KETAMINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY

"No one knows what makes the soul
wake up so happy …"-Rumi

Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a relatively new, innovative mental health treatment for a wide variety of conditions, from treatment resistant depression and anxiety to PTSD and eating disorders. It is a very safe medicine and can be used flexibly in both low and high doses for different conditions and settings. In general it helps people get unstuck mentally in a whole range of issues that involve negative or limiting self talk. If our thoughts are likened to pathways we trudge down in the snow, repeated thoughts create deep grooves in our thinking that we easily fall into. Ketamine metaphorically lifts us out of these ruts and lets us lay down new and more positive and healthy thought patterns. I use ketamine with both individuals and couples.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON KETAMINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY

Ketamine is a short acting anesthetic with pain relieving properties that was first synthesized in 1962. It is considered extremely safe, so much so that it is given to children and is listed as one of the 50 essential medicines of the World Health Organization. It was accidentally discovered to have antidepressant effects and a small paper on these properties was first published in 2000. Since then it has been used in a host of other psychotherapeutic applications.
Unfortunately not. While it has been remarkably effective in many situations, it is not a magic bullet. Sometimes the dramatic cases that are highlighted in the media can obscure the fact that fully one third of the people who try it do not have a positive response.
No, I work with a medical professional who does a thorough medical intake before prescribing it.
Ketamine has a number of ways it can be administered with varying levels of bioavailability (this means how much of the medicine is absorbed). At the highest end of bioavailability is an IV drip, followed by an intramuscular injection, followed by nasal spray and then lozenges taken orally. The two methods my clients use most are IV, done in a doctor’s office; and lozenges, done at home or in my office.
There are a wide variety of methods used in integrating ketamine into couples work. Couples who work with me take a very low dose prior to the start of their session with me. The low dose allows them to drop their emotional reactivity and to speak from the heart and listen openly.

ABOUT A MINUTE ON:

About a minute on psychedelics and psychotherapy

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About a minute on psychedelics and psychotherapy

There's a lot of talk these days about the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes. And you might wonder "What's going on here?". The way I understand it is that verbal therapy, which I'm a big fan of, I've been doing it close to 40 years, verbal therapy can only go so far with some issues. There are some things that verbal therapy simply can't get to. And psychedelics can. And psychedelics can sometimes, under certain circumstances, take care of things much quicker than verbal therapy can. So that's the general reason to consider the use of psychedelics for psychotherapy. Ketamine in particular is perfectly suited for psychotherapy, a) because it's legal, b) because it's relatively short acting and therefore can fit within a therapeutic window. It's basically a 45 minute to one hour experience, and c) it can be very accurately dosed, so that it's very safe and very consistent in its results.

ABOUT A MINUTE ON WHEN AND WHY I RECOMMEND KETAMINE

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ABOUT A MINUTE ON WHEN AND WHY I RECOMMEND KETAMINE

Hi. I'd like to talk in this video about what makes me recommend ketamine to people. And there can be a number of different reasons. One of the primary ones for example is any kind of negative self image that is just impermeable to change, or seems like it's impermeable to change - when you take ketamine you will have an experience of the truth of who you really are. The language I use is you feel your soul. And that you feel that that truth, your essence, is good. Now I can tell you this, your family, your friends can also tell you about your goodness, but it can stay academic. Until you have your own experience of that truth, and that it is deeply and incontrovertibly true, that there's really no arguing with it. It doesn't make your issues go away but it gives you a positive experiential base to refer back to and to work toward going forward.

About a minute on the ways ketamine can affect us

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About a minute on the ways ketamine can affect us

I want to talk a little bit about the different ways ketamine can affect us. And those different ways are dependent both on our individual constitution, on the mode of administration - whether it's via IV, intra-muscular injection, nasal spray or lozenges, and of course on the dosing, how much one is taking. At the highest level is what's called the psychedelic dose, and that is its own profile, it's got its own benefits that's too much to go into right here, but there's a psychedelic level. Next level would be called a psycholytic level. A psycholytic level is when you are able to communicate with the people who are there, you're able to let people know what's going on and review it later on, with your therapist, with me. And the final level is what we call a relational dose which is a very low dose, where you're still impacted, but I use it with both couples and individuals for therapy.

About a minute on ketamine in couples therapy

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About a minute on ketamine in couples therapy

I want to talk a little bit about what ketamine can do in couples therapy. It's a fairly new area, that there aren't too many people doing work in this area, but I've been doing it for some time now and I've had good results with it by and large. What I would say you can expect if as a couple you do it, and it's low-dose ketamine that you do, it's a very low dose, what we call a "relational dose" so that you're able to still communicate freely, you're completely oriented to time and space, but it helps you to step back from the emotional reactive charge that you can have to issues so that you can speak more from the heart and hear more clearly what's being said to you. So that you kind of can side step all of the land mines that typically interfere with clear communication with your partner and speak heart to heart with each other so that you feel heard and are able to hear.