Dr. Austin Harris is a board-certified cardiothoracic anesthesiologist. He completed his Anesthesiology residency at the University of California Irvine (UCI), and his Cardio-Thoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship at Keck Hospital of USC. Even before beginning his private practice, Dr. Harris was finding that ketamine, a rarely used anesthetic tool, could have profoundly positive outcomes when utilized with specific patients.
This sparked his in-depth research of ketamine’s previously obscure properties, and its remarkable potential in treating patients suffering from mental health, chronic pain, and addiction struggles. Dr. Harris focused first on surgical patients presenting with unique mood, pain, and opioid dependency.
Then, after perfecting these techniques at medical offices across southern California, Dr. Harris formed NeuroRelief™ Ketamine & Infusion Therapy (Sherman Oaks, CA) to bring these successful results to the entire patient population. This much-needed service is now benefiting thousands of clients across the world.
Alexis is a certified Psychedelic Integration & Addiction Recovery Coach through Being True to You, as well as a Certified Life Coach through Inner Glow Circle and Certified Holistic Health Coaching through Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN).
After experiencing severe depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder in her 20s, she left her career in consulting in 2013 to dedicate herself to supporting people on their inner healing journeys. She has since worked in the wellness space, during which she has acted as COO of Huma Rising, an app for subconscious healing; the founder and owner of Studio Ohana, a yoga & wellness studio in the Bahamas; an Executive Director of Inner Glow Circle, a Life Coach Training Company; and a Life Coach in her private practice.
Life is a trip… Learn how to fall.
Throughout my journey I have fallen many times. I’ve been tripped up by my unconscious behaviors, deeply rooted patterns, karmas and familial patterning. In my experience, these forms of suffering have also manifested as addictions, depression, codependency and the lack of a developed sense of self. Some falls are harder than others. Through a spiritual perspective, each fall has meaning and presents new (or often old) information. My falls have provided me the opportunity to observe the unhealthy coping mechanisms I developed as a child. I learned how to use this material to fuel my personal transformation and growth. Through this I witnessed my resilience and found authenticity underneath my pain and suffering. As a psychedelic integration and psychospiritual coach, my role is to attune to your unique experience and walk with you through the stories of the mansion of your soul. Together we will shine light into dark areas. I will provide support and guidance while you acknowledge, honor and metabolize your pain.
Every client at NeuroRelief™ is independently assessed by combining objective tools with detailed phone and in-person consultations (and also with their loved ones). Dr. Harris takes a very unique approach with his clients. He believes in a “one-size-fits-one” approach to care. Utilizing CBT/Mindfulness, tailored guidance, emotional integration and constant communication Dr. Harris is able to customize each infusion protocol, and these additional resources, for every client.
Dr. Harris is personally involved in every single treatment session, with every single client. This unique dedication creates a very valuable relationship with each individual patient. This allows a high degree of customization to ensure that each patient receives the perfect dosing regimen and experience
Every single infusion we offer is “titrated in real-time.” This means that there is never a “set it and forget it” approach. We adjust and dial-in to each individual client’s unique neurology, psychology, personality, physiology, and tolerance levels throughout every treatment. In other words, no two treatment plans are ever identical, because no two people are the same. Every treatment day also contains one-on-one emotional integration work with Dr. Harris, before and after each ketamine infusion. In addition, Dr. Harris is available, directly to our clients, 24/7. This is an unheard of level of concierge support that has empowered our clients to reach amazing growth and wellness goals, and also learn how to maintain these gains for the long term!
By maintaining a large network of personally vetted physicians, including psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, pain management doctors, physical therapists, addiction recovery specialists, holistic wellness experts, and many others, Dr. Harris can combine his therapies with these additional resources, according to the needs of each client.
He believes strongly in the Integrative Medicine approach of mind and body, assisting each client in creating a personalized care plan, to optimize each client’s progress towards their desired goals. This is what NeuroRelief™ is all about! Dr. Harris often states that “we are outcome-driven and goal-oriented”. This careful attention to detail, by Dr. Harris and his entire care team, achieves maximal benefit and success for each individual client.
