Cannabis-Friendly Therapy
So you’re using cannabis: friend or foe?
As a licensed cannabis-friendly psychotherapist based in Oakland, CA, I work with individuals who use marijuana but worry about being judged or misunderstood by mental health professionals. Even though cannabis is legal in California, the stigma remains, which can make it frustratingly difficult to find healthcare providers who are well informed about its benefits and risks.
If cannabis is your medicine of choice, and you’re looking for a way to optimize/manage your use or explore your experiences, you’re in the right place! From a well-informed and compassionate place, I can support you in navigating your relationship with cannabis.
Medical Marijuana
Cannabis has been for millennia used to treat a range of medical issues. For some people, cannabis takes the edge off of feelings of anxiety and depression. It can offer that “head-change” that nudges us out of unpleasant states. It can help with sleep and eliminate nightmares. It eases physical pain and nausea associated with chronic or life-threatening illness and chemotherapy.
Some people also feel that cannabis opens them up to deeper levels of creativity, insight, sensation, and connection to nature and music.
Many of the psychological benefits of cannabis go unrecognized by mental healthcare providers. When used in a particular way, cannabis can actually amplify your internal experience, as opposed to numbing or dulling emotion. You can become more aware of tightness or soreness in your body. Emotions are heightened; senses are more acute. You may have access to thoughts, fears and feelings that are normally out of reach. You might even enter a trance-like state and “journey.” In these ways, cannabis can help deepen your connection to yourself. If you’d like to learn more about using cannabis in this way, please visit my article for Psychedelic Support Network here.
“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”
Maybe you like the effect cannabis has on you without knowing why; it just makes you feel better. In other cases, you may be choosing to use cannabis to manage a wide range of possible symptoms and conditions including:
anxiety
depression
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
insomnia
chronic pain
chronic illness
life-threatening illness/cancer/chemotherapy
Navigating the cannabis industry and our healthcare system (especially as a woman) can create extra difficulties. If you're looking for help figuring out how to address and work through your symptoms in a supportive, wholistic, and nonjudgmental atmosphere, reach out. We'll put our minds together to make sure your medicine is working for you, not against you.
Harm Reduction Therapy for Cannabis
It happens. You fell so in love with Miss Cannabis that you’re with her all day every day. You can’t stop. You constantly yearn for the way she makes you feel. It’s become a dependent, or perhaps an abusive, relationship. THC can be difficult to part from. Feelings of anxiety and irritability are common, along with insomnia.
If you’re worried that you may be misusing or abusing cannabis, I can help.
We’ll use a nonjudgmental harm reduction approach as we think together about what’s in your best interest. I can help you develop strategies to maximize benefits and reduce harm, modify your use, or support you in abstinence.
Marijuana is contraindicated for young adults and conditions such as psychosis and bipolar disorder. If I suspect you are at risk of harm from your cannabis use, I will not support your use, and may need to refer you to additional forms of treatment.
Cannabis is complex and powerful
If you’re using cannabis and would like support and help with the symptoms or conditions you’re medicating, want a space to explore your experiences, have concerns or questions about your use, or feel that you may have a substance abuse problem, we can think carefully together about how to best manage your symptoms and overall health.
My approach is non-coercive and collaborative. We'll work together to create a quality of life that best serves you.
To learn about how I can help or support you regarding your use of cannabis, please reach out.
To learn more about what I have to say about cannabis and mental health, please feel free to check out my blog post, or listen to this podcast by Casually Baked.
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