Dalliance Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Dalliance Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

Dalliance Psychedelics

Trisha Andrews, MA, LMFT, CST is currently offering in-office Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), with sublingual ketamine as well as post-journey integration sessions for clients interested in journeying with other non-legal psychedelics. 

Trisha has completed Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Certification training through Integrative Psychiatry Institute in Boulder, CO as well as Skylight Psychedelics Ketamine-Assisted Therapist training. 

 

*Please note that Trisha Andrews, MA, LMFT, CST, Dalliance Sexual Wellness Collective nor Dalliance Psychedelics provides or sells psychedelic medicine. We have partnered with Skylight Psychedelics to provide sublingual Ketamine for KAP. While psilocybin is decriminalized for personal use in Denver, it is not approved for clinical use until 2024. 

What is Ketamine? 

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has been used since the 1970s and is most often used in hospital emergency rooms. In fact, ketamine is a preferred pediatric anesthesia, having regained its popularity in the prehospital, emergency department, and operation room setting in the last decade. Ketamine is one of the safest and most widely used anesthetics in the world and is the first legally prescribed psychedelic to be used for Ketamine-Assisted Therapy. 

 Ketamine has been increasingly used “off-label” to treat various chronic and treatment-resistant mental health conditions, such as depression, alcoholism, substance dependencies, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychiatric diagnoses.

What is KAP (Ketamine-Assisted Therapy)?

KAP is psychotherapy with the assistance of ketamine to enhance and deepen the therapeutic experience. Therapy is integrated into the preparations sessions, the medicine session(s), and after the medicine sessions during integration. 

 Research has shown ketamine treaments are most effective when paired with psychotherapy. Dalliance Psychedelics offers a psychotherapy program that will prepare you for your ketamine sessions, encourage you to explore your mind while in the medicine session, and assist you in integrating your experiences afterwards. 

 Ketamine has the potential to create a non-ordinary state of consciousness, facilitating a profound transpersonal or mystical peak experience. These sorts of peak experiences have been shown to expand one’s sense of self and understanding of existence, and may enable you to access your own healing wisdom. Your therapist serves as your guide and assists in processing and making meaning of the experience and its impact on your everyday life.

  • Preparation sessions include obtaining a full biopsychosocial assessment, exploring expectations for treatment, identifying goals or intentions for treatment, thoroughly going over informed consent, hopes and fears, music choices for sessions and comfort items that may be brought to the session. Preparation sessions promote comfort because clients gain a greater understanding of what is likely to occur, supports in place, and how to work with any potential challenges. Preparation sessions are just as important as the medicine sessions and often reduce anxiety going into KAP sessions.

  • Next comes the therapeutic support during the actual Ketamine session. Psychotherapists are not able to prescribe medication, thus many KAP psychotherapists have relationships with prescribers to allow for the therapist to be present during the session. A therapist’s role in a KAP session is to provide support when needed, though clients are encouraged to have an “Inner Directed Approach,” i.e. work with the self to explore what comes up vs. being guided by or asked questions by the psychotherapist as in typical talk therapy. A psychotherapist may take notes of things clients say out loud during the session, remind the client to take slow, deep breaths if they begin to feel overwhelmed, or simply be a safe presence in the room with the client. KAP therapists may also have a client a drink if needed or assist in taking them to the bathroom.

  • Integration is when a client reflects on insight gained from a Ketamine session and how to implement these insights into their life to achieve lasting change. Often times, patients will leave a Ketamine session with fresh outlooks, however, they have no idea how to challenge patterns of behavior to allow for sustained changes in their lives. A specially trained KAP therapist will assist clients in exploring these insights and applying them to their lives to promote the desired outcome that brought the client to KAP in the first place.