Amazing. I had severe depression and PTSD for years, and had reached a point that medication and therapy was still not enough to help me. Dr. Harris had me in after a thoughtful phone consult by the next day to start my six treatments. I didn’t know what to expect… read moreAmazing. I had severe depression and PTSD for years, and had reached a point that medication and therapy was still not enough to help me. Dr. Harris had me in after a thoughtful phone consult by the next day to start my six treatments. I didn’t know what to expect but I didn’t get my hopes up for fear of being disappointed in a time I was already hopeless. But after just one day, I began to feel things. The day after my first session, the sun hit my face and I realized it felt good. I could FEEL things again and had gotten so used to being disconnected and numb, I had not even realized what I had lost. Not only did my mood increase, my anxiety lessened, I felt more present and less dissociated, and my chronically cold hands and feet are now warm again – I’m no longer locked into fight or flight, after years of being so. My treatments consisted of an hour session with around a couple hours each time of unpacking and discussion afterward. Dr. Harris is reassuring, encouraging, and attentive, as well as easy to talk to. I initially felt nervous about the idea of essentially confronting my demons, and while scary to do at first, learning to let go and enjoy the session only got easier. I am only two days post treatment completion, but if only half of this current relief from treatment sticks, I’ll be more than satisfied. It’s truly transformative and Dr. Harris is truly doing something magical here. Update: A year and a half later I still have some lasting effects, most notably a diminished ego response and other PTSD symptoms. Depression comes and goes but it definitely helped with unresolved trauma. read less
This review is long overdue. It was so fortunate to find Dr. Harris’ clinic, NeuroRelief, for my wife’s chronic pain. She has central sensitization disorder paired with Sjögren’s syndrome, making her life miserable most days. The ketamine pain infusions administered at NeuroRelief gave her back mobility and a life… read moreThis review is long overdue. It was so fortunate to find Dr. Harris’ clinic, NeuroRelief, for my wife’s chronic pain. She has central sensitization disorder paired with Sjögren’s syndrome, making her life miserable most days. The ketamine pain infusions administered at NeuroRelief gave her back mobility and a life she thought she’d lost. We cannot thank Dr. Harris and his staff enough! They are excellent in every way, and always made us feel comfortable and welcomed. I highly recommend NeuroRelief for chronic pain and so much more. read less
I actually wrote a review for Dr. Harris a long time ago but I don’t think it made its way out of my Notes app! (I was still going through a lot around that time & a lot of things in my life slipped through the cracks). However, I actually… read moreI actually wrote a review for Dr. Harris a long time ago but I don’t think it made its way out of my Notes app! (I was still going through a lot around that time & a lot of things in my life slipped through the cracks). However, I actually feel like now is a better time to write this because it just becomes more and more apparent as time passes how much Dr. Harris has helped me! I was suffering from anxiety and severe depression. Nothing seemed to be helping me and I was in a very bad place mentally. My psychiatrist suggested looking into ketamine therapy and I chose Dr. Harris because of his personalized approach to each individual, which I felt I needed. It was an excellent choice. Dr. Harris is extremely knowledgeable and showed great compassion, empathy, kindness and understanding. I knew I was in good hands. I got 8 infusions during the Fall of 2020. It was the perfect amount for me. After that I started to feel better. It’s funny; when you’re so used to things not really helping or only being temporary, you tend to keep waiting for the other shoe to drop because it usually does. Well, finally it didn’t! Over time, I really started to notice more and more just how effective this was for me. It’s now been over 2 years and I am still getting better and better. I have never sunk to anywhere near the depths of depression that I did before my treatment with Dr. Harris. In fact, I’m pretty hopeful and dare I say happy most of the time and I’m able to experience many more of life’s pleasures than its pain, which was what he actually said would happen. He was right. I actually assumed that I was probably going to need non-IV ketamine therapy “tuneups” along the way just to keep me level but I have not even needed that! I don’t think I could ever have imagined a world where I could go 2 whole years without suffering a major depressive episode but so far, so good. Things just feel so much more manageable now and I know for certain that the ketamine therapy I received from Dr. Harris helped my depression better than anything else ever has! Thank you, Dr. Harris! read less
