Held Between Worlds Podcast

What can three ketamine experiences reveal about personal growth, perspective, and the meaning we give to life's challenges?

Macy joins Shandell Pino and Dr. Nathan Unkefer on Held Between Worlds to share her personal journey with Connections Ketamine & Healing.

After seeking a different way to process personal struggles, Macy completed three ketamine sessions over an extended period, taking time between treatments to reflect on her experiences and apply what she learned.

She describes three remarkably different psychedelic journeys, from becoming part of a flowing river to exploring a computer-like universe and navigating a pirate ship through space.

One experience in particular stayed with her. After watching important people and things in her life disappear during a vision, Macy worked through the experience during integration and began reconsidering what she gives meaning to in her everyday life.

The discussion also explores the importance of setting intentions, allowing the psychedelic experience to unfold, individualized treatment schedules, and the combination of medical care and emotional support.

Macy reflects on the personal growth she experienced in the months following treatment and the insights she continues to carry forward.

Her story offers an individual perspective on ketamine therapy and psychedelic integration. Experiences and treatment outcomes vary.

Subscribe to Held Between Worlds for more conversations exploring healing, personal growth, and the evolving world of psychedelic medicine.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing at https://connectionsketamine.com

What actually happens when someone decides to begin ketamine therapy?

Shandell Pino and Dr. Nathan Unkefer walk through the Connections Ketamine & Healing process from the initial medical evaluation and preparation call through treatment day, monitoring, support, recovery, and integration afterward.

Preparation includes understanding what ketamine may feel like, discussing mindset and intentions, creating a comfortable environment, and establishing support preferences before entering the psychedelic experience. Nathan handles the medical evaluation, dosing, administration, vital signs, and medical monitoring, while Shandell focuses on preparation, relaxation, support throughout the experience, observations, and integration.

They also explain why consent and physical support are discussed beforehand, how the two-stage dosing process works, what happens when someone doesn't want to continue with a second injection, and why patients are given time to naturally come out of the experience.

The process continues after the session through integration and, when appropriate and authorized by the patient, collaboration with an existing therapist. Shandell also explains an important distinction: integration can help someone explore and make meaning from the experience, while deeper therapeutic work remains within the therapist's role.

Subscribe to Held Between Worlds for more conversations exploring healing, personal growth, and the evolving world of psychedelic medicine.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing at connectionsketamine.com

Lisa traveled from Ohio to Utah feeling stuck and looking for a meaningful change in her life. A year later, she reflects on what emerged from her ketamine treatments, what continued to evolve afterward, and the insights that still influence her today.

Her experience brought unexpected themes to the surface: the pressure to constantly be doing something, worrying about what other people think, experimenting with different expressions of identity, and becoming more open to new directions in life.

Lisa also shares what ketamine treatment actually felt like for her, including the psychedelic experience itself, the physical recovery afterward, the importance of feeling safe with her providers, and the role that preparation, set, setting, and integration played throughout the process.

Shandell Pino and Dr. Nathan Unkefer explore the different ways Lisa made sense of those experiences, from emotional and spiritual interpretation to medical safety and the science surrounding ketamine treatment.

Her story also offers an important reminder about intention: someone can enter psychedelic treatment with specific goals while unexpected themes may surface and become meaningful areas for continued reflection and integration.

A year later, Lisa doesn't describe herself as an entirely different person. She describes having more room to release pressure, care less about outside judgment, explore new possibilities, and ultimately feel more like herself.

Subscribe to Held Between Worlds for thoughtful conversations exploring ketamine, psychedelic medicine, mental health, integration, and the intersection of science and spirituality.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing at www.connectionsketamine.com

Science can explain what ketamine is doing in the brain. Spirituality offers another framework for exploring the meaning, emotions, and personal experiences that can arise during psychedelic work.

Shandell Pino and Dr. Nathan Unkefer come from very different backgrounds. One naturally gravitates toward plant medicine, intuition, energy, and spiritual traditions. The other approaches healing through medicine, research, physiology, and clinical evidence.

Working together has required curiosity from both sides.

They discuss the divide between natural and pharmaceutical medicine, trust in scientific evidence, generations of plant medicine traditions, the subjective nature of psychedelic experiences, and the role integration can play after treatment.

Their different perspectives ultimately raise a larger question: what becomes possible when science and spirituality are both given space within the healing process?

Subscribe to Held Between Worlds for thoughtful conversations exploring ketamine, psychedelic medicine, mental health, and the intersection of science and spirituality.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing at connectionsketamine.com

“Today is a good day.”

Those words became a recurring part of Taylor’s life after beginning his work with Connections Ketamine & Healing.

As the first guest on Held Between Worlds, Taylor shares his experience as a patient, including what brought him to ketamine therapy, the concerns he had going into treatment, the experiences that stayed with him, and the work he continued doing between sessions.

A major part of Taylor’s story is the intention he brought into the process. He was clear that he wanted change, stayed engaged with what came up during treatment, and put real effort into the integration work that followed.

Shandell Pino and Dr. Nathan Unkefer reflect on that dedication, the relationships they developed while working together, and the difference they saw as Taylor continued moving through the process.

Months after completing his initial treatments, Taylor sits down with the people who supported him to share what the journey has meant in his own life.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing:
connectionsketamine.com

Individual experiences with ketamine treatment vary. Taylor’s story reflects his personal experience and should not be interpreted as a guarantee of results.

Most people researching ketamine therapy focus on one question:

Does it work?

At Connections Ketamine & Healing, we believe there's a much more important question:

What happens before, during, and after the medicine?

In the very first episode of Held Between Worlds, Dr. Nathan Unkefer and psychedelic integration specialist Shandell Pino share the stories that brought them together and explain why they created a different kind of ketamine practice.

They discuss their personal journeys into healing, the importance of preparation and integration, why they chose to provide treatment in patients' homes, and the philosophy that guides every experience they facilitate.

This conversation introduces the heart of Connections Ketamine & Healing and the belief that lasting transformation comes from supporting the whole person—not just providing the medicine.

If you're curious about ketamine therapy, psychedelic integration, or a more compassionate approach to mental health, this episode is the perfect place to begin.

Learn more about Connections Ketamine & Healing:

https://www.connectionsketamine.com/