Caught A Glimpse Of Ketamine Therapy Clinic Thrive Life Counseling Center's New Apprentice? She’s Got Major “Main Character Energy,” And We’re Here For It!
- Geetha Naidu
- Jun 24
- 12 min read
You might’ve seen her floating between sessions, notebook in hand, eyes full of curiosity and listens like she’s reading your unconscious.
Maybe it’s the way she asks questions like she already knows the answers.
Somewhere in the space between music and memory,
mythology and reflection... she fit right in.
Her name is Geetha Naidu.
Geetha's "intern" title hardly captures what she brings into sessions.
Trained in cognitive neuroscience and beyond-her-years specialization rooted in subconscious healing, Geetha bridges the clinical and the unconsciously symbolic with startling ease.
And if you've met her already, you’ve probably walked away thinking...Was that a therapy session or just a really good conversation?
Could be the counseling degree.
Could be the Jungian training.
Could be both!
We’re not saying she’s magical… but we haven’t ruled it out.
In this post, we’ll introduce you to the newest addition to Dr. Neil Monette’s team at Thrive Life Counseling Center, explore what makes Geetha's approach unique, and delve into the ways she compliments Dr. Neil Monette's already elevated approach.
YOUR ultimate transformative experience begins here, and we are excited to learn more.
On behalf of this dynamic duo:
"We dedicate our ever-evolving care to each of our dearest clients at Thrive Life Counseling Center and North Georgia Ketamine Center."
A Glimpse into Her Background
Geetha began her academic journey by obtaining her undergraduate degree in psychology with a specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience. She worked as a High School English-Language Arts Teacher for students with social-emotional/learning disabilities, for many years. She very quickly ascended to Department Head for ELA, heading trainings, interviews, and new initiatives. She taught teachers and students alike, how to love learning again, and envoking self-love through healing...even the ones who gave up upon arrival.
She's guided dozens of young adults to graduate with newfound dreams of their academic and personal futures, sending most off to college, but more importantly, resilience and self-worth. Due to her great success, she was highly demanded well over several semesters (totaling to years) in advance, by parents and student requests. Geetha's got a knack for connection, that is for sure!
As if that was not impressive enough, Geetha hand-made every, single assignment, lesson, course structure, and appropriate curriculum for every student, dependant on the students' personal interests and needs. She has never, used a pre-made lesson.
But it didn’t take long before she realized that numbers, diagrams, and data couldn’t explain the complexity of human nature, and even as a prolific mentor and teacher, she felt limited by external factors, and decided to pursue her vocation.
Drawn to narrative storytelling, dreamwork, and the symbolic dimensions of the human psyche, Geetha shifted toward Jungian studies and integrative trauma work. Currently, she is completing her Master's of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lagrange College and will become a Licensed Professional Counselor in Georgia.
She has her heart set on obtaining her PhD or PsyD (doctorate) in Jungian Studies/Depth Psychology. While she is already fairly proficient in practice, she wishes to collect special certificates to hone her skills, like EMDR, Art Therapy, Narcissism, and Somatic Healing, as she can!
Today, her focus lives at the intersection of abnormal psychology, cognitive neuroscience, culturally informed spirituality, and depth-oriented psychotherapy (psychoanalytic). Under the wisdom and supervision of Dr. Neil Monette, Geetha supports traditional psychotherapy, Jungian coaching, and talk therapy. She assists Dr. Neil Monette and patients undergoing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Jungian coaching skills integrate clients as they heal and rediscover themselves from a creative and fresh perspective. As expected, Geetha goes above and beyond to ensure all clients are treated with ethical integretiy, providing a unique space with their own highly personalized treatments through a proven techniques and deeply psychospiritual and archetypal lens.
Why Geetha Fits Well in Thrive Life Counseling Center
In a culture that moves fast, Geetha’s pace is different. She believes in steady integration. She can listen past the surface, and so, allowing the unconscious to reveal itself in its own time. Her goal isn’t to fix.
It’s to accompany. To bear witness. To walk beside.
