Beyond Traditional Therapy: A Deep Dive into Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
September 9, 2025
What is Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy? Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is an innovative approach to treating mental illness. While it is still considered an experimental treatment, research suggests that ketamine may help grow new neural connections once diminished by chronic stress. The literature indicates a 70% response rate to ketamine of patients with treatment resistant depression with more and more research publishing daily. Ketamine is thought to be especially helpful with treatment-resistant mental and emotional conditions and is often used after other treatment approaches have been unsuccessful.
Ketamine Alone vs. Ketamine with Therapy
Ketamine for depression has become popularized through medical infusion clinics, where a patient is administered ketamine through intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), or intra-nasal routes, typically without psychotherapy during the dosing experience. Symptoms can be relieved through this process alone, but the underlying issues that caused the symptoms may persist. Ketamine treatment is generally considered inappropriate for those with a history of psychosis, mania or schizophrenia, or who are currently taking benzodiazepines, stimulants, or MAOI's.
The Power of Combining Ketamine and Therapy
Psychotherapists have begun integrating ketamine into their psychotherapeutic practices as an effective adjunctive path for healing, with the benefits of ketamine enhanced by a personalized approach and the support of a trusted therapist. While ketamine administered without psychotherapeutic assistance has helped with symptoms of mental and emotional problems, it is widely understood that KAP with a skilled and experienced therapist can enhance the benefits of ketamine so that healing occurs at a deeper and more sustainable level.
The use of ketamine within a strong therapeutic relationship can help the patient better identify and work through difficult experiences and behavior patterns, providing new insights and healing that might not have been accessible otherwise. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy may allow a person to gain access to subconscious material, break out of old schemas, or experience their emotions in a new way.
How to Access KAP: The Process
Psychotherapists typically partner with licensed prescribers to conduct a psychological evaluation and screening for the treatment. The authorized medical provider and your KAP therapist will consult about how KAP might best work for you in terms of course of preparation, dosing and integration sessions.
What to Expect: Preparation, Dosing, and Integration
Prior to dosing you and your team will thoroughly prepare for the sessions. Dosing sessions are typically facilitated by your therapist and last about 3 hours. Your KAP therapist will support and guide you as you encounter and explore emotional issues that arise during the KAP session. Ketamine is formally classified as a "dissociative" anesthetic, dissociation meaning a sense of disconnection from one's ordinary experience of reality and self. At the dosage typically self-administered during KAP, most people experience mild anesthetic, anxiolytic (anxiety reducing), antidepressant and, potentially, psychedelic effects. Visual, tactile and auditory processing may be altered. A mingling of the senses and emotions may occur. Your ordinary sense of time may become dilated, meaning your perception of the passage of time may be different than the actual passage of time. During dosing, things like somatic movement, the use of scent, and the use of therapeutic or safety touch can be helpful and even necessary to ensure a safe experience.
Following dosing, you will work with your therapist to make sense of the experience, derive meaning, and track symptoms over time. Together you will continue to work towards treatment goals as you move through the dosing series. The antidepressant effect tends to be cumulative and is more sustained with repeated use. This may also include a positive change in outlook and character that some describe as profound and transformative. Spirituality, symbolism and music are often key elements of a KAP experience.
Setting Realistic Expectations: What KAP Is Not
KAP is not a magical bullet cure-all that will alleviate your symptoms. A short-cut or therapy hack that will completely change your life overnight. While KAP, like many other substances, can become habit forming, this modality is generally considered safe. KAP is an innovative and useful tool that can facilitate deeper work, access to subconscious or otherwise intolerable content, and a vehicle to connect you to your own internal healing intelligence.
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Between the news cycle, decreasing hours of sunlight everyday, and the chaos associated with the upcoming holiday season, it would make a lot of sense right now if you’re feeling stressed. Or really stressed. For what it’s worth, you’re in good company—according to the American Psychological Association, 89% of people say they feel increased concerns this time of year around things like social pressure to make the holidays ~perfect~, spending too much money, food/alcohol issues, and family drama. Does any of that ring a bell? (If it does, congrats! You are definitely a human being.) While tempting, you don’t have to turn to self-destructive coping choices like isolating yourself or relying on substances right now. You have other options. These are some of my favorites, all borrowed from DBT: 1) Practice accepting emotions as pieces of information. When you’re feeling a strong feeling, name it. Own it. Allow it in. Validate it. Assume that you’re experiencing it because your body is trying to protect you. Thank yourself for having received the info, and accept that even if you don’t know why that emotion is getting kicked up for you, it probably makes sense from a perspective that you’re not considering right now that you can unpack later in therapy. 2) Cope ahead. Picture ahead of time how certain stressful situations will likely play out during the holidays, and make a literal plan on what you’re going to do in different scenarios to keep your stress regulated. Work with your therapist to explore skills from setting boundaries to deep breathing for moments that feel particularly tricky. 3) Remember that you always have four options to choose from when trying to solve a problem: Change the situation (even if that means leaving it or opting out entirely) Learn to love or at least feel better about the problem so that it isn’t a problem anymore Tolerate and accept both the problem and how much you hate the problem Stay miserable and do nothing For example: Let’s say you secretly hate eggnog, and your family has a yearly eggnog appreciation event. Here are some of your choices: A. Don’t go to the event. Plan something fantastic to do by yourself that day. (Remember: Alone time is not the same thing as isolation!) B. Go all in with a green suit and make being the Eggnog Grinch your fun new role at the party C. Let yourself hate eggnog and the party, and go anyway—but while you’re there, commit to internally experiencing the party as though you were an anthropologist studying a particularly peculiar group of people D. Continue to secretly hate eggnog, go to the party, and try again in 2025 If you go with option D, it’s definitely going to be worth exploring in therapy 🙂 If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/chat. If you’re experiencing an emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. Written by, Rachel Christensen, LMSW
Mindbody connection and nervous system regulation are the new approach to mental health treatment. Learn about Polyvagal Theory in simple terms and find a therapist who can help you.
The body remembers even if the mind forgets.
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