Ketamine is a legal, safe and effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders and one's general feeling of being "stuck". Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hours after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks. It works by blocking the brain’s NMDA receptors as well as by stimulating AMPA receptors, which are thought to help form new synaptic connections and boost neural circuits that regulate stress and mood. Ketamine has also been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement.

Ketamine can be administered in a variety of ways, including IV infusion, intramuscular injection, via nasal spray and using sublingual lozenges. In my work I use the sublingual lozenge form.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy provides many benefits, including:

• Quick Relief from Symptoms: One of the biggest advantages of ketamine therapy is its ability to provide fast relief from symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mood disorders. Unlike traditional antidepressants that can take weeks to start working, ketamine often delivers noticeable results within hours or days.

• Deeper Emotional Processing: Ketamine helps create an altered state of consciousness, which can allow people to tap into deep emotions and experiences that might be difficult to access through regular talk therapy. This can lead to significant breakthroughs, helping individuals confront and heal from unresolved trauma.

• Promoting Neuroplasticity: Ketamine has been shown to encourage neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to form new neural pathways. For those dealing with depression or anxiety, this means that ketamine may help “retrain” the brain, making it more adaptable and better able to cope with stress and emotional challenges.

• Increased Engagement in Therapy: Many people find that ketamine-assisted therapy helps them engage more fully with their therapist and the therapeutic process itself. The effects of ketamine can create a sense of distance from usual thought patterns, offering clearer insights and helping individuals look at their challenges from a new perspective.

• Long-Term Emotional Growth: When combined with psychotherapy, ketamine has the potential to create lasting positive changes by shifting thought patterns and emotional responses in a sustainable way. This can lead to long-term improvements in mental health.

• Fewer Side Effects: Compared to traditional medications, ketamine tends to have fewer and less severe side effects. For many patients, it provides a safer and more effective option, especially when other treatments haven’t worked.

The effects of ketamine, which most patients find pleasant, last for approximately 45 minutes. These effects can make you feel “far from” your body, and facilitate shifts in perception that can often feel expansive in nature. Your motor and verbal abilities will be reduced, so you’ll be lying down in a comfortable position during the experience. Once these effects subsided, we’ll spend the remainder of our appointment giving you space to process and discuss your experience. While it may feel hard to articulate what happened during the experience, patients feel like the insights gained are none-the-less clear. Studies have shown that the benefits to mood and neurological growth can last up to two weeks after the Ketamine experience. There is a critical window of 72 hours when the brain has increased neuroplasticity, and the therapeutic integration done during this time can help solidify new thought processes and skills learned.

We will start by thoroughly discussing what Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is and how it will work in our time together. If we don’t already have an established therapeutic relationship, I require several initial therapy sessions to build trust and rapport. This will allow me to get to know you as an individual, understand your unique needs, and explore what you are hoping to gain from KAP. These sessions are called Preparation.

Once we are ready to move forward together in this work, I will refer you to one of the expert medical providers with whom I collaborate. They will determine your eligibility for KAP from the medical and psychiatric perspective. If you are eligible, they will prescribe your medicine. Your medicine will be sent to your home, and you will be instructed how to self-administer the lozenge before our KAP session.

When you have received your medicine, we will schedule your Medicine session. A medicine session typically last 2-3 hours. I only offer in-person medicine sessions at this time. During a medicine session, you will self-administer your ketamine lozenge in my office. You will be in a comfortable, reclining position wearing an eye mask and listening to calming music. Although a KAP medicine session may be largely an internal experience, I will be present with you the entire time to hold space and provide support as needed.

After our KAP medicine session, we will meet for a minimum of one Integration therapy sessions to review the memories, thoughts & insights that arose during your medicine session, and to prepare for the next medicine session. This will happen within 24-72 hours.

KAP is highly individualized and we will continually monitor your response to the medicine to determine our movement forward. A typical treatment will include 6 KAP/Integration sessions. Some individuals will find what they need from this, others may determine that after a few months they would like to do another course of treatment, or simply have a booster session.

For your medical evaluation, you may be able to use your health insurance for reimbursement, depending on the medical provider we choose to utilize. The cost for the evaluation and medicine will be further discussed with the medical provider.

For KAP sessions, including initial sessions, preparation, and integration sessions, my fee is $250/hr. For the medicine session I charge a flat fee of $675. I am an out-of-network provider for insurance companies. We can discuss in more depth which portion of our work together is eligible for out-of-network reimbursement.

Here is an example how what the cost may look like for our portion of the work together:

* 2-4 Preparation Sessions: $500-$1000

*Medicine Session: $675

* 30 min- 1 Hour Integration Session: $150-$250

**A typical treatment will include 6 KAP/Integration sessions

If you would like to explore the possibility of working with me on KAP, please e-mail me at keriturnerpsyd@gmail.com to discuss eligibility and next steps.

Additional Listening/Reading:

Andrew Huberman's 90 minute podcast into how KAP works

Paradigms of Ketamine Treatment by Raquel Bennett, Psy.D.

Interview with Will Siu, MD, Harvard Medical School

Ketamine and Eating Disorders

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy VS Ketamine Infusion Therapy

Active Mechanisms of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

The Effects of Psychotherapy on Single and Repeated Ketamine Infusion(s)...