Alison K. McQueen, MA, LPC, ATR

Alison McQueen, MA,  LPC, ATR

CLINICAL DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER AND PSYCHEDELIC THERAPIST

Alison is the Clinical Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness. She practices as a licensed professional counselor, registered art therapist, psychedelic therapist and integration coach. Trained in MDMA-assisted, Cannabis-Assisted, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychedelic Therapies, Alison also specializes in art therapy, somatic (body-centered) trauma work, harm reduction, and psychedelic integration. Her clinical work focuses on mindfulness-based trauma and depth work, conscious parenting, and post-traumatic growth. Alison served as Sub-Investigator and MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapist/Researcher in the Phase 2 MAPS sponsored and FDA-approved study for the treatment of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2019, she completed Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training with the prestigious Ketamine Training Center, and since 2014 she has been co-developing Cannabis-Assisted Psychedelic Therapy protocols and trainings with her husband, Daniel McQueen.

Alison has a Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology (Art Therapy emphasis) from Naropa University (2012) and over three years of training in somatic trauma work with the Somatic Training Institute. Bringing together over a decade of experience in the mental health field, clinical research experience in psychedelic therapies, and four years of international experience in therapeutic art education in the Czech Republic, Alison works skillfully and empathically with individuals and groups in cultivating lives of meaning and authenticity.

Alison believes that no one does this work alone, and is inspired by a transparent and collaborative feminist approach to psychotherapy. Your stories, your wisdom, and your vulnerabilities are safe with her. We invite you to reach out so that she may support you on your journey.

Practitioner’s Statement. . .

My calling is to do my part to resolve trauma on the personal and global level, and I am deeply passionate about alternative and holistic therapies. For this reason, in 2012 I co-founded the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness, a grassroots consciousness organization supporting individuals in safe, sacred, and legal altered states exploration and in developing ‘right relationship’ with the substances they are using. I also partner with medical experts to pioneer best practices in Psychedelic Medicine. I’m honored to be featured in the documentary Psychedelic Soldiers discussing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress in veterans. I also presented MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy: It’s Criminal that this is Illegal at a Psychedelic Shine event.

Over the past 15 years (and before becoming a full-time psychedelic therapist), I had the honor of working in mental health settings, as well as in educational and art-based community settings, with a number of unique populations both in the United States and Eastern Europe. Some of the people who have inspired my path are (in chronological order): children in New Mexico who have parents living in the prison system, first-generation New Mexicans who were experiencing hunger, ethnic minorities living in the Czech Republic (especially Romani, Asian and African immigrants and refugees), Czech preschoolers and their families, American preschoolers and their families, adults in Colorado with mental health diagnoses who were also transitioning out of prison systems, as well as elders with late-stage dementia and elders with institutional trauma, depression and end-of-life anxiety. Most recently, I have also had the pleasure of working closely with women on the initiatory path of Deep Feminism through co-facilitating Goddess Mythology groups with Karina Maria Tibble. I have cherished each and every person I have worked with over the years, and am grateful for what they have taught me about the value of authentic human connection.

I deeply trust in the basic goodness within each of us, and I have immense faith in the resilience of the human spirit. I am passionate about creating safe and healthy containers for growth and transformation. I identify as a BIPOC and LGBTQI+ ally and am committed to the path of conscious leadership.