New Modality Catalyst:
Valerie Beltran, family therapist with an interest in consciousness
Valerie Beltrán is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in trauma (EMDR), polyamory, and adolescents in her private practice in East Bay Area. Valerie was formerly the chief of staff for eco-tech entrepreneur, Josh Whiton, and head of operations for the conscious technology startup Consciousness Hacking. She’s also a NewMo Catalyst. Here’s a bit more about her work.
What should we know about you and your work?
In my therapy practice, I integrate Western psychological methods with Eastern and Indigenous traditions, along with cutting-edge research on the mind-body connection. I’m currently in a year-long training program for psychedelic-assisted therapy, and am looking forward to the anticipated legalization of psilocybin and MDMA for use in therapy in 2021.
Having grown up with two ethnic backgrounds (Mexican and American) while living on the border between two countries (Mexico and USA), I have become adept at metaphorically walking between worlds, seeing from multiple perspectives, and creating bridges between people and ideas.
I believe that technology can help humanity evolve by increasing self-awareness, promoting empathy, and transforming perspectives. I’m dedicated to creating and teaching techniques and technologies that organically usher people into evolution — and that's not limited to electronic technologies, by the way; I use a definition of technology that includes ideas or practices such as meditation.
Finally, I’m an ambassador and therapist for Thera VR, a company creating software to enable therapy via virtual reality. With Thera VR, I conduct therapy sessions with clients using the Oculus Quest and Thera VR software. I’m excited about the possible applications of technology in mental health, especially technology we have yet to even dream of — here's a blog post I wrote about that a couple years ago.
New Modality Catalysts
The New Modality is about experiments in culture — and the people who do those experiments. NewMo Catalysts are people who do things we admire and want to celebrate. They also help us stay accountable to our values. To learn more about NewMo Catalysts (or nominate someone to be a Catalyst), check out the Catalyst FAQ.
This profile was edited by Katie MacBride. Katie is a writer and co-founder of Anxy magazine. More about Katie at her NewMo profile
The information in our Catalyst profiles usually comes directly from the subjects, and we usually don't fact-check them. You can learn more about The New Modality's fact-checking and epistemological ideas by reading the page about our process for truth and transparency.