Shannon Darling, PMHNP-BC is a PRATI alumna and has been a valued member of the PRATI training team since 2022, bringing depth, heart, and wisdom to our shared work. She is the founder of Wild Heart Integrative Health Services and is currently expanding her practice under the new name Tanglewood Collective—a collaborative community model supporting integrative, psychedelic-informed care. Shannon’s work centers on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy within a team-based approach, rooted in relational presence, somatic awareness, and respect for each client’s unique healing path.
As she shares in her interview, “My vision is a world where healing is relational, culturally attuned, and guided by wisdom traditions as much as by science.”
Shannon, thank you for living that vision and for the care, presence, and insight you bring to our community. We are grateful to have you as part of the PRATI team.
Tell us a little about your therapeutic practice and your vision for the world.
I’m the owner and clinician at Wild Heart Integrative Health Services, an integrative mental health practice rooted in holistic, trauma-informed care. I am in the process of expanding and re-branding my practice to Tanglewood Collective to include more practitioners working in community together and supporting other psychedelic therapies as they are available. My work centers on the thoughtful use of ketamine-assisted therapy within a collaborative care model, often in partnership with other therapists and healing professionals. I believe mental health care should honor the complexity of each person’s lived experience—including the body, spirit, community, and environment. My vision is a world where healing is relational, culturally attuned, and guided by wisdom traditions as much as by science.
What do you appreciate most about using KAP/PAT as a modality with your clients?
Psychedelic medicine, when integrated responsibly, has the potential to catalyze a deeply rooted, systemic healing. Ketamine creates a unique window where clients can access parts of themselves that are often unreachable through talk therapy alone. It softens defensive structures, enhances neuroplasticity, and can gently dislodge entrenched trauma patterns. What I appreciate most is how KAP invites a kind of spaciousness—a softening of inner narratives—that allows clients to reconnect with their inner knowing and their capacity to heal. It’s especially powerful when paired with somatic and trauma-focused modalities.
What advice would you offer to a provider interested in starting to practice KAP/PAT?
Start by slowing down. Learn the medicine, but also learn your own edges. Psychedelic-assisted therapy isn’t just about mastering protocols—it’s about cultivating presence, humility, and a deep respect for altered states of consciousness. Build strong, collaborative relationships with therapists and colleagues. And center integration. The most meaningful shifts don’t happen during the ketamine session—they unfold in the way clients are supported in making meaning afterward.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our community?
It’s such an honor to be in community with others who are tending this powerful and tender work. Let’s keep learning from each other, staying accountable to the lineages and communities that guide us, and remembering that this work is as much about our own inner transformation as it is about helping others heal.