I dragged myself to Neurorelief in crisis — I was frozen in a depression hole for so long that I felt desperate for even a few minutes relief. My psychiatrist recommended IV ketamine as a radical approach for treatment-resistant depression. I called a bunch of different clinics, but Casey at… read moreI dragged myself to Neurorelief in crisis — I was frozen in a depression hole for so long that I felt desperate for even a few minutes relief. My psychiatrist recommended IV ketamine as a radical approach for treatment-resistant depression. I called a bunch of different clinics, but Casey at NeuroRelief spoke with me in-depth on the phone (on a Saturday!) and explained the known mechanisms of ketamine in a way I actually understood. She didn’t make me feel self-conscious for crying on the phone. I remember she talked about what a relief it could be to let the practitioners there hold some of the weight I was carrying to keep myself going while in despair. Another reason I decided to go with NeuroRelief is the psychedelic integration sessions with Alexis. She helped me set intentions and truly process through my ketamine experiences in a way that was absolutely invaluable. It’s 100,000% worth it to invest in this integrative approach rather than just taking the ketamine and leaving, which a lot of clinics seem to do. Instead of just giving you an IV and letting it run, they come in and check on you and adjust the dose based on how you’re doing and what your goals are. I felt much more in control of my treatment and like I was in a safe space because of that. Natalie and Emma are extremely caring, non-judgemental and competent nurses who made me feel like I could let go and really give myself over to the treatment. Dr. Harris took a lot of time to explain to me all the ways ketamine could help me and is obviously passionate about this work. I still have a lot more emotional work to do, but this treatment knocked me out of my depression hole in a way I’ve never experienced. The IV infusions are the way to go — so much more powerful than the sublingual lozenges you do at home, which I tried after and didn’t get very much out of. I am extraordinarily grateful I came to this clinic and did this program, it put me on a totally new path to mental health. read less
5 stars is not enough. The experience, team, and outcomes of my treatment with NeuroRelief have all been truly exceptional. I have dealt with treatment resistant depression for over a decade, with some successes but some frustrations from both traditional and non-traditional remedies. Dr. Harris’s open minded yet scientific approach… read more5 stars is not enough. The experience, team, and outcomes of my treatment with NeuroRelief have all been truly exceptional. I have dealt with treatment resistant depression for over a decade, with some successes but some frustrations from both traditional and non-traditional remedies. Dr. Harris’s open minded yet scientific approach was exactly what I was looking for, blending the best parts of more mindfulness based treatments I have tried and traditional chemical treatments. Dr. Harris treated me as much more than a patient, but a human being with a shared experience. From the beginning, he brought me into his process and made me feel like an active participant, which was just what I needed given the highly dissociated place I came in at. Dr. Harris makes himself available to you whenever you need him, answering simple questions over text or having deep talks over the phone. All the team treats you with the utmost care, with Emma really getting to know me and being a very comforting presence as chief clinical nurse, and Casey taking the time to talk me through my flu symptoms and how to quickly recover from illness quickly when I had just called to reschedule. Long story short, these people care—I think you would be hard pressed to find a medical office in the country where the people care more. The outcome: it is not overstatement to say I have a new lease on life. There are no silver bullets in mental health, and Dr. Harris will be the first to tell you that. Ketamine alone would likely have been helpful, but the total-human care provided by NeuroRelief made this transformative. With guided meditations, daily practices, coaches, and a very comprehensive plan between treatments, you learn how to effectively retrain your outlook in a way that lasts far beyond an individual session. In my opinion, our goal in life is not to feel good all the time. It is to experience as much of life as possible, and to take as much joy in that experience as possible. The treatment program designed by Dr. Harris is meant to maximize exactly this process. After a long period of anhedonic