What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is a synthetic pharmaceutical compound, classified as a dissociative anesthetic. It is one of the most widely used drugs in modern medicine and is on the World Health Organization’s list of Essential Medicines. It was developed in 1963, FDA approved in 1970, and adopted by many hospitals and medical offices because of its rapid onset, proven safety, and short duration of action.

Ketamine is most commonly used in surgical settings, including pediatric surgery, due to its excellent safety profile, particularly around breathing/airway management. It has also been utilized successfully in managing acute and chronic pain conditions due to its analgesic properties.

In the last two decades, ketamine has been increasingly clinically applied at subanesthetic doses as an off-label treatment for various chronic and treatment-resistant mental health conditions, such as depression, alcoholism, substance dependencies, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychiatric diagnoses.

Why Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)?

The administration of ketamine may be most effective when paired with psychotherapy. We offer a psychotherapy program that will prepare you for your ketamine sessions, encourage you to explore your mind while within the ketamine space, and assist you in integrating your experiences afterwards.

This program emphasizes the potential for change, and such change is best facilitated within a structured, supportive psychotherapeutic environment with providers who are aware of your issues, hopes, desires, and struggles.

Ketamine has the potential to create a non-ordinary state of consciousness, facilitating a profound transpersonal or mystical peak experience. These sorts of peak experiences have been shown to expand one’s sense of self and understanding of existence and may enable you to access your own healing wisdom. Your providers serve as guides and assist in processing the experience and its impact on your everyday life.

Ketamine’s altered state can create conditions of relational and psychological openness, and thus we believe that trust in your providers enables the deepest possible work to occur. Psychotherapy sessions are meant to build a sense of connection and trust between you and your providers.