Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy in
the Greeley and Northern Colorado Area

Are you feeling “stuck” in your search for healing and growth?

Have you tried other forms of counseling/therapy that just haven’t helped? Are you looking for deeper, more profound work? Do you want to address depression or anxiety that has been resistant to other forms of treatment? Are you ready to confront and move through PTSD that has been holding you back? Do you carry around internalized shame and struggle with connection due to traumatic experiences (interpersonal, religious, sexual, or otherwise)? Are you ready to let go of and move past problematic sexual behaviors that you haven’t seemed to be able to resolve?

You’re not alone in your struggle!

One in four people qualify for a mental health diagnosis¹. When we then include everyone else who may be struggling, hurting, stuck, or lost in their life, that number climbs exponentially. Based on some of the latest surveys, Americans report the lowest happiness levels in the last 50 years².

Things don’t have to be that way.

Ketamine Therapy offers hope

Ketamine has been safely used since the 1970s and is considered by the World Health organization to be one of the safest medicines. While most commonly used as surgical anesthesia, Ketamine has a 20 year history of effective use to treat chronic pain, depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and a host of other mental and emotional health issues.

At much lower doses than used for anesthesia, Ketamine serves to alter our consciousness by reducing defensiveness, increasing engagement, and enhancing awareness and neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself to form new patterns of thought and awareness). This provides an opportunity for psychotherapy to be much more potent and transformative. This type of psychotherapy is referred to as Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP).

What is a Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy session like?

Compounded Ketamine Lozenges used in KAP

KAP sessions are typically three hours in length with an integration session (making sense of the experience and exploring application) scheduled either immediately following or within the next 24-48 hours.

KAP sessions are conducted in our Greeley office. We will check in at the beginning of the KAP session to ensure that nothing has changed since the intention setting session and then the Ketamine will be taken. We only work with sublingual (oral) ketamine in our office which are taken as lozenges.

The experience of Ketamine in the KAP sessions will fall in to one of two types: a psycholytic experience or a psychedelic experience. Which you experience tends to be tied to the dosage you take which is determined by your prescriber, your KAP therapist, and you.

Psycholytic Experiences

A psycholytic experience will generally include a notable drop in levels of anxiety, depression, and tension. Most people report feeling a profound state of relaxation and openness where internal barriers and defensiveness have dramatically reduced or even disappeared. Many people also find insight and awareness around the important issues of their lives at that moment. Repressed memories may arise. Grief, anger, or trauma that has been experienced may present itself for processing, which tends to be easier and less distressing to do in this state. A person in this state is conscious and present in the room throughout the experience.

Psychedelic Experiences

A psychedelic experience tends to involve the person “disconnecting” from the world around them and experiencing an internal, altered state of consciousness. This sometimes can feel like “leaving the room.” These states often evoke profound transcendental or spiritual experiences. Such experiences often involve seeing various visualizations or experiencing other hallucinations. These experiences can result in sudden resolutions to your existential problems, accelerating your psycho-spiritual growth, and leading to a deep personal transformation and optimization of your lifestyle. With proper preparation, these experiences can be viscerally insightful and transformative.

While they are different, both types of experience are described as healing and helpful. Clients often recognize that each type of experience has it’s own values and leverage both of them in their work.

How Quickly Will I Benefit From KAP Work?

The relief from depression and other mood issues is typically felt within 24 hours and often immediately after the experience. Often, repeated experiences are needed to find the full impact or effect that is hoped for. KAP isn’t a “one for one” situation, and the effects often “wax and wane” before the gains begin to stabilize.

How Do I Get Started?

The first step to getting started with KAP work is to make an appointment for a consultation with either Claire Christian, MA, MFTC or Ethan Bratt, MS, LMFT, CST. During that time, we’ll briefly touch on your reasons for pursuing KAP and answer any questions you may have.

From there, we will schedule an intake session where we’ll begin to establish a treatment plan based on your goals for coming in. We will identify factors that may influence how KAP will progress, such as unaddressed trauma or previous psychedelic experiences. You’ll be provided a referral for a medical evaluation with a specialized KAP prescriber and we’ll begin the process of preparing for your first KAP session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ketamine is a Schedule III drug, meaning that the FDA considers it to have “moderate or low potential for physical or psychological dependence.” Part of this is due to Ketamine and other psychedelics not meeting the criteria for chemical addiction.
Those with a heavy history of psychedelic use may report some mental/emotional “cravings.” However, this is not a common occurrence.
We and our colleagues—with whom we have trained in doing clinical ketamine work—have not had clients become dependent on ketamine.
Much of this will depend on the issues being addressed through KAP, the severity of symptoms, and how you integrate the experiences into your life.
At minimum, there is an intake session, a prep session, an intention setting session, a KAP experiential session, an integration session, and a termination session. Few if any clients only do one KAP experiential session. The sequence of intention setting, KAP, and integration sessions is generally repeated at least 3-5 times and, depending on the client and the progress, can be continued as appropriate.
Intake sessions are 90 minutes in length. Non-KAP sessions run for 45-50 minutes. KAP sessions are scheduled for either three hours to take time for immediate integration or for two hours with an integration session scheduled within 24-48 hours of the KAP session.
After a medical evaluation, your prescriber will issue a prescription for Ketamine lozenges. The prescription will be filled through a compounding pharmacy for you to pick up and bring with you to our sessions.
The best answer to this question will come from you asking the ketamine prescriber about your specific medications.
In general though, there are low to minimal risks. In fact, most clients are told by their prescriber to continue their long term medication regiment while undergoing ketamine treatment.
You can explore more about specific medication and classes of medications in this blog article from UCSF’s psychedelic research program.