Our Team

Center for Conscious Alchemy’s founder and owner, Susan Borden, offers integrative, holistic mental health care through nonjudgmental, compassionate, individualized, accessible, and evidence-based interactions with clients and families. She fosters trust and therapeutic alliance as a foundation for a transpersonal and co-created approach to healing and wholeness. Susan has engaged in the compassionate use of expanded states of consciousness through extensive training and ongoing consultation in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) at Polaris Institute. She also completed the MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy training. Her dedication to community building and affiliating with experts in the field, her personal journey with psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, a deep spiritual practice and connection to divine feminine, and her own yoga and meditation practice, allows her to be present in the moment for co-healing.

The relationship between participant and clinician is a unique experience and not one Kate takes for granted. Kate believes your story is your story and healing comes through the intention brought into the therapy space by both you and her. As a therapist, Kate is committed to being a source of unconditional positive regard, asking hard and important questions, offering observations to identify connections in experiences, exploring and challenging negative self-beliefs, offering tools and skills in the capacity desired, and celebrating the ups and the downs of the process. Kate believes human growth, change, and healing is most easily found when we allow ourselves the chance to be uncomfortable. Kate is a Certified Accelerated Resolution Therapy Practitioner and has found it to be an incredible tool for increasing healing with life’s big and small difficulties.

Sometimes we need extraordinary experiences to shift our perspective and make changes. Swan (they/them) is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist and Global Somatics Practitioner. They studied somatics before psychology, whereby exploring the wisdom of the body led to natural non-ordinary states of consciousness without the use of medicine. So, coming from a primarily embodied perspective, Swan encourages somatic approaches in both preparation and integration of KAP to help ease the process and make it more effective. Like a typical somatically-based therapist, they work with the nervous system, but also work underneath it at cellular, developmental, and energetic levels. Swan also uses a transpersonal and strength-based approach based on a quarter century of their own mindfulness practices, encouraging the process of contacting your essential self. This is the process of remembering who you are and accessing your inner healing intelligence.

I seek to create a therapeutic space that centers liberation, supporting the belief that individual wellness
is bound to collective well-being. I aim to help clients build upon their strengths and values, encouraging unlearning harmful patterns and limiting beliefs. I use a systemic and relational lens, working towards identifying ways to find a sense of peace within the social realities affecting each
individual.

I believe therapy can take many forms and seek to co-create the experience with each client. I believe when you invest in your own mental health, it can create an outgrowth of healing and endless possibilities. It is an honor to join others in their journey and to be trusted with their stories. My previous professional settings working with the houseless community and within the wellness field as a massage therapist inform my holistic approach to understanding clients’ experiences.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart…live in the question.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Greg grounds his work in relationship and holds space for clients as they find insight and healing through an exploration of their inner world.  He welcomes the messiness that may come with this exploration, serving as a container or guide. Greg enjoys working with clients who have intersecting identities, and he strives to be anti-racist, LGBTQ+ affirming, and non-ableist. He is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and specializes in treating trauma. He has worked hard to understand evidence-based treatments as these painful experiences deserve the utmost care. Many clients who have worked with Greg experienced relief in symptoms related to single-episode events as well as complex developmental trauma.

Greg specializes in treating religious trauma/spiritual abuse and works well with folks engaging with deconstruction, existential questions, and spiritual issues. Greg also frequently works with people facing chronic pain/illness, relationship challenges, family of origin issues, phobias, identity exploration and self-esteem, depression, and anxiety.

Greg uses a variety of therapy methods: Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) and psychedelic integration, humanistic, psychodynamic, existential, and EMDR. He graduated from Metropolitan State University with a B.A. in Psychology and obtained a M.A. from St. Mary’s University in Counseling Psychology.

Amy is a licensed psychologist specializing in integrative treatment along the trauma spectrum;

• Acute and post traumatic stress
• Betrayal trauma, moral injury, and traumatic loss
• Intergenerational, secondary, and vicarious trauma
• Post traumatic growth

She employs a variety of trauma-focused and informed interventions that include identifying your specific needs for safely and effectively processing trauma experiences;

• Acceptance and Mindfulness-Based Interventions
• Compassion-Focused Therapy
• Adaptive Disclosure-Enhanced for Moral Injury and Traumatic Loss
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy 
• Present-Centered and Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Trauma
• Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Trauma-Informed Yoga

Trauma processing is supported through verbal, emotional, somatic, and experiential modalities. Amy incorporates interventions informed by her training in meditation, mindfulness, Buddhist and Vedic philosophy, and Yoga. She has completed trainings in trauma-informed Yoga, Yoga therapy, Vinyasa and hot Yoga. She is a practicing Vipassana meditator and teaches mind-body practices and their associated philosophies as vehicles for enhancing self-awareness, self-compassion, and self-acceptance. It is her hope that you will connect with greater awareness, compassion, and meaning in your life as a result of working with her. She has a special fondness for working with Creatives, Healthcare Professionals, Working Therapists, and Therapists-in-Training. 

