Psychedelics + Therapy = Potent Possibility

There is a lot of buzz about psychedelics, therapy and healing, but it's hard to get the lay of the land as a client or therapist. One of Mt. Airy's own, Karen L. Smith, MSS, LCSW, wrote the book on it: Prepare Yourself, Your Clients and Your Practice for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: A Step by Step Guide.

It is exceedingly easy to add psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to your outpatient practice. Not what you've heard or imagined? Let me change your mind. For licensed clinicians, it is simple, easy and fast. These medicines fit into our existing work, be it psychoanalytic psychotherapy, DBT, CBT, IFS, mindfulness-focused, somatically-based, narrative therapies, all of it. No need to let dread of extensive training/education derail you from this wildly fabulous new opportunity for the enrichment of your work. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) isn't a developmental or practice theory requiring a two year advanced-clinical training/education program. It is simply a potent, novel, user-friendly tool to incorporate into your existing practice/approach.

Whatever number of very stuck clients you have in mind for this treatment tool, quadruple it. You will be so awed by the wonder of this medicine, by the unfolding integration of psychedelic journey epiphanies and revelations into your clients' lives, you will want everyone to try it, yourself included. While you don't need extensive training/education to incorporate KAP into your outpatient practice, you do need the lay of the land; lots of details related to the medicine, its administration, its effects, evaluating candidacy, leveraging neuroplasticity, clinical counter-indications, consent forms and procedures, liability insurance; namely, the nuts and bolts. Collected here are resources I gathered with my KAP colleagues as I on-boarded ketamine-assisted psychotherapy into my private and group practice over the last two years, and a step-by-step instructional of each stage of the process; your KAP toolkit for getting started.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is a rapidly growing part of our industry, capturing the imagination of client and clinician alike. With ketamine available now as a treatment tool, MDMA by next year, and psilocybin not long after that, it is time to get on the train.