What Is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?

 

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) combines psychotherapy with medically supervised ketamine treatment.

 

Ketamine has been studied most extensively in relation to depression and is also being investigated for conditions including anxiety, PTSD, and OCD. Research into the best ways to combine ketamine with psychotherapy continues to evolve.

 

For some people, ketamine can temporarily change the way they experience thoughts, emotions, memories, bodily sensations, and familiar patterns. That shift can create an opportunity to approach yourself differently and increase psychological flexibility. 

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Ketamine encourages neuroplasticity in the brain during the experience and for up to several days after taking Ketamine making this period of time critical for integration of new thoughts and ideas. It's helpful to prepare for this and to determine how you will best make use of your moment of increased neuroplasticity.

 

KAP is not simply about the ketamine experience. The therapeutic process before and after is a critical component of the work and can significantly amplify the therapeutic benefits compared to taking Ketamine on your own and without therapeutic support to integrate.

 

Integration with a trained therapist helps you explore what emerged and consider how to bring meaningful insights into everyday life.

 

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Trauma

 

Trauma doesn't only live in our explicit memories. It can show up as implicit memories through the nervous system, body sensations, emotions, beliefs, and automatic responses to the world.

 

You may experience:

 

• Anxiety or hypervigilance

 

• Feeling constantly "on guard"

 

• Emotional numbness or disconnection

 

• Shame or harsh self-criticism

 

• Difficulty trusting yourself or others

 

• Relationship patterns that feel difficult to change

 

• Intrusive memories or unwanted thoughts

 

• Feeling disconnected from your body

 

• Difficulty relaxing even when you know you're safe

 

My approach to trauma therapy is gentle, collaborative, and focused on helping you feel more connected to yourself rather than forcing you to revisit experiences before you're ready.

 

KAP may become one component of that process for appropriately screened clients.

 

We don't need to force memories open. We don't need to relive the past. Instead, we listen to what your system is communicating and work at a pace that respects your capacity and boundaries.

 

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety

 

Anxiety can become a pattern involving both mind and body. You may find yourself overthinking, anticipating what could go wrong, struggling to relax, seeking reassurance, or feeling physically activated even when you know you're safe.

 

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy may offer some people a temporary shift in their usual patterns of thinking and perception. That shift can create an opportunity to become curious about anxiety rather than simply fighting or pushing through it.

 

With the use of Internal Family Systems (IFS), we can explore the parts of you that are trying to protect you and support healing of the underlying wounded parts. 

 

Through Somatic and Movement Therapy, I guide you to listen to how anxiety is experienced in your body, increasing your ability to track your nervous system and body and allow patterns and "stuck" emotions to be expressed beyond words and talk therapy.

 

And through integration, we can explore whether your experience has opened a different relationship with fear, uncertainty, or control.

 

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy and OCD

 

OCD can be exhausting. Intrusive thoughts, compulsions, checking, reassurance seeking, mental rituals, and avoidance can consume enormous amounts of energy and make it difficult to feel present in your life.

 

Ketamine is an emerging area of research in OCD, and current evidence is not as established as it is for depression. For this reason, KAP should not be viewed as a replacement for evidence-based OCD treatment such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) when ERP is clinically appropriate.

 

My approach can incorporate ERP-informed work alongside IFS, somatic approaches, and other evidence-based psychotherapy. IFS can also offer a compassionate framework for becoming curious about the protective parts of you that may be caught in cycles of fear, certainty-seeking, and control.

 

The goal is not to eliminate or battle your thoughts. It is to develop a different relationship with them.

 

Psychotherapy provides an opportunity to explore what becomes possible when familiar patterns temporarily shift. Rather than focusing only on symptom reduction, we can explore questions such as:

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Who am I underneath these patterns?

 

What do I want my life to feel like?

 

What becomes possible when I relate to myself with more compassion?

 

How can I bring what I discover into my everyday life?

 

A Whole-Person Approach to KAP

 

My approach to Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy brings together several therapeutic perspectives.

 

Internal Family Systems

 

IFS helps us understand the different parts of ourselves—the anxious part, the perfectionist, the inner critic, the part that needs control, or the part that carries old pain. Instead of fighting these parts, we become curious about them.

 

What are they trying to protect?

 

What do they need?

 

How did they learn that their role was necessary?

 

KAP can sometimes provide a different perspective from which to experience these internal relationships, while integration gives us space to continue exploring them.

 

EMDR

 

EMDR is an evidence-based approach frequently used in trauma therapy and for other distressing experiences. When appropriate, EMDR can be incorporated into your broader treatment plan. The goal is never to force traumatic memories to surface during a ketamine experience. Your readiness, safety, and sense of choice remain central to the process.

 

Somatic and Movement Therapy

 

Healing isn't only cognitive. Our experiences can live in breathing patterns, muscle tension, posture, sensations, impulses, movement, and nervous-system responses.

 

Somatic and Movement therapy help us notice these experiences and develop a different relationship with them. Sometimes the body communicates what words cannot. Connection to the body and movement can provide another pathway for awareness, expression, grounding, and integration. Depending on your needs and interests, movement may become part of our therapeutic work as we explore what your body is communicating and what it may need.

 

What Does KAP Look Like?

 

Preparation

 

I will meet with you for several sessions to assess if KAP is appropriate. Before beginning KAP, we take time to understand your history, goals, concerns, and hopes for treatment. Over several sessions, we will explore:

 

Reason for seeking KAP

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Mental health history

 

Establishing safety and therapeutic trust

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Informed consent and agreements

 

Intention setting

 

Grounding, body scanning and regulation skills

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Allowing and surrender

 

Identifying any concerns or fears

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Practice run and procedure discussion

 

Coordinating With Your Ketamine Prescriber

 

Ketamine is only prescribed and medically managed by a qualified collaborating prescriber, following my initial assessment, with a subsequent individualized medical evaluation. These evaluations can by done through telehealth appointments with the medication provider and the medication mailed to you directly. Please be aware the Ketamine will not typically be covered by insurance. 

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The Ketamine Experience

 

My role is to only provide the psychotherapy, monitoring, and therapeutic support surrounding the Ketamine treatment. I do not provide or administer the Ketamine. Ketamine is typically in a lozenge or dissolvable tablet form.

 

The experience itself may involve quiet reflection, music, body awareness, therapeutic conversation, or other forms of supported exploration, depending on your treatment plan.

 

Integration

 

Integration is where the experience becomes part of your life rather than an isolated experience and can go on for days or weeks. After the Ketamine session, we explore what you noticed and what it might mean. Maybe you encountered a younger part of yourself or felt compassion toward yourself in a new way. Maybe an old belief suddenly looked different or you experienced something that was confusing or difficult to understand. There is no “right” experience.

 

Through IFS, EMDR, somatic work, movement, and psychotherapy, we can explore what emerged and determine how—or whether—it connects with the changes you want to make in your life.

 

Is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Right for You?

 

KAP isn't appropriate for everyone. A medical evaluation by your ketamine prescriber is an essential part of determining whether ketamine treatment is appropriate for you.

 

Therapeutically, KAP may be worth exploring if you:

 

Feel stuck despite previous therapy

 

Experience persistent anxiety

 

Are working through trauma or PTSD symptoms

 

Struggle with OCD or intrusive thoughts

 

Feel disconnected from your body or emotions

 

Want to explore a deeper mind-body approach to psychotherapy

 

Are interested in IFS, EMDR, somatic, or movement-based therapy

 

Are already receiving ketamine treatment and want psychotherapy or integration support

 

Together, we can determine whether this approach fits your goals, history, and needs.