Background, Medical Training, and Practice 

 

Dr. Teismann grew up in St. Charles, Illinois, and attended University of Michigan, graduating with a degree in Botany in 1998.  He then worked at the American Alpine Institute in Bellingham, Washington, leading alpine climbing trips in the North Cascades.  He attended medical school at the University of Chicago and completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at Alameda County Medical Center-Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, in 2008.  Beginning in 2009, Dr. Teismann worked as an emergency physician at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco and served on the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine, teaching medical students, residents, and fellows.  While at UCSF, Dr. Teismann authored 18 publications and was the recipient of numerous teaching awards.  He continues to practice emergency medicine today at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, and in Lake County, California.

 

Shamanic Training

 

In 2016, Dr. Teismann began training with the Q’ero, an indigenous group native to the Sacred Valley near Cusco, Peru.  Over the course of 4 years, he completed a curriculum in traditional Q’ero Medicine through study with the Four Winds, an organization devoted to training modern clinicians in the science and art of traditional Andean shamanic medicine.  Concurrently, he began training with Ocean WhiteHawk, a spiritual teacher and master healer who founded the Samadhi Center, a global spiritual training center based in Hong Kong.

 

Psychedelic Medicine

 

Understanding the significant healing potential of traditional plant medicines and other psychedelics, including their use in a ceremonial context to complement and enhance a deep process of healing, Dr. Teismann received training with Phil Wolfson and Julane Andries through the KTC Ketamine Training Center.  He then began working at the Center for Transformational Psychotherapy in San Anselmo, California, a clinic focused on ketamine-assisted therapy for mental illness.