Dr M works in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a busy Portland, Oregon hospital. Years of intense training, long hours on call, and high-stakes medical interventions left her feeling depleted and unable to relax. After she developed alert fatigue (she experienced agitation for hours after hearing any siren or alarm), she decided it was time to make a change.

The Issue: Alert Fatigue

A colleague from medical school recommended she take part in a MDMA-assisted psychotherapy clinical trial, a treatment protocol she completed over a series of months. After some integration time, Dr M felt compelled to further her psychedelic experience by developing an embodied understanding of her autonomic nervous system.

The Plan: Safe & Sound Protocol

After months of polyvagal-informed therapy, Dr M’s clinician referred her to me for the Safe & Sound Protocol.

Given her alert fatigue and relatively recent completion of a psychedelic protocol, I planned a moderate  delivery of the SSP Core. Treatment took place over 5 consecutive days for 30-minutes at a time in the comfort of Dr M’s home. Remote delivery is always completed over Zoom, allowing me to monitor the physical and emotional responses to the protocol. Before, during and after listening, Dr M was deeply attuned to both her physical and emotional states. She brought a deep sense of curiosity to her experience. Dr M experienced some mild fatigue and headaches during the evenings after listening, yet slept peacefully and woke rested.

The SSP Outcome

Dr M experienced shifts in her perception while completing the listening protocol. Regulation and relaxation felt easier to access, which allowed her to be present with emergency situations without anxiety or panic. Over the course of the protocol, her reactivity to alarms ceased outside the workplace, allowing her to rest deeply while at home and engage thoroughly in social situations in public. When alarms went off in the hospital, she found herself able to change gears quickly, without experiencing anxiety.

3 months after completing the protocol, Dr M reported an increased sense of peace in the world. She could fully focus on social situations without distraction, enjoy the beauties of nature with an open heart, and recovery quickly from workplace emergencies. She attributes her state of well-being to the combined participation in the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trial and the completion of the SSP.