Mental Health Champions: Why & How Inna Zelikman Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness
An Interview With Michelle Tennant Nicholson
I continue to engage in psychotherapy to integrate new insights that I have gained through my own psychedelic-assisted therapy. I attend retreats and practice mindfulness as well as staying physically active and spending time in nature. These daily practices support my personal growth and development. Being proactive about my own physical and mental well-being informs me of best practices and treatment approaches when dealing with patients suffering from mental illness. I want to lead by example, so patients can feel inspired to invest in their own care, draw from my knowledge, develop a trust in the process, and gain the necessary skills to help them navigate their own challenges.
As a part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Inna Zelikman.
Inna Zelikman RN, MS, ANP, PMH-NP, is an Integrative Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and the Director for Integrative Mental Health at Recovery Without Walls. For the past 20 years she has been treating patients with substance use disorder, a variety of mental health conditions, and chronic pain. Mrs. Zelikman has completed MDMA psychotherapy training and received her certification as a Psychedelic Practitioner with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). She is certified in Internal Family Systems Level-1 and is currently in the process of completing Innate Somatic Intelligence™ Trauma Therapy Approach (ISITTA) Training. She received her training in Nutritional Medicine through American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM). Since 2020 Mrs. Zelikman has been offering Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) for the treatment of Substance Use Disorder, Major Depression, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, and Chronic Pain.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in Belarus, in the former USSR. My parents come from different cultural backgrounds. My father is Jewish and my mother is Orthodox. Both of my parents are college-educated and well-respected in their community. My father was a director of a fencing center at Dinamo sports club in Belarus and trained fencing at Olympic level. My parents divorced when I was 7, after which my father got remarried. After the fall of the USSR, Jewish people were able to seek political asylum in the United States.
I moved to the US in my late teens. Going through the process of immigration and facing the challenges associated with cultural adaptation, I found myself being driven to succeed academically. I became curious about holistic practices during my undergrad at UMASS Amherst, and had a chance to travel to California to explore the cultural landscape, after which I decided to pursue my master’s degree in nursing at UCSF as Adult Nurse Practitioner. The program had complementary medicine training built into the coursework. At the same time, I started to seek out additional, non-traditional healing modalities. I studied healing touch, reiki, and took a one-year training course in herbal medicine. I also discovered a booming psychedelic scene that led to my early experiences of altered states of consciousness. A few years later I went back to school to pursue a certification program at Johns Hopkins University as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, PMH-NP.
After graduation, I was looking for a job in a work setting that aligned with my values. I found Recovery Without Walls, a practice that is inspired by Eastern philosophy while remaining rooted in advanced Western medical practices. The practice promotes an integrative approach to the treatment of emotional and physical imbalances. The clinic influenced me to further pursue training in functional medicine, which I have continued to incorporate into my practice.
You are currently leading an initiative that is helping to promote mental wellness. Can you tell us a bit more specifically about what you are trying to address?
Working in mental health and addiction has made me very aware of the limitations of our current mental healthcare system. Our view of mental health strongly influences the standards of care. Mental health supports the concept of biological psychiatry and views mental illness as a brain chemistry imbalance. This theory favors the idea that psychiatric medications are the cure to mental illness. In the 1950’s, with the introduction of antipsychotic medications, psychiatry in the US experienced a paradigm shift in treatment of mental health conditions. Practitioners were eager to adopt this medicalized approach into their practice, particularly if this meant they no longer had to spend too much time focusing on psychotherapeutic approaches. As a result, more people became dependent on pharmaceuticals.
This trend has continued for decades, with the pharmaceutical industry investing a large amount of money in the development of psychiatric medications. What was supposed to be a promising treatment to solve mental health problems has become an epidemic of patients who are labeled as “treatment-resistant”.
Unfortunately, there is little attention paid to the personal history or the circumstances that lead to the development of mental health conditions in this model. According to Gregory Bateson, the cause of mental illness is rooted “in the ecology of an individual’s mental experience — the intricate pattern of social relations, culture, and family in which we all move — not just the mind itself”.
In addition, people who experienced a significant trauma are at a higher risk of developing mental illness. When trauma remains unaddressed, it often becomes a chronic condition, which conventional treatments, in turn, often fail to address. Moreover, these medications can further disrupt the body’s natural ability to heal even when supportive treatments are offered.
I feel the need to advocate for better pharmacological and nutritional approaches that promote healing and restore an organism’s ability to self-regulate. This treatment strategy will unlock body’s inner healing intelligence or innate capacity to heal. In this optimal environment and in a context of integrative care psychedelic therapies will have greater effectiveness at treating mental health, addictions and trauma and could lead to a shift in our mental health paradigm for our collective well-being
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
My inspiration for working with psychedelics in integrative models came from a number of factors. I have a personal developmental trauma that remained unaddressed for a number of years, causing me a great deal of suffering. When traveling internationally, I was offered the opportunity to experience guided psychedelic sessions that were transformative and led to my own healing.
