Held.
A Three-Month KAP Program for Mothers
Three ketamine sessions. Three Months. One circle of women who witness together
WHY KETAMINE — AND WHY FOR MOTHERS?
Ketamine has been used safely in medical settings for decades. In recent years it has become one of the most promising tools in mental health treatment — particularly for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and grief that has not responded fully to conventional therapy or medication.
Here is why it works. The brain has patterns — grooves worn deep by years of the same thoughts, the same responses, the same loops. Traditional therapy works within those patterns, gradually over time. Ketamine works differently. It temporarily quiets the part of the brain responsible for rumination and self-criticism and creates a window of neuroplasticity — a period where the brain is more open to new connections, new perspectives, new ways of relating to old pain.
For mothers specifically, this matters. The mental health challenges of the perinatal period — postpartum depression and anxiety, birth trauma, pregnancy loss, the identity disruption of becoming a mother — are not always fully reached by talk therapy alone. Ketamine creates a different door.
What participants describe is not dramatic or disorienting — it is quieter than that. A loosening. Spaciousness where there was tightness. Access to something that had felt unreachable.
The medicine alone is not the treatment. What makes ketamine-assisted psychotherapy different is the therapeutic container around it — the preparation, the presence of a trained clinician throughout, and the integration afterward. That is where the meaning is made. That is where the shift becomes lasting.
What Held Is
We were never meant to do this alone. We were meant to grieve in community, to mother in community, to crumble and be caught and find our way back — together. Somewhere along the way that got lost.
We cannot bring the village back. But we can give you a room, a few months, and a small circle of people holding space together.
Held is a group ketamine-assisted psychotherapy program for mothers navigating postpartum mental health, pregnancy loss, birth trauma, and the profound identity shifts that come with becoming and being a parent. A small, carefully held cohort of six to eight moves through preparation, medicine sessions, and integration together — in real relationship with each other, over time.
This is not a support group. It is a therapeutic program. But the group container — being genuinely known by others, without explanation or performance — becomes one of the most powerful parts of the healing.
Motherhood is one of the most profound identity shifts a human being can go through. And our culture gives it almost no room. No language. No ritual. No permission to grieve. Held is the room.
Held is offered through Catalyst Insight Collective in St. Anthony, MN, with full medical supervision by Dr. Shawn Olson, MD. The next cohort runs January through March 2027. All nine group sessions are $1,050 self-pay. Intake and medical evaluation are billable to insurance — total out-of-pocket for everything is $1,500. Reach out to learn more.
Who Held Is For
Held is for mothers. All of them.
You do not need to be postpartum, have a specific diagnosis, or have exhausted every other option. If you consider yourself a mother — in any season, on any path — you are welcome here.
Depression, anxiety, grief, overwhelm, burnout, identity loss, the slow erosion of knowing who you are outside of what you give to others — all of it belongs here.
You may be a good fit if you:
Consider yourself a mother, in any season of motherhood
Are experiencing depression, anxiety, grief, burnout, or general emotional difficulty
Are ready for something that works at a deeper level
Are able to commit to the full arc of the program
Are medically stable and able to participate in group and full-day sessions
Feel ready to be genuinely known by a small circle of women
A medical evaluation with our supervising physician is required before participation. The ketamine portion requires a qualifying diagnosis — standard depression, anxiety, and adjustment diagnoses are appropriate. If you are not sure whether you qualify, reach out. The answer is often yes.
Healing in isolation has limits. The wounds of motherhood are often relational wounds — the loss of community, the absence of village, the experience of doing something profound and exhausting largely alone.
A group container does something individual therapy cannot. When another mother names exactly what you have never been able to say — something shifts in the nervous system. You are no longer alone in it. The shame loosens. The grief has witnesses.
In Held the group is not incidental to the healing — it is central to it. The relationships built across three months, the experience of being genuinely known by a small circle of women, the safety of being witnessed and held — these become part of the medicine themselves.
Why the Group Matters?
How the Program Unfolds
THREE MONTHS OF REAL WORK
TThe Village Within moves through three phases, repeated once a month over the course of three months. Each month follows the same arc — preparation, medicine, integration — so that every cycle builds on the last and the work deepens over time.
1) GROUP PREPARATION SESSION
The cohort meets together before each medicine session to prepare — building on the trust and connection already established, revisiting or refining intentions, and making sure everyone feels grounded and ready going in. These sessions deepen as the program progresses. By the third month, you will know these women well.
2) THE MEDICINE SESSION
A medically supervised ketamine session with Dr. Shawn Olson. Olivia is present throughout — providing grounding, therapeutic support, and attuned presence. Each session builds on the integration work from the month before.
3) GROUP INTEGRATION
After each medicine session, the cohort comes back together to process what arose — with the same women who were in the room. This is where insights land, where meaning gets made, and where a lot of the lasting change actually happens.
Over three months, that means:
3 group preparation sessions
3 medically supervised ketamine sessions
3 group integration sessions
** Optional individual check-ins with Olivia woven throughout *
Nine touchpoints in total, held within a container that gets stronger every month.
For Referring Providers
For Referring Providers
Held was designed with referral partnerships in mind. If you are working with a mother — at any stage of motherhood, not limited to the perinatal period — who has not achieved sufficient relief through therapy or medication alone, The Village Within may be an appropriate next step or adjunct to your existing care.
Appropriate referrals include clients who:
Are a mother at any stage — not limited to the perinatal period — experiencing depression, anxiety, grief, burnout, adjustment disorder, relational stress, or general mood disruption
Carry a qualifying diagnosis — this does not need to be perinatal-specific; standard mood and anxiety diagnoses are appropriate
Are medically stable with no active psychosis, mania, or uncontrolled substance use
Have engaged in some prior therapeutic or psychiatric treatment
Are ready for a sustained commitment — three months of group work requires genuine readiness
Express interest in or openness to an experiential or medicine-assisted approach
A note on diagnosis: Held is intentionally accessible. Clients do not need a formal PMAD diagnosis to participate. Depression, generalized anxiety, adjustment disorder, burnout, and related presentations are all appropriate. If you are unsure whether a client qualifies, please reach out directly — Olivia is happy to consult before a formal referral.
Clinical team:
Therapist: Olivia Mackley, MA, LMFT, PMH-C
A second clinically licensed Mental Health Therapist present throughout
Supervising Physician: Dr. Shawn Olson, MD, MPH, DipABLM, FAIHM
Setting: Catalyst Insight Collective, Saint Anthony, MN
To refer a client or request more information:
✉️ olivia@catalystinsightcollective.com
For a professional referral one-pager and informational flier click below
