As of Fall 2024, I will be offering Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in the context of ongoing trauma work for established clients. While I do not prescribe Ketamine as a mental heath therapist, I do work with prescribing providers who can offer a separate medical consultation, and based off of their approval, I offer KAP treatment that includes the preparation, dosing, and integration work.
Ketamine treatment follows a standard protocol of 4-6 doses offered sequentially within the context of preparation and integrations sessions. Some folks benefit from only a few dosing sessions in the context of ongoing treatment, some find that that benefit from a full series may need to be followed by periodic "booster" sessions of 1-3 subsequent doses after the initial protocol. This is decided on a case-by-case basis in the context of your individual needs, therapeutic "goals", and symptoms.
If you are in the California Bay Area, I can offer either virtual or in-home dosing and/or integration sessions for an additional fee that covers the expense of travel to your home.
Discovered by Cal Stevens of Wayne State University, Ketamine is a psychoactive drug that was first synthesized in 1962 and has been used in the United States as an anesthetic and analgesic agent in medical settings since 1970. It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, and is a staple of emergency medicine and pediatric anesthesia. It is classified as a dissociative anesthetic. Salvador Roquet, who began using it as an adjunct for psychotherapy in the 60's, described the dissociative effects as ketamine's principal effect rather than an unwanted side-effect.
For more than 20 years, Ketamine has been used off-lable (meaning outside of the FDA approved context of anesthesia) to treat chronic treatment-resistant depression, and, increasingly, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are currently several modes of delivery for Ketamine that have been studied to offer these psychological healing benefits, including intra-nasal spray (which has been FDA approved in recent years), intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), and oral/sublingual (via lozenge or troche). Since I am not a licensed physician, in my therapy practice I only work with the version of Ketamine that can be self- administered by a client.
Ketamine has demonstrated rapid anti-depressant effects that can last for a few days up to a few weeks with a single dose, but the cumulative benefits of multiple doses integrated over time can successfully alleviate symptoms in approximately 30 - 60% of individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Neurologically, we know that chronic stress depletes the synapses in brain in areas associated with depression. Ketamine induces neuro-plasticity in the brain, meaning it causes neuronal growth in those depleted areas, and the medicine induces repair of the neural atrophy caused by chronic stress. This is beneficial for not only depression, but anxiety and trauma. Additionally, the dissociative properties of Ketamine allow the user - in therapeutic contexts- to engage with challenging material that might keep them stuck in traditional talk therapy, in new healing ways. Ketamine is an effective tool for softening our rigid patterns of thinking and reactive coping strategies, so that we might gently look deeper, and attend to the pain, traumatic experiences, and unmet needs that those defenses have had to protect.
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is the integration of the medicine Ketamine into a psychotherapy context. We invite it into our theraputic work for the purposes of both alleviating more acute symptoms of depression and anxiety, and accessing subconscious and unconscious feelings, experiences, and fragmented "parts" or deeply felt wounds that our psychological defenses often prevent or intervene against contacting.
Weaving KAP into the work we do invites an opportunity for the temporary softening of psychological defenses, allowing for deeper self-reflection and psychotherapeutic processing. In the medicine space, our ordinary states of consciousness and everyday concerns, ruminations, patterns are paused, while we maintain conscious awareness. This can lead to a disruption of negative feelings, and distressing patterns of thinking and related behaviors. For many folks, this interruption can produce significant shifts in overall well-being. Additionally, multiple sessions of KAP can lead to shifts in our self-talk and inner dynamics with our Parts, so that we are able to relate to ourselves, our lived experiences, and others in new and compassionate ways, with less reactivity and distress.
I take the approach with clients that we move into this work gently and with great reverence for your innate healing wisdom, meaning we listen to your body and nervous system's cues while in a non-ordinary state. Processing painful and traumatic material takes time and compassionate patience with ourselves, so that we don't re-traumatize by going to deep, too quickly. As such, we approach dosing in a graduated way, beginning with an "underwhelming" amount of medicine, before slowly increasing incrementally as your inner wisdom signals its' readiness.
Currently, I am able to offer guidance and support for those who are exploring other psychedelic substances besides Ketamine on their own. I do not advocate for clients to engage in activities deemed illegal, but I can offer support with therapeutic preparation sessions prior to journey experiences. This includes goals setting for use of medicine, resource information, and harm-reduction measures. Additionally, I offer therapeutic integration services for journeys that are not done in the context of formal therapy-- including meaning-making and processing of the experience with talk, somatic integration, and guided artistic expression.
Please note that I am not a licensed medical professional and cannot offer or provide any medicinal prescription services or specific medical advice. Psychiatric assessments and medicine intakes must be done with either a licensed nurse practitioner or licensed psychiatrist.