Ketamine Therapy and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Ketamine is an old medicine being used in a new way. We can now treat many problems with ketamine, including depression, anxiety and trauma.
Over 20 years of research show ketamine has healing and symptom reducing effects on a wide variety of mental health problems. The medicine works to reduce symptoms by itself, but ketamine can also be combined with therapy creating a powerful synergy that can speed up the healing work you already do in therapy. How Ketamine Works We don't really know why or how ketamine works, but it is believed to work in the brain in multiple ways by affecting neurotransmission. Ketamine works through a series of neurotransmitters and reduces depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms, reduces inflammation, and increases neuroplasticity and new learning in the brain. The brain actually changes and improves its physical structure as well as how it functions after receiving ketamine (the same happens with psilocybin). The overall effect of ketamine is the potential to reduce mental health symptoms and the emotional suffering they cause. Some of these effects may be short lived, others are longer lasting and may be why some people need ongoing treatment with ketamine. 60% of people have a positive response to ketamine. Ketamine can also create a meaningful psycho-spiritual experience. The psychedelic, dissociative, or trance effects of ketamine can be deeply meaningful spiritual or psychological experiences. Interesting ketamine reads: Listening to Ketamine or Ketamine—50 years in use: from anesthesia to rapid antidepressant effects and neurobiological mechanisms Contact us to learn more about how ketamine could help you. Ketamine Session Fees:
Psychiatric Evaluation $350 Ketamine Medicine Session $400 Psychotherapy Session $250 No show or late cancellation $125 (24 hours notice) You can have your therapist attend the ketamine sessions with you, as well, though the fees are separate. Insurance: Unfortunately, because ketamine is not approved by the FDA, it is also not covered by insurance. The psychiatric evaluation often is covered by insurance. Ketamine Informed Consent form and Patient Instructions PDF:
Ketamine Therapy Informed Consent Form |
Reading About Ketamine
Brainfacts.org Listening to Ketamine New York Times Opinion: I Was Paralyzed by Severe Depression. Then Came Ketamine. What I wish I'd known before ketamine therapy Science in the News: Worth the trip: psychedelics as an emerging tool for psychotherapy. Pharmacological Reports: Ketamine—50 years in use: from anesthesia to rapid antidepressant effects and neurobiological mechanisms. Biochemical Pharmacology: Is (R)-ketamine a potential therapeutic agent for treatment-resistant depression with less detrimental side effects? A review of molecular mechanisms underlying ketamine and its enantiomers. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs: Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): Patient Demographics, Clinical Data and Outcomes in Three Large Practices Administering Ketamine with Psychotherapy. Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology: Ketamine as an antidepressant: overview of its mechanisms of action and potential predictive biomarkers British Medical Journal: Ketamine for treatment-resistant depression: recent developments and clinical applications. Frontiers in Neuroscience: Repurposing Ketamine in Depression and Related Disorders: Can This Enigmatic Drug Achieve Success? About MDMA and Psilocybin Assisted Psychotherapy Nature Medicine: MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study. Frontiers in Psychiatry: Breakthrough for Trauma Treatment: Safety and Efficacy of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Compared to Paroxetine and Sertraline. Journal of Psychopharmacology: Neural mechanisms underlying psilocybin’s therapeutic potential – the need for preclinical in vivo electrophysiology. 
Visualization of the brain connections in the brain of a person on psilocybin (right) and the brain of a person not given the drug (left) showing higher connectivity and plasticity after psilocybin. From the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
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Four types of Ketamine Sessions
The Psychiatric Evaluation is an evaluation for diagnosing mental health disorders and for determining if ketamine is a treatment that would be safe and potentially effective for you. It is typically one hour long, though sometimes 2 sessions are needed to complete an evaluation.
The Preparation session is the session where we can explain what to expect during the ketamine session and from ketamine overall. We can get to know you better and can look further into what you want to focus on in treatment, the problems you've been experiencing, and important life experiences that may make meaning from the ketamine experience. During this time you can set goals or intentions and ask questions about what to expect. This session is usually one hour.
The Ketamine medicine session is usually 2 hours, though it can be longer. Most people will experience the medicine for about 40-60 minutes and will have about an hour afterwards to start to integrate or talk about the experience and it's meaning.
The Integration sessions are optional and can happen on the same day as the medicine session, immediately after the ketamine session, and/or on another day after the session. Integration sessions are a chance to go deeper into the ketamine experience and can be combined with other psychotherapies, including parts therapy, trauma focused therapies, self-compassion therapies, or for spiritual growth. The ketamine experience can be rich, so take your time in coming to understand it and the experiences that come up around it. This is time when you can talk about and sense the ketamine journey experience, what or how you experienced it, emotions or experiences that came up, connect to past experiences, create meaning, or process the experience. Some people may have more than one, or even many, integration sessions before another ketamine session. Integration session are usually one hour long.
Contact us if you would like more information!
The Psychiatric Evaluation is an evaluation for diagnosing mental health disorders and for determining if ketamine is a treatment that would be safe and potentially effective for you. It is typically one hour long, though sometimes 2 sessions are needed to complete an evaluation.
The Preparation session is the session where we can explain what to expect during the ketamine session and from ketamine overall. We can get to know you better and can look further into what you want to focus on in treatment, the problems you've been experiencing, and important life experiences that may make meaning from the ketamine experience. During this time you can set goals or intentions and ask questions about what to expect. This session is usually one hour.
The Ketamine medicine session is usually 2 hours, though it can be longer. Most people will experience the medicine for about 40-60 minutes and will have about an hour afterwards to start to integrate or talk about the experience and it's meaning.
The Integration sessions are optional and can happen on the same day as the medicine session, immediately after the ketamine session, and/or on another day after the session. Integration sessions are a chance to go deeper into the ketamine experience and can be combined with other psychotherapies, including parts therapy, trauma focused therapies, self-compassion therapies, or for spiritual growth. The ketamine experience can be rich, so take your time in coming to understand it and the experiences that come up around it. This is time when you can talk about and sense the ketamine journey experience, what or how you experienced it, emotions or experiences that came up, connect to past experiences, create meaning, or process the experience. Some people may have more than one, or even many, integration sessions before another ketamine session. Integration session are usually one hour long.
Contact us if you would like more information!
Gilroy Office
8339 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 114, GILROY, CA 95020
Phone 408-767-2337 Fax 415-376-4572
Info@gilroymentalhealth.com
Gilroymentalhealth.com
Phone 408-767-2337 Fax 415-376-4572
Info@gilroymentalhealth.com
Gilroymentalhealth.com