Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
A Different Perspective. New Possibilities for Change.
Have you ever felt like you understand exactly why you struggle with certain things, yet continue repeating the same patterns?
Perhaps you've spent years exploring your past, understanding your relationships, and recognizing the beliefs and behaviors that have shaped your life. You've gained insight, but certain emotional responses or deeply held beliefs remain difficult to change.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) may offer a different way to approach these experiences.
What Is KAP?
KAP combines ketamine, a medication with dissociative properties, with structured psychotherapy. Ketamine can temporarily alter our usual patterns of thinking and perception, potentially creating opportunities to explore emotions, experiences, and perspectives that may be difficult to access through traditional talk therapy alone.
The intention isn't simply to have a profound experience, but to explore what emerges and integrate those insights into meaningful changes in everyday life.
KAP may be appropriate for some individuals experiencing depression or other mental health concerns. It is not a guaranteed treatment, and its suitability depends on an individualized clinical and medical assessment.
KAP and the Experiences of Gay Men
For many gay men, finding a sense of identity and belonging involves navigating experiences of rejection, shame, societal expectations, or feeling different from those around us.
Even after developing greater self-acceptance, these experiences can continue to influence how we relate to ourselves and others—particularly around intimacy, vulnerability, self-worth, and connection.
You may understand where these patterns originated yet still find yourself struggling to move beyond them.
KAP may provide an opportunity to explore these experiences with greater emotional openness, curiosity, and compassion, allowing us to reconsider beliefs and protective patterns that may no longer serve us.
My Approach
My approach to KAP is grounded in attachment-informed, trauma-informed psychotherapy, incorporating elements of EMDR when clinically appropriate.
Treatment involves three components:
Preparation: Establishing intentions, exploring relevant experiences, and developing emotional resources to support the process.
Ketamine Sessions: Providing therapeutic support during the medication experience, with space to explore whatever thoughts, emotions, or perspectives emerge.
Integration: Making sense of the experience and exploring how new insights might translate into meaningful changes in your relationships and everyday life.
I believe the value of KAP lies not only in the experience itself, but in how we understand and integrate what emerges.
My Partnership With Journey Clinical
I partner with Journey Clinical, a medical provider specializing in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy.
Journey Clinical's licensed medical team conducts medical evaluations, determines eligibility, prescribes ketamine when appropriate, and provides medical oversight. I provide the psychotherapy component, including preparation, support during dosing sessions, and integration.
Ketamine is prescribed off-label for KAP, and treatment involves potential risks and side effects that are reviewed during the medical evaluation.
Exploring What's Possible
Sometimes understanding why we struggle isn't enough to change how we experience ourselves or the world around us.
KAP may offer an opportunity to approach familiar experiences differently—not by erasing the past or becoming someone entirely new, but by developing greater flexibility, understanding, and choice in how we relate to ourselves and others.
Curious whether KAP might be right for you? I invite you to schedule a consultation to explore the process and determine whether it aligns with your needs and goals.
