KARE: Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy for Alcoholism

My guest is Dr. Steven Radowitz, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Nushama.

Starting his career in New York during the peak of the opioid and AIDS crises, Dr. Steven Radowitz has a wealth of experience seeing the effects trauma and addiction can have on our physical health firsthand. At the intersection of science and spirituality, Dr. Radowitz joined Nushama to oversee and develop treatment modalities. He believes psychedelic medicine’s framework of neuroscience, mystical experience, and integration therapy is the future of mental wellness, and current solutions often fall short, treating symptoms without addressing underlying issues.

From opioids to alcohol addiction, Dr. Radowitz’s team supports people struggling with substance use—in addition to Nushama’s ketamine-assisted therapy protocol for mood disorders, he leads Ketamine for the Reduction of Alcohol Relapse (KARE), an innovative, highly efficacious ketamine-assisted psychotherapy protocol that is 86% effective. Nushama’s team is the first to bring this revolutionary treatment to New York City, using the power of psychedelics to transform addictive behaviors. Prior, Dr. Radowitz worked at St. Vincent’s NYC Midtown medical center, where he was medical director of the inpatient alcohol and opiate detox and treatment unit. With a history of being part of the solution, he has been a DEA-licensed provider for over a decade to treat opioid addiction with buprenorphine maintenance therapy.

Overall, Dr. Radowitz sees the source of disease as a “dis-ease” that results from a misalignment of mind, body and spirit. He has a passion for preventive medicine, getting to the root of a health problem before it manifests. In contrast to traditional medicine, he views psychedelics as powerful tools to help us become aware of the origin of imbalance and guide us toward wholeness, health, and wellbeing, healing from within. He and the Nushama team have administered thousands of ketamine journeys for mood disorders and are known to be best-in-class and among the most experienced globally.

From a sheltered Montreal community to the Big Apple, Dr. Radowitz was not raised with a spiritual background but felt something was missing. Upon moving to New York, he explored the city’s culture and nightlife on a journey to expand his consciousness—the study of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, transcendental meditation, and various forms of yoga resonated deeply. After reading How to Change Your Mind, he witnessed the profound transformation that psychedelics can bring, serendipitously meeting Co-Founder Jay Godfrey, who invited him to join Nushama.

Dr. Radowitz has been practicing internal medicine and primary care since 1998. He currently mentors master’s students attending the Columbia School of Social Work interning at Nushama for their field practicum, and prior, he supervised Columbia medical students and residents. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Anatomy and Cell Biology from McGill University and his medical degree at The Chicago Medical School with an internal medicine residency at Rush University Medical Center. Before Nushama, Dr. Radowitz also ran the primary care program at Goldman Sachs for more than 10 years and held a private practice specializing in general medicine, HIV care, and preventive medicine—he saw the connection between chronic stress and health among New Yorkers, which also led to his transition to psychedelic medicine.

For more information, please visit my practice website: https://drleeds.com and the podcast website: https://therehab.com