How it works

What to Expect

Below is a general outline of what a typical Ketamine-Assisted Therapy treatment process might look like:

Step 1: Information session

A free 15-minute phone consultation with Trisha Andrews, MA, LMFT, CST to learn about ketamine and KAP, answer any additional questions, and decide if KAP could be a good fit for you. If, after the consultation it is determined that KAP may be a good fit, you will coordinate your medical screening and assessment with Skylight Psychedelics

step 2: Medical Screening and Assessment

Ketamine requires a prescription from an authorized medical doctor. Prior to undergoing KAP, patients must undergo a comprehensive assessment to determine whether they are good candidates for the treatment. This involves a medical and psychiatric evaluation with our medical partner, Skylight Psychedelics.

Step 3: 1-3 Preparation session(s)

Before the administration of ketamine, the therapist will generally prepare the patient by discussing the process, setting therapeutic goals, and establishing a therapeutic relationship. In these sessions we will work collaboratively to identify your goals, intentions, make sure you feel well prepared for what to expect in your medicine sessions. 

Step 4: 3-Hour Medicine and Integration Session

Ketamine will be self-administered orally. During the ketamine experience, the therapist may engage the client in various therapeutic exercises, take notes on any thoughts shared or physical responses during the medicine session, or to simply hold space for the patient's experience, depending on the client’s therapeutic goals and response during the medicine session(s). 

STEP 5: 1-3 Integration(s)

After the ketamine experience, patients engage in integration sessions where they work with their therapist to make sense of their experience and how to integrate any insights or shifts into their daily life. 

STEP 6: Follow-Up Medicine and Integration Session(s)

Subsequent medicine sessions are scheduled, and adjustments may be made to the treatment plan based on the patient’s therapeutic goals and response to the therapy. 

Ketamine for Couples

When given a psychelytic (low dose) of ketamine, both partners will enter a relaxed state, allowing the couple to feel more comfortable, vulnerable, and open to sharing and receiving feedback on their emotions with one another. Couples will feel safer and more comfortable sharing because the relaxing effects of the ketamine treatment help suppress the nervous system’s override to fight, flight, freeze responses. Instead, patients are better equipped to share their emotional state, listen to their partner's emotions, and form healthier habits with communication.

Research has shown that partners that undergo ketamine treatments together will also experience an increase in neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity allows individuals and couples to adopt new, healthier habits surrounding communication and relating to one another. With the help of the medicine, couples are able to hold their ground during challenging conversations, find more empathy and compassion for their partners, and can step outside of their unhelpful pursuer or withdrawer strategies.

Dalliance Psychedelics Couple CAP Package — click to download details

Article on Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Couples

  • At this time, Psilocybin, MDMA and other psychedelic medicines are not legal or approved by the FDA for use in a therapeutic setting. While we do not provide medicines, we can help you process and explore the challenges, insights, anxieties, and progress that arise from your non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC).

    Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity, meaning our brain's ability to create new pathways in our brain to aid us in creating new, healthy and desired patterns and behaviors. If not reinforced, insights gained during a psychedelic experience may be reflected on as a memory, but not implemented into one's life and create a lasting change. Working with an integration professional can promote a client's likelihood of maintaining purposeful change. With the support of a clinically trained Psychedelic Integration Therapist, psychedelic experiences can bring about meaningful change and lifelong healing. Dalliance Psychedelics works with clients experiencing variety of NOSC experiences including integration, processing difficult psychedelics trips, harm reduction, creating meaning from these NOSC, and translating that meaning-making into tangible behavioral and emotional shifts in daily life.

  • Feelings of leaving the body

    Loss of identity or ego dissolution

    Feeling like a nonphysical being

    Intense and emotional visions

    Experiencing a re-birth process

    Rebirth or death of the ego

    Dreams or memories of past incarnations

    Encounters with archetypal beings

    Transceding space and time

    Drowsiness

    Dissociation (body dissociates from the mind)

    Out-of-body experiences or illusions

    Changes in perception or cognition or emotion

    Vivid imagery

    Visual hallucinations or distortions

    Altered auditory perception and proprioception

    Mood enhancement

    Ego dissolution

    Transcendence of space and time

    Mystical experiences

    Experiences of death and rebirth

    Muscle relaxation

    Pain relief

    Feeling of awe and wonder

  • Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, dry mouth, headache, dissociation, increased heart rate and blood pressure, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, paranoia, dysphoria, distorted perceptions of body and self, loss of coordination, disorientation, confusion, double or blurred vision, blunted affect or emotional withdrawal, increased blood pressure and heart rate, increased intraocular eye pressure, muscle trembles or jerks, decreased concentration, recall, recognition, and mental sharpness, psychological distress, accidents (falling, car, etc), decreased conscious breathing (though unconscious respiratory drive is preserved), or laryngospasm (an involuntary contraction of the vocal folds that can impair speech and breathing).

