Linnae Ponte, LMFT

My path to psychotherapy ran through psychedelic research and harm reduction. After earning my B.A. in Biological Psychology from New College of Florida, I joined MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, as a Clinical Research Assistant and Harm Reduction Coordinator, and later served as Director of Harm Reduction.

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In 2012 I founded the Zendo Project, MAPS' psychedelic peer support initiative. It began as a request from one village at Burning Man and grew into an international program. By 2015 it had supported more than 700 people through difficult experiences, trained roughly 500 volunteers, and logged over 10,000 volunteer hours across Burning Man, AfrikaBurn in South Africa, Envision in Costa Rica, Lightning in a Bottle, and Bicycle Day in San Francisco. I trained and coordinated those volunteers and sat with people through some of the most intense experiences a psyche can have. I continued on the board as the project matured, then passed it into new hands so I could focus on psychedelic research and clinical practice.

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I earned my Master's in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where my training wove together transpersonal psychotherapy, depth psychology, existential-humanistic perspectives, and perennial philosophy. I am IFS Level 2 Trained through the IFS Institute, with extensive additional training in Intimacy from the Inside Out, the IFS-based model for couples work. I have trained in MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy through MAPS, Usona, and Alchemy, and I worked as a clinician on psilocybin and MDMA trials in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

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I am first author on a study of sleep outcomes in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, a co-author on the long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for patients with life-threatening cancer in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, and a contributing author to The Manual of Psychedelic Support, published by MAPS.

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My practice is guided by curiosity and presence rather than technique. I believe each person contains an inner healer that, with enough safety and support, is able to take a greater role in life and move us toward wholeness.