Psychedelic assisted psychotherapy is a generalized term that represents the concept of using various compounds or “psychedelic” medicines and expanded states of consciousness to facilitate a therapeutic and healing process for individuals.

Foundational components of this approach involve individuals approaching medicine work via stages that include preparation, setting an intention, guidance from facilitators/guides during the dosing experience, and the use integration following the journey in order to consider how to optimally sustain the insights learned from expanded states of consciousness.

Ketamine is an FDA-approved prescription drug that has been used since the 1960s as an anesthetic to quickly and safely sedate patients during medical procedures.

Ketamine steadily grew in popularity and versatility due to its remarkable safety profile and also due to its limited number of side effects, few medical contraindications, and lack of direct impact on the body’s vital functions (i.e. heart rate, blood pressure, respiration).

While Ketamine is typically administered intravenously in medical settings, there are multiple forms of administration (nasal, oral, intramuscular) which further lend to the range of utility and the variability of the experience for the individual receiving the medicine.

Clinicians have determined there is significant therapeutic value yielded by exploring the subjective effects and resulting insights associated with expanded states of consciousness occasioned by Ketamine administration when optimizing the mindset and setting of support.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, or KAP, is a form of therapy that aims to optimize the benefit derived from the subjective and dissociative effects that come from non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Within this treatment individuals are sometimes able to shift painful “stuck” states and/or achieve symptom relief by using Ketamine combined with a therapeutic process. This approach optimizes the idea of creating safety through therapeutic connection and preparation that teaches clients how to optimally “work” with the medicine and their own system in order to allow the process to powerfully unfold with ease, dignity, and care.

Also essential to this approach is the use of integration sessions where therapists can support individuals in exploring and making meaning of these often mercurial, inexplicable, non-verbal, profoundly expansive, and emotional experiences.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is an adjunctive treatment with the potential to deepen, disrupt, or catalyze an existing therapeutic process. We believe that the “inner directed” approach works at the pace of each individual’s system and directly supports self-exploration by explicitly highlighting choice, agency, and safety. To facilitate this process, we often work in a “trance” or “psycholytic” dosing ranges (gentle, step-wise protocol).

In this range, clients can work collaboratively with the therapy team to determine what may be needed. Our therapists are highly attuned and skilled in working with expanded states of consciousness while honoring the inherent vulnerability that can come from these profound journeys.

This work often allows access to previously unreachable content and deeper access to emotions and sensations that serve as vital entry points for insights, understanding, and healing.

In this way, we can slowly “unwind” and rewrite the stories we carry about ourselves to become more authentic, compassionate, and expansive.

Comprehensive screening and assessment are necessary to determine if KAP is an appropriate, relevant, and potentially effective treatment approach for clients. This process takes place at Integrata with the experienced perspective of both a medical and mental health provider.

We believe KAP has tremendous and transformative potential, however, this should not be considered a “cure all” and the course of treatment is inherently unpredictable. There are significant risks and benefits to KAP that should be very thoughtfully considered prior to embarking on this treatment.

For many the course of healing can be very disruptive and at times disorienting. Modifying and expanding what we “know” about ourselves can feel rather intense, at times overwhelming, and require a solid and available support system to support the continued process of integration.

At this same time, this work has also brought great joy, relief, and pleasure to many individuals who have been suffering for so long.

Yes, there is a breadth of clinical research that persevered, often in the face of great adversity, to lay a critical foundation for understanding and learning more about the safety and efficacy of working with different compounds to target different life-threatening conditions.

You can visit our Articles, Research, & Resources page for links to pivotal research.

The short answer is "it depends." Each case is unique, but as a general guideline, individuals in remission from a use disorder for longer than 6 months are very often the most appropriate candidates for further consideration.

For individuals with SUDs, the stage of their condition can directly impact their eligibility for treatment. Each individual’s journey and relationship to a substance is often unique to their particular circumstances. For this reason we recommend individualized clinical and psychiatric assessments to determine if KAP may benefit their recovery. There is growing research that suggests that the administration of Ketamine in controlled settings with clinical support yields positive results for individuals who have been diagnosed with SUDs.

Using a mind-altering substance to treat an individual with a SUD contains inherent risks; however, we have consistently seen that Ketamine can be a powerful tool to amplify and deepen therapeutic access when paired with a collaborative relationship between the client and our clinicians. An important element of clinical preparation for KAP involves preparing clients to utilize the therapeutic benefits that can come from non-ordinary states of consciousness. This can be meaningfully distinguished from the concept of simply feeling “altered” by a substance. Due to the support offered by expanded states of consciousness, exploration and excavation of painful content can become more possible. In this regard, clients may find new insights and understandings that help them unravel problematic patterns of self destructive behavior.