What Does Ketamine Therapy Feel Like?
Ketamine therapy is a rapidly evolving treatment showing promise for depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Here’s what to know if you’re considering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP).
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine has a wide range of uses, including medical, recreational, and clinical contexts. This blog post will focus specifically on the use of ketamine in psychotherapy.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, meaning it causes a temporary sense of detachment from the body and surroundings, lasting around an hour. At certain doses, ketamine can induce psychedelic experiences: altered states of consciousness, shifts in perception, and deep emotional processing.
Overall, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is a promising option for those healing from anxiety, depression, and trauma.
Research suggests that ketamine increases neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself and form new connections.
Neuroplasticity is key to the healing process, allowing us to strengthen positive neural pathways and weaken pathways associated with negative thought patterns and unhelpful behaviors.
KAP: Exploring Ketamine as Medicine
KAP can take place in clinical contexts (modern therapy offices with a focus on mental health treatment), ceremonial contexts (retreats with a focus on personal growth; highly intentional and sacred settings), or a hybrid context. Currently, KAP is available in states like Colorado and Oregon.
During a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) session, you will consume ketamine in a safe and intentional setting, under the guidance of qualified mental health and medical professionals.
The effects of ketamine typically last 1-2 hours. During this time, you’ll have an introspective experience, with little to no talking. KAP sessions are facilitated in calming spaces with relaxing music.
There are various ways to receive ketamine therapy – through an oral lozenge, nasal spray, infusion, or intramuscular injection – and various considerations for dosing, frequency, and length of treatment.
Make sure to consult with a qualified medical professional to determine the safest and most effective approach for you.
Each KAP session is unique, and highly influenced by your mindset, intentions, and physical environment. (To learn more about set & setting, check out this blog post.) Still, some common threads emerge when people describe their journeys. Here are some effects you might encounter.
[NOTE: Please don’t use this information as a set of expectations for your experience, since your journey will be unique to you. Instead, use it as a point of reference, food for thought, or a way to discern if KAP is right for you. Always consult with a qualified medical provider regarding your specific needs and concerns.]
What might ketamine therapy feel like?
CONSCIOUS DISSOCIATION
For 1-2 hours, you may have a sense of being disconnected from yourself or your surroundings. Conscious dissociation can manifest in a few ways during ketamine therapy:
Witnessing perspective: You observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance.
Out-of-body experience: You feel like you’re floating above your body, looking down on yourself.
Distortion of sights and sounds: The world around you seems dreamlike or distorted. Sounds seem muffled or far away.
Dissociation can sometimes be seen as a negative experience. However, in the intentional and supportive environment of a KAP session, conscious dissociation (being aware that dissociation is happening) can be beneficial. This awareness allows for integration of the experience afterwards, making it a valuable tool for therapy.
During KAP, many people find the dissociative state helpful because it allows them to process difficult emotions from a distance. This neutral state can take the edge off overwhelming feelings, making them easier to explore, feel, and release.
Through ketamine’s dissociative effects, it becomes possible to tolerate and observe your inner world without judgment.
SHIFTING THOUGHT PATTERNS
Ketamine can have a profound impact on how you think. Many people describe a loosening of rigid thought patterns. Negative self-beliefs that may have felt like unshakeable truths can begin to lose their grip. New, different, and creative thoughts may emerge.
In therapeutic contexts, ketmaine allows for a more flexible and compassionate way of thinking about yourself and the world. You may feel a renewed sense of inspiration and curiosity.
A DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BODY
A sense of relaxation is often the first sensation people experience. Physical tension held in the body may begin to ease. This can be a welcome relief for those struggling with chronic pain or the physical effects of trauma.
Some people describe a feeling of lightness, almost like floating.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
For some, ketamine therapy can induce spiritual or mystical experiences. This might involve a sense of connection to something larger than yourself, or a feeling of deep peace, harmony, and awe. The medicine may connect you with spirits, ancestors, or transpersonal energies.
While not everyone experiences this or desires to, it’s a potentially transformative aspect of the therapy for those who do.
VISUALS
Some people see colors, shapes, images, or landscapes during their ketamine journey, eyes closed or open. Depending on your worldview, you may choose to interpret these visuals as symbolic, or simply as a fascinating feature of your brain on ketamine.
Other people do not experience ketamine visually, and instead have a more emotional, cognitive, somatic, or spiritual experience.
After the Journey: Now What?
The hours, days, and weeks following a ketamine session are just as important as the session itself.
This period is prime time for integration, which is the process of reflecting on your experience and translating the insights you gained into lasting positive changes.
Neuroscience is on your side. For hours/days after a KAP session, your brain is in a highly neuroplastic state. This means it’s more malleable, adaptable, and open to change than usual.
Any positive pathways formed during your ketamine experience – like access to inner calm and peace, or the ability to observe your thoughts without getting caught up in them – are more likely to become ingrained in your brain during this window of increased openness.
With heightened neuroplasticity, you can also reinforce practices you’ve been wanting to cultivate – such as mindfulness, meditation, exercise, better self-care, creative hobbies, and healthy communication in your relationships. These positive patterns are more likely to take root and stick after a psychedelic therapy experience.
Why Integration Support is Essential
A psychedelic integration therapist can be a valuable guide after your ketamine experience. Because they’re familiar with the unique nature of psychedelic journeys, they can help you process emotions, sensations, and insights that arose during your KAP session.
Through psychedelic integration therapy, you can transform altered states of consciousness into enduring, positive traits — including self-connection, compassion, and clarity.
If you’re seeking support with psychedelic preparation & integration, let’s connect.
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RESEARCH
Dai, D., Miller, C., Valdivia, V. et al. Neurocognitive effects of repeated ketamine infusion treatments in patients with treatment resistant depression: a retrospective chart review. BMC Psychiatry 22, 140 (2022).
Philipp-Muller AE, Stephenson CJ, Moghimi E, et al. Combining ketamine and psychotherapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Psychiatry. 2023;84(2):22br14564.
About the Author
I’m Liz Zhou, a holistic trauma therapist (MA, LPCC, she/her). My work integrates teachings from psychology, neurobiology, multicultural awareness, and spirituality. I provide compassionate therapy for highly sensitive people across Colorado.
