The kratom clinician

I earned my doctorate in 2008 from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas working in the Department of Molecular Psychiatry chaired by Dr. Eric Nestler. My thesis work was titled “The Role of Adult Neurogenesis in Cocaine Addiction.”

At my ORCHID ID 0009-0003-7066-6502 you can find my academic papers. I first published on plant medicine (cannabinoids) back in 2006.

I earned my degree in 2018 while working as the Executive Director of IMPACT Network, 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to Improving Marijuana Research and Accelerating Cannabinoid Therapeutics.

I earned my degree in 2004 from Boston College, minoring in Behavioral Neuroscience and graduating from the Honors Program. I obtained a research fellowship and started my drug addiction career in the lab working with Dr. Heinrichs to study the effects of baclofen on cocaine self-administration.

I earned my certification from Precision Nutrition in 2024 (view my credential here).

This Certification helps coaches understand the spectrum of stress and recovery work, and how sleep functions as part of a broader recovery plan that also includes nutrition, movement, and stress management techniques. Graduates will have learned the science of sleep, stress, and recovery across six key domains of health (physical, mental-cognitive, emotional, social-relational, existential, and environmental). After building out a personal “rest, recovery, and resilience” (3R) plan throughout the certification, graduates will be able to apply key tools, skills, practices, and daily actions to help clients manage their stressors, sleep better, and recovery more effectively.

I earned my certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) in 2024 (view my credential here).

NASM Nutrition Coaches educate and support their clients to use nutrition to improve their health and wellness. They offer advice that matches their clients' personal health and fitness objectives, optimizing the results through complementary nutritional strategies.

Received my certification from The Centre for Healing in 2023 (view my credential here).

The certificate provided training on trauma as the underlying causes of client‘s symptoms, understanding the effect trauma has on someone’s core beliefs, worldview, and life, and how to cultivate a resource of safety to grow a client’s capacity to heal.

I completed my certification in 2023 (view my credential here).

The EMBARK model of psychedelic healing covers 6 domains:

E - “Existential-Spiritual” A facilitator administering a psychedelic medicine should foster a therapeutic frame that supports participants in preparing for the possibility of these profound and sometimes challenging experiences, as well as integrating and making meaning of them afterward. EMBARK trains facilitators to help participants frame their psychedelic-occasioned spiritual experiences as a basis for healing and meaningful change.

M - “Mindfulness” - EMBARK employs mindfulness techniques from evidence-based treatments to support participants, not only with navigating the psychedelic experience, but also with sustaining post-treatment benefits through improved attentiveness to their inner states and in tolerating distress. EMBARK facilitators are trained to support participants in cultivating mindfulness throughout the course of treatment to help them foster a nonjudgmental, compassionate approach toward themselves and their experiences, develop a renewed relationship with their own challenging thoughts and feelings, and cultivate an inner resilience essential for growth.

B - “Body-Aware” - EMBARK embraces the body as a site of wisdom and healing. EMBARK draws from pioneering somatic (body-centered) therapies in the recognition that the mind and body are not separate, particularly in the context of non-ordinary states of consciousness. The EMBARK approach employs somatic techniques throughout treatment to guide participants toward trusting their bodies’ intelligence and natural ability to heal. As somatic experiences may indicate a response to past trauma, facilitators receive training to work with emergent somatic material within a trauma-informed frame.

A - “Affective-Cognitive” - The EMBARK model supports participants with identifying, welcoming, and experiencing affective (emotional) states more fully. EMBARK training prepares facilitators to support participants during moments of extreme emotionality and facing core psychological wounds. EMBARK-trained facilitators employ interventions that help participants confront, accept, and shift seemingly intolerable thoughts and feelings, while helping them understand how their avoidance of these aversive feeling states often drives problematic behaviors in everyday life.

R - “Relational” - Facilitators are trained to attend to relational cues as they arise during psychedelic sessions, guiding participants to bring awareness to how their past has shaped their present way of relating. Participants can then explore different ways of relating, setting healthy boundaries, experiencing greater safety in relationship, and expressing themselves more authentically. With psychological support, participants can internalize and integrate these new experiences and carry them into their lives as new beliefs about themselves and new ways of relating to others.

K - “Keeping momentum” refers to this process of translating altered states into altered traits through a sustainable, participant-led commitment to ongoing change. This domain holds a place in EMBARK for recognizing the need for such post-treatment changes and helping the participant to set their sights on their importance from the beginning of treatment. Facilitators trained in EMBARK are prepared for the task of supporting participants in taking concrete steps towards meaningful change in their lives.

Completion of this 50-hour certificate program by The Embody Lab is expected in early 2025.

In this course, we explore the philosophical foundations and practical skills essential for navigating the intricate landscape of Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and ceremonial facilitation. The curriculum emphasizes trauma-informed approaches, ethical considerations, and the cultivation of relational therapeutic presence—skills foundational to the dynamic and sensitive nature of psychedelic therapy.

Somatic trauma therapy offers techniques for clients to sense and regulate their own physiology and states of being. This includes building more internal and external resources, building trusting and co-regulatory relationships, learning to turn inward with compassion, being invited deeper into the body, and being given time and space to process the trauma. These somatic techniques unwind trauma and restore well-being.

This specialization certificate from the University of San Diego, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will be earned in 2025.

I completed my Food Handler Card training for Oklahoma in 2025 and it is valid for 3 years. The certificate can be verified at this site with last name Ross & ID# 1j61f4-k63g8eh: https://www.statefoodsafety.com/Verify.

Learn how to responsibly prepare and store food, prevent foodborne illness and maintain a sanitary food preparation environment. Required for kratom, cannabis, and CBD industries because products are ingested.