    Here is a list of possible negative effects associated with prolonged use: kidney and bladder (cystitis) toxicity, urinary tract dysfunction, psychological dependence, misuse, tolerance, and addiction, psychological withdrawal syndromes, flashbacks, memory-related deficits, and decreased sociability.

    In 2020, new safety information for chronic use was added to ketamine products marketed in Canada. Liver enzyme elevations, biliary ductal dilatations, and hepatic fibrosis were added to the section on warnings and adverse reactions.

    Here is a list of contraindicated conditions: hypertension, preeclampsia or eclampsia, severe cardiac disease, stroke, raised intracranial pressure, acute porphyria, epilepsy, schizophrenia, alcoholism, and children under the age of 3. Patients with epilepsy are sometimes administered ketamine but with extra caution and medical oversight.

    Ketamine is considered safe and effective in combination with multiple classes of psychiatric and non-psychiatric medications—medications that modulate glutamate and GABA may have strong influences, for example benzodiazepines and lamotrigine.

  • Low to moderate doses of Ketamine: TO COME….

    Higher doses of Ketamine induce a non-ordinary state of consciousness, provoking a person to experience major shifts of perceptions in many ways similar to classical psychedelics. Mystical-type experiences and feelings of ego dissolution are common for high dose sessions

    Ketamine is a legal way to experience an altered state:

    • A break from an ordinary mind

    • Reduction or elimination or negative thought patterns

    • During integrations can remind clients the progress they’ve made

    • Different perspectives and new insights

    • Improved mood, motivation and overall functioning

    Preparation:

    • Set and setting

    • Set an intention – what do you hope to get out here

    • Clear understanding of the process

    • 1-3 sessions

    Medicine session:

    • Supportive of clients goals

    • Experience is unpredictable

    • Medicine lasts 45 min – 2 hours

    • Medicine integration – Review with client / Ego dissolution

    • Help client see how they view themselves differently

Cost

At this time, ketamine is still considered an out-of-network expense for most insurance companies. With that in mind, some insurance companies may pay for part or all of the preparation and integration sessions. Dalliance Psychedelics is happy to provide you with a superbill that you can submit to your insurance

Initial 15-minute consultation: Free
50-min preparation sessions: $220 per session
50-min integration sessions: $220 per session
75-min couple preparation sessions: $340 per session
75-min couple integration sessions: $340 per session
3-hour medicine and integration sessions: $660 per session

 KAP Recommended Treatment Protocols: 

  • • (1) 50 min-preparation session


    • (1) 50-min integration session 


    • (1) 3-hour medicine and integration session

  • • (1) 3-hour medicine session


    • (1) 50-min integration session


    *Should client request additional preparation or integration sessions, they will be an additional cost

  • • 1 couple preparation session (75 min)


    • 1 couple psycholytic medicine sessions (3 hours each)


    • 1 couple psychedelic medicine sessions (3 hours each)


    • 2 couple follow-up integration sessions (75 minutes each)


    • Optional tandem psychedelic medicine session and couple integration session (3 hours / 75 min)


     *Should client request additional preparation or integration sessions, they will be an additional cost

  • Introduction to the Medicine - $289

    Two doses of sublingual ketamine for clients interested in getting to know the medicine.


    The Standard Experience - $599

    Six doses of sublingual ketamine for those interested in working with their therapist beyond two sessions, with increasing dosing and deeper psychedelic experiences as you move through sessions.


    Go Deeper - $679

    Ten doses of sublingual ketamine for those interested in deepening their inner work, promoting further connect with their inner healer. 

 

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