Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Opens New Doors in Mental Health Treatment

State of the Art State of Mind

Words by Jon V. Wolfe Photos by Shelby Bella

What do you get when you combine ketamine and psychotherapy? Well…Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, of course.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Ok, well what exactly is that?” KAP is all about disruption. On a macro level, it is totally disrupting the traditional paradigm of psychotherapy. On a micro level, it disrupts a person’s thought paradigm and helps break the destructive thought patterns that bind people suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Traditional psychotherapy comes in various varieties and seeks to help patients reframe and reduce negative thoughts as well as the effects of psychological trauma. For some people, this can be very effective, but for many others, it just doesn’t work, even if combined with antidepressant and/or psychotropic medications. This is where ketamine comes in. Over the last decade, there has been a rapidly growing realization that a series of low dose ketamine infusions can break the cycle of treatment-resistant depression and PTSD in a majority of patients for whom nothing else has worked.

A small but rapidly growing number of centers have opened around the country which offer ketamine infusion therapy. There are only a handful of centers, however, that offer KAP in the United States, let alone in Texas. The first and only centers in Austin and San Antonio that offer KAP are Klarisana.

Klarisana’s founder and Medical Director, Carl J. Bonnett, MD, says, “Many people are starting to recognize that ketamine has an important role to play in the treatment of mental health. When we opened our first campus in San Antonio back in 2015, many people had a limited understanding of how ketamine can help with mental health. They (and we at the time) thought it was just a matter of providing the infusions and people would respond. Early on, we recognized that the experiential effect of the ketamine itself was not a side effect but rather an integral part of the treatment. Then, as we got to know some of the real pioneers in the field like Dr. Phil Wolfson, we realized that the ketamine should not just be an end in itself but rather a tool that facilitates much more effective psychotherapy.” Jen Biddle, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with Klarisana adds, “The alterations in consciousness and perception that occur during a ketamine infusion unlock a door which can allow patients to make connections and gain an understanding which is usually not possible in their typical state of consciousness.” Biddle adds that, “Many of our patients have reported that they feel a certain ‘connection to the universe’ which allows them to see their relationship to the world in a different way.” Dr. Bonnett adds, “Ketamine, if dosed appropriately, can produce a real transpersonal experience. As many clinics are discovering, this is beneficial by itself and can do a great deal to help people. The thing is, though, that just doing a ketamine infusion by itself is like listening to a guitarist play alone. The music can be great, but it is always going to be a little shallow. If you add several other instruments then the depth and the impact of the music is just that much greater.”

Klarisana was the first center in Central Texas which was built from the ground up with the express purpose of offering ketamine infusion therapy for the treatment of severe depression, PTSD, and various forms of chronic pain back in 2015. Klarisana has also been pioneering the use of ketamine assisted psychotherapy at its campuses in Austin and San Antonio, Texas. For more information, you can visit their website at www.klarisana.com or call 210-556-1430.

Contact:
4005 Spicewood Springs, Ste. A-200
(210) 556-1430
klarisana.com