• Amy Hertle Counseling Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy

Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy 

Science-Backed Healing for Mental Health and Relationships

If traditional therapy hasn’t provided the results you need, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) offers a safe, evidence-based approach for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma, and relational challenges. By combining low-dose ketamine with psychotherapy and integration sessions, KAP helps you step back from habitual thought patterns, process emotions more fully, and experience lasting transformation.

How It Works

Ketamine can create a unique shift in perspective, allowing you to see yourself and your experiences with clarity and openness. Combined with therapy modalities like EMDR, trauma-informed approaches, and somatic practices, KAP supports:

  • Faster emotional processing and symptom relief

  • Reframing of limiting beliefs and thought patterns

  • Integration of insights into daily life for long-term change

Research shows that many individuals experience significant improvement after just one session, with continued benefits over subsequent sessions.

Ketamine-Assisted Couples Therapy

Ketamine can also support relationship counseling, helping partners explore long-standing conflicts with greater empathy, reduced defensiveness, and deeper connection. Couples report improved understanding, enhanced communication, and renewed emotional closeness.

This innovative approach combines the neurobiological benefits of ketamine with intentional therapy, providing a transformational path for both individual and relational healing.

Phases of Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a structured, supportive process designed to maximize the therapeutic benefits of ketamine while ensuring safety and integration. The therapy is divided into clear phases to guide your journey toward healing and transformation.

1. Connect: Initial Evaluation

The first phase begins with an initial evaluation, where you have the opportunity to share your story, ask questions, and learn about Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy. This session allows us to determine whether KAP is the right fit for your unique mental health goals and needs.

You will also be referred to a medical provider to review any health concerns, ensure ketamine is safe for you, and coordinate medication management as needed. This collaboration ensures that your therapeutic and medical needs are fully supported.

2. Prepare: Assessment and Intention-Setting

Once KAP is deemed appropriate, we move into the Preparation Phase, which includes collaborative discussions about your history, intentions, and goals for therapy. This phase:

  • Builds a safe therapeutic relationship

  • Helps you understand what to expect during the ketamine session

  • Supports emotional readiness for the experience

Preparation ensures that you feel supported, informed, and ready for your medicine sessions.

3. Medicine Experience

During the Medicine Phase, ketamine facilitates a non-ordinary state of consciousness within the safety of a therapeutic relationship. The experience is deeply personal and unique, typically lasting 60–120 minutes, with additional time allocated to begin processing the insights gained.

Ketamine can create a sense of separation from habitual thoughts, allowing you to see situations from new perspectives and engage in deeper emotional processing.

4. Integration

Integration is a crucial phase in KAP. Here, you process the insights and emotions that emerged during your medicine session. Integration can occur immediately following the session and in subsequent therapy meetings, helping you apply the lessons and insights to your daily life, relationships, and personal growth.

5. Deepen and Continue

In this phase, you continue to apply and deepen the growth experienced during KAP. Many clients choose to maintain regular psychotherapy sessions to further integrate insights, reinforce new patterns, and support ongoing mental health and well-being.

Is Ketamine a Psychedelic Therapy?

In low doses, ketamine generally does not produce psychedelic effects. In moderate doses, ketamine may have psychedelic properties, helping you see situations from a fresh perspective and gain new insights into meaning and purpose.

When guided by a trained mental health professional, ketamine can help you step back from habitual thought patterns, gain clarity, and approach challenges with renewed awareness. This can be especially valuable for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, and trauma, allowing for deeper therapeutic breakthroughs than traditional therapy alone.

Benefits of Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) offers unique advantages that can accelerate healing, support lasting change, and provide new perspectives on personal challenges. Some key benefits include:

  • Supports neural growth: Helps restore and strengthen neural connections affected by chronic stress and trauma.

  • Deep, lasting healing: Takes therapy to a more profound and enduring level than traditional approaches alone.

  • Fast-acting results: Many clients experience relief quickly, often with minimal side effects such as mild headache or nausea.

  • Emotional and mental release: Provides your mind and body the opportunity to release what’s holding you back.

  • Break from persistent challenges: Allows you to step back from overwhelming thoughts and gain clarity.

  • Access to the root of issues: Helps uncover and address the underlying causes of trauma, depression, or anxiety more efficiently than traditional therapy alone.

  • Supports new habits and behaviors: Encourages the creation of new neural pathways, making it easier to adopt healthier patterns.

  • High success rates: Research shows strong efficacy for anxiety, trauma, and depression, with symptoms remaining in remission for over 70% of clients.

  • Access subconscious insights: Helps bypass the barriers of conscious thought, enabling deeper self-understanding and growth.

Ketamine-Assisted Therapy is a transformational tool that works in tandem with psychotherapy to accelerate emotional healing, improve mental clarity, and support long-term well-being.

Psychedelic Integration Therapy

Have you experienced a psychedelic journey and want to maximize its therapeutic potential through integration work?

I offer intensive integration therapy for psychedelic experiences undertaken outside of my practice. This may include preparation work before the experience and therapeutic integration afterward to help you process insights, emotions, and shifts that arise.

Research shows that “set and setting”—your mindset and environment—significantly influence the effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted therapies. Together, we can:

  • Clarify your intentions for the experience (“set”)

  • Plan a supportive environment (“setting”)

  • Prepare you for a more meaningful, transformative journey

Through structured integration, you can enhance the lasting impact of your psychedelic experiences, supporting emotional healing, personal growth, and changes you are striving to achieve.

Important Note: I am a licensed psychotherapist. This service is integration therapy, not a medical clinic or research facility, and does not involve trip-sitting or psychedelic guiding.

Want to learn more? Let’s talk!