Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Collins.
Hi Katy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Wounded Healer, I use my lived experience to guide others in their healing. I began life as a highly sensitive child, feeling everything deeply without the ability to understanding why. I sensed energies and intuitively perceived things before they happened—although, without language or guidance, I often questioned myself and my reality. Growing up in a family impacted by alcoholism, narcissism, dysfunction, and divorce, I was left to navigate my emotional landscape alone. I struggled to trust my emotions and intuition, often turning to books and music to make sense of what felt overwhelming and unnameable. I spent decades trying to escape my emotions and myself. Today, understanding my intuition and sensitivities has become my greatest gift.
My early years were marked by sexual abuse, neglect, and trauma that shaped much of my life. In adolescence, I turned to alcohol and drugs to escape a chaotic inner and outer world, and I became entangled in abusive relationships. By the time I graduated high school, I was on the highest dose of Prozac, struggling with addiction, and surviving a relationship in which my partner attempted to kill me. That experience became my first major turning point—I fled to New York, began studying psychology, and started rebuilding my life. I also studied education, eventually I became a teacher and taught school for 8 years. This career path enabled me to find peace through travel, enabling me to find grounding during chaos, throughout all seasons of my life.
In my early twenties, after experiencing addiction, jail, rape, pregnancy, and repeated abusive relationships, I hit a breaking point. At 22, after my third arrest, I entered treatment at Memorial Hermann Prevention and Recovery, where I began learning a new way to live. I became sober and committed deeply to Alcoholics Anonymous, maintaining sobriety for 10 years. During that time, I also devoted myself to yoga and meditation, which helped me cultivate increased self-awareness and mindfulness and I began to uncover deeper layers of trauma.
At 38, I became a mother to my son, Kian, who profoundly expanded my healing. He continues to inspire my growth and commitment to living with intention, presence, and love.
At 43, following a traumatic divorce, I entered the world of psychedelic healing. Through my work with Ayahuasca, Bufo, and other plant medicines, I accessed and processed layers of trauma, attachment wounds, and generational patterns that had not been reachable through talk therapy alone. For the first time, I began to truly experience self-love and joy. Psychedelic healing helped me release the grip of alcoholism once again and ultimately led me to fully discontinue my use of Prozac and all other pharmaceuticals.
Through years of deep trauma work and exploration of diverse therapeutic modalities—including therapy, EMDR, and plant medicine—I transformed pain into insight and purpose, rebuilt trust in myself, and cultivated a profound connection to my own healing.
Today, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Supervisor, Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist, and founder of Sage Healing, I integrate lived experience with professional educational and training to connect deeply with my clients. I guide and support meaningful, expansive, and transformational healing as others navigate their own life journeys.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. My life has been shaped by profound challenges—both those inflicted upon me and those I created in my attempts to cope. I experienced physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, witnessed violence, and struggled with alcoholism, addiction, and the consequences of risky choices. I lived through deep depression, intense anxiety, grief, and moments of despair where death felt like an escape. I was bullied, and at times, I became the bully. For years, I was on a high dose of Prozac, which both saved my life and kept me disconnected. While it was not at all a smooth road, all of it was necessary, and led to me finding true meaning and purpose in my life.
Two of the most transformative challenges in my adult life were my divorce and the death of my father.
My divorce in 2020 forced me to confront the lack of love and trust in myself and misunderstood intuition. After two years of marriage marked by narcissism and constant gaslighting, I could no longer distinguish truth from distortion and began to question my own sanity. I coped by drinking, which only deepened the confusion. After uncovering months of infidelity, I found the strength to leave. This became my second bottom—a pivotal moment that drastically reshaped my life and led me to where I am today. From it, I learned to fully trust my intuition and committed to never abandoning myself again.
The death of my father two and a half years ago, brought another layer of profound grief and transformation. It required me to find my own inner strength and voice, release external expectations, and deepen my self-trust in a way I had never experienced before.
Through it all, I have cultivated resilience, strength, and deep compassion —allowing me to meet others exactly where they are and support them in their own healing journeys.
I think it is also extremely important to mention my accomplishments that have contributed to my success. Alongside these hardships, my life has also been rich with exploration and growth. I have traveled the world solo, lived in New Zealand while teaching third grade, survived a riptide in Australia, summited Kilimanjaro, visited the pyramids in Egypt, and scuba dived globally—including in Iceland. I completed a 10-day Vipassana meditation in Nepal and journeyed to Antarctica, where I learned from great leaders in psychedelic medicine. These experiences, along with my work with plant medicine, have been catalysts for transformation.
All of these experiences awarded strength, resilience, deep compassion, and the ability to truly meet people where they are in their own journeys.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I formed Sage Healing in 2017, which now operates in two main spaces:
Traditional Therapy: I specialize in EMDR, trauma, grief, and addictions. My approach is fully client-centered, integrating techniques like CBT, somatic work, breathwork, mindfulness and meditation, depending on each client’s needs. My own experiences allow me to connect deeply with clients, creating a space of trust, understanding, and non-judgment.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy: Through collaboration with Dr. Kriste Babbitt at Your Wellness Practice, I guide clients using ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, including ketamine-assisted EMDR. This approach allows access to subconscious patterns and deep trauma, creating profound and lasting transformation.
I am an advocate for healing. I have known deep pain and despair, and I have also experienced profound joy and fulfillment. My lived experience allows me to sit with clients in their most difficult moments and guide them toward meaningful transformation.
I specialize in trauma, attachment, somatic integration, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. My approach is rooted in both professional education and lived experience—I have walked through trauma, addiction, grief, and loss, and have done the work to heal. This allows me to connect deeply and authentically with a wide range of clients.
As the founder of Sage Healing, I built my practice independently while raising my son as a single mother—an achievement I hold with great pride. My work integrates EMDR, somatic practices, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, plant medicine and other modalities tailored to each individual’s needs.
What sets me apart is my ability to hold space across the full spectrum of the human experience—from fear, grief, and despair to resilience, joy, and fulfillment. I am passionate about guiding clients back to their own inner wisdom, helping them reclaim their truth, and supporting them in creating lives aligned with their highest potential.
What are your plans for the future?
I am committed to continuing the expansion of Sage Healing by integrating advanced and holistic modalities and to bridge therapy, neuroscience, entheogenic work, and wellness practices—offering a deeply integrative approach that supports lasting transformation, while continuing my own evolution as a healer.
I have walked through profound pain and emerged with clarity, compassion, and joy. Now, my mission is to walk alongside others—helping them move through their own challenges, build resilience, and step into a life they may have once believed was out of reach and impossible.
This is my journey—a life shaped by trauma, transformation, and a relentless commitment to healing. Through it all, I have devoted myself to personal healing while guiding others as they heal and find their way back to their authentic and true selves.
What a long, strange trip it’s been. – Jerry Garcia
Pricing:
- $225 – $350/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sagehealinghouston.com
- Instagram: sagehealinghouston
- Other: https://www.ywpractice.com
