Ketamine Assisted Therapy
Scott D. Gilliam, PhD, LMFT
"When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are:
Perfect, complete, lacking in nothing."
~ Dogen
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a groundbreaking holistic modality in which ketamine is used as a complement to psychotherapy . Depth Psychotherapy is uniquely suited to complement Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) since it works with the unconscious. KAP is especially helpful with treatment resistant depression and anxiety but can lead to breakthroughs and insights for any patient. Ketamines unique characteristics as literally grow dendrites, enhancing neuroplasticity which means, the ability to change. It works on the biological level (soma) and on the psychological level providing visions and sensations which offer insights into the soul (psyche). Ketamine, like psychedelics can also lead to spiritual experiences along with other Non Ordinary States of Consciousness that have healing potential. I offer a KAP in partnership with an organization called Journey Clinical. I oversee the psychotherapy portion of the experience, while Journey Clinical’s medical team supports you on all medical aspects. The medical aspects include determining eligibility, developing a custom treatment plan, prescribing the medicine and monitoring outcomes.
Ketamine is a legal, safe and effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD. Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hrs. after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is the combination of holistic, trauma-informed psychotherapy with the dissociative anesthetic medicine, Ketamine. Neurologically, this medicine works as a stimulant to enhance neuroplasticity and encourage the production of BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor) which helps make neural pathways of the brain (like trails on a hike) more malleable and receptive to learning new information — or carving out new hiking trails on the ‘mountains’ of your life!
In moderate dosages, carefully curated, prescribed and monitored by a trained medical doctor or nurse practitioner, in conjunction with a psychotherapist with proper training in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, the potential for mental health healing is exponential.
Ketamine can be utilized as a complement to healing mental health issues such as treatment resistant depression, anxiety, chronic pain, addiction and trauma. Through informed preparation and integration, KAP can be a powerful healing avenue, beyond the options like “talk-therapy.”
I am a Journey Clinical KAP Provider
I offer a therapeutic modality called Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), the use of ketamine as a complement to psychotherapy. I deliver KAP in my practice in partnership with an organization called Journey Clinical, which has a specialized medical team that determines eligibility for KAP, prescribes the ketamine, & supports us in monitoring outcomes.
“To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large—this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone, In an isolated society they reconnect us to each other. In an age that has lost its connection with myth and religion, it opens the heart of new spiritual experiences, and to psychological healing. For as long as human beings have been consuming plants, they’ve been using them to alter consciousness, for pleasure and escape but also, more profoundly, to explore what their brain can do, to mark a coming of age, for cohesion of the group and for spiritual and religious reasons.”
~ Aldous Huxley.