During our lives, we walk through many landscapes and endure many conditions. It’s a system of give-and-take, push and pull. There are times where we dance in the rain and others where we trek through the storms. Sometimes these paths lead to dead ends, and there is nothing to be done other than taking a breath, tightening your shoes, and doubling back.
Along these paths that we take are doors, and some are locked while others are already half-cracked with a welcome mat out front. These doors symbolize opportunity, choice, and often lead down paths where there are no road signs letting you know if you’re headed for a road block. It takes courage to come across one of these locked doors and knock, which is exactly what Trey Slann, owner of Exodus Health of Pearland, TX did.
“I’ve always kinda been entrepreneurial,” Trey responds when asked why he decided to open a ketamine clinic, “but every time I tried to do something the door would get shut–and even slammed–in my face sometimes.”
Trey earned his anesthesia degree from Texas Christian University and has been a nurse since 2004. After becoming a CRNA in 2010, he worked in Odessa and then at a hospital in Angleton, Texas before opening his own clinic in Pearland.
“I had a good friend of mine who owned a ketamine clinic and told me about it. I had thought about it and thought that it sounded interesting, but I didn’t really pursue it for a good while. I just kind of served as a support for her and encourager for her in opening up her clinic.
A couple years went by and I thought about ketamine and happened to get in touch with Chris [Walden]. We had a pretty long conversation about it and things just started to happen.”
Chris Walden and his wife Cassy Walden founded Ketamine Media in 2016 after working on a national rollout plan for another provider.
“I decided from that point to seriously consider it. So I told my wife that I felt like God was preparing me for a change. I didn’t know what, but I was just open.”
For Trey, this was more than just a new business venture. Opening up a ketamine clinic would mean being able to open the door for treatment that many had been turned away from, like his wife.
“My wife suffered from postpartum depression with the birth of both of our children. It was a really rough time in our lives. There were several times where I didn’t think my wife would make it through it.
But she did, with the help of really good support and family and medicine. Of course, we didn’t know about ketamine at the time. She got through it, but was left with chronic anxiety, PTSD, and lot of OCD with intrusive thoughts. After finding out about ketamine and all it can do, I suggested she try it.
She did, she went through the infusion process, and I got my wife back. It was just amazing, what it did. It helped her to process a lot of things that she was still dealing with and didn’t know .”
Trey shares that the desire to help his wife was one of the driving forces to start Exodus Health. He figured that if he could help even one person, and help a family the way ketamine helped his, then he was doing the right thing. He was so dedicated to the new path set before him that he gave up his anesthesia job and dipped into his savings so that he could continue to take one step after another.
“You talk about walking by faith,” says Trey, “this is definitely one of those times; but to walk on water you have to get out of the boat.”
Since Exodus Health’s opening, the clinic has seen its fair share of patients, but one in particular stands out to Trey when asked about ketamine and how it sees success when other treatments fail.
“There is a particular patient, talking about what it does for people when nothing else works. I had a Vietnam vet who suffered with PTSD ever since. We’re talking 40, 50 years of really bad PTSD. He’s tried everything.
Nothing worked, nothing ever worked. So he just lived with it. With the pandemic, it was becoming essentially all-consuming for him and debilitating. It was starting to interfere with his family interaction and he knew it but couldn’t stop it.
He told me he knew about ketamine but was afraid or too proud to do it. But he finally did and trusted Exodus Health to help him through this process.
This is someone I’m told is back to the man he was 45 years ago before he went to war. He’s laughing, he’s smiling, he’s having fun, he’s not thinking about destructive things or suicide. It’s been miraculous in what it has done for him when nothing else worked, nothing else even came close to working.
At most, all anything else did was provide a numbing and that’s it. Now he’s actually living life. That’s what I tell people: before ketamine, you’re existing. After, you’re living.”
After hearing a story like that, it’s hard to imagine that things can get even better after working in a clinic for some time, but Trey says helping someone never gets old. When asked what his proudest moment has been from his time with Exodus, he responded:
“I don’t think I can pin it down to one specific moment because every time I see a patient that makes it through the process, and tell me, ‘You saved me. This saved my life,’ that’s my new proudest moment.
That means what I’ve done has really impacted somebody’s life. I get stoked every single time- so excited! – every time I hear a patient has had a successful outcome. I get new proudest moments every week.”
Trey brings up that working in a ketamine clinic setting has taught him a lot in the time that his clinic has been open. When prodded as to just what exactly he’s learned, he says:
“I’ve learned that mental health is just as vital for a person’s wellbeing as anything else. I’ve found that people who struggle with mental health issues a lot of times feel alone. They struggle and they fight and they feel as though they are doing it all by themselves, or that there’s a stigma with mental health and seeking treatment.
I think it’s getting better but there’s still a pretty big stigma with mental health. More than anything it’s helped me to see how prevalent it is and how real of a struggle it is for so many people–way more people than I thought.
I don’t think there’s anybody out there that doesn’t have a close connection in some way with someone who struggles with mental health in some capacity.
And now we finally have a truly effective treatment for it. Is it a cure? No, it isn’t a cure. But it’s extremely effective and it doesn’t come with all the untoward side effects that traditional medications bring. It’s a total game changer.
I really feel like we’re on the cusp of the next big thing for mental health treatment and ketamine is a part of it. A big part of it.”
Now, you may be wondering just what Trey means by ‘next big thing,’ and he was open with his answer:
“[In a perfect world], we see a drastic reduction in traditional depression treatments like SSRIs or antidepressants and more ketamine clinics. In five years, we might have psychedelics. New innovative treatments should be emerging.
You have ketamine, you have psychedelics coming up, you have TMS. All of those things take different roads to the same destination. All of the roads are much better in my opinion than traditional antidepressant medicines.
Right now, ketamine is considered off-label use and it’s not covered by insurance. In 5 years I would hope that not only is it covered by insurance but it’s the next gold standard of mood disorder treatment options.”
Hopefully the world shares Trey’s optimism for mental health, but in the meantime residents of Pearland, TX and the Houston area can take solace in knowing there is someone like Trey fighting in their corner.
If you are currently on a path where every door feels locked and you have been barred entry, consider Exodus Health for treatment, where with the help of Trey and his team you may just find the key you’ve been seeking.
If you would like to learn more about Exodus Health or speak with Trey you can visit or reach them at:
2743 Smith Ranch Rd #504
Pearland, TX 77578
Phone: (281) 603-1722
Email: info@newexodushealth.com
Website: https://newexodushealth.com
