Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy with a Licensed Psychologist in San Luis Obispo, CA
Heal Deeply and Change Your Life
Does it feel like traditional therapy isn’t enough?
You've tried talk therapy and even though it's helped, you aren't where you want to be. You're still feeling stuck and you don’t know how to move forward. You have coping tools to get through life but you don’t want to just cope and get through. You want to feel whole, capable, and at peace within yourself. You've been hearing about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) lately but you don't want to just get an IV in a doctor's office or lie on your couch at home with your mail order prescription. You want real therapeutic support to go deep with the medicine and create lasting change.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can help you deeply connect with yourself and heal
KAP is not like other medication treatments. We are not looking for this medication to fix you or your symptoms. Ketamine is instead an ally on your journey to wholeness. The altered state created by ketamine can unlock new awareness that is then integrated into your understanding of yourself and the world. On a biological level, ketamine increases neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to create new neurons and pathways) and helps reset the Default Mode Network (the part of the brain that controls how you think about and experience yourself). During follow-up sessions, we use the new awareness in partnership with the changes happening in your brain to support you in making meaningful changes in your life.
How does KAP work?
KAP consists of three phases of treatment: Preparation, Medicine Sessions, and Integration.
Preparation occurs first. It is similar to the first session or two of other forms of psychotherapy. It is where I will learn about your history, your goals, and where we build trust within our therapeutic relationship. It will also be when I assess your readiness for KAP and answer any questions you may have about the process. Preparation may be 1-2 sessions or may be longer depending on your individual needs.
Medicine sessions are 2 hours long. You will bring your prescribed ketamine with you and you will self-administer it. The ketamine may be prescribed by a physician you are already working with or with one that I will refer you to. The room will be set-up with a comfortable place to lie down and I will provide an eye-mask for you. Mutually agreed upon music will be played throughout the session to support you in your medicine journey. I will be with you the entire time. Many people start to process their experience in the second half of the session as the medicine starts to wear off. Typically we do 3-6 medicine sessions in the course of treatment depending on your individual goals and needs.
Integration sessions occur between medicine sessions and after the final medicine session. In Integration I will support you in continuing to process and make meaning of the experience of the medicine session. In these sessions, clients often identify new beliefs about themself and the world and/or changes they want to make. There will be 1-2 integration sessions between medicine sessions depending on the agreed upon treatment plan and at least 2 integration sessions after the final medicine session.
KAP can help you:
Make real shifts in areas where you were stuck
Change and improve your relationship with yourself
Support you in creating healthy relationships
Significantly alleviate symptoms of trauma, anxiety, and depression
Real Change Can Happen
FAQs
What are the potential benefits of KAP?
Ketamine is classified as a dissociative anesthetic, dissociation meaning a sense of disconnection from one’s ordinary reality and usual self. Research is showing that psychedelic, ‘dissociative’ experiences may well be instrumental in providing a catalyst for deep change. This may include a positive change in outlook and character that we term a ‘transformative’ response. Essential to the method is an altered state of consciousness, typically lasting 30 minutes to 90 minutes, that tends to be related to dose and route of administration.
You may experience important changes in personality, mood, and cognition during treatment, or in the hours, days and weeks that follow. Some experiences may be temporarily disturbing to you. The ketamine experience itself is designed to enable your own healing wisdom to be accessed and beneficial to you. The psychotherapy support you will receive will aid you in making your experience(s) valuable and understandable to you. The psychotherapist will endeavor to assist you in changing patterns of mind and behavior that are of concern and cause you difficulty.
How will I get the medication?
If you are already working with a physician, I will collaborate with that person on your treatment. If not, I will refer you to a psychiatrist who can prescribe ketamine. You will fill the medication at a pharmacy and will bring it to session to self-administer it.
What are the potential risks of KAP?
Your sense of balance and coordination will be adversely affected until the drug’s effect has worn off–generally two and up to four hours after administration. It is possible you may fall asleep, though this is a rare event. Although rare, you may experience some temporary adverse effects, including blurred and uncomfortable vision, slurred speech, mental confusion, excitability, diminished ability to see things that are actually present, diminished ability to hear or to feel objects accurately including one’s own body, anxiety, nausea or vomiting. To reduce the risk of nausea and vomiting, I ask that you do refrain from eating 4 hours before session and refrain from consuming beverages 2 hours before session.
Ketamine generally causes a modest but not dangerous increase in blood pressure and occasionally heart rate that typically returns to baseline within an hour from the end of your session. There is also a very small risk of lowering blood pressure and pulse rate. Agitation may occur during the course of a ketamine session.
Throughout the ketamine protocol, you must agree not to drive a car or motorized vehicle until the morning after being administered a dose of ketamine. This is a strict safety protocol to reduce the risk of harm to yourself or others and is non-negotiable. For this reason you will be required to have someone pick you up from each ketamine session or take lyft, uber, or taxi home.
During the experience itself, some people have reported frightening and unusual experiences. These frightening experiences, however, may be of paramount value to your transition to recovery from the suffering that brought you to your ketamine psychotherapy work. They will stop. You will receive psychotherapeutic help and ongoing guidance to manage any distressing experiences during your ketamine session.
Who cannot receive KAP?
KAP is not suitable for folks with current or previous psychotic disorders or symptoms, unmanaged mania, and folks with severe personality or dissociative disorders.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers are not eligible because of potential effects on the fetus, or nursing child. The effects of ketamine on pregnancy and the fetus are undetermined, and therefore, it is advised that you protect yourself against pregnancy while exposing yourself to ketamine or in the immediate aftermath of its use.
Untreated hypertension is a contraindication to ketamine which can cause a rise in blood pressure. Similarly, a history of heart disease may make you ineligible to participate, unless your cardiologist approves your participation.
Ketamine should not be taken if you have untreated hyperthyroidism. Ketamine may worsen tinnitus. In prolonged use with higher doses, it can cause bladder irritation and/or damage.