APPROVED & FUNDED BY THE CITY OF OAKLAND · BUILT FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
Mental health care firefighters will actually use.
Most programs never reach the people who need them. This one has — for over two years inside the Oakland Fire Department, on a city-funded contract that’s been renewed. We now work with cities and departments beyond Oakland.
U.S. practice a city has funded to deliver ketamine-assisted therapy to first responders
delivered to Oakland Fire
Firefighters treated
Approved & renewed by the City of Oakland
* Not experimental — a city government approved this program and renewed the contract.
The work wears people down — repeated calls, bad sleep, missed holidays, years of staying composed when nothing about the situation is calm. It catches up as burnout, anxiety, PTSD, marriages under strain, and drinking or weed that started as a way to come down after shift.
For a department, none of that is abstract. It's people calling in, going out on leave, or walking away from the job.
What the job does to people, and what it costs you
Leave
Turnover
Disability
You've offered help before. Here's what usually goes wrong.
Most departments already have something — an EAP, in-network therapists, peer support, a chaplain. The trouble starts when a firefighter actually goes: they sit with a counselor who's never been in a firehouse and spend the first sessions explaining the job before they get to anything real. Most don't go back.
What's been missing is a program built for firefighters, run by people who already understand the work.
Built for first responders, start to finish
Clinicians who've done the job
Current and former first responders, including an ICU nurse. Nobody needs the firehouse explained to them.
Works when talking hasn't
Nervous-system based therapy approaches: Somatic Therapy, Ketamine-Assisted Therapy, and EMDR-the most established trauma treatment there is. Reaches what talk therapy couldn't.
We get station culture
The "deal with it later" reflex, the fear of coming apart. We expect it — which is why people stay in treatment.
Confidential & separate
Healthcare, not a personnel matter. Nothing in a file, no effect on standing. Often the only reason they come in.
Two years inside Oakland Fire
This program wasn't tested in a lab. We've run it inside a working fire department, on a city contract, for more than two years — and the City of Oakland renewed it. Our method uses evidence-based interventions designed to stabilize the nervous system: trauma-focused therapy approaches including EMDR, body-based somatic therapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
100%
reported improvement in depression, anxiety and PTSD
57%
reported reduced alcohol or substance use
✓
contract renewed
17
firefighters treated
86%
reported ability to handle the work schedule
86%
reported improvement in relationship to work
Easy to bring in. Fits how your department already runs.
We Talk
STEP ONE
A short call about your department and what you're dealing with.
STEP TWO
We Set It Up
We handle the contract, station materials, and training briefings — you just point your people our way.
STEP THREE
Your People Get Care
Confidential, in person or virtual, around shifts.
STEP FOUR
You See Results
Measurable improvements in mental health, fewer disability claims, and data you can report to leadership.
*The Oakland program is paid for by the city, at no cost to the firefighters. We'll walk you through how that's set up and how it adapts to your department.
QUESTIONS YOU’RE PROBABLY ASKING
Straight answers
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FDA-approved, legal, given in a clinical supervised setting as part of structured therapy. Nobody takes it alone.
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Yes. Treatment is protected under HIPAA, the same as any other medical care. Records stay with us. Nothing goes into a personnel file, and the department never receives information about who's in treatment or what's discussed.
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Through your department's existing wellness fund. Oakland's program is funded by a union-voted wellness allocation. We'll walk you through how to structure it for your department.
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Minimal. Treatment is fully confidential and separate from department records. The only consideration is budget, and we help you identify existing funding sources. Oakland Fire leadership has reported no hesitation or concerns from personnel.
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Most do. This reaches the firefighters an EAP doesn't.
About True Yang Therapy
Led by Marni Levy, LMFT, with a team of trauma-trained clinicians — several current or former first responders. The first practice in the country to partner with a city to bring ketamine-assisted therapy to first responders, with two years doing it inside a working fire department.
See if it's a fit for your department
The first call is short, and there's no commitment.
Already trusted by the City of Oakland.