Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
For centuries, psychedelic medicines have been used to heal and offer guidance with life transitions, curiosities, and grief. Deemed an “essential medicine” by the World Health Organization in 1985, ketamine is a legal medicine with psychedelic properties. Ketamine provides a “time out” from the ordinary mind/state with dissociative effects. It is EXTREMELY SAFE with more than 50 years of recorded use.
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic approved by the US Food & Drug Administration in 1970. It’s a prescription medication used to help treat depression, trauma, anxiety, PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain, and other mental health conditions.
Who Can Benefit From KAP?
KAP differs from traditional mental health models in that it offers a safe container to explore underlying issues through dissociative journeys. Ketamine can be a useful tool working with anxiety, depression, grief/loss, OCD, and personal/spiritual growth.
Why Ketamine?
Ketamine is fast-acting and people feel relief from issues within hours to days, instead of weeks or months. Ketamine is a legal medicine offering similar experiences to traditional psychedelic medicines. It is gentle and lasts around 90-120 minutes. Research shows it helps a wide spectrum or challenges, concerns, and diagnoses.
In a KAP setting, people may experience reduced anxiety, improved perspectives and outlook, cognitive distance and liberation, enhanced embodiment, and perspective shifts.
Most side effects are mild and occur in 10% or less of individuals. Side effects include elevated blood pressure, nausea, light-headedness/headaches, drowsiness, elevated heart rate, and feeling off balance.
Ketamine has been used with children, adults, and animals. It is the only anesthetic medicine that doesn’t require oxygen (like other medicines or opioids) and will not cause someone to stop breathing. As part of the preparation process, a medical evaluation will be conducted to determine if there are any risks or considerations unique to your health background. During KAP, you will also be monitored by medical professions (depending on the ketamine administration).
Contraindicators & Addictions
Contraindications for KAP include untreated hypertension, heart/liver/kidney disorders, pregnancy, dementia, and psychotic symptoms.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers ketamine as a Schedule III drug, which means it has a low to moderate physical/psychological dependency.
Experiential & Side Effects
Is It Safe?
KAP Process
(Scroll for Steps)
Medical & Psychological Evaluation
Prior to beginning, a detailed medical and psychological evaluation is conducted to discuss to discuss eligibility and prescription.