Reclaim Your Power

My practice combines modern and ancient modalities, so you can reclaim safety and ease within your body and in turn, allow more potent healing to happen. I disrupt the conventional notion of ‘medical care’ to expand the understanding that profound healing is a unique journey for each individual. Together, we explore what you need to optimize your mental health journey.

I also practice reciprocity (one of my deepest values) in our partnership. See my Equity Business Model for more information on how your fees can help fund lower cost psychedelic care for others and my capacity for Seva in the community.

Your journey Starts here  

I partner with you to individualize your care in a revolutionary way. My approach honors the depth and breadth of my medicine training-Western (including two plus decades as a primary care physician), Integrative and Functional, Mind-Body, Ayurvedic, Culinary, Botanical, and Psychedelic-pairing them with the profound wisdom of nature and food, the ways our bodies move, and our deep need for connection and belonging. I have seen the vast ways the physical, emotional, and spiritual harms of our past and present, including the weight of the chronic illnesses we carry, can impact our capacity to thrive and feel ease in our bodies and lives.

Your symptoms, experiences, and emotions are all potent in the context of your community, family structure, access to resources, and systems in which you live. I have served globally in the most trauma laden communities after manmade and natural disasters and have a unique capacity to understand what it takes to heal and harness hope once again. We start with this initial consultation to assess what is out of balance in your mind, body, and spirit, and harness the optimal conditions for you to thrive.

New Patient Consultations: 

All patients start here, with a comprehensive consultation that honors where you have been in your journey and the next best steps with food, movement, herbs, medications, psychedelic therapy or mind body medicine. I use my depth of expertise and training to create a plan that will best address your needs.

Your journey unfolds

We then move forward with an integrative and functional approach to your mental health that takes into account your unique biochemical, genetic, spiritual and emotional context. We will work together to deepen your relationship to the food you eat, the thoughts you create, the relationships and communities that support you, and the ways that your body’s unique genetic, biochemical, and metabolic health may require change in your approach to how you live your life and care for yourself.

  • The kinds of questions I will explore:

    • Are your circadian rhythms optimized, not only to nature and the seasons but to your personal routines and needs?

    • How is your heart coping with loss or a need for belonging in the world?

    • How are you able to move your body and are there ways to optimize this for greater health and longevity?

    • Are you able to access nourishing food and use it in a way that aligns with your body’s needs but also to optimize your vitality, down to a cellular level?

    • What are your strategies for coping with inevitable stress and tending to your body, heart, and nervous system?

    • Are you optimizing your body’s metabolic, detoxification, endocrine, neurologic and immune systems?

    • Do you have genetic variants that can be supported to amplify healing?

    • What might you be putting into your body or mind that does not serve you, from food to relationships and limiting beliefs and all in between?

    • Depression and anxiety

    • Fatigue, insomnia, or brain fog

    • Safe and careful tapering of anti-depressant medications (the majority of meds are not deprescribed with attention to the changes they have had on the brain and withdrawal)

    • Loss of Joy and meaning in life, including burnout

    • Spiritual disconnection

    • Imbalances in gut health, not exclusive to the wide range of IBS, GERD, chronic nausea, diarrhea, dysbiosis, SIBO, inflammatory bowel disease as these are directly linked to your mental health

    • Chronic stress, including the stress of being marginalized or othered, and its biochemical impact on the body

    • Depression, anxiety and insomnia in Perimenopause/Menopause

    • Individuals struggling to integrate profound loss or trauma healing into their lives and find meaning again

    • End-of-life angst/anxiety

frequently asked questions

  • In the initial visit, I will be assessing your health from a comprehensive, integrative perspective, which means that in addition to any physical symptoms, I will do an assessment of your toxin exposure, sleep habits, nutrition, medications and supplements, stress levels and coping strategies, daily habits, and so on. In essence, I will be assessing what could be contributing to an imbalance and what we can do to start on the path to healing. You will end that visit with the initial recommendations for a plan that will take into context not only what your body needs but what is realistic for you within your individual context. Usually, the imbalance occurs over a longer timeline and so there is not often a quick fix as we are used to in Western approaches alone. But the commitment to addressing your health from a holistic context can result in greater lasting change.

  • Most individuals need and desire some follow up to continue and refine their treatment plan. The most lasting change comes from this kind of commitment. But of course, the choice is always yours and some people benefit from a consultation to form a plan with their medical team.

  • You will have email access to communicate with me for quick questions, but if the messages are too complex, I ask you schedule a 15-30 minute appointment instead.

  • No, but I am happy to provide a superbill for reimbursement to your insurance carrier. Fees are listed on the site and are taken at the time of service. As reparations, a percentage of all client fees will go to a 501c3 to fund low cost ketamine therapy for Black and Indigenous communities.