depression, my ability to feel, good, bad, and everything in-between, feels like magic, and my simple joy in the human experience is at a level I have never experienced. Again, this is not to say everything is sunshine and rainbows, but that isn’t what I was looking for. I feel like myself, and I feel like an active participant in the amazing experience of being human. One final note: it is my belief that this will be most impactful for those who want to change their lives. This is not like taking an aspirin and making the pain go away. Think of it more like physical therapy (still a clunky metaphor): the medicine that they use is fantastic, but is most effective when administered to a patient who will do the work. Who will do the daily exercises when they feel stressed or bored, who will look painful things in the face and work through them (knowing that they aren’t going away if we ignore them). I believe anyone coming from my position would benefit immensely from work with Dr. Harris and the whole NeuroRelief team, but if you can go in with an open mind, a desire to grow and change, and the willpower to push through some of the negative patterns you came in with, the impact will be exponential. Thank you NeuroRelief! read less
5 stars is not enough. The experience, team, and outcomes of my treatment with NeuroRelief have all been truly exceptional. I have dealt with treatment resistant depression for over a decade, with some successes but some frustrations from both traditional and non-traditional remedies. Dr. Harris’s open minded yet scientific approach… read more5 stars is not enough. The experience, team, and outcomes of my treatment with NeuroRelief have all been truly exceptional. I have dealt with treatment resistant depression for over a decade, with some successes but some frustrations from both traditional and non-traditional remedies. Dr. Harris’s open minded yet scientific approach was exactly what I was looking for, blending the best parts of more mindfulness based treatments I have tried and traditional chemical treatments. Dr. Harris treated me as much more than a patient, but a human being with a shared experience. From the beginning, he brought me into his process and made me feel like an active participant, which was just what I needed given the highly dissociated place I came in at. Dr. Harris makes himself available to you whenever you need him, answering simple questions over text or having deep talks over the phone. All the team treats you with the utmost care, with Emma really getting to know me and being a very comforting presence as chief clinical nurse, and Casey taking the time to talk me through my flu symptoms and how to quickly recover from illness quickly when I had just called to reschedule. Long story short, these people care—I think you would be hard pressed to find a medical office in the country where the people care more. The outcome: it is not overstatement to say I have a new lease on life. There are no silver bullets in mental health, and Dr. Harris will be the first to tell you that. Ketamine alone would likely have been helpful, but the total-human care provided by NeuroRelief made this transformative. With guided meditations, daily practices, coaches, and a very comprehensive plan between treatments, you learn how to effectively retrain your outlook in a way that lasts far beyond an individual session. In my opinion, our goal in life is not to feel good all the time. It is to experience as much of life as possible, and to take as much joy in that experience as possible. The treatment program designed by Dr. Harris is meant to maximize exactly this process. After a long period of anhedonic depression, my ability to feel, good, bad, and everything in-between, feels like magic, and my simple joy in the human experience is at a level I have never experienced. Again, this is not to say everything is sunshine and rainbows, but that isn’t what I was looking for. I feel like myself, and I feel like an active participant in the amazing experience of being human. One final note: it is my belief that this will be most impactful for those who want to change their lives. This is not like taking an aspirin and making the pain go away. Think of it more like physical therapy (still a clunky metaphor): the medicine that they use is fantastic, but is most effective when administered to a patient who will do the work. Who will do the daily exercises when they feel stressed or bored, who will look painful things in the face and work through them (knowing that they aren’t going away if we ignore them). I believe anyone coming from my position would benefit immensely from work with Dr. Harris and the whole NeuroRelief team, but if you can go in with an open mind, a desire to grow and change, and the willpower to push through some of the negative patterns you came in with, the impact will be exponential. Thank you NeuroRelief! read less