SABI Specialist Series: Registered Psychologist Jodey Sharman BSc, MA
An ongoing series that highlights the specialists who make up the multidisciplinary team behind the SABI Mind Method.
Jodey Sharman is an experienced psychologist who likes to say, “my clients get better,” whatever getting better might mean to them. She believes in partnering with clients in a healing relationship where client and therapist both bring essential wisdom and perspective to change focussed work. Jodey trained initially as an Occupational Therapist and went to graduate school at City University later in life to become a psychologist.
She has developed and worked in a wide variety of treatment programs for adults and seniors in public and private health care. She feels privileged to join SABI Mind to bring her skills in trauma therapy, spiritual emergence, and her love of the creativity and magic of healing together in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Accelerated Resolution Therapy is one therapy tool that brings the magic, and Jodey is providing this at SABI MIND to help clients resolve distressing symptoms and assist in preparation and integration.
"What role does your specialization play in our healing phases at SABI Mind?"
Jodey - Psychology and the mental health team play a crucial role in helping clients prepare for their Ketamine treatments so they feel safe, have realistic expectations, and have the most helpful mindset prior to their journeys. Integration therapy, which occurs after Ketamine treatment, is like mining for meaningful gold in the sometimes confusing and overwhelming landscape of a psychedelic journey.
We don't want the journey to become a memory of an experience; instead, we want it to become a catalytic event that helps the client make changes in themselves, their symptoms, and their lives. The psychedelic experience can raise many questions that integration therapy and behavioral change can answer over time.
I think we help clients get ready to leave Sabi Mind at the end of their treatment, looking forward to continued integration and life changes, feeling that they have been "unstuck."
We also assess problems and symptoms, identify therapy needs, plan with the client how to meet these needs as part of a discharge, and follow up plan with other treatment providers and healers.
“What advantage does the SABI Mind Multidisciplinary approach provide to clients?"
Jodey - I think the team provides clients with a feeling of safety that they are in capable, competent hands when they come to the program. A client once told me that she researched clinics, and our health care team's credentials helped her decide to go to Sabi Mind.
She said she felt safe with our team. We have team members with a broad range of life and healthcare experiences and a wealth of knowledge for the team to draw on. Clients can feel they will find a good fit here with team members. We are each specialists in our areas of healthcare and complement each other well when planning for client needs as they go through their journeys.
"Why choose SABI Mind as a place to work given your specialization?”
Jodey - Psychedelic Assisted Therapy has so much potential for recovery, healing, and growth for clients who have not benefited enough from standard treatments. It's inspiring to see the changes clients go through as their suffering decreases, symptoms improve, and they discover the capacity to make changes in themselves and their lives that they have longed for. The exploratory spiritual, creative ways of working with clients to help them make meaning of their journeys in ways that explain their symptoms and support significant changes are different for each client. KAP is a catalyst for therapeutic and life changes.
