Below is an overview of KAP definitions & uses, expectations, and the process for how working with psychedelics can look together:

• What is KAP?

  • Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is the combination of holistic, trauma-informed psychotherapy with the dissociative anesthetic medicine, Ketamine. Neurologically, this medicine works as a stimulant to enhance neuroplasticity and encourage the production of BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor) which helps make neural pathways of the brain (like trails on a hike) more malleable and receptive to learning new information — or carving out new hiking trails on the ‘mountains’ of your life!

    In moderate dosages, carefully curated, prescribed and monitored by a trained medical doctor or nurse practitioner, in conjunction with a psychotherapist with proper training in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, the potential for mental health healing is exponential.

  • Ketamine can be utilized as a complement to healing mental health issues such as treatment resistant depression, anxiety, chronic pain, addiction and trauma. Through informed preparation and integration, KAP can be a powerful healing avenue, beyond the options like “talk-therapy.”

• What to expect from KAP:

  • The reactions of Ketamine - physiologically, mentally & emotionally, spiritually — are different and unique to each person and each dosing experience. Because Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, some of the sensations to potentially expect may include relaxation, shifts in mood and emotions, as well as feeling detached from your body and sense of self. The Ketamine ‘journey’ can be somewhat ‘mystical’ in some cases, too, including visual and energetic/spiritual experiences.

  • Prior to beginning KAP, a medical evaluation is required. There are some medical and psychiatric conditions that must be taken into consideration before you can safely work with Ketamine. These conditions include, and are not limited to: hallucinations; untreated mania/depression; varying cardiovascular diseases and predispositions; untreated hyperthyroidism; increased intracranial pressure; cystitis; or diagnosis, evidence of and/or predispositions or risks for liver disease.

• The therapeutic process:

  • The first step is exploring this option within yourself; notice the curiosity and if it resonates, reach out; I can offer you a complimentary 30 minute phone/virtual consultation to further explore your curiosities, answer questions, navigate pricing and insurance, and feel out the rightness of fit for KAP and with each other.

  • A KAP informed mental health intake is the next step, if you decide to move forward; this is a full 50-minute, paid session, to start the therapeutic process.

  • 3-4 regular psychotherapy sessions, without medicine, allow for deepening rapport, identifying and better understanding your needs, and the roots of where we will direct treatment; this will also include the Preparation phase of KAP treatment.

  • You will have a medical evaluation with a prescriber for whom I will provide a referral.

  • Depending on the outcomes of the prior medical meeting, we will schedule our first of 4-6 KAP sessions, each of which is a 3-hour dosing session; beginning with a review of Preparation themes, a varying 45 minute to 1 hour long “journey” of experiencing the effects of the medicine, as well as the expected 1-2 hours of the medicine dissipating; exploring integration, will conclude each session.

  • Each dosing session will follow with a separate Integration session, without medicine, where we pull the threads of themes - from our preparatory sessions and what arose in your dosing sessions - to weave together further understanding, processing, and healing.