What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is a mental health treatment method that involves using ketamine’s trance-inducing and pain-relieving properties to help individuals work through various mental, emotional and trauma-based blockages. Many clients find that the experience of KAP led to therapeutic breakthroughs at an exponentially faster rate than traditional talk therapy. They’ve uncovered repressed memories, faced previously unbearable emotions, and deepened their understanding of themselves with more mental flexibility.
The first psychiatric ketamine treatments began in 1973, and in 2019, ketamine became the first psychedelic drug to be approved by the FDA for use in treatment-resistant depression. Today, KAP is used in many psychosomatic therapeutic applications, ranging from treating major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to substance use issues and patterns of obsessive thinking. For instance, someone might be battling a constant wave of hopeless thoughts and negative beliefs about their self-worth or managing debilitating fears and uncontrollable flashbacks – and they feel completely stuck in finding a path forward. KAP can help shift the mind in a monitored setting.
During a KAP session, clients can experience a shift in consciousness and an expanded state of awareness, and the shift in mindset can foster change and healing to take place. Ketamine activates the brains natural neuroplasticity and ability to heal, while creating the possibility of letting go of old patterns and fostering new ones in their place.
What to Expect During a KAP Session
After discussions and evaluation with Maria to determine if this medicine may be a good fit, a three to four hour block will be scheduled for a KAP session.
Upon arrival, clients will check in with Maria and get comfortable in a quiet space. A client will usually take the prescribed dose of ketamine in the form of a lozenge that dissolves under the tongue and lie down. It typically takes about 15-20 minutes for clients to begin to feel the effects of the ketamine. For the next 45 minutes or so, with Maria monitoring and holding space for the process, patients explore whatever arises. After the experience, the client and Maria will sit together and discuss what came up.
Clients tend to report few side effects from KAP, however, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and increased heart rate can be side effects of psychedelic medicines.
According to both therapists and clients, the trance-like states that ketamine can produce relax the walls that often come up when trying to address painful emotions. With these walls down, clients can access these things in a controlled environment without fighting against the mind’s defenses. Clients can continue to work through what arose for them in the weeks following, with further KAP sessions or not.
As with any practice that involves sitting with painful feelings and experiences, things can feel a lot worse before they start to feel better. Anyone looking into KAP should keep this in mind and discuss a potential plan with Maria if necessary.
Short videos:
- Here’s How Ketamine Actually Works as a Treatment
- Ketamine for Therapy: Inside a Psychedelic Therapy Session
Treatment Protocol and Cost
Many infusion sites have popped up around the country. You might have even seen advertisements for companies that will mail you ketamine so you can take it in your own home. What both of these services lack is the one-on-one attention of a trained trauma therapist, who serves to strengthen and deepen the effects of the medicine. Some infusion sites will recommend starting with a series of 6-10 sessions costing thousands of dollars each session. Maria helps you to target and focus your therapeutic goals, and employs her vast knowledge and skills to help make each ketamine session as fruitful and healing as possible. Her goal is for you to be feeling better in as few sessions as possible.
However, ketamine is not a magic, and often one session is not enough, particularly for treatment resistant depression and PTSD. Maria recommends beginning with 3-4 sessions over the course of a month and then re-evaluating.
Unfortunately, insurance companies do not yet cover KAP and these sessions will have to be paid for out of pocket. Each KAP session costs $750. Some sliding-scale spots are available. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy can also be integrated into a trauma intensive.
In order to receive a prescription for ketamine, the client will also have to have an intake session with the Doctor that Maria has partnered with so that he can clear them for use and write a prescription that will be filled by a compounding pharmacy in Vermont. The intake and medicine are also out of pocket and cost a total of around $150 (exact cost TBD).