Hidden Gems: Meet Lisa McJunkin of Daydream MD Integrative Health & Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa McJunkin.

Hi Lisa, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.  
Daydream MD Integrative Health & Wellness was founded in February 2022 by Dr. Arsalan Azam, a board-certified emergency medicine physician. During his ER shifts, Dr Azam encounters countless patients suffering from psychiatric conditions and victims of fragmented, inconsistent treatment that would greatly benefit from comprehensive, outpatient care. The introduction of psychedelic-assisted therapy to help “treatment-resistant” conditions is disappointingly underutilized and financially inaccessible to many in our communities. The Daydream MD care model was born in the spirit of safely pulling the field of psychology ahead and improving continuity of care. 

Dr. Azam and Registered Nurse (soon to be board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner; we are very proud of him) Sam Schulze spent the better part of a year collaborating with various therapists and providers in the community to help address the growing need for accessible ketamine therapy that was focused not on the medication alone, but on employing ketamine administration as a means to advance the effectiveness with therapy. The duo began working with innovative clinicians like Wilhelmina de Castro, LCSW, owner/founder of Integrate Evolve, and now Interim Executive Director of Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), to form an access group for the LGBTIA+ community that was sponsored with funding from Thank You Life, a non-profit organization focused on eliminating financial barriers to psychedelic therapy. In working with Shayna Kelleher, LCSW, a certified and exceptionally skilled ketamine-assisted psychotherapist, I gained a further understanding of the impact of set and setting needed for guided cognitive reprocessing. Katie Laroe-Higgs, LCSW, introduced the Daydream MD team to working with special forces veterans and their family members, which now extends to all veterans, first responders, and front-line personnel struggling with the weight of post-COVID-19 burnout. “Katie is beyond her years in wisdom, and her down-to-earth approach, steeped in trauma recovery and spiritual expansion, is truly unique,” quotes Dr. Azam. I came into the picture as a complex trauma recovery therapist providing psychedelic integration services, originally planning to help offer integration retreat experiences. When I started talking with Dr Azam, I saw the potential this clinic had for truly breaking the medical-behavioral health barrier that exists in California, and I got really excited! From its inception, Daydream MD has been an incubator for community providers to pivot from the currently accepted and often ineffective standard of care. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
This question makes me chuckle a little. I’m not sure you would find any new business owner who found the first three years “nothing but smooth sailing.” The struggles have certainly pushed us to innovate on a different level, kind of like a continuous gratitude exercise, in retrospect. 

When you are offering non-standard therapy practices like psychedelic-assisted therapies, integrative psychiatry services, and a collaborative treatment model of medical and mental health providers under one roof that actually work together to offer you a comprehensive treatment plan, you bear the burden of public education on why this approach is more effective than what people have been used to receiving in our standard western medical model of symptom-focused treatment. 

The research on psychedelic therapies over the last ten years is all over the map, with little emphasis on identifying who is best for what approach. Often the number of study participants is considered too low to be statistically valid, there’s a great deal of variance in the treatment approaches, there is a high burden of ethical consideration around clinical trials with high-risk populations, and this is all rather “cutting edge” to the field of psychology that has some archaic models in practice. 

The biggest battle thus far is more a tedious one of learning to play ball on the field we have in place. To be truly committed to being an accessible practice to many of our community members versus solely the affluent crowd, we needed to figure out how to accept insurance payment for services while still providing our high standard of care using a multiple highly skilled provider model. That is the gratitude practice on my plate at the moment. It is our plan to offer insurance-covered services to our members in the next 3 months. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Daydream MD, we are committed to transforming lives through an integrated approach to mental health and well-being. We combine evidence-based therapy, psychiatry, and functional medicine concurrently with cutting-edge psychedelic-assisted therapy services to offer comprehensive care that empowers individuals on their journey towards healing and recovery. 

Our mission is to provide compassionate and personalized treatment guided by the latest research and informed by the unique needs of each individual. We believe in the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy as a powerful tool for addressing deep-seated trauma, facilitating profound healing experiences. Through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates traditional and innovative modalities, we strive to foster holistic wellness, resilience, and growth in our members. 