At Recovery Without Walls, I’ve had a number of patients who came to us seeking relief from their treatment-resistant mental illnesses. We have been able to offer them corrective pharmacological and non-pharmacological solutions that improved their mental health. Although our patients are able to return to fuller-functioning and often very successful lives, many, unfortunately, continue to maintain old patterns that stem from unresolved trauma. Seeing this, we felt it was important to incorporate Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to make their treatment more effective. We have witnessed the benefits of this therapy on our patients first-hand. Through KAP, they have been better able to process their traumatic experiences, shift their beliefs and develop new patterns that made them more resilient and adaptable to changes in their ecosystems.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
After my first experience of guided therapy, I felt very connected to this process and sensed that bringing psychedelic therapy into medical practice would become my mission. I received a certificate of completion of MDMA training through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). I studied somatic therapies extensively, was trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level I, and am currently enrolled in Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma training. My efforts have inspired Recovery Without Walls to more broadly integrate KAP into our practice, and I encourage our patients to explore this modality to make the process of psychotherapy more effective.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
My desire to expand therapeutic services that are currently offered in our practice led to an evolution and expansion of Recovery Without Walls. As visionary practitioners, we aspire to become leaders in the field of Integrative Mental Health, Recovery Medicine, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. The idea of transforming Recovery Without Walls’ practice to include KAP and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, as new psychedelic medicines are being approved, emerged from our originally-established sustainable Integrated Mental Healthcare model. In the past few years, we have been attracting and growing a team of practitioners who are dedicated to contributing to ongoing research and advancement in the psychedelic renaissance. This growth, for me, is both personally fulfilling and professionally enriching.
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
I was fortunate to have the supportive mentorship of Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a world-renowned leader in pain management and addiction medicine. He was a pioneer and a visionary in the field of mental health and strongly supported integrative care models when treating patients. We have been working side-by-side for over 20 years at Recovery Without Walls, and have developed a similar vision for the future of the practice.
Throughout my years of working at Recovery Without Walls I have been introduced to other practitioners whose practices were rooted and influenced by Eastern philosophy. Some of them, including Dr. Kornfeld, have been closely involved with the Esalen Institute since the late 1980s. Together, they have made a significant contribution to the birth of psychedelic science and research as well as establishing the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at CIIS. The center’s mission was to train and adequately prepare licensed practitioners for a rapidly evolving field and to integrate psychedelic medicine, currently ketamine treatment, into health care clinics to address mental illnesses and trauma.
According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?
At Recovery Without Walls, we frequently help patients who have become dependent on medication while being treated for anxiety, mood disorders, and pain. Some of these patients do not fit into the “addict” category and feel stigmatized for being treated for opioid or benzodiazepine dependence. We often have to educate families and treatment providers alike on the nature of their illness and how our offering better combinations of pharmaceutical and holistic approaches can help them to heal.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
As a society, we need to move away from the old model of a “quick fix” that perpetuates chronic mental illness. We need insurance companies to offer better coverage and greater compensation for the services provided to patients. This will encourage practitioners to spend more time with their patients and to practice collaborative care. There needs to be more resources allocated for education of mental healthcare providers, enabling the adoption of more holistic healthcare models. Practitioners need to be properly trained in combining psychedelic-assisted therapy with other modalities such as nutritional support, lifestyle changes, and mindfulness and spiritual practices. I believe that bringing psychedelics into the treatment of mental health conditions could facilitate a shift in our mental health care system. In addition, I believe that if psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy were to be introduced earlier in life to start the process of healing trauma, we would likely avoid, in many cases, the overprescribing of medications which lead to the development of chronic mental Illness.
What are your 5 strategies you use to promote your own well-being and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?
I continue to engage in psychotherapy to integrate new insights that I have gained through my own psychedelic-assisted therapy. I attend retreats and practice mindfulness as well as staying physically active and spending time in nature. These daily practices support my personal growth and development. Being proactive about my own physical and mental well-being informs me of best practices and treatment approaches when dealing with patients suffering from mental illness. I want to lead by example, so patients can feel inspired to invest in their own care, draw from my knowledge, develop a trust in the process, and gain the necessary skills to help them navigate their own challenges.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
I was inspired and influenced by earlier readings of Joanna Moncrieff’s books The Bitterest Pills and The Myth of the Chemical Cure. It was also enlightening to read Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, which sheds light on medical history and shows that the biological causes of mental disorders are yet to be discovered, while also supporting the notion that psychiatric drugs are in fact fueling the epidemic of disabling mental illness.
The Myth of Normal, by Gabor Maté, illustrates how our emotional well-being and social connections are strongly intertwined with health, disease, and addictions. His book challenges our simplistic view of disease and offers a wide perspective on human growth and development, which is highly influenced by the environment in which they live. I also read Rachel Nuwer’s recently published I Feel Love, which recaptured the history of MDMA and presented the evidence from psychedelic-assisted therapy research trials.
If you could tell other people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Even small changes, when added together, create a ripple effect. By investing in mental health and physical well-being and making conscious choices for the environment or society, you’re not just helping the planet or others, you’re creating a better future for yourself too. A healthy mind, a supportive environment, and a strong society will create a sustainable future.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Inspired by the father of PR, Edward Bernays (who was also Sigmund Freud’s nephew), Michelle Tennant Nicholson researches marketing, mental injury, and what it takes for optimal human development. An award-winning writer and publicist, she’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Michelle co-founded WasabiPublicity.com.
