Understanding Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Is your treatment for depression, anxiety, or PTSD less successful than you expected? Learn more about combining ketamine with psychotherapy to alleviate the life-altering consequences of many common mental health disorders.

When psychotherapy isn’t enough, professionals often turn to medication therapy to help treat depression or anxiety. But what happens when antidepressants don’t help either? It may be time to try a different type of medication.

Our team at Peak Interactive Wellness in Denver, Colorado, specializes in a client-centered approach to mental health and well-being. We focus on providing individualized care and support for today’s most challenging issues.

Read about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and why your provider might suggest it as part of your treatment strategy.

Understanding ketamine-assisted psychotherapy

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is an innovative treatment that uses the benefits of ketamine with traditional psychotherapy (talk therapy) techniques, offering a potentially transformative experience for individuals struggling with various mental health conditions.

Traditional psychotherapy has long been a gold standard for treating various mental health disorders, offering improved emotional and psychological well-being. Ketamine is an anesthetic that surgeons have used for its sedative and pain-relieving properties.

Researchers have also identified ketamine’s effectiveness in relieving symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and addiction.

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy uses both therapies to enhance your response, often providing success when medication or psychotherapy alone hasn’t.

What happens during ketamine therapy?

During ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, you receive a dose of ketamine in a supervised clinical setting. The drug may be administered via Intramuscular injection (IM) or orally via a ketamine solution, fast-burst dissolving tablet or troche. 

Importantly, ketamine isn’t a standalone treatment for depression or other mental health conditions. Instead, it’s shown significant benefits when included in a comprehensive therapeutic strategy.

Your Peak Interactive Wellness provider discusses ketamine therapy in detail before scheduling your treatments. Each ketamine-assisted psychotherapy treatment package includes a psychiatric evaluation with a prescriber, prep session(s), a medicine session, and an integration session. 

What are the benefits of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy?

Our team at Peak Interactive Wellness has found that the benefits of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can include:

Rapid symptom relief

A significant advantage of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is its potential for rapid symptom relief. Unlike traditional antidepressants that may take weeks to show results, ketamine often delivers noticeable improvements in mood and anxiety levels within hours or days of treatment.

This quick relief can motivate individuals to participate in psychotherapy sessions, group counseling, stress management activities, and other traditional strategies.

Enhanced emotional processing

Ketamine can facilitate introspection and may help increase the accessibility of certain memories and emotions affecting your thought or behavior patterns.

During psychotherapy, this ketamine characteristic can aid individuals in exploring and processing difficult experiences, trauma, or unresolved issues, leading to a deeper understanding of their condition and potential breakthroughs.

Promoting neuroplasticity

Ongoing research indicates that nerve cell connections, nerve cell growth, and nerve circuit functioning within the brain significantly impact depression.

Ketamine has been found to stimulate new synaptic connections in the brain. This action, called neuroplasticity, can help rewire neural circuits associated with mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety, offering sustained improvements even after the ketamine effects wear off.

Increased self-awareness

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy provided at Peak Interactive Wellness allows individuals to gain insights into their patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

This heightened self-awareness offers a catalyst for personal growth and provides individuals with new perspectives and tools for managing their mental health.

Schedule a visit at Peak Integrative Wellness today for more information about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy or any of the services we offer. Call the office or request an appointment online.