Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

As a therapist trained in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), I partner with medical providers to support clients before, during, and after their ketamine sessions. I don't prescribe medication or tell clients they should pursue ketamine. Instead, if you and your medical provider decide it's an appropriate path, my role is to help you prepare for the experience, stay grounded throughout the process, and make sense of what unfolds afterward.

The medicine is only one piece of the work.

The real transformation happens in the integration; in slowing down enough to listen, noticing what wants your attention, and discovering how those insights can ripple into your relationships, your nervous system, and your everyday life.

Our work together begins long before the medicine session. We'll explore your intentions, your history, your fears, and what healing means to you. During the session, I offer a steady, compassionate presence while honoring an inner-directed approach, trusting your own innate wisdom rather than directing the experience. In the days and weeks that follow, we'll gently weave what emerged into sustainable change.

Research suggests ketamine can temporarily increase neuroplasticity- the brain's ability to create new pathways and loosen old patterns. I think of this as opening a window. The medicine may help open it, but it is the integration, the relationships we cultivate, and the choices we make afterward that allow fresh air to move through.

Trasformation rarely happens because of one moment. More often, it happens through many moments of meeting ourselves with honesty, compassion, and care.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is simply one doorway into that process.

Resources from Prism Website

  • Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

  • www.MAPS.org

  • Fireside Project

  • www.FireSideProject.org

  • Erowid

  • https://www.erowid.org/

  • ● Alex Belser: The Psychedelic Mystical Experience

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE80piBCdNs

  • Psychedelic Passage

  • https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/

  • Psychological flexibility mediates the relations between acute psychedelic effects and subjective decreases in depression and anxiety

  • https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2212144719301206?token=9E44EF880FAD8AE51A19D08678057AA53B793280F6484CE12B83BB33888E17342D1CC90F412331B0F487821203B63F35

  • Antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-addictive properties of Classic Psychedelics

  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2045125316638008

  • ● Psychedelic Psychiatry’s Brave New World

  • https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)30282-8.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867420302828%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

  • MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy: How Different is it from Other Psychotherapy?

  • https://maps.org/news-letters/v23n1/v23n1_p10-14.pdf

  • A Manual for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the Treatment of PTSD

  • https://maps.org/research/mdma/mdma-research-timeline/4887-a-manual-formdma-assisted-psychotherapy-in-the-treatment-of-ptsd

  • Posttraumatic Growth Article (Gorman et al, 2020)

  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jts.22479

  • The influence of therapists’ first-hand experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training (Nielson & Guss, 2018)

  • https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/2/2/article-p64.xml

  • Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance

  • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00005/full

  • ● This is the ACT inspired work

  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212144719301140

  • ● The Center for Optimal Living (Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy training)

  • https://www.centerforoptimalliving.com/

  • Willoughby Britton and Jared Lindhal have a Meditation Safety Toolbox

  • https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/resources/meditation-safety-toolbox

  • Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis

  • https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext

  • Project New Day

  • https://projectnewday.foundation/about-us/

  • The Third Wave

  • https://thethirdwave.co/

  • ● The PsychonautWIKI

  • https://psychonautwiki.org/

  • Spirit Pharmacist

  • https://www.spiritpharmacist.com

  • Psychedelic Liberty Summit

  • https://chacruna.net/psychedelic-liberty-summit/

  • Remedy Centre

  • https://remedycentre.ca/contact-us/

  • MAPS MDMA-Assisted Therapy Code of Ethics

  • https://maps.org/news/bulletin/articles/436-maps-bulletin-spring-2019-vol-29,-no-1/7710-maps-mdma-assisted-psychotherapy-code-of-ethics-spring-2019

  • All NPV Sweden Videos:

  • ● https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPnZFa_ln0VoBWjVZS15LLA\

  • The Trip Treatment: Michael Pollen's 2015 New Yorker Article

  • https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment

  • Psychologists’ responsibility to society: Public policy and the ethics of political action (Allen & Dodd, 2018)

  • https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-00350-001

  • New research on the action of LSD on serotonin receptors

  • https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/Crystal-structure-shows-LSDbound/98/i36

  • Portraits from LSD Session (historical)

  • http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-

  • 1950s-research-experiment.html

  • Washington Post article on access to psychedelic medicine

  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/09/21/psychedelic-medicinewill-it-be-accessible-to-all/?arc404=true

  • Race as an element of "Set and Setting"

  • https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/4/1/article-p51.xml

  • MDMA for PTSD: Mechanisms of action

  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323631269_MDMAassisted_psychotherapy_for_PTSD_Are_memory_reconsolidation_and_fear_extinction_underlying_mechanisms

  • Psychedelics are not liked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior

  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273154807_Psychedelics_not_linked_to_mental_health_problems_or_suicidal_behavior_A_population_study

  • Confrontation with the Unconscious

  • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18708468-confrontation-with-theunconscious

  • Portland Integration Network

  • https://www.portlandintegrationnetwork.com/

  • Zendo Project

  • https://zendoproject.org

  • Trust surrender receive, MDMA

  • https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Surrender-Receive-Release-Trauma/dp/1619617382

  • Listening to Ayahuasca

  • https://www.amazon.com/Listening-Ayahuasca-Depression-Addiction-Anxiety/dp/1608684024

  • Free Books from MAPS

  • https://maps.org/resources/freebooks

  • Conscious Medicine

  • https://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Medicine-Indigenous-Entheogens-Expanded-ebook/dp/B07H6Z3JXB

  • Ryan Westrum’s Psychedelic Handbook

  • https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelics-Integration-Handbook-Ph-DWestrum/dp/173387660X

  • “Therapeutic Assessment”

  • https://www.therapeuticassessment.com/

  • ACT-Psilocybin Therapy for Depression Manual

  • https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/ A

  • Peer-reviewed article describing the approach

  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212144719301218

  • Links for YouTube Videos - Elizabeth Nielson produced by NPV Sweden:

  • MDMA-Assisted therapy for PTSD: Karolinska Institute

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oebmUaZcN8k&list=UUPnZFa_ln0VoBWjVZS15LLA&index=1

  • ● Psilocybin for Alcohol Use Disorder: Karolinska Institute

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4UFJYpCqkA&list=UUPnZFa_ln0VoBWjVZS15LLA&index=5

  • The need for Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration in Clinical Settings:

  •        Colloquium on Psychedelic Psychiatry

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoqaK9ah7Xs&list=UUPnZFa_ln0VoBWjVZS15LLA&index=14