Help Us Transform Mental Health Care: Support the Synaptic Institute

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Founded in the summer of 2020, Synaptic Institute was officially granted 501(c)(3) status in March of 2022 as a nonprofit organization, marking a significant step in our threefold mission to provide compassionate clinical care, conduct innovative research, and train excellent clinicians in psychedelic therapy. Today we are at a crossroads that presents an opportunity to more fully embody that mission. 

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Since our inception we have offered individual ketamine-assisted therapy and naturopathic care to those grappling with various forms of depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health challenges. We have always strived to create a world where skilled practitioners foster care and connection to self, others, and the broader community by offering integrative and holistic health services with a strong focus on mental health. 

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We have successfully developed and provided training programs specializing in both ketamine and psilocybin-assisted therapies thanks to our dedicated team including our board of directors, advisory board, over 17 faculty members, and several clinical practitioners who share our commitment to healing. Our vision for training is rooted in cultivating ethical and socially responsible practitioners of entheogenic medicine, grounded in the principles of holism, traditional wisdom, and scientific research.

 

In addition to our clinical services and provider training programs, we are committed to conducting and promoting innovative research aimed at understanding  not only what makes us thrive and heal, but to make holistic treatments more accessible. Currently, in collaboration with the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM) and the Sheri Eckert Foundation, we are conducting clinical research to treat depression in low-income adults through group therapy within the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) model.

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Our Vision for the Future: Expanding Access to Healing for All

 

As we look ahead, our mission remains: make compassionate, integrative mental health care accessible to every person who needs it, regardless of their financial circumstances. Over the past year, your support helped us open our nonprofit integrative clinic, grow our team, and launch innovative programs like our no-cost low-income ketamine group series. 

 

We are continuing to advance research that helps build a more equitable mental health system. Your support helps us collect outcomes-based data from consenting patients, expand our group therapeutic offerings, and explore innovative models of care, such as meditation groups, microdosing programs, and future community-based psychedelic therapies. These initiatives make treatment affordable, communal, and truly transformative. Now, we are entering the next chapter of our mission and it centers around one powerful initiative:

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The Synaptic Care Access Fund

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This fund ensures that individuals facing financial hardship can still receive the kind of holistic, evidence-based care that transforms lives. Whether someone is struggling with depression, trauma, chronic illness, or simply trying to find their footing again, the Care Access Fund allows us to say “You’re welcome here. Let’s get you the care you deserve.”

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While insurance helps cover some of our clinical services, many of the therapies that create the deepest healing; integrative mental health programs, ketamine therapy, acupuncture, functional medicine, and nervous system therapies are still out of reach for many people.

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The Care Access Fund bridges the gap.

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With your support, this fund will:

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• Provide free or low-cost access to ketamine therapy

• Expand sliding-scale options for services not covered by insurance

• Offer integrative care—like acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, and SSP—to underserved community members

• Ensure no patient is turned away due to financial hardship

• Support community-based research that makes mental health care more accessible and effective​

 

Our Commitment to Accessibility & Inclusion

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At the Synaptic Institute, we believe that none of us are truly well until all of us have access to healing.

We are deeply committed to creating a space where every person is welcomed; regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, identity, income, religion, nationality, or lived experience. Our clinicians are trained in social and cultural humility, trauma-informed care, and integrative therapeutic practices that honor the whole person.

Through the Care Access Fund, we amplify that commitment by ensuring our services remain accessible through:

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• Grants

• Sliding-scale options

• Low-cost and no-cost group programs

• Subsidized integrative services for those with limited financial means

• Insurance partnerships

 

Your Support Makes all the Difference​

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When you give to the Synaptic Care Access Fund, you’re not just donation, you’re directly funding someone’s ability to receive life-changing care.

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Your tax-deductible contribution helps:

• A person who can’t afford treatment receive integrative mental health support

• A patient living with depression access group ketamine therapy

• A community member find hope, connection, and healing without financial fear

 

This fund opens doors, It removes barriers, It changes lives. Together, we can build a more compassionate, accessible model of mental health care; one rooted in connection, community, and genuine healing.

Thank you for helping us expand access to care. And thank you for being part of a future where healing belongs to everyone.