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Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

What is Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy?

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a specialized treatment that combines the use of Ketamine medication with structured psychotherapy sessions that offer rapid results for relief.

How Does It Work?

Ketamine works on the brains glutamate receptors which allows temporary brain neuroplasticity, which creates the ability for the brain to form new connections.

Benefits of KAP

Brain neuroplasticity has many benefits:

reduces symptoms of depression quickly
loosens rigid thought patterns
helps people be more open-minded to new perspectives
fast acting relief of symptoms
enhances mood
lowers psychological defenses to emotional material
makes it easier to process difficult memories/emotions
opens up new insight

What to Expect in KAP Treatment

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy treatment requires time and commitment. It is offered in a safe, effective and cautious manner over the span of 4 months.

There are 8 total medicine sessions, which take place every other week, over the course of 16 weeks. Every week you will have psychotherapy sessions, and every medicine week you will have integration sessions.

Each medicine session is a 3 hour appointment.

Each integration/psychotherapy session is a 1 hour appointment.

Who is a good candidate for KAP?

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is best known for treatment with:

Major Depression
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Anxiety Disorders
Acute Suicidality

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy also helps treat:

Alcohol/Substance Abuse/Addiction
Nicotine Cessation
Psychiatric Medication Cessation
Chronic Pain

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy may also help those who:

are seeking deeper, emotional, spiritual insight or release
are looking to create new mental habits

Who is not a good candidate for KAP

You would not be considered a good candidate for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy if:

you have a history with psychotic disorders such as Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective disorder, you are actively experiencing psychotic episodes/hallucinations/delusions
uncontrolled mania in Bipolar disorder
you are actively taking medications such as benzodiazepines (ie. Xanax, Valium, Ativan, etc.) or Rx Lamictal. These medications are contraindications with Ketamine treatment.
you are actively using alcohol and other drugs
poorly controlled high blood pressure
history of heart disease, other heart conditions, hypertension
you are pregnant or want to become pregnant
neurological conditions such as history of seizures or intracranial pressure
severe liver disease
certain personality or dissociative conditions
cognitive decline with Alzheimer's, dementia

How to prepare for KAP

You will have to complete a Psychological Evaluation to determine if you are appropriate for KAP.

Once that is completed and you are approved for KAP treatment, you will then have to complete a Medical Evaluation to be cleared medically, and to receive your prescription for Ketamine.

On the medicine session days, you will be encouraged to fast at least 4 hours prior to your medicine dosing time. Do not drink coffee or have any caffeine prior to your medicine session. You may drink water as needed but limited as you want to avoid the need to use the bathroom while you're under the medicine.

You are not allowed to drive yourself to or from the medicine sessions. You are required to have a chaperone or car service in place to bring you to and from the medicine appointments.

Please wear comfortable clothes, sweat pants, leggings, tee shirts, comfortable loose fitting clothes to your medicine session. Please bring a water bottle and healthy snack to your medicine session.

The medicine is cautiously administered at best to avoid any nausea. If you have a sensitive stomach, or experience nausea often, you will be encouraged and prescribed nausea medication to take 30 minutes prior to the medicine dosing. The fasting prior to session helps.

During your KAP medicine sessions

Your Ketamine Psychotherapist will be present with you the entire time.

We begin our session with a full body mindful stretch and breathing exercise. We mentally and emotionally prepare for the medicine journey, set intentions and prepare the setting.

Your blood pressure will be taken before and after your medicine dose. If your BP rate is higher than allowed, you will not be allowed to receive your dose for that day.

You will be provided your own eye mask to wear during your medicine sessions. You will be provided headphones, or you may bring your own Bluetooth headphones to listen to the music throughout your medicine journey. You may remove the eye mask and/or headphones at any time.

You will have a comfortable recliner chair to sit or fully recline for your journey. You will be provided a weighted blanket if desired.

The Ketamine Experience

Ketamine is a very unique medication. It is classified as a Dissociative Anesthetic and has been around since 1962. Although it is not a classic psychedelic, the low clinical dose of Ketamine plays with that threshold of not reaching being anesthetized, which may produce a psychedelic-like experience.

Each individual may experience ketamine very differently, and even each medicine session may be experienced very differently by the same individual. You may have a whimsical, dreamy experience, you may have a more somatic, dissociative experience, (not feeling inside your body), you may have a full psychedelic experience. And it can vary. Your psychotherapist will prepare you and guide you through your sessions as needed.

We always start slow, and low. Your first medicine session you will only receive half of your prescribed dose. We start this way to see how you will tolerate the medicine. The second medicine session we can increase to the full dose if you are ready. After the second medicine session we have the option to utilize booster doses to enhance or maintain the effect during medicine sessions as needed.

I like to remind clients that the medicine session itself is helpful to see how you respond and to see what comes up during the sessions, however the benefits of the Ketamine medicine continues in your brain for up to 2 weeks post medicine.

After your KAP medicine sessions

After your medicine sessions you will likely feel hungry and tired. You may eat your snack in session after the medicine wears off, and you are encouraged to eat a hot, cooked meal afterwards. You are encouraged to relax and take it easy the rest of the day after your medicine session. You may even want to nap. You also may want to draw or journal some of the things that might have come up for you during your medicine journey to disucss later.

After your chaperone drives you home from medicine sessions, you are not allowed to drive or operate a vehicle or heavy machinery for 12 hours post medicine session, or at least after a good nights sleep.

You are able to drive, go to work, go back to your usual routines the next day.

You may experience headaches after your medicine session. It is encouraged to take Magnesium Glycinate afterwards if you experience a headache.

The Importance of an experienced KAP Provider

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is considered an intense, however brief (4 month or longer if needed) treatment that is usually considered after more conventional therapies haven't worked. It is a treatment that is a helpful tool, not a cure-all resolution to mental health.

Natalie's intention with working with Ketamine is for Clients to access its brief, clinical benefits while applying it to daily, lifelong mental health goals and personal development changes. Her view is that Ketamine is not needed as a long-term or regular prescription when Clients are actively working through their mental health barriers and making progress with their mental and emotional health and well being through the therapeutic process.

Natalie urges the caution when selecting a Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy provider, as well as the now common Ketamine clinics popping up all over. Many clinics and providers are offering esketamine, (ie Spravato), which is the nasal spray for Ketamine, which tends to be the most common route of administration for misuse, abuse and addiction with Ketamine.

Natalie works only with the Rapid Dissolving Oral Tablets.

Please contact the office for more information on the routes of administration with Ketamine.

Your Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Treatment Team

Natalie Siwiec, LPC, LCADC was one of the first professionals in New Jersey to become a Certified Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy Provider back in 2023, after graduating a year-long educational, training and certification program with Integrative Psychiatry Institute, Colorado.

Natalie has 20 years of experience as a seasoned Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor, LCADC, working as an addiction specialist. Working now over 3 years with Ketamine, this area in mental health and addiction treatment is very important to her that she provides safe, cautious and effective treatment, with fully understanding the effect of Ketamine, mentally, emotionally and physically, and the caution it needs around the reality of it being a substance of abuse and addiction.

Tom Priolo, MD. will be your Psychiatrist to medically evaluate and clear you as appropriate for Ketamine, he will be prescribing the medicine while also monitor your medical follow ups, and may also manage any psychiatric medication if needed.

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