Adjunctive KAP for Therapist Referrals

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​​​Adjunctive KAP can be helpful for clients who feel stuck in their therapeutic process, particularly those with persistent depressive or trauma-related symptoms. It can enhance neuroplasticity and increase affect tolerance, while helping people connect to deeper layers of their psyche. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) may be the adjunctive (and collaborative) treatment that can support them (and you) moving closer to their goals.

How it works:

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• Consultation: we have a brief phone consultation to determine if your client is a good candidate for KAP. Generally, KAP is effective in addressing a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD (certain medical and psychiatric conditions need to be treated before considering KAP).

• Collaboration: you and I collaborate on your client's goals, how KAP might support those goals, and answer any questions you have about KAP.

• Adjunctive Role: My work with your client is in the role of adjunctive therapist, in that they continue to see you for their regular therapy sessions, and I am in the collaborator role.

• Prescribing: Your client has a virtual appointment with a ketamine prescriber to determine eligibility and provide a ketamine prescription (mailed to the client's home). Unlike most psychedelics, ketamine can be safely combined with other medications, with guidance from the prescriber.

• Preparation: Your client sees me for 3-6 50-minute preparation sessions (via telehealth), the number depending on how resourced they are, how severe their early-childhood attachment wounding is, etc. The goal is for them to cultivate a sense of safety in this new relationship, and prepared for altered-states work.

• Dosing: Your client starts with a minimum of 3 ketamine dosing sessions* (sublingual), either weekly, or every-other week. When working with TRD I find that weekly is best for a minimum of 4 sessions. When working with trauma symptoms, every-other provides a nice cadence for 3-6 sessions. During this time you and I continue to check in, either with a brief phone call, or leaving confidential voicemails with updates.

• Integration: After each dosing session is an integration session (via telehealth), where your client and I review themes and content of the session, and also deepen any supportive emotional and physical states they are experiencing post-dosing. During these sessions I often link directly to the work they are doing with you, offering suggestions of how to weave the work together, what to bring to you, etc..

• Logistics: Dosing session held at Sage Integrative Health in South Berkeley (near Alta Bates), or my private practice in Lafayette. I am in the room with the client the entire time to offer support, presence, reassurance, with the intention of providing a sense of security and safety.

• Scheduling: Currently my dosing sessions are Friday afternoons in Berkeley, and Wednesday afternoons in Lafayette.

• Length of session: Dosing sessions are 3-3.5 hours.

 

* The number of dosing sessions varies, as does the treatment plan for maintenance. Ketamine is a medicine, as well as a medication. It changes activity in the neurocircuits in the brain (and throughout the body), and also provides an experience for the person that can support healing. 

Reach out to me directly if you have a client who is interested, and I can support getting them to the front of the line to get on my schedule.