Ketamine-Assisted Therapy in Austin
Michael Ebbinghaus • August 8, 2025
Is Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Right for You?
What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is a modality that uses low dose ketamine alongside talk therapy to access non-ordinary states of consciousness, helping clients process trauma, depression, and anxiety in a new and deeper way.
One of the most common complaints about traditional psychotherapy is that it can take a very long time for unconscious material to surface, even after a solid relationship has formed with your therapist. While there are techniques we utilize in our practice that do not require substances (e.g. dreamwork, sentence completion, automatic writing/drawing, etc.), the introduction of intentional medicine work can reliably shift one into an altered state of consciousness, catalyzing access to unconscious material.
After a brief introductory period, you will take ketamine under supervision from your therapist either in-office or virtually in the comfort of your own home. The therapist will guide you to take your own journey as well as direct you towards areas that might benefit from exploration in an alternate perspective.
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic
acting primarily on the glutamate
neurotransmitter system. This differentiates it from the traditional psychedelics like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms which are much more prominent in the serotonin system.
Ketamine increases neural plasticity, meaning that the brain becomes more flexible to change, open to new insights and behaviors.
Ketamine has been used for over 50 years as a surgical anesthetic. It has no impact on the respiratory system, making it one of the most safe and effective medicines available. It is classified as a WHO top 10 essential medicine, and it is so safe that it is still the anesthetic of choice for children.
It is a schedule III medication approved for off-label use in assisted psychotherapy, meaning a healthcare professional must be supervising in some capacity.
Screening is essential, see below for more information.
How KAP Works
One of the things we like to stress is that the medicine is taking you to a place within yourself. It is not the ketamine "doing" anything other than relaxing your emotional defenses and allowing for exploration of consciousness. That said, you will feel a degree of relaxation in your body as well as your mind, which allows things which we keep buried to come up to the surface.
By shifting into an alternate state of consciousness, we are able to sublimate many of the barriers we have in place that remain opaque to us. Oftentimes simply allowing this material to surface creates greater harmony, and you ma find yourself saying "Oh - this is what I've been afraid of for so long? It's not so big and scary after all."
This is not always the case, of course. The nature of what is hidden can also be very painful, which is why the presence of the therapist as well as the therapeutic relationship is imperative when first working with alternate states of consciousness and healing trauma.
What Does KAP Treat?
Ketamine's claim to fame comes from its potent and immediate anti-depressive effect. While this requires lifestyle change and further exploration - greatly benefitted by depth psychotherapy - this can be incredibly helpful to those experiencing treatment resistant depression.
It does this primarily through breaking up rigid neural networks (enhanced neuroplasticity), limiting one's ability to ruminate. Ketamine for depression can be powerful, indeed.
In a meta-analysis
of over 2,500 patients, it was found that 45% of people had significant drops in clinical depressions inventories, with 30% in remission. The benefits were often sustained at 6-month follow up.
Ketamine-assisted therapy can be helpful for those who experience post-traumatic stress disorder
or PTSD. The clinical evidence here is quite strong, with multiple meta-analyses
and an open label study
showing durable and significant reductions in PTSD symptoms in as many as 69% of respondents and up to six-months' follow up. Ketamine for trauma is widely studied and efficacious.
Anxiety
is also significantly reduced after brief KAP treatments.
In a glimpse, ketamine can treat:
- Treatment-resistant depression
- PTSD and trauma-related symptoms
- Anxiety and existential distress
- Addiction and maladaptive coping
- Spiritual exploration or life transitions
What Does Treatment Look Like
From there, we will conduct two initial dosing sessions with an integration session in between each. We would then conduct another 6-8 dosing sessions, also with an integration session in between each.
Our Approach
During each session, you will be gently guided into your body utilizing a simple meditation or, if preferred, ambient music.
We utilize sublingual lozenges, tablets which will be dissolved and swished in the mouth for 10-12 minutes, then spit out. This offers a psycholytic approach rather than a psychedelic approach.
We prefer the psycholytic approach for two main reasons:
1) This helps to make ketamine-assisted psychotherapy more affordable, as the presence of a medical professional such as an RN is not needed as they are in IM (intramuscular) or IV (intravenous) injections.
2) Psychedelic ketamine therapy can be effective, but in our hustle and bustle world, the subtle work often gets overlooked, and it is the subtle work that carries us the farthest.
If you’re seeking a full psychedelic experience, I often recommend doing so on your own time and terms, ideally in nature or a supportive setting. There are few practitioners I would trust to guide me through such an experience, and they come at an extraordinary financial cost more often than not.
With psycholytic ketamine therapy, we are nudging gently and entering into an altered state but not breaking open the doors of reality.
Through the experience and through the journey you've taken thus far, which includes your triumphs and your traumas, we will expand not only on who you are but who you are meant to be. Your exuberant and mature presence is sorely needed in this world, and it requires reconciliation of our darker nature and highest aspirations.
Who is KAP for?
Ask yourself now: "Am I in a place where I am ready for deep self-exploration?" "Am I open to the idea of letting go of things which both pain and comfort me?" "Can I remain off of substances and away from process addictions (such as pornography, over-eating/bingeing and purging, sex, etc.) for at least three days?"
You may not be ready for KAP if:
- Are experiencing active psychosis or mania
- Have untreated Bipolar I or II disorder
- Have a personal or family history of schizophrenia
- Are currently struggling with active substance dependence
If you are in a grounded place and ready to make shifts in your life, KAP may offer the support you've been looking for.
Ketamine Therapy In Austin, TX - How to Get Started
Contact me
today for your free consultation to see if ketamine assisted depth psychotherapy might be right for you. Myself and the fine clinicians over at Journey Clinical are ready to help you find deeper meaning in life and be the change in the world you wish to see.
We conduct ketamine-assisted therapy in Austin, Texas as well as virtually all over the state. Reach out to us today!
The Sentient Soul
Fallen idol, or fallen into idolatry?
Union doesn't require psychedelic drugs, ecstatic sex, or mythic circumstances (though you should still have fun with them!). It can be as simple as a little dash of imagination.
