Our Story

Alva Dean Consulting was founded by Ian Cook in Lawrence, Kansas, after years of work advocating and educating in mental health and psychedelic-assisted therapy spaces.

Our journey began with a simple yet powerful idea: to create opportunities for transformative processes through exploring mental, spiritual, and physical dimensions and creating self-empowered practices.

Alva Dean Consulting is the crystallization of a multi-year alchemical process of healing, growth, and individuation; formed from the heat of family trauma, mental health, illness and crisis, seeking systems of wellbeing, and answering universal questions about life and purpose. Ian works in mental health and psychedelic spaces in honor of his sister Fiona - she is an ongoing inspiration in his life and a guiding north star in his work.

The namesake and purpose Alva Dean Consulting is inspired by founder Ian Cook’s heritage and ancestry. On his father Robert’s side of the family were healers who deeply inspired others through their work and compassion. His grandfather of German descent, Alva Dean Cook was a Psychiatrist and Navy Veteran who worked at the Department of Veteran Affairs in Topeka, KS, after completing a residency at The Menninger Clinic when it was still headquartered there. His grandmother Ruth (Swedish descent) was a Nurse who lived with a kind heart and was actively involved with Topeka’s Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

Alva Dean is also the name of Ian’s uncle who passed of HIV shortly after he was born. An incredibly talented Artist, Dean as he went by, is the flame of creativity and self expression that inspires Ian to create. As his grandfather and uncle have passed on, Ian continues the namesake Alva Dean in his musical projects, creative expression, and consulting work.

On his mother Ratna’s side is a lineage built upon belief and spirit. Ian’s Indonesian grandmother Sutina Wati and Chinese grandfather Susanto carried with them a history of spirituality and systems for daily living — through prayer, ritual, and ceremony. Stories of ghosts and spirit possession told in Ian’s youth provided the power of belief; a sense of knowing there are larger things at play. They provide the inspiration to embrace spiritual practices to stay connected with the divine.

Ian’s family history brings him a perspective that is both grounded in clinical understanding and elevated by spiritual insight, while honoring those who came before him. He hopes to find the middle path that can be walked in balance.

Ian's Journey

• Founder of the Lawrence Psychedelic Society

• Sitting Member of the NAMI Douglas County Steering Committee

• 6 years of advocacy, educating, and volunteering in mental health and wellness spaces

• Hosts Grief Support Circles with Mental Health Professionals

• Lived experience with mental health conditions: Bipolar 1, Depression, and Anxiety

• Patient experience with Ketamine Clinics and facilitation

• Uses Holistic and Shamanic daily practices that incorporate mental health frameworks to maintain balance and wellness

• Developed creative writing system to establish skills in processing and recording physical, emotional, mental content of daily living and experiences 

• Created individual system for preparation and integration work of psychedelic medicine experiences

• Developed individual systems of belief and spirituality that incorporate aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, the works of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, and others — as well as esoteric and occult principles and creative frameworks that utilize Analogy, Metaphor, Symbology, Meaning-Making, Storytelling and Narrative