Erik Gunderson, MD

Dr. Gunderson is the Director and Founder of the Center for Wellness and Change.

He also is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine. After completing medical school, internal medicine residency, and chief residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, he entered an Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine.  He is a national Lead Mentor through the Providers Clinical Support System for Medication Assisted Treatment of opioid use disorders (https://pcssnow.org). He is a Distinguished Fellow in the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), and member in the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) and Association for Medical Eduction and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA).

Dr. Gunderson's clinical and research interests have focused on treatment of opioid use disorders, the interface between pain and substance use, integrating alcohol and other substance use disorder screening and intervention in primary care, medical education, and human behavioral psychopharmacology. Between 2003-2008, he was Medical Director of Columbia University's Buprenorphine Program, an outpatient program that specialized in the treatment of opioid use disorders.  Also during this time, he was Medical Director of Columbia's Substance Use Research Center, a human behavioral pharmacology research laboratory. In 2008, he moved to Virginia and became Director of UVA's Clinical Pharmacological Research Unit in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. From 2008 to 2014 he was Adjunct Associate Research Scientist in the Division on Substance Abuse, Department of Psychiatry, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has received federal funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the effectiveness of buprenorphine treatment of opioid dependence in primary care, as well U. S. Department of Health and Human Services funding from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to develop substance use curricula for physicians.

Christopher Rowley, DO

Dr. Rowley, Board Certified in General Psychiatry, appreciates both the value of medication treatment and its limitations, understanding that the goals of each client will be unique and dynamic. It is his philosophy that the best, most sustainable outcomes require a holistic, patient-centered approach to healing; this means recognizing the biological, social, psychological, and even spiritual barriers to treatment, while simultaneously utilizing each patient’s innate strength and wisdom as a source of empowerment and transformation.

Dr. Rowley is an experienced substance use treatment provider offering Office Based Addiction Treatment (OBAT), medication treatment, and therapy in coordination with other program providers. He helps treat individuals hoping to finally attain sobriety from a number of substances, including opioids, alcohol, methamphetamine, cannabis, among others. He can also help others cut back on their use for any variety of reasons, helping create an individualized roadmap to your own specific goal.

He completed the psychedelic assisted psychotherapy course offered by nationally recognized Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI), learning the proper use of ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA as powerful therapeutic agents capable of inducing profound transformations in those with treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses and substance use disorders. His experience with psychiatry and helping those with substance use disorders has continually challenged the prevalent yet misguided, harmful stigma that abandons far too many people who are suffering. He recognizes the humanity in all and has learned as much from his patients as they have from him.

James Clark, MA, CSAC

Jim has served clients in a broad range of treatment settings for mental health and substance use recovery for over 25 years. 

His approach honors and values each individual recovery process. The phrase “less Judgement, more Curiosity” resonates in his engagements with clients. Counseling support sessions reflect upon those goals, and build on the strengths of the person and their natural ability to be in recovery of their true self: the innate and whole nature of the person underlying the damage caused by dependence or misuse of medications and substances. The negative effects of stigma often prevent or hamper people from seeking the help they need. 

A welcoming, and judgement free environment is provided throughout the staff at CWC.  Jim shares those values in his work at the Center. In offering understanding for the underlying dynamics of dependence he employs skill sets based on state-of-the-art practices.Jim has studied the ongoing effects of trauma, and negative life experiences. He offers skills to engage and assist recovery from that legacy. He continues to participate in academic trainings and course work.  He uses experiential trainings to bring the very latest best practices to clients. Among these Evidence -Based modalities are Relapse Prevention exercises, Motivational interviewing, and Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP). Jim has been active in his personal long-term recovery since 1985 and brings understanding and compassion to patients who seek to regain a sense of their innate strengths and capacity for living a fulfilling life, free of the negative effects of substance use. Recovery has often been described as a journey that leads a person back to their authentic self, better able to live a life that is satisfying and rewarding, free of the effects of what has delayed or stalled the journey towards a happy destiny.  

Mark Farrington, CNS, NP

Mark is a Nurse Practitioner with a Master’s in Psychiatric Nursing from University of Virginia and a B.S. in Nursing from Eastern Mennonite University.

For over twenty years he worked for Region Ten Community Services Board in a variety of roles. The last of which was the development and direction of the Wellness Recovery Center, a short-term, residential mental health crisis center. Subsequently he worked ten years for the Veterans Administration in out patient care. More recently, he has had a private psychotherapy practice. In these settings, he has worked with individuals experiencing severe and persistent mental illness, addiction, mood disorders, acute crisis, chronic pain, and trauma. 

During his 30-plus years of clinical practice, he has been aware of the over-reliance on psychotropic medication with serious side effects, inconsistent results, and a general absence of adequate mental health treatment. About 15 years ago, he discovered the new research using psychedelics to treat end-of-life anxiety, PTSD, addiction, and depression. He sought out training in these treatments and, in 2021, completed the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) certificate program in Psychedelic Therapy and Research, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) MDMA therapy training program. In 2021, he completed the Polaris Insight Center’s Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Training program. 

His psychotherapeutic approach is based upon compassion, curiosity, and respect. Mark believes that we possess an internal source of wisdom that can be accessed and cultivated through psychotherapy, psychedelic medicine, and other practices linking mind, body, and spirit.  

Mark is married to Claudia Sencer, who works with the Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy program. Together they have three children and three grandchildren and enjoy a shared love of exploring the boundaries of interpersonal growth, intimacy, vulnerability, and healing. Mark enjoys music, reading, hiking, skiing, and making stained glass windows when not working.

Claudia Sencer, NP-CNM, MS

Claudia came to psychedelic therapy through the very powerful, though not typical path, of being a nurse midwife. In attending births for over 20 years, Claudia developed deep skills guiding women work through the challenges of the intensity of labor and the inevitable emotional blocks that are encountered in the process of birth. Holding space, acknowledging challenges, creating trust and maintaining safety are some of her hard won skills.

Additionally, Claudia is a practitioner of Compassionate Inquiry. This newly developed therapeutic approach, created by Gabor Maté and refined into a method by Sat Durham Kaur N.D., is an elegantly effective tool for understanding how our past traumas manifest in our daily lives. It provides clients with effective means of self-understanding and offers possibilities for deep self-healing. As trauma is the root of much personal suffering, this is a remarkably useful therapeutic tool. 

Psychedelics are a wonderful tool for deep self-exploration. Integrating these understandings into our normal consciousness can lead to significant self-transformation. Claudia’s unique skills and experience combine to powerfully support this work.

Overall, Claudia brings over 40 years of experience in Women’s Healthcare, providing both physical and psychological care. She has supplemented this with a Certificate from the California Institute of Integral Studies program in Psychedelic Therapies and Research (2020), A certificate from MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies) an MDMA focused training (2022). She has had additional ketamine specific training through Polaris and Rainfall Medicine (2021). This is supplemented with ongoing professional continuing education and development.

Additionally, Claudia holds a M.S. from Georgetown University in Nurse Midwifery, a B.S. in Nursing from New York University and a B.A. in the Arts from Hamilton College.

Claudia shares the KAP practice with Mark Farrington, her co-worker who has been her husband since 1999. Together, they have three children, three grandchildren, and an abundance of love, learning, and belief in our deep healing potential.