Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)

I am a therapist who believes in looking at the whole person, and I am all about offering the latest and greatest in researched therapies. I have a toolkit that includes EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and Polyvagal Therapy. I have also found that including Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) assists in the therapeutic healing process. I am also a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist.

What is Ketamine?

The primary purpose of Ketamine was as an anesthetic in hospitals and ERs. Ketamine has psychedelic properties and puts you into a dreamy, dissociative state. Ketamine has been in the medical field for ages used in surgeries and all kinds of procedures. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it an essential medication in 1985 as low cost and accessible. Ketamine was the first legal psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy available and was approved by the FDA to treat depression in 2019. Psychedelics are a class of compounds that can induce a heightened mental state that is open to profound discoveries from the subconscious. Ketamine research has shown it functions by blocking the glutamate receptor NMDA, and it can wake up the brain, repairs neurons that have been damaged by stress, and leads to profound insights.

How Does Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Work?

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) uses Ketamine to help people work through mental and emotional challenges.

Mental health can be complicated, and sometimes, more is needed than your talk therapy or daily meds. Our minds can be challenging, dealing with unpleasant thoughts, painful memories, and stubborn beliefs. Enter KAP – a safe space to dive deep into those emotions and memories.

During a KAP session, you are in a quiet room, take the prescribed dose of Ketamine in the form of a lozenge or rapid-dissolving tablet, and let your journey begin. With soft music and an eye mask, we create an environment with safety. For the next 45 minutes or so, we're exploring whatever comes up, with me acting as your guide.

How Can Ketamine Help You?

Ketamine may relax mental defenses or walls that often pop up when we're trying to tackle painful emotions. With those defenses down, you can dig into things in a safe space, without battling against your mind's natural barriers. After the Ketamine journey, we discuss what surfaced, and this process continues beyond the session into our integration session.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy opens a door for those who've struggled and want wholistic treatment. Things might feel tougher before they get better, but you also may experience breakthroughs.

Ongoing research is still happening for KAP and other psychedelic therapies, so it's not a one-size-fits-all fix. As your KAP therapist, Terri Dichiser, I guide you through the treatment, but I'm not the one prescribing the Ketamine prescriptions as that is done with the prescriber whom you meet with separately. People may report minimal side effects such as dizziness, nausea, maybe a bit of vomiting, and a slightly faster heart rate.

KAP includes a preparation-therapeutic session, the medicine session, and then an integration session after the medicine session. Most clients will have 2-6 medicine sessions. Based on your needs, maintenance may occur on an as needed basis.

Ketamine should NOT be used in the following circumstances:

Allergy or addiction to Ketamine
Recent TBI
History of psychosis, schizophrenia, active mania/hypomania, and currently experiencing a hypomanic/manic episode
Nursing mothers
Poorly controlled hypertension or hyperthyroidism.