We are dedicated to creating a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment where individuals can explore their inner worlds, heal past wounds, and cultivate greater meaning and fulfillment in their lives. At Daydream MD, we are not just treating symptoms; we are empowering individuals to reclaim their lives and unlock their full potential. 

A note on the potential benefits of ketamine therapy services, specifically, in addition to neurobiological antidepressant properties, the subjective ketamine therapy experience can help facilitate therapeutic breakthroughs. Medicine sessions are meaningful experiences during which patients experience reduced ego defenses, a sense of connectedness, and a dissolution of the barrier between conscious and subconscious that can facilitate accelerated therapeutic progress. The multifactorial effects of ketamine (improved mood + reduced ego defenses + increased neuroplasticity) combined with expert therapy can foster and cement transformations in the lives of our members. 

Most drugs developed in the last 50 years for anxiety and depression focus on serotonin modulation. Ketamine mental health treatment represents an entirely novel approach because it’s active at a number of different receptors. This work is currently paving the way for other psychedelic therapies, such as synthesized versions of MDMA and psilocybin, which we will see legally available in the near future. 

Our treatment team will meet with you to assess your psychosocial and medical history. During these assessments, they’ll learn what you hope to address as part of your ketamine therapy journey. As part of the assessment, your team will create a customized plan of care to facilitate your transformation. Optimum ketamine therapy combines intensive talk therapy complemented by music, mindful movement, and engagement with nature to facilitate greater insight and awareness. During ketamine therapy, ego defenses may relax and help you become “unstuck.” 

Whether you choose us or another mental health care team, we implore you to ask questions about your integrative comprehensive care plan, with considerations for your mind, body, emotions, and soul for sustainable recovery. At Daydream MD Integrative Health & Wellness we are happy to be a part of your healing journey forward, and you are welcome to schedule a free consultation session today. 

What matters most to you?
As a California state licensed provider and fellow gatekeeper of mental health diagnosing, I have always found concern in providing a label with no healing plan. Someone diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), per DSM-V diagnostic standards, will not have a remission or resolution of symptoms. It is generally accepted that, once diagnosed with PTSD, this is a forever condition. Clients and their loved ones are educated to accept that their lives will necessitate isolation from triggering people and situations to manage their symptoms. I call bullshit. For generations, across tribes and continents, humans have moved and healed trauma energy. Contradictory to our Western medical model, these traditions do not solely rely on our brains to understand, process, and move stuck energy. The reliance on our brains to accurately challenge and replace unhelpful perceptions, in many traditions, is the least emphasized for healing. From an expanded avenue of healing, our brains will typically be more agreeable challenging previously held beliefs if our other parts (body, emotions, and spirit) are also being attended to. If you are no longer concerned by if you can heal but how do I heal, the realm of possibility and the unknown is more tolerable. 

Experiencing stuck energy is a natural human state, and so is the ability to discharge this energy. The goal is all four parts aligned: mind, body, emotions, and soul. Once all parts are aligned, the natural healing process becomes intuitive. There are many avenues to engage your self-healing abilities, from breathwork to movement exercises to use of various medicines; all involve focused awareness and discipline to connect with each of these parts even when we feel barriers. 

Each of us has parts of ourselves we rely on, whether it’s racing thoughts in our brains, really intense body sensations, reliance on gut feelings, being of service to others or giving over to a higher power for assistance. The initial task is to create a shared vision that meets the initial needs of all four parts. For some of us, this will be our first time checking in with certain parts of ourselves, let alone giving them a seat at the table. So, the only rule is: Be gentle with yourself. This is an evolutionary practice of skill, not a race. 

Pricing:

• Individual & Couple’s Therapy- starting at $120/hr
• Integrative Psychiatry Services -starting at $330/hr
• New Member Oral Ketamine Treatment Package $700
• Existing Member Group Ketamine Treatments $230/session
• Existing Member Individual Ketamine Treatments $490/session

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.daydreammd.com/
• Instagram: day_dreammd