Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Process

  • Abbie completed psychedelic assisted therapy training at the Institute for Integrative Therapeutics in Eden Prairie, MN under the direction of Dr. Manoj Doss D.O., Dr. Ranji Vargese M.D., and Mariya Javed-Payne MSW LICSW LADC

  • This process starts with an intake session with a lot of paperwork. Then we have a qualitative conversation and I combine what I learn from the paperwork and what I learn from you to write a Diagnostic Assessment. In these conversations, we are exploring if you're a good fit for KAP including having reasonable expectations and understanding of the process and ruling out red flags for KAP such as a history of seizures, bipolar disorder, and experiences of psychosis.

  • Then I send the assessment over to my colleagues and schedule a medical assessment with one of the two doctors for vital signs (especially blood pressure), family medical history, or any other health concerns that could make KAP unsafe for you. Once those two steps are completed and you're medically cleared for KAP, we start preparation in earnest.

  • This stage is 3-5 sessions of therapy to help you prepare for the experience, identify what you want to believe about yourself and the world, identify your support system, build a relationship with me so that I can support you, learn more about how the medicine works in your body, and prepare for integration after the medicine session.

  • This is around a 2 hour experience with lots and lots of support. You wear an eye mask and noise cancelling headphones and I have a microphone that can speak directly to you. You do your work with the medicine and I am here to support you.

  • After the medicine session, I'll reach out the next day for a 15 minute phone check in just to see how you're doing. Then we'll schedule 2-3 therapy sessions to integrate the growth, learning, healing, new perspectives, that happened with the support of the medicine.

  • Insurance covers the assessment, preparation, and integration sessions with me. Insurance does not cover the medical evaluation or the medicine session. Complete pricing information is available at iit-mn.com.

Why psychedelic assisted therapy?

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is an intensive psychotherapy that uses ketamine, an anesthetic, to support people in accessing their inner healing intelligence to go deep and resolve core patterns and challenges. Ketamine lowers anxiety and helps us bypass defenses, giving us access to deep feelings. Throughout our lives, we have needed the protection of defenses and anxiety, but now they are often activated automatically, keeping us in fight or flight activation and making it difficult to relax or change our patterns.

Researchers call what emerges when we calm down our danger sense ‘inner healing intelligence’. I think of it as a human’s innate orientation to wonder, belonging, authenticity and goodness, so clear in childhood but stifled in difficult or traumatic development. KAP releases us from those stuck pathways and enhances new learning through glutamine mechanisms in the brain so that we can quickly learn new habits and increase neuroplasticity.