mental health care. And one way I advocate is BE the access – I’ve got to make my practice into the place that our world needs.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Psychotherapy with Anna?
Psychotherapy with Anna is my private practice (www.psychotherapywithanna.com). I am known for providing trauma-informed psychotherapy both virtually and in-person in Austin, TX. I also work with Transcend Health Solutions to offer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for mental health issues. What sets me apart from others are two things, (1) My nervous-system focus and specialized trauma training, which enables me to work with even the most activating subject matter with comfort and safety, and (2) My specialized training in psychedelic medicine. These two things make me a great fit to support folks who may be interested in KAP, folks who have experienced trauma/who have PTSD, and folks who suffer from nervous-system oriented mental health issues including anxiety, somaticized stress, chronic stress, insomnia, attachment issues, etc. I am also known for training and supervising other clinicians in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. What I’m most proud of is bringing empathy and a whole-human focus into psychotherapy. Trauma therapy and KAP both bridge the gap between mind-body, conscious-unconscious content, nature-nurture, and allow space for the whole human with all of their nuance to be seen and supported. I’m also proud of specializing in a modality that offers an alternative to traditional psych meds, as many folks are simply not helped by the traditional methods out there.
Clients can work with me for trauma therapy or KAP sessions in Austin by reaching out on my website. Other psychotherapists or licensed healthcare professionals interested in consultation, supervision, or training on psychedelic therapy can also reach out via my website. I have a peer consultation group for psychedelic therapists that continuously runs as a space for other therapists like me to consult on complex cases and gain support from the psychedelic therapist community, and I am taking on newly graduated associate therapists for supervision beginning this Spring.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Hmm… I’m kind of an open book. I guess people may be surprised to hear that their hippie-presenting therapist came from a sales background prior to opening my practice. My clients would probably find it hard to imagine me as an account executive slinging CRM software, and honestly I find it hard to connect with too haha. That was a previous life. What I do now is far more aligned with who I am as a person – It’s my true purpose.
Pricing:
- $165/50 minute therapy session via my private practice
- $215/80 minute extended therapy session via my private practice. These sessions allow more time for deeper work.
- Pricing for KAP is variable, folks would need to go through the intake process at Transcend to determine their treatment plan and pricing
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.psychotherapywithanna.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychotherapywithanna
- LinkedIn: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/anna-campbell-austin-tx/1487280
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QCKeRQsa6FNzaj0LnB7ml?si=KlzQ5jebTR-XD08vIqsgjg
Image Credits
Joeli Boatright (photographer for headshots)
