Today we’d like to introduce you to Anissa Pfannenstiel, LSCSW.
Hi Anissa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My journey into the work I do today began with a deep curiosity about the psyche really wanting to dive into mysterious layers of the conscious and unconscious mind, and the ways in which we heal through understanding them. I was also really intrigued with Spirituality and the intersection with consciousness science and spirituality. When I was in college, I began seeing a psychologist who worked with hypnotherapy and explored how the brain, emotion, and consciousness interact. His approach had a profound impact on me. At the time, I was attending Wichita State University, initially studying music and considering graphic design, drawn to the creative process and the power of expression. But through those sessions, I began to realize I wanted to be a therapist and integrate consciousness and spirituality.
When I shared my interest in psychology and therapy with him, he encouraged me to pursue social work rather than a traditional psychology track. He told me that clinical social work would offer a more direct and diverse path to studying and practicing in these areas.
I completed my undergraduate degree in Minority Studies, as I was already close to finishing and had grown passionate about social justice and supporting marginalized communities. Immediately after, I entered graduate school at Newman University to earn my master’s in social work. During that time, I became certified in hypnotherapy, merging my fascination with the mind and consciousness with clinical frameworks for healing.
After graduation, I moved to the Twin Cities, where I worked in the school system as a social worker. It was a meaningful introduction to supporting others in a structured environment. Later, my path led me to Florida, where I continued to work in schools and, after earning my clinical licensure, began a private practice. My early work focused on trauma-informed therapy as I became certified in EMDR and also integrating hypnotherapy and other modalities to help clients access deeper layers of awareness and healing.
In 2013, I returned to Kansas and worked in various organizations before returning to private practice in 2015. Three years later, I opened my own practice which was an embodiment of years of study, experience, and personal evolution. What began as curiosity about the unconscious became a lifelong devotion to helping others awaken, heal, and reconnect with their own inner wisdom.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My path has been as much an inner pilgrimage as it has been a professional one. The work I do today has been refined and deepened not only by study and practice, but through the lived experiences that tested my spirit and expanded my heart. Each chapter of struggle became an initiation that opened a new dimension of understanding, compassion, and consciousness.
Raising my child as a single mother was one of the earliest and most transformative of these journeys. Balancing motherhood and my calling as a therapist required strength I didn’t know I had. I became passionate about parenting and sharing with my clients’ various healthy approaches as well as becoming very interested in education. My child became both my teacher and my anchor, informing my personal and professional life.
Later, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my understanding of life and healing shifted again. That experience stripped everything down to its core. The mental aspect of this diagnosis was so difficult, but what emerged was a profound awareness of the body’s intelligence, the mind’s resilience, and the soul’s quiet guidance. I learned to listen more deeply to the whispers of intuition, to the wisdom natural healing along with western medicine, and to the lessons of focusing on self-care and a healing mindset. This experience was another that impacted both my personal and professional experience, another layer of deeper understanding.
When my mother fell gravely ill and I brought her into my home for the final years of her life, I entered yet another sacred passage. Caring for her was an act of devotion that wove grief and love together. It taught me how to hold presence with the dying, how to release control, and how to find grace in impermanence. In those quiet, tender days, my understanding of consciousness evolved once more as I was learning about dimensional realities and life after life and past lives. This created a new aspect of my consciousness understandings as well as an opportunity to surrender to a life passage full of intense emotions. This also allowed me to work with client who are caring for aging parents and support these difficult situations.
Through these years, my own spiritual practice became inseparable from my professional path. I came to understand that therapy is both a science and it is also an art of consciousness. The more I healed, the more I could hold space for others to do the same. Every challenge expanded my capacity to listen, to guide, and to see the light in even the darkest moments.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Today, my work lives at the intersection of psychotherapy, non ordinary state of consciousness & trauma release. As the founder of Mind & Body Healing Collective, my vision has been to create a practice that offers therapy as we truly reimagine what healing can look like by bringing together like-minded clinicians who share a commitment to depth, diversity, and wholeness.
At the heart of our collective is an understanding that healing is multidimensional. The mind, body, and spirit are not separate, and neither should our approaches to care be. We are building a team of therapists who are deeply attuned, well-trained, and open-hearted therapists who understand that we have to meet people where they are and walk beside them. Our collective includes professionals from varied backgrounds and lived experiences because diversity in thought, in identity, and in therapeutic approach are essential to authentic healing.
We integrate traditional psychotherapy with holistic modalities such as mindfulness, somatic practices, EMDR, IFS and various forms of talk therapy/psychotherapy. And now, as the landscape of mental health evolves, we are expanding into the realm of psychedelic-assisted therapy, offering cutting-edge, evidence-based approaches through a deeply ethical and trauma-informed lens. I became certified as a Somatic Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist, and through this work, I created SomaVerse, a program that explores the neurobiological, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of healing through the use of ketamine-assisted therapy utilizing ketamine troches that can be integrated into actual therapy sessions for individual or couples. I also offer group experiences and retreats with Ketamine Therapy.
SomaVerse is a framework where clients are invited to access expanded states of consciousness in a safe, structured, and compassionate environment. Integration is at the core of this process: helping clients translate the insights and experiences that arise in psychedelic journeys into meaningful, sustainable change in their daily lives.
What I am most proud of is the community of healers we are creating which is a collective of clinicians who hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity, safety, and presence and work with our communities. We are growing a model that invites therapists to do their own deep work, to learn continuously, and to show up for clients not just as professionals, but as conscious humans.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
What might surprise people about me, or about Mind & Body Healing Collective, is how deeply we are reimagining the very structures through which healing happens. Beneath the surface of our clinical work, there is an ongoing inquiry: How can we give back? How can we create systems of care that ripple beyond the therapy room and truly transform the fabric of our community?
I’m continuously exploring new ways of doing business that are rooted in compassion, creativity, and service. I believe therapy can be a catalyst for social change, and that healing spaces can model the world we wish to see, one built on equity, inclusion, and conscious collaboration. I’m currently exploring models that could allow us to fund therapeutic and holistic care for those who might not otherwise have access, and to create a nonprofit arm of the collective that bridges mental health, community engagement, and collective healing.
What drives me most is the idea that healing doesn’t have to be confined to an office or a 60-minute session. It can happen in community gatherings, retreats, dialogue circles, art, movement, sound, and shared experience. I want to help people and practitioners, step out of routine, out of rigid structures, and into something more alive, experiential, and connected.
At my core, I am endlessly curious about what’s possible when we allow ourselves to play, explore, and express more freely. I’m constantly finding new ways to bring that spirit into the work I do to rediscover authenticity, creativity, and joy as vital parts of healing.
At Mind & Body Healing Collective we’re really hoping to build is a movement that is a living, evolving space where healing, consciousness, and community intersect.
Pricing:
- Therapy Sessions $160.00
- Couples Therapy $160.00
- Ketamine at home with Psychiatrist, Guide and Therapist 6 sessions, $1505.00
- Custom Ketamine 6 Doses with Therapist $480.00
- Ketamine Couples Therapy Session $375.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mbhealingcollective.org
