Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy combines a low-dose ketamine experience with therapeutic support before, during, and after the session.
Ketamine is a legal, FDA-approved medication; in KAP, it is used off-label in low doses to support emotional processing and neuroplasticity.

Ketamine briefly creates a non-ordinary state of consciousness. Research suggests this altered state can interrupt rigid emotional patterns and open access to deeper feeling, memory, and meaning—places that can be hard to reach through thinking alone.

I didn’t enter this field expecting to work with psychedelics. What changed my perspective were the meaningful, often rapid shifts I saw in clients’ well-being, alongside a growing body of research supporting ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, persistent self-criticism, trauma, and meaning-related distress.

KAP is an emerging field, and I take its ethical responsibilities seriously. I am completing training through Polaris Insight Center—widely regarded as one of the leading programs in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy—to ensure my work is grounded, thoughtful, and aligned with best practices as they continue to develop.

Who KAP May Be Supportive For

KAP may be supportive if:

• you think clearly but struggle to feel
• you know the healthy thoughts but don’t believe them in your bones
• your trauma feels stuck beyond cognitive understanding
• you live with treatment-resistant depression
• your self-critic feels unshakeable
• you’re navigating grief or meaning collapse
• you’ve tried for a long time but aren’t moving the way you want
• you’ve had psychedelic experiences outside therapy and want help making sense of them

Ketamine works primarily at the emotional (limbic) level.
For many deep thinkers, this matters: insight is not the issue. Feeling the insight is.

Clients often say things like:

• “I didn’t know that experience was still shaping me.”
• “Before I felt stuck. Now I can feel that I have choices.”
• “Suddenly I can feel compassion for myself.”
• “This feels like sacred work.”

Not every session looks like this, but for many people, KAP creates a moment of clarity that becomes deeply meaningful.

What Sessions Are Like

Sessions take place in a quiet, cozy dedicated room at Symmetry Counseling with dim lighting and northern lights projections. I stay in the room the entire time.

Clients vary in how they use the space:

• some prefer silence
• some talk through what they’re experiencing
• some want occasional grounding or reassurance
• some let the music carry them

My role is to support emotional safety, offer orientation when needed, and take notes so that nothing important is lost when the experience fades.

We record sessions for your protection and for accurate integration later.

KAP vs. Medical Ketamine Alone

Medical ketamine (without therapy) is common locally. It can be helpful on its own, especially for mood symptoms.

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy differs in a few key ways:

• a therapist is with you during the experience—you’re not navigating this potentially intense state alone
• emotional material can be processed in real time
• difficult or disorienting moments can be grounded safely
• insights don’t fade as quickly because they are integrated afterward
• themes are woven back into ongoing therapy

Preparation

Before your first KAP session, we meet to discuss:

• what ketamine typically feels like
• how it works in the brain
• intention setting (held loosely)
• how to work with imagery or symbolic material
• what emotional safety looks like
• logistics: fasting, nausea medication, and transportation

How the medication works
At Symmetry Counseling, clients use sublingual ketamine troches, prescribed by our medical provider after evaluation. Dosing is decided in collaboration with you and the prescriber. You pick up the prescription from a local pharmacy and bring the troches to each KAP session.

Medical clearance is required before beginning.

Safety Considerations

Ketamine is a legal medication in the United States, FDA-approved as an anesthetic, and commonly used off-label in psychotherapy. Ketamine has a long-standing safety profile when administered appropriately, but it isn’t suitable for everyone. Symmetry Counseling’s medical prescriber will determine if you are a good fit. Common contraindications include:

• personal or family history of psychosis
• some forms of bipolar disorder
• uncontrolled high blood pressure

Practical considerations:

• Because ketamine can temporarily increase blood pressure, we take vitals before each session and send them to our medical provider for review
• ketamine disconnects you from your body; walking and moving is difficult during the active experience
• you need a ride home and cannot drive for the rest of the day

Emotionally, I stay present the entire time, don’t push content, and support grounding when experiences become intense or unclear.

Integration

Much of the therapeutic value comes from what happens after the medicine session.

Integration sessions help you:

• articulate what opened or shifted
• understand emotional themes that emerged
• connect the experience to your goals
• translate insight into next steps
• build capacity around new choices or perspectives

NARM can be especially helpful here because it supports agency and feeling the incremental shifts in your identity as you begin to change.

KAP and Cancer Survivorship

Surviving cancer often brings profound questions about meaning, fragility, and the future. KAP can offer a steady, compassionate space to explore these questions while easing the fear and emotional weight that treatment leaves behind. It helps create room to move forward with more clarity, choice, and connection.

Psychedelic Integration

If you’ve had psychedelic experiences outside therapy, I can help with emotional processing and meaning-making.
I do not provide or recommend non-medical substances, but integration work itself is fully legal and often stabilizing.

If You’re Curious

Learn more about me or reach out. You can reach me through the Contact page.