The Center for Healing Journeys

Bennett N. Gaev, MD has practiced clinical psychiatry in Western Massachusetts for over 40 years. After graduating from Temple Medical School and completing a rotating Internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, he completed a residency in psychiatry and a one year fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Rochester in 1977. At the U of R, Dr. Gaev was inspired by the then new interdisciplinary model taking a biopsychosocial approach to medicine. This resonated with the example provided by his late father who was eulogized as a “country doctor practicing in the heart of Philadelphia.”

Between the late 1970’s and mid 1980’s, Dr. Gaev worked at local community mental health clinics, the old Northampton State Hospital, and then spent three years at the University Health Services at UMass Amherst treating college students and faculty. He continued to pursue his interests in family systems, couples psychotherapy, and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. In 1985 he developed his full time private practice in Northampton and Longmeadow.

As new discoveries advanced the field of psychiatry in the 80’s and 90’s, Dr. Gaev developed more specifically focused psycho-pharmacological expertise, but has never lost sight of the necessity to address the needs of the whole person. With Lilly Gaev, LCSW, he established Therapeutic Associates, P.C. which consists of a collaborative of multidisciplinary clinicians offering complimentary areas of psycho-therapeutic expertise to a wide range of clients in the community.

Dr. Gaev has been Board Certified in Psychiatry since 1981 and has continued to obtain most of his continuing training through the Psychiatric Academy of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His areas of specialization include the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders; ADHD in adults and adolescents; and dual diagnoses. He and Lilly Gaev were two of the four co-founders of the ADD Center of Western Mass. in 1995. Since obtaining certification for prescribing Suboxone in 2007, he also has found deep gratification in treating people with opiate dependency coexistent with other psychiatric disorders; allowing them to attain more stable lives and relationships.

Peter Corbett, LICSW has worked in private practice as a psychotherapist for the last 30 years. Before this, after getting his BA from UVM in Sociology and Psychology, he was a community organizer working with low income communities in Burlington, VT. One of the key organizers in Burlington when Bernie Sanders became mayor, Peter has long felt a central commitment to helping people become increasingly empowered and resilient in their personal lives and beyond. On the verge of heading off to study law, Peter changed track to explore his growing interest in transpersonal psychology and Psychosynthesis.

Moving to Boston, Peter enrolled in a graduate program in holistic counseling, eventually transferring to the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he received a Masters in Counseling and Consulting Psychology. Here he studied the ways therapists, relationships, and communities converge to mediate personal evolutional processes so that we can hold increasingly broader sense of identity and care for the world. After graduating from Harvard, given his long held belief in the value of communal living, he moved to Sirius, an intentional community in Western Mass.

Peter continued his studies with an MSW at Smith College, and began private practice as a psychotherapist in the early 90’s, raising his family in Shutesbury, where he still lives.

Peter began studying neuroplasticity in 2010 after losing the first of two immediate family members to the neurodegenerative genetic-based disease, Huntington’s Chorea. Drawing hope from the promising research using psychedelics in the psychotherapeutic setting he began formal training in 2015. Along with running The Center for Healing Journeys with Bennett and Lilly Gaev, Peter is a member of the Ketamine Training Center faculty, and is Co-Director of Ketamine Psychotherapy Associates with Dr. Phil Wolfson author of The Ketamine Papers. Peter completed the Certificate Program in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies & Research from the California Institute for Integral Studies, and is MAPS certified as a therapist for psychedelic research studies. Peter is excited by this work and eager to make available the fruits of this burgeoning field by offering state-of-the-art Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy for you here at The Center for Healing Journeys.

Lilly Gaev, LCSW has been in private practice as the Clinical Director of Therapeutic Associates, PC. for 35 years. It’s been a delight to build that practice with her life, business, and tandem cycling partner, Bennett N.Gaev, MD. Now with added enthusiasm, she has joined Bennett and their gifted colleague, Peter Corbett, LICSW to bring The Center For Healing Journeys to the Valley.

Lilly’s training in psychology and social work was at Temple University and The University of Rochester, as well as at the Bristol Hospital Family Therapy Training Institute. Over many years her psychotherapy work has integrated treatment skills that draw from Family Systems therapies; Mindfulness based Meditation; CBT and Exposure Therapy; EMDR and other trauma based nervous system protocols for PTSD; OCD, phobias, and Anxiety Disorders; Ericksonian Hypnotherapy; Ego State Integration; and Emotionally Focused Therapy. She enjoys working with older teens and a young adult age population, as well as adults and, especially couples where one partner has recently received an Axis I diagnosis.

Kathleen “Kate” Hawk, LMHNP is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development & Family Studies from the University of Connecticut and a Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Nursing from Yale University. She has provided psychiatric services in Western Massachusetts since 2013 and feels privileged to reside in our diverse community. She has worked with individuals of all ages and backgrounds in both acute and community outpatient care for Behavioral Health Network Inc. and The Carson Center For Human Services.

Kate has completed a Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy experiential training with the Psychedelic Coalition for Health, and has been trained by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) for MDMA assisted psychotherapy for complex PTSD. Kate has additionally studied transformational breathwork and alternative healing modalities with Anahata Ananda founder of Shine Sanctuary for the Soul in Sedona, AZ.