What is ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP)?
Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a service that combines two treatments where a person takes a legally prescribed dose of ketamine and simultaneously engages in therapy. Ketamine can be considered a lubricant to a therapy process, where it supports opening up content and with supportive therapy increases access to self compassion and clarity.
How is KAP facilitated in your practice?
In my practice in Brooklyn, NY, I usually begin the work gently, at a low dose. This is considered a ‘psycholytic dose’, as opposed to a psychedelic dose. This means a you are able to work in a non-ordinary state of consciousness while remaining in touch with the present moment, as well as being able to engage with me, the therapist. Sometimes people choose to move into psychedelic doses, depending on what they are working on and their experiences with journeys.
To work with KAP, I connect people with a medical provider and collaborate with that provider. If the medical provider and person interested in KAP determine it’s appropriate to work with ketamine, the provider offers a prescription for lozenges (oral ketamine). The person then brings the lozenges to their KAP sessions for therapeutic work.
I take notes during all KAP sessions, so that you have a detailed log of what you were exploring. This is an important tool for the time following your journey, which is called integration. The integration period is where you have opportunity to make use of insights and new pathways. I also offer a short phone check in the day after a KAP session to further support integration.
What happens in a KAP session?
KAP sessions are three-hours long, and take place in a serene office in Brooklyn, NY. The time provides time for several things. We will begin by talking about how you’re feeling that morning and discussing your intention. You will self administer the ketamine and I will offer you a guided meditation.
Oral ketamine, the form you’ll use, gently brings you into an altered space. I provide a music play list to create a container for your therapeutic exploration and take copious notes for you throughout your journey. The notes are to help you work with what comes up after the medicine space; this frees you up from concern about needing to remember everything.
You will gradually return to a normal state. Since you will have fasted and as part of the ritual of this work, I will then offer you a small, nourishing snack and we will discuss your experience.
Is KAP a stand-alone service?
Yes. I provide KAP as its own service, and some people work with it alongside their regular therapy. If you already have a relationship with a therapist and want to discuss if this might be a supportive, adjunctive therapy I can collaborate with your current therapist.
Please read more about this work below. While KAP can be hugely supportive when it’s the right fit, psychedelic therapy isn’t for everyone.
Why consider ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP)?
Difficult experiences are often rooted in patterns that formed in the youngest years of life. This means our nervous systems, ways of understanding the world and relational trajectories are primed early in life and they are difficult to shift without multi-layered interventions. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a layered approach. Working with this medicine and experiential therapy can support you in multiple ways.
Additionally, ketamine is a fast acting antidepressant. Addressing depression through this combination can assist you in finding insights into states you struggle to be in.
But these do not happen with ketamine alone.
The medicine is a tool that in combination with other elements can enhance healing and self growth work you may already be doing. The elements that work in conjunction with a psychedelic are:
- a trusting therapeutic connection with the person holding space for you
- appropriate dosing (determined between you and a medical provider)
- an intentional process that includes preparation work, intention setting and time after a journey to fully absorb and apply key insights, perspective shifts and/or clarity.
How does psychedelic therapy work?
Psychedelic assisted therapy can be a resource to help you work with your default ways of relating to your life. Your ‘defaults’, that is the behaviors and perspectives that you’ve learned early in life, can be re-patterned when you decide you want to work on them. Psychedelics, when used in a contained and intentional way and if it’s the right modality at the right time, can assist with finding pain points and forge new pathways to healing. Psychedelic therapy can assist by building in pauses or shifts to things that you may have over looked or misunderstood in your system.
The actions of psychedelics interrupt our normal ways of operating, thus bringing forth opportunity for fresh thinking, perspective and observations. This provides opportunity to generate more latitude of thoughts, understanding and actions in your life, which when worked with through time, can assist you in creating change.
It’s not the medicine that does the healing. Rather it’s your work, which has been primed by your intention, space being mindfully held and the actions of the psychedelic that set the stage for personal growth.
What does personal growth or healing look like when working with psychedelic assisted therapy?
This is different for everyone. But some general ideas of what people tend to access can help you understand if this might align with what you’re seeking.
Examples of potential positive changes are:
- Building a new, affirming self narrative. A perspective shift that brings down shame can assists you to better understand parts of yourself.
- Discovering ways your body can be more at ease. When a psychedelic journey allows you to observe more intently in a present moment experience, some of your body’s needs can become more apparent.
- Reconnecting with earlier experiences in life to bring in resources. Sometimes when you didn’t have what you needed, identifying those needs can help bring forth healing.
- Meeting and better understanding parts of yourself- This can help you find more ease in what can feel like competing needs and desires.
