Ketamine-Assisted Somatic Psychotherapy
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How It Works
Ketamine-Assisted Somatic Psychotherapy (KASP) offers a both gentle and powerful option for intensive therapeutic work. Ketamine can quiet the mind and soften inner defenses, making it easier to connect with your body, emotions, and deeper self. With the support of somatic practices and relational psychotherapeutic work, including hands-on work when appropriate and discussed in detail during multiple preparation sessions, KASP can help you release old patterns and open to new ways of living yourself. Many people find KASP especially supportive when they feel stuck, burdened by depression or anxiety, struggling with substance mis-use, or seeking a more authentic connection with themselves or their loved ones.
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What It Helps
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can support people living with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mood-related challenges. It may also be helpful for those struggling with chronic stress, substance use, or the effects of chronic illness. By creating a state of openness and flexibility in both mind and body, ketamine can enhance therapy and support meaningful change when other approaches have not been effective.
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How It’s Legal
Ketamine is a legal, FDA-approved medication in the United States, originally developed as an anesthetic. It is the only federally legal available psychedelic at this time. While its use for mental health treatment is considered “off-label,” this is a common and accepted medical practice. In ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, the medicine is prescribed and administered under the guidance of licensed professionals, ensuring safety and adherence to all legal and ethical standards of care. Along with working together for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions, you will also be in conversation with an experienced prescribing nurse practitioner who will determine your eligibility, which includes both medical and psychological appropriateness.
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What It’s Like
Experiences vary, but many people describe a sense of calm, expanded perspective, or a softening of mental chatter. Some notice shifts in body sensations or imagery, while others feel a deeper connection to their emotions. Sessions generally include a musical journey, with both recorded and sometimes live sound, as well as hands on work if agreed upon during our preparation sessions. If supportive to your work, co-created ritual will be included in your journey to mark opening, closing, and any other important points in the session. It is recommended to spend the remainder of your day resting and doing gentle activities you enjoy.
The immediate effects of ketamine usually last about 45–90 minutes. The deeper benefits come through integration—working with the insights, feelings, and body awareness that arise during and after the session. This integration process helps the experience create lasting change over time.
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Ketamine-Assisted Relationship Therapy
Ketamine-Assisted Somatic Relationship Psychotherapy brings the healing potential of ketamine into the relational space, helping loved ones move beyond stuck patterns and reconnect with one another. In a safe and guided setting, ketamine can quiet defensiveness, soften reactivity, and open new possibilities for empathy, communication, and repair. With defenses softened the embodied experience of relating that is happening under your every-day awareness can come to the forefront, deepening your consciousness of how you relate, allowing space for healing old wounds and making more authentic connection possible.
The process of ketamine-assisted somatic relationship psychotherapy includes at least one individual KASP session per person, before moving on to shared KASP journeys.
the five phases of KAP with life on earth
groundwork.
The very beginning. First your eligibility for KAP is assessed through an intake and initial psychotherapy session with me, as well as an evaluation with and, if you are eligible, prescription from, a psychiatric nurse practitioner. If it is determined that you are a candidate for KAP, you and I will spend another few sessions creating a treatment plan unique to who you are, where you are at in life, and what you’re needing. During this initial phase we also focus on deepening our relationship and moving forward at the speed of trust. Somatic interventions may be introduced at this time as well. This foundation of shared understanding, intention, and relational safety sets you up for the best possible KAP outcome.
preparation.
In this second stage we begin actively preparing for your ketamine work, through sessions that focus on experiential, in-the-moment awareness. I follow your lead into exploring your growing edges, utilizing somatic approaches and including dream work if relevant. If you are coming to KAP as a relationship, this is where we get into the underlying currents of your dynamic. This stage is at minimum three sessions, up to 8.
disorganizing.
This phase encompasses the ketamine journeys themselves, and is often experienced as a disorganizing or disassembling of old behavioral patterns, ways of being or seeing yourself. Contacting buried strengths and self-compassion often occurs. You will be resting with an eye mask on, and music will be included in the session. Ritual to open, close, or mark transitions in the session may be included as well if requested and agreed upon ahead of time. Each journey is a 4-5 hour experience, with a preparation session ideally the day before and a follow-up session as soon as possible afterwards. To see the full potential benefits of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, a minimum of three ketamine sessions are recommended.
reorganizing.
After the active journey work has come to a close, it’s time to find a new way of organizing yourself that makes room for the changes that have occurred. Digesting psychedelic experience takes time and space. This stage can involve, for example: practicing new somatic realities that came through during the journeys, grief work, or creative expression. I often encourage clients not to move into meaning making too quickly, so as to allow the medicine sessions to work you rather than you working them. This is also not a time to make any big life decisions! We wait to move into more direct action until you have settled into a new experience of yourself. We spend a minimum of four sessions here.
After you’ve digested your experience and come to a new experience of yourself, it’s time to put into action any changes needed to be made in your life. In this phase I support you in making meaning from your KAP journeys and using that to chart a course into a new future. We also look back and get clarity on what you accomplished, and what might still need attention. This phase can be 2-3 sessions to close our work together, or we can move into ongoing psychotherapy from here. The option for ongoing maintenance KAP journeys, as needed, is available from here as well.
moving forward.