Amy is a relational trauma therapist who believes healing happens within the context of supportive relationship. She embraces the inherent dignity of all people and works to create an environment that honors your agency and pace for processing traumatic experiences. Amy views health holistically and through a trauma lens. She believes all people experience adversity and that everyone has the capacity to heal. These beliefs are at the heart of her value system and inform how she works as a therapist. 

In addition to clinical work, Amy is a devoted dog mom, reads voraciously, loves the theater, both on stage and as a patron, and spends time without walls and surrounded by trees whenever she has the chance.

Ben’s therapeutic style is characterized by deep empathy, respect for individuality, and a strong belief in each client’s innate strengths. He maintains a non-judgmental space where clients can freely explore their thoughts, emotions, and life experiences. Ben values the importance of understanding the whole person, considering social, cultural, and spiritual influences. This comprehensive approach allows Ben to collaborate with clients to create therapeutic goals and plans that resonate with each client’s unique needs and aspirations.

With a deep commitment to helping his clients achieve holistic well-being, he integrates principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), humanistic psychology, existential therapy, and mindfulness practices. Ben specializes in helping clients through life transitions, clients facing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and clients recovering from trauma – especially religious trauma. He believes in the client’s ability to develop the psychological flexibility and strength necessary to get through difficult seasons of life.

Ben earned his undergraduate degrees in psychology and history from the University of Minnesota. He expects to have earned an MA in counseling and psychological services from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in the Spring of 2025 and is currently working toward licensure. When he is not working he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing tennis, making pottery, reading and cooking.

Jane engages in a collaborative approach to therapy that centers the relationship between client and therapist. She brings a warm and compassionate presence to the therapy room, with a deep curiosity
and respect for her clients and their experiences. Jane believes in the importance of trust, empathy, openness, and a bit of good humor to help work through the more difficult times in our lives.

Her process is informed by acceptance-based, relational, and existentialist theories. Jane also integrates mindfulness and somatic techniques into her practice, aiming to help clients reconnect with the body and nervous system in the ways that serve them best. She uses a trauma-focused approach to support her clients in their healing, and specifically enjoys working with those who are struggling with anxiety & panic, relational difficulties, traumatic experiences, and ADHD. Jane hopes to accompany her clients on a journey of examining both the past and present; remembering their strengths, finding a sense of agency in their life, and connecting with themselves and their
surroundings in a meaningful way.

Jane completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and is nearing completion of her M.A. at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. She lives in South Minneapolis. Lately, outside of the office, she has been finding joy in reading novels, sitting on
patios with friends, and trying new things.

“Even more powerful than fate is the courage that bears it steadfastly.”

Ben is a therapist in Minneapolis who values looking at the big, daunting questions that truly make life valuable, but can also make it equally overwhelming at times. What starts as an online search for “therapy near me” leads to seeking meaning among the pieces of life which may not appear to fit together. Ben works from an existential orientation, with additional use of psychodynamic theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and mindfulness-based skill building.

Specialization of work includes anxiety and grief, as well as those seeking to understand more about their values, where those values come from, and how to use them in maximizing their life’s work. Common situations Ben works with are end of life care with individuals facing terminal diagnoses, ambiguous loss, moral injury, existential midlife problems and anxiety in the face of major transitions.

Ben believes therapy is about helping you understand what’s in front of you now so you can move forward with a stronger sense of clarity and purpose. He works collaboratively and not prescriptively, taking into account a truly holistic approach of mental, physical, and spiritual needs for each patient.

Having earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, Ben is completing his MA in Counseling Psychology at Saint Mary’s University with an anticipated graduation in May 2025 and is currently working towards LPCC licensure. His passions include research into psychedelic assisted therapies, reading Alan Watts, and spending time in movement with his family and dogs.