WholeMind Healing Pathways

For over 30 years, Julie searched for a way to heal. As a single mother from Chino Valley and a survivor of childhood trauma and domestic abuse, she had spent decades in therapy—CBT, DBT, EMDR, and most recently IFS—hoping to break free from the constant anxiety, depression, and symptoms of PTSD that shaped her life. Despite the effort, something always felt missing. "I felt like I needed to go deeper than I could with therapy," she shared. "It never felt like enough."

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Julie came to WholeMind Healing Pathways through a recommendation from her therapist, who recognized that she was ready for a new path forward. At 50 years old, she found herself disconnected from her emotions-- “I didn’t feel emotions anymore. I felt angry and sad, and nothing else. I was just surviving.” Reflecting on life before ketamine treatment, she said, “I was living in fear all of the time. I had become a hermit and didn’t want to let people in.”

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Everything began to shift when her therapist recommended WholeMind Healing Pathways. Through ketamine treatment with integration, Julie finally accessed the healing space she had been seeking for so long. “It was the ketamine and integration together, both of them,” she said. “Ketamine allowed me to feel ok when I felt sadness, and I could feel all the other emotions again too.” Ketamine allowed Julie to revisit painful memories safely, without becoming overwhelmed. “It wasn’t scary to go there anymore. I could sit with my emotions instead of stuffing them down or dissociating. I feel like I can breathe now.”

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Julie further explained, “What made the biggest difference was how ketamine gave me space in my thought processes,” she said. “I used to feel fear and react with anger. Now, I have a pause button between what I feel and how I respond.” That shift was so significant that her own son noticed. “He said, ‘You’re not angry anymore.’ That meant everything to me.”

She began to emerge from the shell she had built to protect herself. No longer a hermit, Julie started exploring new experiences and building new friendships. She found herself communicating more openly with her kids. And—perhaps most remarkably—she was able to stop all of her psychiatric medications for the first time since she was 16.

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“I’m kinda shocked,” she laughed. “I realized I don’t need them anymore. I’m just going with it. I’m good.”

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When asked what she wishes she had known before starting treatment, she simply said:
“I just wish I had known sooner. I wish I had had this years ago.”

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Julie now looks forward to continuing her healing journey—growing as a mother, deepening friendships, and embracing life with a renewed sense of possibility.

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To those considering ketamine treatment, she says:
“There’s nothing to lose, and a life to gain. I would highly recommend it.”

 

Julie received a scholarship through the WholeMind Foundation.

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Her healing was made possible in part thanks to generous donations from our community. When you give to the WholeMind Foundation, you make stories like Julie’s possible.

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Donate now and help someone like Julie reclaim their life.