Hello,
My name is Dr. Antonio Ocaña
I am a Canadian trained physician who retired in 2019 and moved to California to pursue my dreams.
By way of educational background, I did my bachelors degree in pharmacology and a Master's degree in Clinical Nutrition at University of Toronto, graduating in 1987. I then moved to Calgary, Alberta, where I did my internship in Family Medicine. I graduated in 1993 and then moved to Vancouver BC, where I opened my first clinic: HealthSmith Community Medical Clinic. It was ahead of its time in someways, because we had all the different clinicians (doctors, nutritionists, psychologists, chiropractors) working in the same place, sometimes with the same patient. In 1999, I did a fellowship in Addiction Medicine at University of British Columbia and subsequently founded the West Vancouver Addiction Day Program in 2006.
​
Pretty soon we realized that the Addiction clinic was really the undiagnosed ADHD Clinic, so, in 2007, Lawrence Sheppard and I founded the NorthShore ADHD and Addiction Clinic which I ran until 2019. I had a few nice months off, and then COVID hit and none of my Canadian patients could find a doctor, so I started a virtual practice from Los Angeles.
​
The reason for moving to LA was to find funding for our digital health venture, Epiphany360. Our goal was to create a mental health assessment and remote monitoring app. We got the funding and we built the app. While we were working on the app, we got acquired by a publicly-traded psychedelic company, Mindcure, that wanted to use Epiphany360 to monitor patients who were treated with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Well you can imagine how that lit a fire under me.
​
However, in October 2021, Mindcure changed their mind, and the deal was off. Actually, that was a blessing in disguise, because they soon went out of business and our shares would have been worth nothing anyway.
​
So with that project in the bin, I decided I needed a US medical job and I was asked to be the medical director of Laguna Beach Addiction Hospital.
I ended up giving up the directorship and worked as a staff physician. I learned a lot, but it really was not my thing. After seeing the same patients over and over, I realized my talents were better directed elsewhere.
​
In November 2022, I got some training and did an internship in psychedelic therapy and decided with some of my LA colleagues to open EpiphanyClinicLA, a mental health clinic specializing in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. As part of the development of the clinic, We started training local therapists to build capacity. Not long after, it became clear that that was a better business model that the clinic per se. I recruited Barbara Heiman an psychotherapist with 30 years experience and together we balance yin and yang to bring you this special offering. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, a 12 week course.
​
We think it's a great base from which to launch your own psychedelic-infused practice. We'll walk you through it one step at a time.
Our Story
EpiphanyClinics is born
After COVID, I decided I wanted to get back into some kind of work, so I started applying for jobs. I got lots of replies, but I didn't really want to start at the bottom again, working as a provider in a hospital. So my wife asked me, "What do you want to do"? I said, "I want to be the medical director of a Psychedelics Clinic". She said, "Well, then why don't you put that into the search engine on the job site".
Within a week, I had found my dream job, just like that.
Nathaniel Flatt and I met at the clinic-opening party of that clinic in West Hollywood. It was a beautiful space and as it turns out, he had also intended to work there. But as time went on, I realized that it was not what I expected, and I would be the medical director in name only. Not what I signed up for.
​
So, I decided, I would open up my own clinic. But I would need a psychotherapist as a business partner to make it work. That's when I met Barbara Heiman.
By the summer of 2023, it was clear that without insurance coverage, our clinic would fail. So we changed business plans and decided to put our heads together and create a course to train other physicians and therapists how to work together to bring psychedelic therapy to the masses. This program is our collaborative effort. We've designed by looking at what other courses offer and add our own special skills to make it better. We think you'll like it and find it takes your practice to a whole other level.
Meet Team Epiphany
We are thrilled to be able to serve you. We love our little spot in Larchmont. Please come by and see us and we'll start the path to wellness.
.jpeg)
