Episode Description
In the fifth episode of season 5, of Disruptors at Work: An Integrated Care Podcast, host Dr. Gayle Cordes, MBA, MC, DBH, faculty at Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI), is joined by Dr. Jane Caplan, MD, for a conversation on the evolving role of ketamine-assisted therapy in behavioral health care. The discussion explores how ketamine-assisted therapy is being integrated into treatment for individuals experiencing complex mental health conditions, the importance of careful clinical oversight, and the opportunities and challenges providers face as these approaches become more widely discussed in healthcare settings.
About the Podcast Guests:
Dr. Gayle Cordes, MBA, MC, DBH
For nearly twenty years, I was a state-licensed psychotherapist and owner of an independent practice in Arizona, with specialty training and advanced certifications in trauma treatment therapies, including eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Along with my work in private practice, I served on staff at the 2012 launch of the University of Arizona Integrative Health Center in Phoenix, associated with Dr. Andrew Weil and the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, where I conducted an unpublished, retrospective study on the treatment effects of EMDR therapy on co-occurring anxiety and chronic medical conditions. Since 2018, I served on an EMDRIA Board task force charged with drafting guidelines for the delivery of EMDR therapy virtually as well as training therapists in EMDR therapy through distance learning. In 2022, that initiative developed into the inaugural EMDRIA Training Council, upon which I served as a member of the steering committee. Prior to my career in psychotherapy, as an MBA, I spent 25 years in the corporate sector; in the later years of that chapter, I served within the executive ranks of a Fortune 500 company. Since 2016, I have served on the graduate faculty of Cummings Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, where I developed a trauma specialty curriculum for the Doctor of Behavioral Health degree program.
Dr. Jane Caplan, MD
Dr. Caplan's clinical and research philosophy is grounded in psychoneuroimmunology — the understanding that the mind, nervous system, and immune system operate as a unified whole. This lens informs her approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy, where she sees these medicines not merely as symptom treatments but as catalysts for deep systemic healing. She is the developer of a psychedelic clinician training program that merges Eastern contemplative practices with Western clinical frameworks, honoring both ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. Her work sits at the frontier of what psychiatry can become when it takes into consideration the full complexity of human consciousness and healing.