Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: How this Psychedelic Assisted Therapy is changing lives
What is Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy?
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is an experiential form of therapy. It combines the use of ketamine medicine with therapeutic integration process. KAP can provide rapid improvement for many different mental health issues. KAP provides symptom relief from depression, anxiety, suicidality, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and more.
Ketamine is a synthetic pharmaceutical compound, classified as a dissociative anesthetic. It is one of the most widely used drugs in modern medicine. Ketamine is most commonly used in surgical settings, including pediatric surgery, due to its excellent safety profile, particularly around breathing/airway management. It is also used to manage acute and chronic pain conditions due to its analgesic properties.
History as a Treatment for Chronic Treatment-Resistant Conditions
In the last two decades, ketamine has been increasingly used at lower doses as an off-label treatment for chronic treatment-resistant mental health conditions including: depression, alcoholism, substance dependencies, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, other psychiatric diagnoses as well as for existential, psychological and spiritual crises and growth.
Benefits of Ketamine Therapy
Increased neuroplasticity, ability to find new perspectives, and expansion from limiting beliefs and cognition
Compatible with most other psychotropic medications
Provides results when traditional mental health interventions fail
How does Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy work to treat depression?
Ketamine is a fast-acting treatment for individuals with depression and has immediate effects compared to the 4- 12 weeks that traditional pharmacotherapy treatments take to establish an effect.
Ketamine creates a dissociative effect, meaning a sense of disconnection between mind and body, and from one’s ordinary reality and usual sense of self. The present understanding of ketamine’s mode of action is as an NMDA antagonist working through the glutamate neurotransmitter system. This is a different pathway than that of other psychiatric drugs such as SSRIs, SNRIs, lamotrigine, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines.
Ketamine also provides a break from habitual patterns of thought that contribute to mood and behavior. This break and shift in perspective creates an opportunity for learning new, healthier patterns of thought, and opening up the potential to rewire neural pathways in the brain.
Ketamine produces a reduced amygdala response to threat.
This is helpful to create an opportunity to look at or explore various memories, or topics which may normally trigger a client to move into fight,flight, freeze or fawn. This activation of the sympathetic nervous system makes it extremely difficult to process and resolve negative emotions, thoughts patterns, and other symptoms associated with trauma and depression.
Using ketamine to reduce the amygdala's response allows for these difficult topics and memories to be worked with without the disturbance and leads to faster resolution of symptoms. The healing is amplified and long lasting within the context of the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist.
Why Choose ketamine Therapy?
Ketamine can treat the symptoms of depression, anxiety and trauma , but it is not a drug used to alleviate symptoms alone. The purpose of KAP, with ketamine, plus integration is uncovering parts of ourselves that we may not have been aware of or changing perspectives of situations that have been causing us to feel stuck. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy allows for treating the cause of the issues creating the disturbance rather than symptoms alone.
A research study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs states that “KAP’s effectiveness lies in several factors. Depending on dose, ketamine promotes a time-out from ordinary, usual mind, relief from negativity, and an openness to the expansiveness of the mind with access to self in the larger sense. These effects enhance a patient’s ability to engage in meaningful psychotherapy during and after administration”(J. Dore ET AL. 2019). Moreover, ketamine has been shown to be safe for use in conjunction with various SSRIs and SNRI medications. There is no requirement to stop your antidepressant medications to participate in ketamine assisted psychotherapy.
Why is Integration a key part of the process?
Medicine is a catalyst not a cure. Ketamine gives you more access to your innate resilience. When paired with integration it allows you to take this new insight, expanded perspective and disruption in unhealthy thought patterns into your daily life. Without integration, you may feel the benefits of the ketamine medicine session in the short term, but the benefits will not be integrated into lasting change. Our goal is support you in finding healing that empowers you to create lasting positive change in your life so you can thrive. For this reason we require integration to be a part of the process.
Set and Setting
The set and setting are crucial components for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Ensuring a therapeutic environment is full of warmth and safety is key. This is why it is important to work with professionals who take care and intention to creating space that is conducive to healing. Trained licensed mental health therapists, licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, and licensed clinical counselors have had years of experience and education regarding how to hold space for emotional and mental healing and transformation.
Choosing a KAP provider who is a licensed mental health professional working with a medical professional allows for the most beneficial outcomes. Having a trusted person present for your journey is a necessary and important part of the change process. If you are doing a remote session, you will be required to have a chaperone for your journey and will work with your therapist to create a plan for how to ensure you have the support you need. If you are journeying in office, you will have a trained therapist or medical professional with you for the duration of the journey as well as directly following the journey to assist in the beginning of the integration process.
what to expect: Ketamine therapy process
FIRST:
You will meet with a trained KAP practitioner, Hanna Stensby at Flourish Mindset, for an intake session to understand your needs and set up a treatment plan.
SECOND:
You will meet with a licensed and highly trained medical professional who will conduct your medical evaluation, prescribe your medication and determine your dose.
THIRD:
You will have a preparation session to establish your strengths and grounding tools, and help you establish a connection with your integration provider.
FOURTH:
You will have your first Ketamine treatment via lozenge or intramuscular injection administered by a medical professional. This process will take roughly 2 hours and will be concluded with a 30 min post journey integration session.
LASTLY:
You will schedule a full integration session within 24-48 hrs of your ketamine treatment to help you gain all the benefits of your treatment.
This medicine works cumulatively so we recommend 4-6 ketamine treatments with a follow-up integration session for each treatment.
After your KAP Journey
Two to three hours after ketamine administration, clients can return home with another driver. Driving an automobile or engaging in hazardous activities should not be undertaken on the day of the administration, and not until all effects have stopped.
Are you ready for relief?
KAP provides the opportunity for relief from treatment resistant depression, trauma, anxiety, suicidal ideation and OCD symptoms. If you have been struggling with mental health concerns and have already tried talk therapy without results KAP may be right for you.
Begin Ketamine therapy in Los Angeles Today
Persistent treatment-resistant mental health issues can drain the joy from life and make it difficult to get up and face each day. At Flourish Mindset our skilled team of therapists understands that each person’s journey to healing is unique and may require unique treatment options. If you are struggling and ready to take the next steps in your treatment with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy follow the simple steps below!
Get to know our therapists here
Begin your new and exciting journey to healing
