Ketamine Therapy For Addiction

It’s About Tuning In - Not Checking out

Greetings. I often receive inquiries from both individuals in recovery and professionals involved in substance use treatment, all wondering about the safety of administering Ketamine to those in recovery. The answer is yes, it is safe when used in the proper clinical setting.

Allow me to elaborate. While it's not a guarantee of absolute safety, with appropriate support and within a healing framework, the risk of developing a problem with Ketamine is about 1%. Globally, Ketamine is recognized as one of the top 10 drugs, it’s widespread use as an anesthetic attests to its safety profile. Although Ketamine is sometimes misused as a club drug, it doesn't have the same profile of biological dependence as other addictive substances.

Viewed as a mental health treatment, Ketamine can be likened to receiving essential pain medication. When used in the right setting, pain medications are beneficial with minimal risks. However, in the wrong context, they can be harmful. Often, those seeking recovery are prone to relapse due to the very issues Ketamine may help resolve such as underlying trauma or other mental health disorders. Each client will be assisted in weighing the pros and cons of including Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy as part of their recovery plan.

Interested clients undergo a thorough clinical and medical assessment, and preparation sessions are crafted to establish a healing context. The goal is to utilize the medicine as a tool for accessing one's higher self, rather than as a means of altering mood or escaping. Approaching it with the latter mindset may lead to unfavorable experiences, as Ketamine and other psychedelics amplify internal experiences rather than providing an escape. In short, Ketamine is used to help clients tune in, not check out.

Additionally, treatment is finite and never continuous. The average number of medicine sessions is six, with occasional booster sessions as needed. The understanding is that the medicine serves as a tool to facilitate healing, reducing reactivity, overthinking, hypervigilance, worry, rumination, and other challenging experiences tied to the ego, allowing clients to regain their footing.

With experience providing Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy since 2019, I am well-equipped to guide you through this journey. Should you have any questions or concerns, I warmly invite you to schedule a free 15-minute consultation by clicking the button below, which is directly linked to my calendar.

-Charlie Shockley, LCSW

Schedule Free Call

#SOBERDELIC

Forming Now: Athens Soberdelic Society

We are now accepting clients into Athens only soberdelic group intervention. Clients participate in a weekly group session and a monthly group Ketamine Session for 6 months. Clients will support each other on their healing journeys as all strive to recover a sense of life satisfaction and contentment that lasts. Schedule a call to learn more.

Why Ketamine Therapy (KAP)?

Ketamine has a long history of safe use as an anesthetic, and its new “breakthrough” potential to resolve treatment-resistant depression has created quite a buzz. Ketamine induces a non-ordinary state of consciousness, or psychedelic effect, which can be a powerful, potentially life-changing experience. This experience is the focus of Charlie’s approach to psychotherapy services while the medical aspect is managed by Journey Clinical.

A key feature of psychedelic medicine is its ability to temporarily shut down the Default Mode Network (your ego) so that you can experience reality without your typical filter. What we understand is the story you manufacture about who you are and how you relate to the world can become too rigid in treatment-resistant disorders and may color your reality in negative ways. Ketamine has the potential to help you step outside of beliefs that no longer serve you. It’s a big shift and one that has the potential to help you change your perceptions and thus change your reality.

This sounds wonderful, and it can be. In a recent clinical trial with cancer patients, using a similar medication, greater than 80% of participants reported “moderately or greater increased well-being/life satisfaction.” (Griffiths, et al. 2016) This study was the beginning of the current research renaissance into psychedelics and the data continues to confirm benefits. What’s important to note is that these outcomes quantify a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Though the medicine itself can have restorative impacts on the brain, the ego-based narratives that a Ketamine treatment may expose often require psychotherapy to fully resolve.

Many clients have felt trapped for years or even a lifetime by negative beliefs such as “I’m unlovable, a disappointment, a failure, it’s hopeless, or the world is a bad place.” Many report that Ketamine is able to essentially dissolve these stories for a time, but they may have a tendency to return depending on multiple biological, social, and psychological variables. That’s why it’s important to support this Ketamine-produced window of insight with cognitive and behavioral change in order to truly integrate the experience into your psyche.

In addition, Ketamine is a non-specific amplifier of internal experiences be they cognitive, emotional, or somatic. The client does not get to choose what gets amplified and what doesn’t. Those who have a strong resistance to internal experiences may try to fight the medicine in order to retain a sense of control. Opening the door on repressed feelings can be uncomfortable and a trained counselor’s job is to make the process much less challenging.

Charlie offers a clinical assessment, treatment planning, preparation and integration therapy. They want to assure your journey is transformational, long-term, and the opportunity to heal that you’ve been waiting for.

KAP + Medication Management

Please enjoy these helpful flyers to answer your questions about how the protocol works. To understand more about how this intervention might work for you, feel free to schedule a consultation.

