What is Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and How Ketamine Can Make Therapy More Effective?
Ketamine infusion therapy is a new tool for physicians when treating patients facing a challenging mental health issue. While this new tool is remarkable, more success is realized when combined with psychotherapy best practices.
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy increases the effectiveness of Ketamine infusions as your therapist guides you through the process on a more direct level. This treatment provides you an anchor if you are suffering from depression, negative feelings, or anxiety. This assisted psychotherapy will help you delve deeper and learn the core factors contributing to your current state of health.
How Does Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Work?
During a session of assisted psychotherapy, you may encounter imagery and sensations that do not make sense at times. Your therapist will help you safely interpret some of these sensations and imagery and fully explore their meanings.
Some patients are asked to write down their experiences after treatment or discuss them with the attending physician. For some, it is hard to find the words to recreate the imagery once they have left their session. For this reason, it will flow better and provide your therapist with better impressions if experiences are shared mid-session. Sharing mid-session means you will not have to rely on your memory to share your experience at a later time.
Because of the effectiveness of ketamine, sessions of assisted psychotherapy can be an open door to new perspectives and insights that you might not understand right away if you do them alone. When the session is assisted, you will be able to move further in-depth and better understand the factors at play. You will learn new patterns of thought, get new perspectives, and possibly even motivation for necessary lifestyle changes.
What to Expect During a Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Session
Before an assisted psychotherapy session is scheduled, you will meet with a physician for a medical and psychiatric evaluation and explore any issues, intentions, goals, or concerns you have. From this information, the physician will determine the best course of treatment for your needs if you are evaluated as a good candidate for ketamine assisted psychotherapy.
A typical ketamine assisted psychotherapy session will last approximately three to four hours. During this time:
- You will discuss your goals with your therapist, any concerns you have, and what the intention is of requesting treatment. You will also discuss any leftover material from a past session.
- The ketamine is administered intravenously and typically, you are asked to lie down with an eye mask as you listen to music. After a few minutes, you will begin experiencing body-tingling sensations and begin to relax. For the next twenty minutes, you will begin entering into a trance state where you will experience old memories and stored emotions. Many patients state at this part of the therapy they experience images passing through their minds.
- You and your therapist will process emotions and the material which came up during your experience as you emerge from the ketamine experience.
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is a comprehensive approach and is tailored to your individual situation. Through this therapy, your deep-rooted emotions will surface, so you and your therapist can examine those emotions in a safe environment.
Learn More About Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Depression MD focuses all our energy on helping you through depression and putting you on a healthier path to your future. We are here to customize a treatment plan that best fits your needs. If you want to learn more about Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, schedule a consultation, call our office and talk to one of our specialists to discover if this can be the needed treatment for your needs.
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