  • Yes, I value a team approach and spent the first 25 years of my career as a primary care physician. I am happy to communicate and collaborate with other providers. I require that you have an established primary care physician in place, as I will not be providing that care any longer and respect the value of this critical role in your health care.

  • Yes, I can offer both of these. We will decide together which is appropriate given where we are in your treatment process.

  • I am licensed to see patients in Washington only. I can offer educational health consultations for patients outside of Washington state to share my opinion on your health journey, but local providers will need to carry them out and I cannot participate in your treatment.

  • I appreciate your curiosity. There are many other ways to work together.

    • You can hire me to speak at your organization or conference.

    • My book, Joy Is My Justice, is a very low-cost way to learn from me and my approach to mental health and well-being beyond medications, supplements and nutrition.

    • You can read my blog articles and sign up for my weekly Joy Gems Newsletter that gives bite-sized nuggets of wisdom every Thursday for living a more vibrant and connected life.

    • You can follow my content on social media where I engage personally and also provide informational content. I am most active on Instagram.

Ketamine Journeys

If you are feeling disconnected, depressed or anxious, ketamine can be a powerful tool for shifting your consciousness and getting out of patterns that started as protective but do not serve you any longer. Any time you choose to enter into heightened or altered state consciousness work, it is a sacred ceremony to treat with reverence and humility. The wisdom of plant medicine and ceremony has been handed down over generations through ancestral practices. By choosing to do this work, you receive the wisdom that the power of healing lies within you, and that you are sacred medicine.

This experience is unique, I personally guide you the entire way. I make sure you feel safe and lead you through from preparation to integration with care. My expertise in mind body medicine, trauma work, and integrative care (including gut health, neuroplasticity, optimizing cellular function, and behavioral change) are all part of my unique capacity to optimize integration of your ketamine journey. The ability to have a guide with this depth of physician level expertise and decades of experience in trauma, mental health, and primary care is invaluable. If you commit to this work, you commit to a level of profound healing that is rare in our western medical system.

Ketamine Journeys

  • To truly come into relationship with the medicine, working with ketamine is a journey and I will guide you through from beginning to end. In my psychedelic work, I have come to understand that doing a single ketamine session is usually not effective if you are trying to heal from depression or anxiety and inadequate if you desire spiritual growth. So I suggest three ketamine medicine sessions or ‘trips’ with the following key components.

    New Patient Consultation:

    For all new patients, we will have already met to review your medical and psychiatric history, medications, and risk factors to ensure the medicine is appropriate for you. Book above at the top of page as a new patient consultation and we will start there to see what is right for you.

    Preparation Session: (45 minutes)

    After we review all of your medical/ mental health history and any risks and precautions in the initial consultation, we will enter into preparation phase. We will go over what to expect during and after a medicine journey, explore your intentions for the session, more of your personal mental health history, any concerns or questions and establish more of a therapeutic relationship before the medicine session itself. To ensure the most optimal journey, we want to cultivate a therapeutic alliance.

    Medicine Session: (2-3 hours)

    The ketamine medicine session, your first ‘trip’ of the three, will be done with an oral dose of medicine. This is both to get you familiar with the feeling of traveling on this journey but also for safety and to assess dose. We will review your intentions, ensure that your body is ready for the journey by checking and monitoring your vital signs as needed, prepare with some breath work and guided imagery, and then experience the medicine itself. I will be with you the entire time. This session will be two to three hours. In the subsequent two ketamine medicine sessions, we will either use oral or intramuscular doses and will decide this together based on your first ‘trip’ experience.

    Integration Session: (45 minutes)

    Integration begins in the first moments as you come out of the ketamine ‘trip.’ But we will also do a separate integration session, ideally within the first 72 hours after the medicine to optimize the heightened neuroplasticity of that time. Integration is critical to harness the power of the ‘trip’ and to implement it practically into your life. This makes the effects of the ketamine more durable in your day to day life and cultivates greater capacity for change. You can continue formal integration sessions with a trained therapist or with me after the complete journey experience is completed but I do require one integration session with me to insure I am guiding you in the highest integrity.

  • I also offer these sessions for individuals who have chosen ketamine treatment at an IV center that might not offer preparation or who want to continue integration after any journey experience. You might feel that prior psychedelic experiences have not been optimized and you want specialized and skilled integration to fully integrate the lessons of those journeys into your life.

    This is a passion of mine after seeing so many individuals left alone during IV ketamine sessions or inadequately guided after psychedelic journeys, especially those from BIPOC, LGBTQIA, disabled, and other marginalized communities who have had guides unable to connect with their experiences as “othered” individuals in this world.

