What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic medication used to treat various mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Ketamine is able to help depression in a few ways including:

1) Ketamine often provides an immediate antidepression and antianxiety effect.

2) When prescribed at a higher dose, Ketamine provides a psychedelic experience where the individual may receive new perspectives, have a shift in their beliefs and values, and obtain a better understanding of themself.

3) Ketamine promotes neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to rewire. When treating long-term depression, it is important to consider neuroplasticity. Studies have shown that individuals with depression have impaired neuroplasticity; this means that depressed individuals have more difficulty in changing behaviors and/or adopting a positive mindset. By incorporating Ketamine into the psychotherapy process, individuals are more successful in implementing the changes encouraged during therapy.

How exactly do we incorporate Ketamine into psychotherapy treatment?

There are various options of how we use Ketamine with your therapy treatment and we will spend time exploring which option is best for you. Sometimes clients opt to have the therapist with them while they take the medicine; this allows the client to have a “guide” through the journey. Sometimes clients prefer to take the medicine in their own time without the therapist present; with this option, we will focus our psychotherapy sessions on “preparation” and “integration”. Preparation focuses on finding the intention of what you hope to get from the medicine. Integration focuses on what you received from the psychedelic journey and how to integrate that into your life and therapy goals.