LIFE IS A JOURNEY, not merely a destination.
Hi, I am so glad that you are here. My name is Jackie Materi and I am a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Anesthesiologist in Bismarck, North Dakota. My goals are to assist my clients:
On their Journey to Wellness
Integrating traditional psychiatric treatments with complementary approaches
Feel the weight of mental health symptoms and chronic pain to be lifted
To discover joy and gratitude despite life’s stressors
To develop resilience while facing stressful life circumstances
Work with a Christian based perspective, but honor each individual’s faith journey
Provide accessible care either in person or via telemedicine
In 2018, I described the transformations I has witnessed in patients at Ketamine Care Clinic.
About Me
I always sensed my future was destined to be an entrepreneur, although I never knew what that would entail. I was accepted into nursing school at Medcenter One College of Nursing, with a goal to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist (CRNA). Shortly after I graduated from Mayo School of Health Sciences with a Masters Degree in Nurse Anesthesia, I came across an article titled “Anesthesiologists Take the Lead as Ketamine Clinics Proliferate.” How anesthesia works is intriguing in itself, but to think that something I was administering daily as anesthetic also could work to combat treatment resistant depression was captivating to me. I read everything I could get my hands on about ketamine infusions for mental health conditions, which in 2016 was not not as abundant as the clinical evidence that supports ketamine today.
After interviewing practitioners administering ketamine infusions across the country and and touring ketamine clinics, I worked diligently to open the first of it’s kind ketamine clinic in Bismarck, ND in 2017, Ketamine Care Clinic. Despite the challenges of providing a novel off label treatment, I witnessed first hand a great deal of success stories and what I can describe as nothing short of miracles in providing ketamine treatment both for mental health conditions as well as chronic pain. Since I had a large percentage of patients from the eastern side of the state, driving long distances for infusions with me, I opened an additional clinic location in Fargo, ND in 2019. With a burning desire to offer more mental health services to my small ketamine clinic, I decided to pursue additional training as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. In doing so, I temporarily closed Ketamine Care Clinic, with intentions of reopening shortly after graduation.
I was Featured in the Fargo Forum in 2019
However, after I graduated and underwent the stress of almost loosing my father to Covid-19, I experienced a horrific case of vertigo which led me to be shockingly diagnosed with a type of benign brain tumor called an acoustic neuroma. This tumor, which I named “Hellen” grew on my hearing and balance nerve and threatened to change my life as I once knew it, including risking the risk of loosing my hearing on the effected side and the ability to smile normally.
After my diagnosis, I made a personal decision to spend more quality time with my husband and kids, cherishing the things that I enjoy doing, before deciding to have the tumor surgically removed. One of my passions is horses. I enjoy anything that involves horses and I regularly compete in cowboy mounted shooting. Even after my diagnosis, I managed to ride and compete despite having a brain tumor enmeshed into my balance nerve!
Here I am competing with “Pearl” a few months after my brain tumor diagnosis.
(Image courtesy of Lil Redd’s Photography)
Unsure of what the outcome of my brain surgery would be, I chose to remain quiet to most people about what I was going through. “Hellen” led me to feel defective and broken. Fear, anxiety and lack of control of what my future would hold led me to grow in my faith to God and ultimately handed the reins of fate over to him as I worked to change my negative thinking patterns for positive ones. I crossed a few things off my bucket list while I was physically and mentally preparing for brain surgery at the same trusted place I had worked and trained, the Mayo Clinic.
My surgery date came remarkably fast, despite scheduling it out nearly 6 months prior. In the time leading up to brain surgery, I connected with a network of individuals to support me as well as pray for me and a successful surgical outcome. For someone that rarely asks for help, this was a new concept to me that I couldn’t get through what I was going through alone and bottling up the reality of the situation was helping no one, including myself.
I was grateful to have trusted friends at my side when I woke up from surgery. My first question to them was, “Am I smiling?” as I forced my lips upward in what felt like the normal sensation of smiling, and I was! One of my worst fears of facial nerve paralysis postoperatively was relieved in that moment. Not every part of recovering from brain surgery was pretty, in fact I restrained myself from attaching a picture of my 6 inch surgical incision that extended from my head into my neck, just incase I might freak someone out.
With time, professional help, grace from God, and self-care, I have managed to bounce back to being myself, now 100% free from “Hellen.” My experience led me to do a lot of writing which was therapeutic, and I hope to publish a book about overcoming a brain tumor in the near future. In the meantime, I will be partnering with individuals at Journey to Wellness, such as yourself, to be able to overcome life’s challenges by becoming resilient and able to live life to its fullest potential as a result
3 Months into Recovery, Here I am clear from a brain tumor and back in the saddle of my life again opening Journey to Wellness, Mental Health Clinic
Jackie Featured In:
