Talk therapy is a scientifically proven method to support mental health. It has been an excellent–sometimes life-saving–process for many struggling with mental health.

But for others, no matter how long they spend on the therapist’s couch, they struggle to find relief for their symptoms. In those cases, nontraditional therapy tools might be more effective—tools like ketamine.Ketamine's dissociative and pain-managing processes help individuals safely explore painful emotions and memories.

Ketamine therapy is a treatment approach that uses low doses of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic medication, to manage various mental health conditions, such as treatment-resistant depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Patients with depression, anxiety, PTSD, end-of-life distress, chronic pain, drug/alcohol problems, and other conditions may be eligible for psychedelic-assisted therapy with ketamine.

Usually ketamine treatment includes one or a few in-clinic ketamine dosing sessions under clinician supervision integrated with preparatory and integration counseling.

Ketamine works by blocking the activity of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a receptor in the brain that is involved in the regulation of mood, cognition, and pain perception. Ketamine therapy is thought to have rapid-acting antidepressant effects, with many patients reporting improvements in their symptoms within hours to days after treatment.

Research is, of course, still ongoing for KAP and other psychedelic psychotherapies. While this doesn’t mean KAP will be a guaranteed fix, it opens a much-needed door for people struggling to progress with more traditional forms of therapy.

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy begins with a foundational understanding of the patient’s mental health landscape, followed by a tailored treatment plan that aligns with their unique needs.

Please note, not everyone is eligible.

The process kicks off with an initial consultation to assess suitability for KAP, followed by a series of sessions that integrate ketamine infusions with in-depth psychotherapy.

During a typical KAP session—prefaced by thorough evaluation and discussions with the provider—a patient will usually lie down in a quiet room and take the prescribed dose of ketamine.

Providers might put on soft music or have patients wear an eye mask to keep the environment as relaxed as possible.

During these sessions, patients experience a heightened state of openness and receptivity, allowing for profound therapeutic insights and emotional processing. The science behind ketamine’s impact lies in its ability to stimulate neural growth and connectivity, offering a “reset” for neural pathways affected by mental health conditions.