- Rooting out what is blocking you creatively or in moving into a new chapter of life– Sometimes hindrances are felt, but you struggle to uncover what is holding you back and sometimes KAP sessions, by bringing you into a deeper exploration, can assist you in finding where your struggles are coming from.
The positive impacts are influenced by how intentional you are. It is the deepest when there is sufficient preparation before a dosing journey, which means a therapy session with ketamine. The support you receive and the work you would do following a psychedelic therapy session will also influence how much you could benefit from ketamine assisted psychotherapy.
None of these (or any) transformations happen over night and while psychedelic therapy can support some people in getting to these salient pieces of personal growth more quickly, the positive impact from this work is dependent on your level of intentionality, safety-building in the work and a therapeutic setting. Additionally, commitment to yourself before and after a journey make a huge impact.
Who I offer KAP work to
I offer KAP to adults who have a sense of what they are looking to heal, and who interested in improving their relationship to themselves and others in their life. My ketamine assisted psychotherapy services are best suited for individuals who are looking to do journey work, as a gradual, intention-anchored process.
Many of the people I work with are looking to ease anxiety, pursue more fulfilling relationships, and/or are preparing to shift something such as a career or to ready themselves for another phase of their life like parenting. Other areas of KAP work are building a new life after leaving a relationship and healing from grief after a loss of a person or pet. My work also focuses on discrete therapy pieces of healing relational trauma, such as finding security in relationships and addressing anxieties that inhibit parts of one’s life.
Additionally I support gender exploration, transitions and embodied gender.
I am passionate about ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) because it can be tender, deep work. If you are looking for psychedelic assisted therapy to support your healing, please read this page carefully to determine if I am potentially a good fit for you.
When KAP isn’t a good fit
While I believe experiential journeys can be valuable for nearly everyone, (meaning learning, healing and personal growth through time), psychedelic journeys are not for everyone. The following list provides a general overview of some reasons you may want to hold off on KAP or try a different modality.
- Health Concerns— If you have an uncontrolled and serious health condition, such as unmanaged high blood pressure or a recent major surgery you may not be able to work with this medicine, which would be determined by you and a medical provider.
- Self Knowledge— If you’re new to being in therapy, and/or don’t yet have a foundation in knowing what some of your triggers and sensitive areas are, you may want to build that base first. Psychedelic therapy can bring you to new places and you’ll want to have some inner resources before traversing into potentially sensitive content.
- Instability— If your current life feels unstable, such as not feeling safe at home, experiencing an emotional crisis, or being between jobs (and not by choice), this would be more of a time for establishing security before working with psychedelic therapy.
- Already Open & Need Grounding as Opposed to Expansion— Some people already experience the world with a wide open spirit and don’t need to expand with the support of a psychedelic, but more need support containing the openness so they don’t loose their sense of self. If this is you, you likely know because you don’t relate to people looking to open or expand and you ‘go there’ regularly.
- Unstable Thought Patterns— Some people may also have concerns about a psychedelic triggering unstable thought patterns, paranoia or manic experiences, especially if they have experienced this in the past. This would be important to discuss with the person doing a medical evaluation and who would potentially be prescribing for you as well as discussing with me.
My background and training
My psychedelic training includes an introduction to KAP with Fluence, experiential training through Polaris and a psychedelic facilitator training with SoundMind. Additionally, I have undertaken my own journey work and provide gentle and trauma sensitive facilitation of healing with altered states of consciousness. I offer KAP with appreciation for people who have been providing work with altered states of consciousness for many years and who hold vast knowledge and wisdom. I consider KAP as a distinct offering, where I work with each person to create their own meanings, rituals and care practices that are relevant to them and not appropriation.
I began offering KAP after years of experience as a therapist. I have training in trauma healing modalities, including somatic work, IFS and non-verbal supports.
While psychedelics aren’t for everyone, journeys are. I facilitate this work with an awareness that the journey begins the moment that someone chooses to work with a psychedelic.
What I love about journeys
A journey, in contrast to a snapshot of time, allows things to evolve. That means the work can be transformational. It has the power to hold a depth that can only develop through time and process.
My interest in psychedelic assisted therapy is influenced by being an herbalist and psychotherapist. The experiential therapy modalities I use primed me for altered states of consciousness where we work with felt sensations, metaphors and creative, symbolic content. As an herbalist, I witness (and personally experience) that when a person develops a relationship to a plant remedy it amplifies their consciousness, which has a positive rippling effect on different aspects of their life.
I see a journey as working with and beyond the medicine, where someone meets the medicine and gains a sense of how it interacts with them and then explores and makes meaning of where they go.
Let’s walk through a journey of seeing if my KAP work may be a good fit for you.
Please message me at quai [@] discoverspace.me to set up a consultation call.