Revolutionizing Mental Health: The Integrative Approach of the ICC
Transforming Mental Health Care: Our Vision
Are you seeking a transformative approach to mental health care? Discover the innovate, holistic methods at Integrative Care Collective (ICC), where we redefine mental health treatment beyond traditional boundaries.
The ICC in imagined form!
We are the Integrative Care Collective! We’d love to share our mission and vision with you!
Meet the Pioneers: Cole and Shannon’s Journey
Integrative Care Collective, or the “ICC”, was started by two mental health professionals from different disciplines, Cole and Shannon. Cole has long believed in self-care and whole-body wellness as a route to optimal well-being and the eradication of mental dysfunction. He sat out to become a therapist 8 years ago, and now practices as a Counselor at Integrative Care Collective PBC. He has extensive experience coordinating cutting-edge mental health clinical trials investigating novel medication and therapy interventions, including working with LSD and MDMA. He also completed training in Ketamine and Psychedelic Medicine. While Cole was in graduate school, he completed his internship at a place called “Wholeness Center”, a clinic where different types of mental health care providers all worked in the same spot and collaborated on different ways to help treat clients’ needs. Cole met Shannon during his time at Wholeness Center. Shannon is a master’s level Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, with training in Integrative Psychiatry and ketamine therapy. Cole and Shannon hit-it-off with their shared passion for collaborative and integrative care. They eventually fell in love and decided to have a baby together, Ellis Rose Darling-Butler.
Cole and Shannon eventually both stepped away from Wholeness Center to better meet their own needs, and recognized a need to help other providers in their community who needed more support. Additionally, they both wanted to continue to share the benefits of collaborative care and peer-led consultation. Thus, the ICC was born!
While Cole and Shannon practice mental health care in very different ways, their unified goal is redefining mental health care, aiming to eradicate disorders through integrative practices.
The Power of Integrative Mental Health Practices
Cole and Shannon recognized that, while they think very differently about care, each had something unique to bring to the table. Beyond that, they wondered, how might others also bring a unique perspective to clients’ presenting problems? Other therapists and medication providers may also have very different views of clients’ presenting problems as well. Additionally, other mental health care providers can bring a lot to the table.
Sometimes, what clients need is not therapy or medication, but something else - maybe they need to enhance their mind-body connection through yoga practice. Maybe they need to work with a nutrition coach to improve their diet and remove inflammation. This starts to capture the essence at the heart of the ICC - we believe mental health care is best treated when taking a look at the whole person, not just their symptoms. Optimal mental health cannot be achieved without taking into consideration other factors like the client’s diet, their movement practice, their relationships, their self-care, their finances, and so much more.
Building a Community of Integrative Practitioners
Thus, Cole and Shannon concluded that mental health care is best done with a community supporting clients’ needs. By building a community of interdisciplinary providers that are all committed to their clients’ health and wellness, Cole and Shannon established that they could provide optimal care to their clients, as well as the clients of other providers.
Beyond Traditional Therapy: Our Unique Services
The ICC includes an online community of providers from a range of different disciplines. This serves multiple purposes. First of all, it allows us to provides referrals to one another when our clients experience an issue outside of our scope of practice. Second, it gives us a platform for cross-disciplinary care and consultation. Specifically, we operate a weekly peer-led consultation group where all ICC members are welcome to bring their cases to the table for feedback from other providers.
Empowering Providers: Support and Growth at ICC
Furthermore, the ICC provides connection to mental health care providers that are often left without much community. Many of the members of the ICC operate in private practices, or in small group practices. This leaves us in isolation many times, without a supportive community to fall back on. The ICC is happy to offer in-person events to our group members to help foster and build much-needed community amongst our members can suffer from burn out and isolation. The ICC has hosted several in-person potluck-style dinners and has brought providers out to the Drala Mountain Center.
Joining Forces: The ICC Public Benefit Corporation
The ICC is also a registered Public Benefit Corporation, or PBC. We look at this as a separate ‘arm’ of ICC - the ICC PBC. ICC PBC’s stated public benefit is to benefit the people of Colorado by providing integrative, collaborative care to clients by serving the practice needs of providers. As discussed in this article, we believe that offering community, consultation, and collaboration serves critical needs of providers that often suffer from burnout and isolation. However, as it stands we receive no revenue from this - it is a free offering.
The ICC PBC plans to host retreats in the mountains of Colorado. By contracting trained and licensed mental health care providers to perform their jobs and paying them well, we believe we can serve the practice needs of providers while providing integrative and collaborative care. This is the ‘business’ side of ICC PBC, where the ICC also functions as a community as previously described.
Immersive Wellness Retreats: A Journey to Holistic Health
The ICC PBC’s current retreats are focused on Ketamine & Wellness. The ICC PBC’s team has extensive experience working with Ketamine Assisted Therapy and running retreats. We will bring attendees to the 600-acre Drala Mountain Center, nested in the mountains of Northern Colorado, for an immersive experience. This will include healthy meals, lodging on-site, and two ketamine experiences. We will build a community container of safety and trust for attendees to explore the depths of their psyche. Additionally, we will have daily yoga practices to connect participants to body, mind, and spirit. We will lead participants through a workshop focused on a new paradigm for living life more consciously and holistically. Additionally, we will take participants on a guided hike to the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, a Buddhist meditation temple with powerful energetics. Through this, we are able to immerse participants in our model of care, pulling from our interdisciplinary team’s knowledge and expertise.
A Call to Action: Become Part of the ICC Community
Join Our Community of Innovative Mental Health Practitioners: Fill Out Our Interest Form Today!
Discover Our Unique Mental Health Retreats: Register Your Interest Interest Now!
Thanks for reading!
Founder & CEO @ Integrative Care Collective
