The new wave of mental health care is here.

WE ARE TOPANGA RIDGE GROUP.

Discreet, referral-driven, integrative mental health care in Topanga and virtually worldwide.

Topanga Ridge Group provides integrative mental health care outside and beyond dominant clinical models.

Our approach draws from rigorous graduate-level education and global ritual training.

Though qualified for traditional licensure, we choose to work outside the limiting licensure model, in principled protest, to allow broader more effective treatment.

We understand that suffering is a natural response to painful experiences, not evidence of disorder/disease.

Schedule a complimentary intro call to learn more.

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Traditional Care Vs. Integrative Care

Traditional Care

  • Labels disorders and prioritizes DSM/ICD categories.

  • Goal is to eliminate or suppress symptoms as quickly as possible.

  • Clinician seen as expert who directs treatment.

  • Pharmacological intervention emphasized as the primary solution.

  • Reliance on evidence-based, one-size-fits-all methods.

  • Substance use framed as a disease requiring total abstinence (often 12-step or medical detox).

  • Clients usually enter during acute breakdowns.

  • Client identity tied to diagnosis; struggles defined as 'disorders.'

  • Less focus on trauma, environment, relationships, or culture.

  • Aim is to manage crises and return to 'baseline functioning.'

Integrative Care

  • Focuses on lived experience, meaning, and values rather than labels.

  • Symptoms understood as signals of deeper needs; healing aims at transformation and integration.

  • Therapist and client work as partners; trust and autonomy are central.

  • Medication is one tool among many (nutrition, movement, mindfulness, community, ceremony).

  • Tailored to the individual’s history, culture, and goals.

  • Emphasizes safety, dignity, and gradual change—even if abstinence isn’t immediate.

  • Supports people before crises emerge; attends to long-term flourishing.

  • Clients seen as resourceful, creative, and capable of growth.

  • Considers trauma, relationships, ecology, spirituality, and systemic factors.

  • Integration, self-understanding, and sustainable well-being are the goals.

Services

SESSIONS

Individuals, couples, families, children, business teams.

CONCIERGE CARE

24/7, real time, high-touch guidance when its needed most

INTENSIVES

Custom, transformational retreats, day intensives, & 12- week programs for

  • Relationships

  • Addiction

  • Crisis Points

  • Transformation

Meet the Team

Rigorously trained, radically compassionate.

Becca Braren, MA, PhD-C
Founder & Integrative Therapist

Becca Braren’s work weaves clinical study, ritual, and decades of guiding people through crisis and transformation. Trained at CIIS, Antioch, and Pacifica, she is completing her dissertation on alternative healing worldwide and has studied and collaborated with elders from diverse indigenous traditions.

With over 25 years in clinical and ceremonial spaces, and 15 years working with Ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, and other medicines where legally administered, she blends ancient ways and modern science with a focus on individualized care. She is a founding board member of the Guild of Guides and a vocal advocate for safety in the psychedelic healing space as it gains wider attention.

Her work is grounded in the belief that people are not broken… society is, and both are able to change and be changed. Drawing from humanistic psychology, harm reduction, and lineage-based, non-clinical ways of knowing, she helps people interrupt patterns, repair relationships, reconnect with inner knowing, and continue a path toward healing and positive change.

  • Over the past two decades, Becca has worked with individuals and families navigating addiction, trauma, grief, and transformation, including clinicians, artists, first responders, and high-profile professionals. Her work spans traditional therapy settings, ceremonial contexts, and intensive recovery environments, always centering relationship and trust as the foundation for healing.

    Becca works outside the licensure system in principled protest of its limits because real healing can’t be standardized; it asks to be met person to person, moment to moment.

Hannah Saltzman PhD
Clinical Psychologist & Program Director

Hannah was born and raised in Paris, France, and moved to the United States to attend Smith College in Massachusetts, where she graduated with a double major in Psychology and English Literature. After working as a data analyst in the pharmaceutical industry, she realized she did not want to dedicate her time to a field that profits from human suffering.

  • She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Palo Alto University in California, focusing on abnormal psychology, sex and gender identities, geriatric psychology, and neuropsychology. Her dissertation explored the concept of intolerance of uncertainty and its impact on mental health.

    During her training with LA County, she worked with a wide range of individuals and witnessed the limitations of traditional mental health systems. After completing her PhD, she chose not to pursue licensure, turning instead toward alternative paths for healing—honoring Eastern philosophies, nature-based therapies, and creative approaches that reconnect the spirit with body, community, and change.

  • Jessica Cousens

    Retreat Program Director & Art/Eco Therapist

  • Tisha Marina

    Andean Pampamesayoq & Mexican Curandera

  • Jevon Nally

    Plant Medicine/Ibogaine Advisor & Aftercare Provider

  • Wilson Moreno

    Clinical Coordinator & Director of Operations

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Our Specialites

Parents, Children & Adolescents

Depletion, Paralysis, Collapse

Existential Ambivalence

Clinicians & Healers

Influential Individuals

“Psychedelic Curious” Individuals

Depression, Anxiety, CPTSD

Addiction
(Post-Conventional Approaches)

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  • "Becca Braren is a healing legend. Words cannot express the immense gratitude I feel for the profound internal and external transformation that began to happen in my life shortly after working with Becca. She is a true healer in all forms."

    - Aishah S. 

  • "Becca saved my life. I was in the darkest chapter of my life and working with her rescued me. She offers incredible empathy and presence, and approaching everything with a true healer's spirit. Since 2022, I have worked with her and have been renewed again and again."

    - George A. 

  • "I was blown away by Becca's abilities and intelligence. She won't keep you stuck in the chair for years, her goal is to heal effectively and efficiently so you can get on with your life in a positive and meaningful way. Cannot recommend Becca enough. Her approach and insight is life-changing."

    - Shayne A.

  • "I find Becca extremely warm and caring, she definitely creates a safe space, the tools she provides for healing myself and my marriage are amazing, I highly recommend her! "

    - David D. 

  • "Becca has given us such amazing tools and has helped us cultivate presence, so we can honor our triggers and how we handle them. Becca’s approach is exactly what my husband and I wanted, she gives you tools so you can focus on other things than therapy forever."

    - Lisa D.

"Dramatic, poignant & needed. It's a great project you've initiated."

Dr. Gabor Mate - advisor and collaborator

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Let’s explore where you are, what you need, and how we may be able to help.

Submit your information and our coordinator - Wilson Moreno - will reach out to schedule a complimentary call to explore alignment and possibilities.