Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

A psychodynamic, depth-oriented approach

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a therapeutic approach that combines the medication ketamine with psychotherapy to deepen and enhance the therapeutic process. Ketamine is an FDA-approved prescription medication that has been safely used since the 1960s as an anesthetic. Over decades of clinical use, it has demonstrated a strong safety profile, with relatively few side effects and minimal impact on vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure when administered appropriately. It can be delivered through several routes, including intravenous, intranasal, sublingual, and intramuscular methods.

What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?

How KAP Works

Ketamine temporarily increases neural plasticity, or the brain's ability to form new connections, creating a window in which psychotherapy can deepen and expand. During treatment, ketamine may shift consciousness in ways that soften rigid psychological defenses, bringing previously inaccessible thoughts and emotions into awareness. Within a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship, the medication acts as a catalyst, opening space for insight, healing, and meaningful psychological change that can be difficult to reach through traditional talk therapy alone.

Who Might Benefit from KAP?

KAP may be helpful for people experiencing:

Depression
Anxiety
Trauma-related symptoms
Emotional numbness or disconnection
Chronic self-criticism or shame
Feeling stuck in therapy
Patterns that feel deeply ingrained or difficult to change

Prospective patients undergo a comprehensive medical and psychiatric evaluation to determine whether KAP is appropriate and safe, and to clarify how it may or may not be helpful. An important part of preparation involves exploring expectations, including the understanding that KAP is not a comprehensive solution or a stand-alone treatment. For many individuals, however, it is a powerful adjunct to depth-oriented psychotherapy, particularly when entrenched patterns have been difficult to reach or change.

Why Combine Ketamine with Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy?

Dr. Steere's therapeutic approach is psychoanalytically informed with an emphasis on emotional depth, curiosity, and understanding the inner life that shapes how we feel and relate in the present.

KAP can support this work by helping to:

Reach Material Outside Conscious Awareness

Many people learn early in life to keep certain feelings, memories, or bodily sensations out of awareness as a way of coping. Ketamine can gently soften these protective layers, allowing previously inaccessible emotional material to come into view in a way that feels safer and more approachable, creating opportunities for deeper understanding and therapeutic work.

Shift Self-Narratives with Curiosity & Openness

Ketamine may offer some distance from familiar, deeply ingrained stories about oneself. This shift in perspective can support greater psychological flexibility, allowing inner experiences to be approached with less judgment, increased compassion, and a spirit of exploration from which new meanings can emerge.

Accelerate Meaningful Therapeutic Movement

When combined with psychotherapy, ketamine can help important emotional or psychological experiences come into focus more readily than in traditional talk therapy alone. The aim is not speed for its own sake, but depth—creating conditions in which long-standing patterns can loosen and meaningful internal change can unfold.

The KAP Process

After a comprehensive evaluation, KAP unfolds in three phases: preparation sessions before treatment, therapeutic support during the ketamine experience, and integration sessions afterward. All are vital parts of the process. This comprehensive approach allows the temporary neurobiological changes induced by ketamine to support lasting therapeutic benefit.

1 / Preparation Sessions

Before any ketamine is administered, preparation sessions:

Establish safety and trust
Discuss your history, goals, concerns, and intentions
Explore what might arise emotionally during the experience
Determine whether KAP is appropriate for you

These sessions create the foundation that makes the ketamine experience meaningful and safe.

2 / Ketamine Dosing Sessions

Ketamine is administered in a calm, supportive therapeutic environment. You remain conscious, but your state of awareness may shift. This state is often described as dreamlike, spacious, or deeply inward.

During the experience:

Dr. Steere remains present throughout
You may experience images, strong feelings, memories, or symbolic experiences
You are encouraged to allow the experience to unfold naturally
There is no need to “try” to make anything happen
You may feel a sense of emotional clarity, connection, or openness

Dr. Steere supports your experience safely and with attunement, allowing your internal world to come forward in its own way.

3 / Integration Sessions

Integration is where the therapeutic work unfolds.

After the ketamine session, you will meet with Dr. Steere to explore what emerged:

Emotional experiences that surfaced
Memories or images
Shifts in perspective
Moments of clarity or conflict
New insights about past or present relationships

Integration helps turn the ketamine experience into meaningful, sustainable psychological change.

Most people participate in several cycles of dosing + integration, woven into ongoing therapy.

A Catalyst for Deeper Therapeutic Work

At its heart, this work is about gaining access to our full emotional lives—our wishes, fears, internal conflicts, and the relational templates that shape our experience of ourselves and others so that we may live a life that feels freer and more fulfilling.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy creates conditions that make this work more accessible. It can open emotional and psychological space where new understanding becomes possible, and where old patterns can begin to loosen.

KAP is about understanding the self more deeply, with compassion and curiosity.

Additional Resources