Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is an innovative, evidence-informed treatment approach used to support individuals experiencing depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic pain. This model combines the physiological and therapeutic effects of ketamine with psychotherapy to support deeper emotional processing and psychological healing.
Ketamine works on glutamate pathways in the brain and has been associated with increased neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new connections and reorganize patterns of thinking and feeling. This can create a unique therapeutic window in which individuals may experience relief from entrenched symptoms and greater access to emotions, memories, and insights that can be difficult to reach through traditional talk therapy alone.
In my practice, I emphasize the integration of psychotherapy throughout the ketamine experience. This allows us to better understand your lived experience, identify underlying patterns contributing to distress, and develop practical tools to support you through life’s challenges. In other words, dosing sessions are only a part of the treatment plan. If one is looking to have an experience with Ketamine and is not interested in doing the integration work, I would not be a good fit. Treatment is collaborative and tailored to your needs, with the goal of fostering insight, resilience, and meaningful change over time.
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a legal, safe and effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD. Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hours after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks. It works by helping the brain form new synaptic connections and boost neural circuits that regulate stress and mood. Ketamine has also been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement. In my work I only use the sublingual lozenge form of ketamine. I can provide referrals to practitioners in the Northern Colorado community if IV Ketamine would be a better fit.
How Might I Feel in a KAP Session?
The effects of ketamine, which most patients find pleasant, last for approximately 45 minutes to 75 minutes. These effects can make you feel “far from” your body, and facilitate shifts in perception that can often feel expansive in nature. Your motor and verbal abilities will be reduced, so you’ll be lying down in a comfortable position during the experience. Once these effects subsided, we’ll spend the remainder of our appointment giving you space to process and discuss your experience. While it may feel hard to articulate what happened during the experience, clients tend to feel like the insights gained are none-the-less clear. Studies have shown that the benefits to mood and neurological growth can last up to two weeks after the Ketamine experience.
What is the Process for Starting KAP?
We would first and do an initial intake and assessment. Following the intake and assessment I provide treatment recommendations for the course of treatment. If KAP is one of those recommendations, I refer clients to a psychiatric provider in the community.
Once you schedule an initial evaluation with a medical provider, you will go through medical evaluation and determine if you are eligible for KAP.
If it is determined that you are eligible for KAP, they will develop a personalized Ketamine prescription and outcome monitoring plan for you using sublingual lozenges to be taken orally in KAP sessions.
Once you receive your ketamine lozenges, we will schedule time together for your KAP preparation, dosing and integration sessions. There is a commitment in this phase of treatment to not take any of the Ketamine prescribed by the provider outside of session.
What are Preparation Sessions?
Preparation session(s) will be scheduled just like regular therapy sessions prior to the KAP dosing session. The goal of a preparation session(s) is to align on the process and set intentions for our KAP sessions together. Set and setting is integral in creating a container for the journey work.
What is the Process for a KAP Dosing Session?
A typical ketamine dosing session lasts between 2.5-3 hours and takes place in my office. During a dosing session, we will first ground and connect with your identified intentions. We collaborate ahead of time to identify anything that you would like to connect with prior to your journey. Some people enjoy a meditation, connecting with a grounding item, or journaling.
Next, you will self-administer your ketamine lozenges.
You will be in a comfortable, reclining position wearing an eye mask and listening to calming music. A KAP dosing session may be largely an internal experience, or require more support. Regardless, I will be present with you the entire time to hold space and provide support as needed. Most people are in the experience for 45 to 75 minutes.
Following you can journal, process, or meditate with what arose for you.
What can I Expect Following a KAP Dosing Session?
After our KAP dosing session, we will meet for integration therapy sessions to review the memories, thoughts & insights that arose during your dosing session, and to prepare for the next dosing session. The step of integration is what moves KAP work from a singular experience to shifts that happen in life. KAP dosing sessions can be powerful AND if we want the new insights and shifts to follow us into life, integration is key. In integration sessions we will reflect on the journey and shifts in conscious that happened. Then look at how we can integrate thinking, speaking, sitting with, feeling, digesting, and moving with the new insights. Integration is where the magic happens.