Sitting with trauma, grief, dissociation, identity shifts...these aren’t small things, and we all go through them. But the uncomfortable nature of such growth is far more bearable in the presence of someone who isn’t afraid of even the hidden, "stuffed away" parts of people.
Clients who work with Geetha often notice this: she doesn’t flinch. Not when the words get messy, not when the memories come back disjointed, and not when the story gets complicated. She leans in. She listens harder. And in that listening, something shifts
Her gift: "making meaning" out of life (You may hear her say this often!).
The Work Beneath the Words: Geetha Naidu on Healing, Resistance, and Return
We sat down with Geetha for a short conversation.
What began as a simple “get to know you” blossomed into an insightful glimpse into how she thinks, what she values, and how deeply she’s committed to mental health and client healing.
Q: What brought you to counseling at this ketamine clinic in the first place?
Geetha:
I think I was always drawn to stories, and even before I could read, I could feel and comprehend the parts that weren’t easy to say out loud (or the "lesson") of the fable. Early on, I studied religion, philosophy, and theology, going on to obtain a B.S. in Psychology with a specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience because I was fascinated by how the brain responds to pain, memory, and change.
But the deeper I went, the more I realized healing isn't just about the physical brain. There's a changing factor that is far more interesting to me. Each person's life is directly associated by meaning. Life events that shape us into who we are. It's artistic and creative. It’s about how we carry our past inside our present. How we honor those after being changed, in any capacity, and its direct correlation with how we learned from childhood. Evolution, even. Stories, symbols, dreams, and narratives.
But mostly, I am drawn to North GA Ketamine Clinic and Thrive Life Counseling Center, and psychotherapy, in general because no one ever wants to be alone...so I hold space for others because I know exactly what that feels like and how much the world needs it right now.
Q: How would you describe your own presence in the room?
Geetha:
That's a great question. Grounded? More like open. Clients generally can feel when you see them, value hearing them, versus when you're just waiting for them to be done talking or, like many other clinicians....punishing them with judgments. I try to meet people at their truest core...without rushing to interpret or fix the "unsighlty" parts (whatever that means. People are beautiful regardless of flaws. We all have them!)
The ability to reflect and Self-Awareness is increasingly lost to us as we get older, as a protective coping mechanism, but it is the exact confrontation of such that transforms. Perhaps the level of self-awareness is not aligned with someone's age or needs, too. Especially in early work with a client, my presence or "being there" is far more important than any technique or assessment. My clients need to know I am not afraid of what they bring. Neither is Dr. Neil Monette! That is why we work so well together.
Q: What does Jungian work mean to you in real practice...so is it not just antiquated theory?
Geetha:
[giggles]
Antiquated. Ha! Jungian Analysis is...everything. A bit misunderstood, but powerful work. Its all about reclaiming....what we’ve rejected in our personality. That could be dreams, emotions, or uncovering entire parts of ourselves that were labeled wrong or inconvenient at some vital part of life. As a result we struggle with that foundation that was laid in our subconsious and drives the car, instead of you. Sometimes those hidden parts no longer serves us, and does damage in our lives. So then we struggle to break those patterns because our subconsious tries to protect us at all costs...to the point it won't let you change or even recognize it. This can lead to a spiraling destruction. Most clients come to us when they feel stuck.
As far as practical technique...I can't give you all the sauce!
I'll put it this way... suppose it means honoring symbols and stories as more than whatever metaphorical way it presents itself in context of the client's needs.
....Reading between the lines. No....that's not right.....Reading through the lines, if that makes any sense?
It means listening to the deeper subconscious. Emotions shows up in images, patterns, avoidance, or humor. Actions, outburts, survival actions like addiction. ’m always curious about what the psyche is trying to express, and then supporting the client through the transitional phases of coming to terms with the changed version they wish to become.
Q: What surprises people about doing inner work?
Geetha:
Hm....That the breakthrough rarely feels like you'd expect. It usually feels more like a quiet “oh…”
Then a shift in the body, starting in the bottom of the spine, a softening in the face, a memory that suddenly makes sense.
Healing isn’t dramatic as it seems, not immediately, most of the time!
