What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has been safely used in surgery, including with children and seniors, for many decades. In adults, it is often used for pain management in a controlled setting under the supervision of a medical doctor. Typically, intravenous or intramuscular Ketamine is used in medical clinics.

Ketamine is now being used off-label by specifically trained therapists in cooperation with medical doctors to enhance the effects of the psychotherapy.  The patient experience once under the influence of Ketamine is known as the “journey.”

What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and How Does it Work?

KAP is the integration of medicine and psychology to create a more powerful synergy that can enhance and deepen the effects of your journey. Ketamine is used to create a therapeutic dissociation so that distressing thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations do not interfere with your ability to tolerate the very real distress in your body, so you can make changes that would otherwise not be possible.

The effects of Ketamine are a therapeutic dissociation, a temporary reduction in stressful feelings such as depression, trauma, anxiety, pain and more. The temporary reduction of negative feelings creates a ‘window of opportunity’ that we optimize to help you make changes in your life you were not able to make before.

Research has shown that working with a therapist can help to fully optimize  ‘brain plasticity’ that is enhanced with psychotherapeutic support. Plasticity refers to changes in the brain that make it easier for you to sustain healthier self-care habits during and after your treatment.

Deeper states of consciousness are desirable because in expanded states of awareness, your perspective can change, and this allows opportunity for you to view old problems in a new way.  Through the application of our unique and comprehensive protocols, your therapist will help you maximally optimize these ‘neuroplastic’ effects and more fully expand your perspective.

The ‘temporary interruption’ in habitual ways of thinking can produce significant shifts in overall wellbeing, at least temporarily.  Working with a trusted therapist can lead to a new capacity for handling life’s challenges.  Sometimes, there is an increased ability to surrender to events we cannot change, leading to a more peaceful acceptance that was not possible before. Sometimes, there is increased motivation to engage in better self-care habits, like exercising and eating better. Other times the trauma memories simply don’t have the same emotional impact as they did before.

Best practices occur within a safe, predictable, and therapeutically supported environment, with trained and skilled clinicians whose sole objective is to assist you with your Ketamine journey.

Set, Self Care, Setting, Integration and After Care

In Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy, Set, Setting and Integration are the essential foundations of a healing journey. In our KAP protocol, we add Self Care and Aftercare as essential components to the change process. This again relates to the psychedelic principle that deep and authentic healing comes from within: we believe that sustained wellbeing emerges from the expanded awareness arising from the integration of traditional, mystical wisdom and the implementation of game changing scientific discoveries.

1. Set

The Set refers to all the steps in preparing for your journey. Your mindset for the journey strongly influences your experience, as does the medicine you are taking, and the dose.

Your therapist will spend time helping you develop your unique intention for the journey and teaching you skills to help you through any difficult moments. Before your journey you will have a very clear idea about what you want out of the experience.

2. Self Care

Our protocol includes attention to self care, focusing on the life skills required to achieve true healing.  It is our belief that meaningful change takes place with increased awareness of the impact of one’s Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and ongoing reflection and adjustment, and we are here to cultivate and nurture new skills as they apply to you as an individual.

3. Setting

It is broadly accepted that the treatment environment is a crucial ingredient for the success of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy treatment, and this includes the introduction, the journey and the aftermath of the journey.  We will ensure that you feel safe and supported in our healing environment so that your intended self can emerge from our treatment.  This is the “Setting.”

At Breakthrough Therapies, we have created Aspenwood, our gorgeous city retreat.  Aspenwood is a curated, unique Setting for our in-person dose sessions, a place of peaceful serenity within the City of Toronto.

4. Integration

After the journey, we offer our patients the opportunity for a therapist-guided session to assist you in making meaning from your psychedelic experience.  This is called “integration,” and it is an opportunity for the patient and therapist to review the journey, discuss learnings from the journey and how to make adjustments for optimal outcomes.  It can be difficult to see things in a new way when you have believed something else for a long time. Change may be sudden or gradual, but insights can be anticipated.

5. After Care

After your treatments are complete, we work with you to analyse the results and benefits of the treatment, review your self care plan, and establish whether further treatment would be beneficial in the future.

What Can I Expect During the Journey?

Once we have completed the necessary preparatory work for your ketamine dose session, you are ready for your therapeutic journey!

We will stay with you for your entire journey, both for your own safety and to provide assistance if needed.  If you opt for in-person treatment, you will be dosed in a very meticulously designed environment, where the small details of your journey have been planned for to maximize the therapeutic effects.  If you are online, we will work with you to create your environment so it is safe and conducive to healing.

Effects are felt within a few minutes and last for about 45-50 minutes, depending on how your body metabolizes the drug.  While under the influence of ketamine, people report experiencing a state of relaxation and heightened conscious awareness, not possible without decades of meditation practice.

You will be given the opportunity to experience both guided sessions and self-directed sessions. In a guided session, your therapist will take you into a pre-identified specific memory. In a self-directed journey, you let the medicine take you into yourself. You have options. We invite you to make the session yours by letting us know your preferences.