Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy: A New Frontier
How this emerging treatment may represent the future of mental healthcare
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Repetition, fixedness, being stuck — these are the words that psychotherapy clients often use to describe their situation. Whether they’re experiencing bouts of depression, unshakable memories of trauma, or conflicts in their relationships, they often feel that no opportunities for change are possible.
Psychotherapy challenges this view, helping people integrate their past experiences and transform their lives. But when psychotherapy alone isn’t enough, consciousness-altering drugs may be used to help. And among the most promising and well-researched of these drugs is ketamine.
In this article, we’ll explore the history of ketamine use, why it’s particularly effective as an adjunct to psychotherapy, and what the experience of undergoing and guiding ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is like.
A New Dissociative
In the late 1950s, a drug called phencyclidine, known today as PCP, was synthesized at the University of Michigan. Showing great potency as an anesthetic, it was given to patients undergoing surgery for several years before its…
