What is a session like?

Initially, we will meet for several preparation sessions as we identify your goals and create a safe, trusting relationship. The experiential medicine sessions (when you take ketamine) are planned for three hours, with most medicinal effects usually lasting 1-2 hours. The experiential session is primarily an internal experience, where you may choose to wear an eye mask and listen to music with headphones. You will lay on a comfortable mattress as I provide therapeutic support the entire time, ensuring your safety and comfort.

There are different ways to take ketamine. I offer sublingual sessions, where you bring your prescribed ketamine lozenges into the session and hold it in your mouth until it dissolves. I also offer an IM (intra-muscular injection) with a collaborating nurse who can join the session to administer the injection (for an increased cost). Both methods are effective but can differ in intensity and duration of the medicine's effects.

In the low doses used for mental health treatment (around 5-10% of what is typically used in anesthesia), ketamine can promote a dissociative “psychedelic experience,” often described as a deeply relaxing, “floating” or tranquil state, affording clients a new or distanced perspective of their life situations or struggles. A “quieting of the mind” occurs, allowing for shifts in consciousness, allowing an opportunity for new insights and awareness. You might revisit memories from your past, experience emotional release, or gain insight into your life situations. With the proper preparation and dosage, people can encounter a mystical experience. Many report feeling connected to a higher power and have deep personal, mystical, or transpersonal insights.

​This is not like a psychedelic "trip" that many have experimented with at a concert or with friends. This is a highly focused, therapeutic process. My role as a therapist is to help my clients deeply integrate the discoveries they've made in their journey—rather than simply experiencing "a good trip." I work to incorporate meaningful change in your lives.

Within 24-72 hours of your experiential session, we will schedule one or more integration therapy sessions. The brain has increased neuroplasticity during this time frame, so we take advantage of this crucial period for enhanced growth and awareness. We will aim to stabilize positive behavioral changes, consolidate psychological material, resolve psychological issues, improve relationships, catalyze new insights, and enhance self-awareness.

​Any consideration of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is in collaboration with a prescribing doctor, who will independently assess the appropriateness for and administration of the medicine on an individual basis. Clients often experience progress within 2-6 sessions, when conducted intermittently with integrative psychotherapy sessions.