It’s subtle. It’s grief. It’s relief. It’s realizing that the thing you thought made you broken actually kept you safe for a long time, but no longer can serve you the way it used to. I know firsthand how icky it feels at first. That's the discipline I can teach you to access.
I encourage clients to stay with the discomfort...not to get lost in it, and, to learn how to breathe inside it. With it.
That’s where the nervous system begins to trust itself and confidence grows.
That’s where real safety is built. It's unlikely anyone will have all the answers, but the goal is to never to abandon ourselves when its time to cope. After enough practice, clients begin to be able to recognize it when it happens and knows exactly what to do without spiraling destructive actions or habits.
Q: How do you approach Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)?
Geetha:
So, as an intern, I cannot administer it by myself, but I am always thankful to witness its powers. I assist Dr. Neil Monette, a literal genius in KAP in every way I can. What I've observed is that Ketamine isn’t a magic fix. It’s a huge catalyst, no doubt about that, what advancements we've made and it has done for our patients.....but it is an amplifier...finally allowing you to grasp what already lives within you.
I see it as a gentle disruptor of rigid patterns, and it'll get you there faster through its disassociative properties. It'll you more space than a human or talk therapy by itself can. But the real work happens afterward. In the silence. In the meaning-making. My role is to help people bridge what they saw or felt in that space and bring it into language, into embodiment, into their lived story.
Talk therapy, integration, and our analysis and hard work after a KAP session... It's powerful, but only if it’s integrated with care. I have yet to see such success in other places that just give you a pair of headphones. What nonsense! We treat each person with such care, I couldn't imagine another way.
We really have found the unique balance and customizable experience for each and every client...I am proud of that. We literally are breaking the bounds of what is possible in integrative and psychedelic mental health care. It pairs beautifully with depth-oriented therapy, because it allows me to access and work with material that often stays out of reach in ordinary states of consciousness.
Q: So you, yourself, have tried it?
Geetha:
Yes, I have.
Q: Could you tell us your experience?
Geetha:
[Sits up attentively]
Thanks for asking. I'd love to tell you. First I had my online appointment with Journey Clinical to qualify. It came in a matter of days, and Dr. Neil Monette admistrated it. Under my tongue and we were off!
It was, much like...a shortcut to things I could not access before, a blockage in my own consciousness. I was carrying a quiet weight that had followed me for years, the kind that doesn't announce itself but lingers beneath everything. What met me during the KAP experience was euphoric.
This feeling was self-actualization, and I loved it!
It was subtle, symbolic, deeply embodied. I felt like...I was home.
I forgot what that felt like. Or did I ever know?
I won't speak about my...lived experiences too much....but I didn’t relive, which is the fear most people have and thus immediately dismiss KAP.
With a deep breath, I sank into feeling like I was...home. I witnessed it with steadiness and breath. Nostalgia.
And for the first time, I didn’t turn away. How could I?
It's where I belonged, and it was always within me.
It was all the things that made me...me. All the successes and all the failures. What came was a breakthrough, but not harsh like other psychedelics....as the medication is gentle and may take a few adminstations, such as is in my case....but it was a profoundly soft unfolding and feeling of belonging, that was the best. The kind that lets you feel something ancient and yet, so, familiar.
When it was done an hour later, Dr. Neil Monette and I's integration session was deeply gratifying, and showed me how to gently approach what I felt to my intentions.
I cried from the relief of no longer hiding from myself.
When I began the process of re-building of my neuroplasticity, I brought that feeling "home" with me. I didn't expect answers, but I got them. Tenacity, clarity! An understanding of my relationship to wounds. I was actually able to heal from my grandfather who I never got to grieve from in the way I wanted to. That was profound, and it changed me.
Later, I was able to see my life's purpose in a better light.
What a gift to make choices which otherwise would have taken much longer! A truth I now offer my clients...healing is NOT linear, but regardless, is possible, and sacred. Reaching from within to be brought forth.
Q: What makes this all "sacred" to you?
You've said that word a few times now.
Geetha:
People come in carrying things they’ve never said out loud, sometimes things they’re not sure they’ll survive, even thinking. Then one day, they trust me to hold that with them. That’s sacred. Totally gutsy! Believing in their resilience! Every time.