    *I do not condone or encourage any illegal activities or purchase, sale or transfer of any illegal substances.

  • The power of shifting consciousness and integrating in a group setting amplifies healing. Through the millenia, we have always healed in community and the western approach of individual care is a useful complement, but not a replacement for this collective need.

    Group ketamine journeys include individual medical consultations and preparation, and then group medicine journeys and group integration.

    I will be offering these group journeys starting in 2024. Please contact me at groups@tanmeetsethimd.com if you want to sign up or would like more information on this approach to healing.

HEAR ABOUT TANMEET'S APPROACH TO PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE.

  • Ceremonial & Therapeutic Power of Psychedelic Medicine with Dr. Ellen Vora & Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, Part 1 of 2

    Listen Now

  • Plant Medicine Ceremony: What to Know & Expect with Dr. Ellen Vora & Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, Part 2 of 2

    Listen Now

frequently asked questions

  • Ketamine is a long-time safety-tested medicine that has been in use since the 1960’s, , having been used as an anesthetic in the ER and operating room in both children and adults as well as on the battlefield for severe pain. It is safe to use in this context when administered by a trained provider. There are some contraindications to its use, which is why a medical consultation is essential before we get started.

  • You cannot consider ketamine assisted psychotherapy if you are pregnant, have increased intracranial pressure, increased eye pressure/glaucoma, a recent history of seizures or acute psychosis, have an allergy to ketamine, or are under 18 years old. Also, there are other reasons I would be cautious of ketamine use, such as long standing elevated blood pressures or an abnormal cardiac health history, so in the consultation, we will evaluate for safety and consider other treatments if ketamine is not appropriate.

  • The most common side effects of ketamine are increased blood pressure and nausea. This is why I will closely monitor your vitals. Any side effects you experience will fade over the course of the rest of the day in which you take ketamine.

  • No. Unlike other antidepressants, ketamine’s effects on depression, mood disorders and chronic pain far outlast the actual drug levels in the bloodstream. That means that you don’t have to take it regularly. Most people need 3-6 doses initially. Some people may need a booster dose after a few weeks or months. For others, the initial treatment course is sufficient, and they never have to come back.

  • No. I do not do IV ketamine because I believe that medicalizes this ancient practice of altering consciousness and creates a sterilized environment. It does not allow for freedom of movement—the IV tubing “tethers” the patient to stay still and disinhibits movement of the body, mind, and soul. Tubing also implies that the medicine is being given to the patient from an external source, unlike receiving medicine into the body and having the body be able to transmute it. I believe in the use of ceremony and intention when using these medicines, and we will be better able to create this together without the distraction of any IV’s.

  • Most people have a 60-90 minute experience and I am there with you the entire time. I encourage you to wear an eye mask to go inward, and headphones if desired to listen to a curated playlist. This experience is for you to explore the healing power of your own mind and body and have an opportunity to find a new perspective on your life. Most people feel calm and even expansive after a journey, but each individual is unique. The effects are also individual. Some people can feel better after one treatment and some after a few.

  • Anytime we enter into an altered state of consciousness, whether for healing or expansion of perspective, we are drawing on centuries old wisdom of Indigenous (inclusive of the Americas, Africa, and Asia) tradition that has taught us the power and use of this practice. Reciprocity is an essential ingredient for me in this work and is a metaphor for how gratitude and reverence for all teachings from our ancestors is how we have the privilege to benefit from this medicine today. In the field of psychedelic medicine, we often speak of how set (your intention) and setting (safety and trust) are what create a journey that feels safe, no matter what you encounter in the trip.

  • Yes, I require you to do this. It is not safe to drive that day. After our session, I suggest you have nothing planned and can take the rest of the day slowly and mindfully. It allows for more powerful integration. We will talk about mind body exercises that can be useful.

  • Yes, no food for 4 hours before and no liquids for 2 hours before the experience.

  • There aren’t any bad trips, only misguided or absent intentions (which is why we do preparation for a session) and unsafe settings (which is why I am with you the entire time). Powerful and even unwanted things may come up in a session and I will be there to comfort and guide you when needed. But many people also have a mostly calm session. All of what you experience will be powerful material for integration in our sessions afterward. The most neuroplasticity for the integration session is in that first 72 hours, so this is why I schedule the dosing and integration sessions this way.

  • This is a personally guided process where I work with you the entire way which makes this experience unique. I make sure you are safe, that this therapy is right for you, and guide you through from preparation to integration with care. The ability to have a guide with physician level expertise and decades of experience in trauma, addiction, mental health, and primary care is invaluable. If you commit to this work, you commit to a level of healing that is rare in our western medical system.