Schedule Free Consultation

KAP Protocol

I offer a therapeutic modality called Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in partnership with an organization called Journey Clinical. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a holistic modality in which ketamine is used as a complement to psychotherapy to help eligible patients experience more frequent breakthroughs and sustained improvement in symptoms. I take on the psychotherapy portion of the experience, while Journey Clinical’s medical team supports you on all medical aspects. This includes determining eligibility, developing a custom treatment plan, prescribing the medicine and monitoring outcomes. Below is more information about KAP to help you navigate if it may be a good fit for you.

What is Ketamine?

● Ketamine is a legal, safe and effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD. Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hrs. after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks. It works by blocking the brain’s NMDA receptors as well as by stimulating AMPA receptors, which are thought to help form new synaptic connections and boost neural circuits that regulate stress and mood. Ketamine has also been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement.

● Ketamine can be administered in a variety of ways, including IV infusion, intramuscular injection, via nasal spray and using sublingual lozenges. In my work with Journey Clinical we only use the sublingual lozenge form.

How Does Ketamine Feel?

● The effects of ketamine, which most patients find pleasant, last for approximately 45 minutes. These effects can make you feel “far from” your body, and facilitate shifts in perception that can often feel expansive in nature. Your motor and verbal abilities will be reduced, so you’ll be lying down in a comfortable position during the experience. Once these effects subsided, we’ll spend the remainder of our appointment giving you space to process and discuss your experience. While it may feel hard to articulate what happened during the experience, patients feel like the insights gained are none-the-less clear. Studies have shown that the benefits to mood and neurological growth can last up to two weeks after the Ketamine experience.

How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work?

1. Your therapist connects you with Journey Clinical

● You schedule an initial evaluation with a clinician from the Journey Clinical medical team via zoom. They will go over your medical and psychiatric history with you, provide education on the treatment and determine if you are eligible for KAP.

● If Journey Clinical’s medical team determines that you are eligible for KAP, they will develop a personalized Ketamine prescription and outcome monitoring plan for you.

● Journey Clinical’s medical staff will write a ketamine prescription for you, and a small amount of oral ketamine will be sent to your home, enough for the first 2 KAP sessions. You will be taught to take your vitals and self-administer the ketamine lozenges by Journey Clinical’s medical team in advance of our KAP sessions.

2. Preparation sessions:

● Once you receive your ketamine lozenges, we will schedule time together for our KAP preparation, dosing and integration sessions. Preparation session(s) will be scheduled just like regular therapy sessions prior to the KAP dosing session. The goal of a preparation session(s) is to align on the process and set intentions for our KAP sessions together.

3. KAP Dosing Session:

● A typical ketamine dosing session lasts between 1-2 hours and can take place either in-person at my office, or remotely via telehealth.

● During a dosing session, you will self-administer your ketamine lozenge either in my office or in your home. You will be in a comfortable, reclining position wearing an eye mask and listening to calming music. Although a KAP dosing session may be largely an internal experience, I will be present with you the entire time to hold space and provide support as needed.

4. Integration Sessions:

● After our KAP dosing session, we will meet for multiple integration therapy sessions to review the memories, thoughts & insights that arose during your dosing session, and to prepare for the next dosing session.

5. Follow-up consultations with Journey Clinical:

● After our first KAP session, Journey Clinical’s medical team schedules regular follow ups with you to monitor outcomes and prescribe ketamine lozenge refills, as appropriate. The frequency of follow ups depends on your unique treatment plan, at a minimum of once per quarter.

Follow-up Consultations with Journey Clinical:

What is the Cost of Treatment?

● Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy is an affordable, accessible modality. Although the medical intake, follow ups, and therapy are not covered by insurance, they are eligible for out-of-network reimbursement. The average cost for medical and psychotherapy support is $2500.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

■ My typical hourly rate is $150/hr. There is no difference in cost between different types of sessions eg. dosing, integration, or assessment. We will generally meet once per week and have medicine sessions once per week. In this way, the expense is spread out over months and you can stop your protocol at any time. The psychotherapy portion of the protocol includes:

Full clinical assessment to determine the root cause of your suffering and the mechanisms that keep you stuck.
2 Preparation sessions to teach you how to be with the medicine and identify intentions.
2 hr initial dosing session with KAP, in person.
1 hr integration sessions after each subsequent medicine session. For best results, 6-8 weekly sessions are recommended.
Closing session to identify ongoing integration strategies. Additional session are always available. Integration is a longterm process of practicing a new way of being. It is easy to fall back into old patterns. Integration is there to help you manage this and stay on track. It can take some practice.

Journey Clinical Medical Costs

● Initial medical consultation with Journey Clinical: $250

● Cost of medication: $85 (enough for 2 sessions)

● Follow-up medical consultation with Journey Clinical $150 (at least 1X per quarter)

● Cost of medication: $145 (enough for up to 6 sessions)