And it reminds me that no matter how complex someone's life experiences or reason for seeking us out are, the core of this work is deeply relational. I get to provide space for alignment outside of the human or social bounds like culture, background, or age. It’s soul work. What else would it be.... besides sacred?
Q: What is dreamwork?
Geetha:
Dreams are our way for our brains to sort out what information is needed or not needed, by producing images that allow our body to feel and decide what to do about some scenario or complex idea without the realistic risks of acting it out in waking life. For those reading: If you dream, or have nightmares, come check us out. You deserve to know!
Dream work is my speciality, as I am training to dedicate my life work to understand more about you from what you dream.
But again, I won't tell you all the sauce. And its not scary, although it may be daunting and vulnerable, which expression or validation of bringing it forth in session is cathartic, by itself. But most of the time, it comes out regardless, in the most unexpected ways. We often will be doing creative activities where I can also support the complexities which arise in dreams to get a well-rounded picture of the things my client can't quite grasp. We encourage clients to collect their dreams, and bring them in.
Q: If a client were reading this now, and they felt unsure, what would you want to say? Thanks for your time.
Geetha:
You don’t have to be ready. You just have to be willing...
Willing to show up as you are.
Willing to not have the words yet.
Willing to let us witness the mess without cleaning it up first.
There is no perfect version of you that deserves healing more than the version sitting here right now, I promise you that.
Reach out. That’s where we begin.
And thank you.
Q: What is a quote that you always remember? What or who is your inspiration? Finally, will you share some fun facts about yourself?
Geetha:
Oh sure!
Quote:
"In Omnia Paratus" (Latin for "Ready For Anything")
My inspiration is mostly from reading and art.
My favorite authors and greatest inspirations include: Carl Jung, James Hollis, Joseph Campbell, and Marion Woodman.
Others are: Scott Smith, Robert Frost, and Edgar Allen Poe.
My favorite book is: "The Ruins" by Scott Smith
My favorite movie is: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence"
Favorite genre of music is: Deathcore Metal & Psytrance
My favorite composer is: Frederic Chopin
My favorite animal is: Capybara
My favorite color is: Silver
Favorite Mythical Creature: Wendigo & Vampire
I enjoy creating digital art, sketching, graphic design, film, photography, and painting
I am a terrific creative horror writer & hope to do this for a living after becoming a Jungian Psychoanalyst. I can speak Latin, and was born in Malaysia.
Editor Addition:
Geetha can also recite "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost by memory!
Geetha is a Leader and a Board Member of the:
The Elements of a Great Team
Effective communication is crucial in a strong partnership.
Their different work styles enhance their collaboration. Dr. Neil Monette is the thoughtful strategist who carefully weighs decisions, while Geetha brings enthusiasm and creativity into the mix. This balance between caution and eagerness enables them to take calculated treatment that can lead to improved patient outcomes.
Meaningful discussions are a hallmark of their relationship. From talks about complex cases to relaxed coffee breaks, they frequently engage in conversations that challenge their viewpoints.
Their teamwork fosters an environment where each patient feels valued and their concerns are treated seriously. This collaborative atmosphere ensures that patients are not just seen as cases but are active participants in their healthcare journeys, a shared principle for both practitioners.
Innovating Together
The future of healthcare hinges on innovation, and Dr. Neil and Geetha are fully committed. They actively experiment with new methodologies, conduct research, and engage in collaborations that evolve new medical practices or research such as Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and Complex Trauma.
A Promising Future Ahead
The partnership between Dr. Neil Monette and Geetha Naidu stands as a prime example of how blending experience with innovation can yield extraordinary results.
As they navigate their journey together at Thrive Life Counseling Center and North GA Ketmine Center, they both set an inspiring standard for others to follow. We witnessed firsthand their steadfast commitment to learning and patient care, which we clearly can see how they illuminate a path of both well-researched and innovative possibilities in a world where mental healthcare is constantly evolving.
It’s been a pleasure introducing
Geetha Naidu.
Just don’t be surprised if she makes a
cameo in your dreams
tonight...
After all,
the subconscious always gets the
last word!
Reach out to Geetha Naidu directly:
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