What is Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP)?
Ketamine assisted psychotherapy combines the unique capabilities of ketamine with the integrative techniques of psychotherapy. These two modalities when combined address symptoms of not only depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but also the negative thinking patterns, traumas, limiting beliefs and neural pathways our brains developed as a response to traumas and life stressors. KAP provides rapid relief from symptoms (less than 24 hours for some) that are almost immediate and over the long term.
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine was developed in the 1960’s as an alternative to other surgical anesthetics. Ketamine has a high efficacy rate and has proven to be extremely safe and is often even administered to children during surgery. Because of its safety and efficacy the FDA listed it as one of the essential medications. Research has shown us over the last two decades that when administered in lower doses than needed for anesthesia, Ketamine works rapidly to alleviate mental health symptoms related to depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
How does Ketamine assisted psychotherapy work?
People with long term depression or other chronic mental health challenges begin to lose the connections between the synapses in the brain, the route nerve cells communicate. It is believed that these synapses decrease because depression is extremely stressful and the brain begins to prune the synapses. Research is showing that just 24 hours after even the first session of ketamine that the brain begins to regrow these synaptic connections. The more synapses ketamine assists in the growth the more of an antidepressant effect the client experiences. Multiple sessions of ketamine have shown a cumulative effect. We also know that ketamine works on the glutamate receptors (nerve cells involved in mood). Sometimes those receptors get weakened by depression and other mental health issues; Ketamine “restocks” those receptors with glutamate making it possible for the nerve cells to once again respond. This activation and regrowth of synapse and nerve cells helps the brain to change and this is what makes the mental shifts possible after KAP.
In short, KAP works because it changes the way the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and because of the new regrowth of synapses. This rewires the brain’s thinking and emotional patterns making it possible to have a “different” or “new” response to the depressive/anxious triggering stimuli in the environment and helps to alleviate symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD and more. Research has shown that ketamine combined with the psychotherapy process is producing more rapid and longer lasting effects than traditional therapies.
What does a Ketamine session feel like?
Everyone’s experience with Ketamine is different and deeply personal, therefore it is difficult to say exactly what a Ketamine experience will be like. During sessions (or journeys) many have reported feeling somatic sensations often associated with psychedelic experiences, such as dream-like states, seeing images and geometric patterns, feelings of euphoria and deep sense of love and connectedness. Your therapist will be present with you throughout the entire session and able to provide anything you may need. Ketamine typically lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours and you should plan for 3 hours and to not drive for the remainder of the day. Research suggests that 3-6 sessions are ideal for most to see long-lasting effects.
Who can benefit from KAP?
Those experiencing:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- PTSD
- Trauma
- Addictions
- Chronic Pain
- Rigid negative belief patterns
- Migraines