Council Organizers

Community partner and host of the Council. 

Sage Institute is a sliding scale clinic that offers psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy (as it becomes legal) to underserved communities in the Bay Area. Sage's priority is to offer high quality, accessible and culturally-sensitive services to individuals from a diversity of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences. Sage Institute is a training clinic, providing rigorous educational programming in depth-oriented psychedelic-assisted therapy through a community-focused, social justice, and trauma-informed lens.  Sage  places  an  emphasis  on  training  therapists  who reflect  the  identities  of  the  communities  we  serve .   

Polaris Insight Center is an integrative psychotherapy and psychiatry clinic in San Francisco specializing in providing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and training. Polaris integrates psychological, biological, socio-political and spiritual/transpersonal elements in its approach to treatment. As an organization Polaris Insight Center strives to value diversity, transparency, trauma-sensitivity, collectivity/collaboration, egalitarianism and environmental sustainability. Most clinicians working at Polaris are trained in both MAPS MDMA-assisted and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy protocols. 

Dr. Richard Louis Miller, M.A., Ph.D., has been a clinical psychologist for more than 50 years. He is host of the syndicated talk radio show, Mind Body Health & Politics. The founder of the nationally acclaimed Cokenders Alcohol and Drug Program, he has been a faculty member at the University of Michigan and Stanford University, an advisor on the President’s Commission on Mental Health, a founding board member of the Gestalt Institute of San Francisco, and a member of the national board of directors for the Marijuana Policy Project. He lives in Fort Bragg and Wilbur Hot Springs, California.

Dr. Genesee Herzberg is a psychologist offering depth psychotherapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, and psychedelic integration in Berkeley. Her approach is relational, somatic, and mindfulness-based, with a social justice lens. She specializes in helping people heal from childhood trauma, cultural trauma, and loss. She is sensitive to the impact of oppressive structures and issues related to race, class, culture, gender and sexual identity. She is co-founder of Sage Integrative Health and executive director of its sister organization, Sage Institute. She is also a sub-investigator and therapist for the MDMA for PTSD clinical trials sponsored by MAPS. 

Dr. Jason Butler is a licensed Psychologist and core faculty member in the Integral Counseling Psychology program at California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also a co-founder and training director at Sage Institute. He maintains a psychotherapy practice in Oakland offering long term depth psychotherapy, psychedelic integration, and ketamine assisted therapy.  He is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and a book entitled Archetypal Psychotherapy: The clinical legacy of James Hillman. He is deeply committed to broadening diversity, accessibility, and theoretical rigor in the field of psychedelic medicine.

Dr. Schwartz earned his Ph.D. (1982) at Emory University and has 35 years of experience in the relationally-oriented treatment of (and consultation on)  complex PTSD, dissociative disorders, and various other psychological and psycho-spiritual challenges. He synthesizes relational psychodynamic, archetypal, and mindfulness perspectives, as well as the integration of NOS and mystical experiences. He is a co-founder and therapist at Polaris Insight Center providing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and he is a sub-investigator and therapist on MDMA/PTSD clinical trials sponsored by MAPS. He is the author of two books on the relational treatment of severe dissociative disorders (Dialogues With Forgotten Voices (2001) and The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep (2013).

Veronika Gold earned her degree in Clinical Psychology at Charles University, Czech Republic, and her MA in Integral Counseling at California Institute of Integral Studies. She has an expertise in the treatment of trauma, specializing in somatic therapy, EMDR, and psychedelic assisted therapies.  Veronika is a facilitator for Humanitarian Assistance Program EMDR trainings. She is a co-founder and therapist at Polaris Insight Center providing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and training, and she is a sub-investigator and therapist on MDMA/PTSD clinical trials sponsored by MAPS.