In this episode, I sit down with Ted Riskin — social worker, IFS expert, and pioneer of group ketamine retreats — after spending a week at his beautiful home in Asheville, North Carolina participating in one of his experiences. From his unusual path as a computer programmer living in an Ashram to becoming one of the leading voices in ketamine-assisted IFS group therapy, we explore how to work with protectors, why anger deserves more respect than our culture gives it, and how group healing unlocks something individual therapy often can't reach. Plus: why meaning isn't something you find — it's something you create.
In this episode
What exiles and protectors are and how they shape our inner world
Why healing means becoming whole — and how IFS gets you there
From computer programming to debugging the psyche
How breathwork and non-ordinary states bypass the thinking brain
Anger as a healthy boundary-setting force — and why suppressing it breeds judgment
The three ways to work with a protector: push, invite, or pick up the cat
Why ketamine works like holotropic breathwork — and why Ted combined it with groups
How group healing reaches wounds that one-on-one therapy often misses
Outcomes data: what actually changes after a group ketamine IFS retreat
Meaning as something you generate — not something you find
Timestamps
3:42 - Meeting Ted And His Setting 5:35 - Self Energy And Finding Balance 8:20 - Exiles Protectors And Healing Wholeness 14:00 - From Programmer To Therapist 19:35 - Breathwork And Non Ordinary States 27:43 - Core Energetics And Working With Anger 36:18 - Discovering IFS Through Hypnosis 42:26 - Ketamine As A Path Past Protectors 47:15 - Building The Group Ketamine Model 52:31 - Outcomes Data And What Changes Last 53:49 - Meaning Connection And Modern Life 57:00 - Creating Meaning From A Blank Slate 59:52 - Rapid Fire Questions And Art 1:03:58 - A Depolarizing Message And Where To Find Ted 1:07:06 - What Comes Next On The Podcast
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