Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy
Psychedelics can provide a deeply significant experience, but ultimately, healing is the result of greater psychological and cognitive flexibility and the capacity to adapt constructively to life situations as they happen, rather than the result of a life free of emotions or symptoms...."
--Marc B. Aixala from Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
A unique therapeutic method used to address a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and some forms of anxiety. It involves the legally-prescribed use of the psychoactive substance ketamine in sublingual form to enhance and deepen the therapeutic process, in combination with psychotherapy and other integrative forms of treatment to amplify and prolong the curative effects of ketamine.
KAP SCHEDULE (general treatment) (18-21 billed hours)
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Referral to an outside medical provider (psychiatric nurse practitioner) with whom I collaborate, for a 50-minute intake session to determine medical necessity. They prescribe the ketamine, which is then provided through a legal compounding pharmacy (Koshland Pharmacy in San Francisco).
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Preparatory Sessions-virtual, 3-6 50-minute (3-6 weeks): Build our therapeutic relationship, learn and apply Somatic Experiencing® nervous system regulation techniques, and prepare for your ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) session.
The goal is to cultivate a sense of safety in this new relationship, and prepared for altered-states work. -
3-hour Ketamine Dosing Sessions (sublingual), minimum 3 sessions: in-person ketamine dosing sessions (weekly or bi-weekly TBD). Billed as 4 hours.
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Integration Sessions-virtual. minimum 3 50-minute: 1 session after each dosing session. Integration sessions help deepen and sustain ketamine-influenced neuroplasticity (durability/cumulative effect) by reviewing themes and content, processing challenging emotions, and deepening supportive physical and emotional states.
SPECIAL OFFERING
4 month KAP + Somatic Experiencing® (28 billed hours)
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4 Preparatory Sessions-virtual & in-person (4 weeks): Build our therapeutic relationship, learn and apply Somatic Experiencing® nervous system regulation techniques, and prepare for your ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) session. At least one session will be in person at the Sage office to introduce Somatic Experiencing® touch work.
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4 Ketamine Dosing & 4 Integration Sessions-virtual & in-person (8 weeks): Four in-person ketamine dosing sessions (every other week at the Sage office), with virtual integration sessions in between. Integration sessions help deepen and sustain ketamine-influenced neuroplasticity (durability/cumulative effect) by exploring session themes and content, strengthening positive mood changes, reinforcing pro-health behaviors, and applying Somatic Experiencing® regulation techniques.
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Post-Dosing Somatic Experiencing® Touch Work-in-person (4 weeks): In-person sessions at the Sage office to support continued integration and healing.
Berkeley office:
2185 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94705
Use this link to contact Sage Integrative Health directly to request an appointment through the clinic's practice.
In-person appointments available for ketamine-assisted therapy.