Ketamine for PTSD

1.5 to 2-hour one-on-on, pre-treatment consultation with the physician. (On your first treatment day). This is a wonderful opportunity for the physician that is leading your care to learn more about your individual needs and goals.  This valuable time let’s your doctor learn how to best tailor the therapeutic approach to you, specifically, and to be the best guide possible through your journey of growth and healing

–   Pre-treatment coaching/integration session

–   60 minutes of customized ketamine infusion (adjusted in real-time to optimize each client’s experience to their unique neurology, psychology, personality, physiology, and tolerance levels

–   Recovery time (varies per client but every client is welcomed to stay in their relaxing treatment suite for as long as they like – you will NEVER be asked to leave to make room for another patient)

–   Post-infusion integration session with Dr. Harris

–   CBT (cognitive behavior technique) and Mindfulness training on how to increase the client’s benefit though at-home daily exercises.

–   24/7 direct contact via text/phone/email to your treating physician.

**** Emotional Coaching is provided, in the clinic, and also via 5 hours of live, one-on-one Zoom sessions with your own personal Certified Integration & Recovery Coach.

1.5 to 2-hour one-on-on, pre-treatment consultation with the physician. (On your first treatment day). This is a wonderful opportunity for the physician that is leading your care to learn more about your individual needs and goals.  This valuable time let’s your doctor learn how to best tailor the therapeutic approach to you, specifically, and to be the best guide possible through your journey of growth and healing

–   Pre-treatment coaching/integration session

–   120 minutes of customized ketamine infusion (adjusted in real-time to optimize each client’s experience to their unique neurology, psychology, personality, physiology, and tolerance levels

–   Recovery time (varies per client but every client is welcomed to stay in their relaxing treatment suite for as long as they like – you will NEVER be asked to leave to make room for another patient)

–   Post-infusion integration session with Dr. Harris

–   CBT (cognitive behavior technique) and Mindfulness training on how to increase the client’s benefit though at-home daily exercises.

–   24/7 direct contact via text/phone/email to your treating physician.

 **** Emotional Coaching is provided, in the clinic, and also via 5 hours of live, one-on-one Zoom sessions with your personal Certified Integration & Recovery Coach.

***Based on clinical experience 

This longer infusion time provides additional increases in our brains own production of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).  This improves the likelihood that our brain/body will adopt a new way of doing business for us, and not shrug off the treatment as an “outlier.”  For clients that fall into one of the following categories, a higher boost in BDNF production (from a 2-hour infusion time) will likely achieve a significantly improved benefit vs. the 1-hour option:

o   A history of suffering from mood related struggles for longer than 7-8 years

• The process of experiencing depression, anxiety, or PTSD creates anatomical damages to our neurology, and this makes it harder to reverse, the longer that these situations have lasted for.  Ketamine can overcome this, and re-build lost neural connections.  However, those with longer histories of mood struggles can benefit from a longer infusion time, to reach the same end-goal as folks with a shorter history of such struggles

o    A history of taking antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications for longer than 5 years

• While many medications may benefit clients, for different reasons, we now believe that there is some cost associated with longer-term use.  For example, with an SSRI (Zoloft, Prozac, Lexapro, etc.) the increased release of serotonin (associated with improved mood) can eventually be counteracted by our own brain.  Our own neurology can see this change as a foreign influence that it needs to be balanced back to baseline.  As such, it can take away post-synaptic receptors for neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, glutamate, etc., and can result in feeling diminishing returns.  In other words, without increasing doses or adding secondary medications, we can lose the “bang-for-our-buck” that we could receive from the satisfying and fulfilling stimuli that exist all around us.  We can end up having less of these good receptors than we started with before taking these medications.  In the abovementioned situation, a longer infusion time is recommended, to overcome this deficit, and to rebuild these lost receptors, giving us back our zest for living each day to its fullest.

o   A history of alcohol or drug abuse (including prescription opiates/benzodiazepines) in the past 7-8 years

• Drugs and alcohol can desensitize receptors in the reward centers of our brain.  It can also lead to increasing need for these substances to even feel “normal.”  This is called dependency.  While many people’s struggles can understandably lead to increased use of drugs/alcohol, it does set us backwards, in the long-term, in our ability to experience the beautiful, normal stimuli of each day.
• Ketamine can reset our reward instincts to regain the “bang-for-our-buck” from healthy stimuli, and we actually use ketamine to assist those struggling with alcohol or drug abuse in regaining their joy of daily life
• Ketamine also can reset the “demand” for these substances to overcome dependency need.
• 2-hour infusion time is recommended in order to overcome some of these neurologic deficits associate with substance abuse, and to give that individual that same benefits as other folks who may not have the same history.

o   A 2-hour protocol can be superior for clients that may take a little longer to “let go.”

• Ketamine infusion is a beautifully transcendent experience but is a new process for most people.  Once we feel comfortable, and can gain trust for this process, the ketamine journey opens, even further, into a wonderful liberation from our normal constraints.  We believe that this “release point” actually signals the start of the therapeutic benefit.  We each reach this level of acceptance at different rates, and we want our clients to achieve maximal benefit for themselves.
• If we have more hypervigilance, or a harder time being able to relax into a new situation, then a longer infusion time is recommended.  This is to ensure that each person gets the maximum time, after “release”, that our brains are experiencing this new signal of freedom, warmth, comfort, and connection.  This is the signal that we want our mind to learn from, and to begin to re-program and adapt to.
• Neuroscientists often call the duration of maximal neural signaling the “veracity.” This longer veracity improves the likelihood that our neurology and psyche will accept and adopt this improved means of processing data and stimuli, and to start to rewire for our benefit.  This regrowth translates into a more joyful and connected relationship to the world around us, when go back into our daily life.