Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Milroy.
Hi Amy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
We (Sal and Amy) are healthcare workers who created Transcendelic, a holistic wellness retreat company that provides a trauma-informed haven of deep healing. Lamentably, much of the healthcare system values quantity over quality and expects healthcare workers to see patients as quickly as possible. It is dehumanizing and wrong. We both experienced burnout and moral injury due to such pressures and injustices, so we created an organization that provides high-quality, personalized care that is thoughtful, never rushed, and centers the mind-body connection. Now, we can take care of people the way we’ve always wanted to and have the privilege to witness profound transformations in people’s lives. We chose the name Transcendelic for our organization because we help people achieve their goals of transcending their trauma, pain, and maladaptive patterns through psychedelics. In both our personal and professional lives, we have witnessed the power of psychedelic medicines, when used in proper sets and settings, to induce profound and lasting changes and help people move towards wholeness. This is our passion project! Together with our talented multidisciplinary team, we provide legal psychedelic-assisted therapy in retreat settings in and around San Diego, coupled with yoga, massage, meditation, breathwork, nature immersion, Qigong, sound healing, excursions, nutritious foods, music, dance, community, and plenty of fun and play. Our approach allows people to heal their deepest emotional wounds in a small fraction of the time that would be required using other methods. Currently, we provide ketamine-assisted therapy, and in the future hope to add other psychedelic medicines as additional ones become legal.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
This is our first time founding a company, so we’ve had to learn fresh skills and take on new roles. I (Amy) am a psychiatric and family nurse practitioner, and Sal is a pulmonary/critical care physician. We didn’t study business, marketing, or human resources in school, but in the process of creating and launching this company, we’ve certainly needed to learn and use lots of knowledge and facets from those and other fields. While building our company, spreading the word about it, and getting connected with prospective retreat participants have been challenging, we are grateful for the opportunities to grow in creativity and flexibility. Additionally, founding a company is very expensive! We have taken on personal debt because of how crucial it is to us to help people and how deeply we believe in the amazing quality of the healing retreats we offer. It is so important to us that our retreats are accessible and inclusive, so we figure out ways to help people in need to attend. So, the biggest challenge right now is finances, but we are hopeful that we will keep building momentum as word spreads about what we offer.
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?
Transcendelic’s mission is transcendence through psychedelic experiences. All of us humans have events and elements in our lives we need and want to transcend, and it’s far faster and easier to do so with the help of the healing modalities we offer. Healing that would take years to accomplish in regular settings can be achieved within days at our retreats. The path from illness and suffering to wellness and flourishing may feel long and arduous, but psychedelic-assisted therapy can skyrocket people’s progress and expedite healing exponentially. We host a variety of holistic wellness retreats that provide a safe and compassionate space and time for healing of mental and physical illness through the use of legal psychedelic medicine. We help people struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, substance use disorder, chronic pain, and more. We offer so many other things at our retreats in addition to psychedelic-assisted therapy, including yoga, connecting with nature, massage and other bodywork, beach mandala art, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, nourishing meals, education about healthy living, time for fun and lightheartedness, etc. Many of our team members are trained in psychedelic-assisted therapy and ketamine-assisted therapy, and most team members have also experienced non-ordinary states of consciousness, whether via psychedelics, meditation, or other methods. We ourselves on the Transcendelic team have greatly benefited from the healing modalities we offer, so we believe in them for personal and professional reasons. We have a diverse team of visionary professionals, including psychotherapists, a Zen Buddhist monk who is a mental health advocate, physicians, a nurse practitioner, massage therapists, a yoga instructor, peer supporters, and a very cute and friendly dog that any dog enthusiast participants at the retreat can hang out with.
We are proud that our retreats center diversity, equity, and inclusion and that we intentionally create spaces that honor people’s identities and histories, uplifting the voices of people who have been historically marginalized. We stand in solidarity with the oppressed and do everything we can to remove financial, logistical, and other barriers to attending our retreats. At each group retreat (listed on our website at https://www.transcendelicretreats.com/transcendelic-group-retreats), we select a minimum of one participant who is provided with a sponsorship, so their program cost is entirely waived. They only pay for their transportation to and from the retreat. We give priority for the Transcendelic sponsorship to those with marginalized identities (for example, BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+), histories of trauma, socioeconomic challenges, etc. Along with all other HIPAA-protected health information, participants’ sponsorship status is kept private from the rest of participants. We also offer tiered early bird pricing, so the earlier you sign up for a retreat, the better the price you will get. While we can’t afford to offer a sponsorship to everyone, with our early bird pricing, we have price points for people living with different financial realities.
Transcendelic retreats are trauma-informed, and in order to tend to people’s emotional wounds, our psychotherapists offer highly effective and often hard-to-find trauma therapies such as Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), inner child work, and more. We have multiple medicine sessions at each retreat so that people can experience psychedelic medicine at different depths, according to their needs and preferences. Having multiple medicine sessions allows people to build cumulatively on the insights and revelations they are receiving. We provide more preparation and integration support than many other psychedelic retreats. We also offer a unique option that is hard to find at other psychedelic therapy retreats: private therapy sessions for individuals, partners, friends, and families to add to the therapeutic processing provided within the general group. Not only do retreat participants receive 24/7 support at the retreats, but for post-retreat care they also have access to ongoing online integration circles for life. When working with psychedelic-assisted therapy, there is so much gained so quickly that insights and changes continue to unfold for a long time afterwards.
Our retreats take place in and near San Diego, which is located on the ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay people. Eventually, we may expand farther north in California or maybe even to other states. But SoCal will always be our home base, as we absolutely adore it. We love sharing California in all its glory with our retreat participants. In addition to ketamine-assisted therapy, we hope to offer other psychedelic medicines in the future as they become legal.
We are so grateful to have benefited from the wisdom of Indigenous peoples, who have used psychedelics traditionally and ceremonially for millennia. We donate a portion of our proceeds to organizations that provide for Indigenous peoples’ needs, including The Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas. We are also grateful to have such an inspiring team of empathetic, visionary professionals, and we love blending science and evidence-based practice with spirituality to help people feel empowered and discover their inner healing intelligence. Partnering with people on their healing journeys is the most fulfilling thing we’ve ever done, and we love watching people move towards the lives they have been yearning for.
How do you define success?
Success is achieving meaningful, beneficial things for yourself, others, and the planet while remaining true to your values and ethics. It means spreading hope and love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.transcendelicretreats.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transcendelic.retreats
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transcendelic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/transcendelic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/transcendelic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@transcendelic
- Other: linktr.ee/transcendelic
Image Credits
Valerie Durham Photography
