Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

Do Want To Explore Yourself On A Deeper Level Than Traditional Therapy Allows?

Are you frustrated because you’ve identified aspects of yourself or your life that you would like to work on, but you’re having trouble achieving change on your own? Is an invisible barrier—whether mental, emotional, or traumatic—preventing you from capitalizing on your self-awareness?

Perhaps cognitive therapies and "ordinary" states of consciousness haven’t been able to help you fully access the resources within yourself needed to heal and grow.

Or maybe you’re ready to explore yourself on a deeper level than traditional talk therapy allows, and you’re wondering if Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) can help you find answers.

People Seek Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy For Myriad Reasons

In fact, virtually anyone can benefit from using this unique and effective approach to therapy. Whether you seek treatment for anxiety and depression, trauma and PTSD, chronic pain, or any other kind of emotional suffering—Ketamine-Assisted Therapy can facilitate profound transformation. 

For instance, you may be struggling with grief, addiction, or shame/self-blame, but nothing seems to really help. Perhaps you experience negative emotions or “fight or flight” responses that come out of nowhere and make no sense. Or maybe you fear being yourself, speaking your own truth, or trusting others—even yourself—and you’re hoping KAP can provide a way toward self-realization.

If traditional cognitive or talk therapy models have failed to produce results for you, Ketamine-Assisted Treatment can be a powerful resource. In a short time, you can stop self-sabotaging, shutting down, or stressing out—and finally start feeling safe, loved, and accepted.

Life Is Full Of Wonder And—At Times—Adversity For Us All

Many of us have experienced situations where we’ve had to shut down our emotions and hold back from saying what we need to—times when our minds and bodies froze or went numb. In many ways, these reactions are survival mechanisms meant to protect us from harm and danger. Unfortunately, sometimes those natural physiological responses result in anxiety, depression, confusion, self-sabotage, and the inability to actualize change.

Making matters worse, many of us are taught from an early age that it's not okay to fully feel and express our emotions, needs,
and relationship longings. Whether we pick it up from family, school, culture, or religion, many of us learn to not trust ourselves—and others. 

Our Society Has Little Understanding Of Trauma And Attachment

That collective lack of awareness often suppresses the innate ability to heal, connect, and feel safe, which can have a detrimental impact on people who are in pain—particularly those dealing with trauma. That’s because trauma acts like Velcro, accumulating more and more evidence over time for "why the world is unsafe” and “why it's not permissible to be who I am.” 

However, with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, you can address the root of the issue and cultivate true change. Regardless of your situation, I believe that KAP can help you heal on a deeper level than you may have ever thought possible. 

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Can Create Profound And Lasting Change

Most individuals who seek out my services are already self-aware and motivated to improve their lives, but their minds and bodies are so stuck in overdrive that they can’t make progress on their own. Plus, many people find that traditional forms of therapy just can’t give them access to the parts of themselves they need for healing and transformation to occur.KAP gives you the ability to relax those default mental habits and survival mechanisms getting in the way. It lets you explore the territory of your emotions, intuition, body, and your own "inner healer" in a new way. Through Ketamine-Assisted Treatment, you can find a path forward that’s always been there but you didn't have access to because of trauma, conditioning, unprocessed stress, or habitual patterns.

What You Can Expect From Our Sessions

One of the first things we’ll work on is teaching you how to genuinely understand and appreciate how your symptoms (anxiety, reactivity in relationships, depression, substance use, etc.) are actually an attempt to keep you safe and help you survive. With that knowledge, you can learn to stop fighting yourself and actually heal the root cause of the issue. When you stop beating yourself up and finally heal, you can free up tremendous amounts of energy for living the meaningful, vibrant life you want.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy has the potential for both pharmacological and psychological benefits. It can act as an anti-depressant as well as a mechanism for increasing self-acceptance and decreasing the fear response that happens when you get in touch with difficult memories or emotions. KAP also blends well with somatic trauma therapy (e.g., Somatic Experiencing), parts work (Internal Family Systems), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), as well as other non-cognitive interventions. 

In conjunction with these therapy models or as a stand-alone treatment, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy allows you to experience yourself and the world without judgment or preconceptions.

What Does The Ketamine Experience Itself Feel Like? 

At lower doses, you may feel a floaty, swimming sensation accompanied by a slight shift in perspective and an ability to feel
sensations in the body in a more open and curious way. In this state of consciousness, you are more verbal, more in touch
with your body, and more capable of consciously engaging in the therapeutic relationship. That’s when other approaches,
such as somatic or attachment work, can be really effective. 

At higher doses, my job as a therapist is to sit with you and help you feel safe and confident in the experience so that you can let
the ketamine do the self-healing work on its own. At this stage, I serve as more of a support mechanism as you begin to experience a big, expansive sensation of melting into something bigger than your preconceived notions of yourself or the world around you.

Though this experience may initially feel disconnected from reality, it creates a dramatic shift in your sense of self as a person. It disrupts default thought patterns, offers fresh perspectives, and promotes new synaptic growth, allowing the self-healer within to emerge and do its job.

As both a therapist and someone who has experienced Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, I believe this approach to healing can create profound transformation. By pairing a caring therapeutic relationship with effective therapeutic interventions assisted by ketamine, it is possible to expedite the healing process faster than counseling alone. Although this intervention isn't for everyone, with my guidance and support, it may just have the power to help you discover a happier, more empowered life.

Perhaps You Still Have Concerns About Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy...

What if I get scared or overwhelmed during a ketamine session?

This is where Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy is different than ketamine therapy, which is where you're alone in a medical office. As your therapist, I will be right there with you reminding you that you're safe and the ketamine experience is temporary. 

Although therapy focuses on resolving painful feelings rather than avoiding them, my job is to help you feel secure and confident that you can handle anything that comes up. That means compassionately supporting you and equipping you with effective skills for grounding yourself and regulating emotions.

I feel like this is an expensive form of therapy.

On the surface, Ketamine-Assisted Treatment can look expensive. However, it’s often a more affordable option than ketamine therapy because once you’ve done the medical intake and have a prescription for ketamine lozenges, you're only paying for my hourly rate (of 2 to 3 hours per session) versus an expensive package. KAP can also catalyze the therapeutic process, which may translate into less therapy in the long run.

What about the risks of addiction with KAP? 

Like any mind-altering substance, ketamine does have risks for abuse—and it also has a history of abuse in uncontrolled settings. However, with this approach, you will be required to be screened and approved by a psychiatric provider, and our sessions will be in a controlled setting. 

You'll set intentions, confront what's difficult (instead of avoiding it—like through addiction), and then focus on integrating the psychotropic experience into your daily life without ketamine. Ketamine is also showing promise in the field of addiction counseling as a support for recovery (see research below). If you have any concerns about addiction, we will certainly talk about that before beginning KAP.

What research supports ketamine in therapy?