Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Higher Ground Counseling & Consulting offers cutting edge transformation using Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. When integrated into a therapeutic context, ketamine becomes a catalyst for deep introspection and emotional processing, new perspectives, and new ability on a biological level to turn fresh insight into lasting change.
What is Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy?
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is the first and only current legal form of psychedelic therapy in Connecticut. This innovative therapeutic modality combines the healing potential of psychotherapy with the non ordinary state of consciousness induced by ketamine.
A trained psychedelic therapist completes a full assessment, completes preparation sessions to build readiness and works to prepare your intentions, works with a partnered medical provider to determine safe and appropriate dosing of ketamine, facilitates guided sessions with the medicine, and uses their unique skill set to help integrate insights gained into lasting patterns of change.
Medicine sessions can use different administration and dosages to achieve different desired therapeutic interventions- from oral lozenges for interactive and processing sessions to higher intensity intramuscular medication administration for almost entirely internally directed sessions with a therapist present to guide & support.
Consider Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy if..
You have chronic and treatment resistant depression that has not responded to psychiatric medications
You have tried traditional talk therapy or other modalities but still feel disconnected, lost, stuck, or stagnant
You have trauma symptoms that make it hard for you to access, identify and express your emotions in therapy
You have chronic anxiety, mood swings, or PTSD that make your head feel noisy, on edge and overwhelmed all the time
You’re trying to maintain sobriety, minimize your substance use or maintain contentment in recovery
You have struggled to translate change in therapy to change in real life
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Individual Sessions
You will complete a medical evaluation with our qualified partnering prescriber and a mental health evaluation to identify symptoms and problems to address in your treatment plan. We will then complete several preparation sessions (without ketamine) to identify goals, patterns, and make sure you are informed and prepared for the medicine sessions. We will complete 2-4 medicine sessions per month, which typically total 6-10 sessions per treatment course. Finally, we have sessions to integrate growth in between and after medicine dosage.
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Group Sessions
Group KAP sessions typically run for 6-8 weeks and include a preparation session, guided medicine sessions, guided integration sessions, and a closing session. Group sessions are intimate, powerful and transformative. They are also a more financially accessible way to access the benefits of ketamine assisted psychotherapy. Group sessions can be focused on a particular set of patterns to heal that members have in common, or can be custom-designed to meet specific needs. Group Sessions typically use intramuscular ketamine (just like getting a shot).
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Group Retreats
Group KAP retreats are designed to promote intensive, rapid, and powerful change in short period of time. Retreats take place over a period of 3-7 days and include preparation, guided medicine sessions, and guided integration sessions as well as holistic healing opportunities and workshops and traditional group therapy opportunities. Retreats are an unforgettable and accessible way to experience the power of change through KAP. Focus can be on individual goals, or can be designed to heal specific patterns. . Retreats typically use IM ketamine.
What are the benefits of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy?
The benefits of Ketamine have been well documented in research and focus on fast, almost immediate, reduction of symptoms with lasting benefit well after the non ordinary state of consciousness has dissipated. Ketamine’s benefits are biological & emotional.
Ketamine is safe and has few side effects.
Ketamine has a unique profile that makes it safe for use in non-medical settings as it has been shown to be low risk for medical complications and is the only medication of its kind that doesn’t depress respiratory or cardiovascular functioning and has limited drug interactions.
Ketamine creates physical changes and development in your brain.
It does this by increasing neuroplasticity and promoting adaptive synaptic growth- which is your brain’s biological ability to create new neural patterns. In basic terms- Ketamine helps your brain more effectively develop new patterns and habits.
Ketamine has well-established therapeutic benefits of rapid-acting antidepressant effects.
Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that a single dose of ketamine can lead to significant improvements in depressive symptoms within hours, including rapid reduction in suicidal ideation with effects lasting days to weeks in some individuals, including those with with treatment-resistant depression who have not responded to traditional medications. Ketamine creates immediate and lasting change.
Ketamine enhances the therapeutic effects of traditional psychotherapy approaches.
By inducing a state of heightened emotional openness and introspection, ketamine can facilitate deeper insights and emotional processing during therapy sessions. It allows you to process and access difficult, deeply rooted emotions and beliefs without typical defense, avoidance, or fear responses. KAP provides unique perspective and takes clients on a trip to examine their patterns from a non ordinary viewpoint.
Ketamine research has shown promise in the treatment of PTSD.
Processing traumatic memories and emotions, leading to symptom relief and improved quality of life. This is particularly helpful for those who have hard to treat complex histories of trauma that have deeply changed their ability to experience emotions in a healthy way. This includes those who grew up in high-conflict homes, those dealing with loss, those with chronic or terminal illness, or for first-responders, healthcare workers, and military service members who may have had repeated exposure to trauma.
What exactly is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a medication originally developed as an anesthetic with unique properties that make it valuable in the treatment of certain mental health conditions. It’s the first and only current legal psychedelic medicine to be available as a tool in therapeutic interventions.
Ketamine is used in many different dosages and routes of administration depending on its desired therapeutic use and desired level of psychedelic properties and experience.
Ketamine produces a range of effects, including pain relief, sedation, euphoria, dissociation, and altered perception of time and space. Many individuals report experiencing a sense of profound relaxation, introspection, and heightened emotional awareness during ketamine sessions.
Join our KAP wait list
estimated openings May 2024
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order toavoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
—Carl Jung