Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic. It has an extremely safe track record and has been used in surgical settings and pain management since its approval by FDA in 1970. It is now increasingly applied clinically as an off-label treatment for various chronic treatment-resistant mental health conditions.

Ketamine works on the brain's neurotransmitter systems, particularly glutamate, which plays a crucial role in mood regulation, cognition, and emotional processing. It also promotes synaptogenesis and enhances neuroplasticity. Meaning, it helps relieve symptoms, offers new ways of thinking (especially about one’s life and big picture of existence), and helps grow new brain cells and connections.

Ketamine has various routes of administration. With KAP, it is either taken sublingually (SL) via a rapid dissolving lozenge, or intramuscularly (IM) via injection.

For our KAP sessions, we will mainly be using rapid dissolving lozenges (SL). IM sessions are offered once a month, under the administration and supervision of a medical professional.

The number of KAP sessions is individual, depending on overall treatment goals and responsiveness to treatment.

KAP has a cumulative effect, which means that it doesn’t provide significant benefits after a single treatment session. Our first ketamine session helps us determine the most appropriate dose for you. I recommend having a minimum of 3 KAP sessions, with clients typically benefiting from 3-6 sessions.

Some clients seek ongoing “booster sessions,” intermittently over months or years.

Before we begin treatment with KAP, I offer 2-3 preparation sessions so you feel comfortable, clear, and grounded going into the medicine experience. Following each KAP session, we will meet for an integration session. There is no specific schedule between sessions; everyone’s needs are different. In general, I recommend you wait at least a week between sessions.

On the day of your ketamine treatment, please follow the directions given at intake about food and medication.

Each KAP session is 3 hours, including a 15-minute check-in before we begin to clarify intentions for your journey. We will optimize set and setting through the use of invocations, meditative practices, and/or breathing exercises. These contemplative practices help foster an open, relaxed mindset, reduce anxiety, and ease the transition into non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Once the ketamine is administered, you will be encouraged to use an eye mask to facilitate the experience and maintain an internal focus. You will spend much of the session focusing on your internal experience. However, I will be by your side, checking in with you periodically throughout your experience. The ketamine journey itself typically lasts between 30-50 minutes.

As the effects of the medicine subside, we will spend time discussing and integrating your experience. I will take detailed notes on all that you share to support recall, insight, and integration.

If the medicine effects last longer than the allocated time, you will be able to recover in the waiting area until it is safe for you to leave with your arranged driver.

Ketamine effects are dependent on dosage, which is based on overall treatment goals and plan.

Low dose sessions provide an empathogenic effect. It may result in increased awareness of the body, feelings of comfort and relaxation, reduction of ego defenses, increased empathy, compassion, and warmth. This is considered a sub-psychedelic dose and best supports talk therapy, as there is more openness and relaxation of defenses.

Moderate dose sessions often involve an out of body experience (OBE), where you feel separated from your body. This results in significantly diminished ego defenses but with continued awareness of the Self. OBEs may also include mythological/archetypal imagery, visiting non-physical realities, possible encounters with spiritual entities and non-terrestrial beings, vivid dreams of past and future lives and incarnations, and re-experiencing aspects of the birth process.

High dose sessions may involve full dissociation from body and various transpersonal and mystical experiences, including a near death experience and/or ego-dissolving experience.

In the doses that I use, you will most often experience empathogenic and/or OBE at low to moderate doses.

KAP is not an appropriate treatment for everyone, especially for people with certain medical and psychological conditions.

Psychiatric contraindication for KAP, include: psychosis, schizophrenia, or active mania or hypomania associated with bi-polar disorder.

Medical contraindications for KAP, include: allergy to ketamine, cardiovascular disease or arrhythmia, uncontrolled hypertension, uncontrolled hyperthyroidism, or pregnancy & nursing.

Further screening is necessary to determine whether or not KAP is a safe course of treatment for you.