Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy
“The real medicine is the therapeutic relationship and psychedelics beautifully amplify that.”
— Dr. Rosalind Watts —
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a form of psychedelic therapy that has been approved by the FDA as an evidenced-based therapy for what is typically referred to as "treatment-resistant depression," and it is also used in clinical settings to treat other conditions such as PTSD.
My approach to KAP takes all current clinical trials and protocols into account, and it also weaves in the epistemes of the millennia-old lineages of psychedelic medicine systems in some of the indigenous communities of North and South America, some of whom I've had the tremendous honor of learning from directly.
Within the more indigenous episteme (specifically the Shipibo and Q'ero epistemes with which I've had the most contact), we do not think so much in terms of "X medicine is prescribed for Y diagnosis." Rather we consider the ceremony around the "medicine" and the states brought on by the medicine as ways of activating your own inner healer to do the very unique work that your system needs to do to move towards greater wholeness. So you are not a diagnosis. Rather, you are a complex, unique system expressing a complex, unique constellation of symptoms or pain points. And if you are drawn into this particular kind of medicine space and it's right for you, your system will do what it needs to do in that space . . . usually to integrate wounded/traumatized younger parts of yourself, thereby allowing you to access greater wholeness, joy, creativity and aliveness.
Having said that, psychedelic therapy is not for everyone. If you are interested in trying KAP with me, we will spend some time first developing a safe, trusting relationship and a good, collaborative understanding of what is going on with you. If we decide you are a good candidate for KAP, you would then book a medical evaluation at Journey Clinical to rule out any possible medical contraindications, and to receive medical guidelines and a prescription dose tailored just for you.
You would then receive your prescription dose of rapidly dissolving oral tablets to your home or your local USPS location for pickup. And we would plan together for you to experience your dosing sessions from the comfort of your own home, in PJs if you'd like!
You have options to do KAP dosing sessions in a remote group format or one-on-one with me. Either way, you would be self-administering (with my guidance) from home, and planning to have a deeply nourishing stay-at-home day (which is why I typically plan dosing sessions on Sundays). We would choose a supportive person (your "chaperone") to be nearby for any physical needs you might have while under ketamine, such as assistance with getting to the bathroom or supportive touch as needed/desired (such as a hand-hold or shoulder rub).
The great thing about the dissolving oral tablets is that each dose is split into two tablets, plus a booster tablet. This allows you to "swish" with the first half of the dose and see how you feel, then decide if you'd like the second half, or just a booster, or the second half plus the booster, or no more at all. I emphasize choice and feelings of alignment during each step of the process.
This means that if you feel like you've received what you need after one dosing session (or two or three), we stop there. There is no series or protocol you "must" follow other than your own inner sense of what is right for you. The medical team I partner with recommends 6-8 dosing sessions for a full episode of KAP. But we can take those 6-8 sessions really slowly, take a long pause in the middle, or press "pause" indefinitely if you really feel you've received what you need at any point.
The dissolving oral tablet route of administration provides a much more gentle, gradual, self-guided ascent into the ketamine state, making it (in my opinion) the most approachable and trauma-informed route of administration.
KAP proceeds in three phases (Preparation, Dosing and Integration). And I love integrating somatic techniques all along the way to deeply integrate the work that took place during dosing sessions, as well as expressive arts techniques and alter-making. EMDR, Dreamtending and Shamanic Energy Medicine all can be woven beautifully into your integration stages as well. See my How to Prepare for KAP guidelines and reach out for a 15-20 minute phone call if you're interested to learn more.
Values That Guide My Psychedelic Practice:
TRUST (. . . in the inner healing intelligence of each client and their process, primarily. But also in the therapy container itself, cultivated through adherence to the highest ethical standards)
ACCESSIBILITY (through a pay-it-forward sliding scale fee schedule and a low-cost KAP group model in addition to 1:1 KAP)
DIVERSITY (by collaborating with BIPOC in ongoing training, professional collaborations and consultation, and eventually, by bringing BIPOC onto the team if I expand beyond a solo practice)
INCLUSION (by centering traditionally marginalized voices and continually acknowledging the origins of psychedelic medicine in indigenous cultures around the world, and the contributions of women in the psychedelic space)
RECIPROCITY (by making reparations to BIPOC communities from whose psychedelic medicine practices our current clinical models originate through ongoing acknowledgment, cultural humility, and increasing accessibility through a pay-it-forward fee model)