Ketamine Near Me: How to Choose Safe, Ethical, Effective Treatment

A quick search of “Ketamine near me” will produce a myriad of choices of how to use Ketamine to transform stuck patterns. Options include Ketamine Infusion, at- home Ketamine treatment where organizations mail Ketamine to your home, and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP). Ketamine Infusions (IV) organizations are typically run by psychiatrists or anesthesiologists and it relies on the medication alone to create the change for people. At-home Ketamine treatments involve the medicine being mailed directly to the person who is using the medicine. One of these organizations work with therapists who can provide Telehealth therapy with the clients in their homes. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, such as what we use at Inner Journey Healthcare, is often administered in an IM format and provides therapy in conjunction with the medicine to facilitate change.

What should I consider when I am looking for Ketamine Treatment?

There are a number of important factors that we at Inner Journey believe you may want to consider. These include effectiveness, cost, your own personal values, ethics, and safety. At Inner Journey, we value the scientific process and thus we recommend that you check the scientific research with Ketamine and behavioral health concerns. Unfortunately, because Ketamine has been on the market for over 50 years and is relatively inexpensive to obtain, pharmaceutical companies are not invested in studying it. Therefore there are very little if any head-to-head comparisons about the effectiveness of Ketamine across these routes of administration. However, we can draw upon the research that looks at comparisons of other psychotropic medication combined with psychotherapy and extrapolate. There has been research comparing groups of participants who take medication alone, medication in combination with therapy and therapy alone to treat depression and anxiety. The results of this research are not surprising: the group that received the combination of medicine and therapy of course did better. The medication helped participants to get better while the therapy assisted people in creating and following a sustainable path that changed their lives. This is why we at Inner Journey believe that combining Ketamine and psychotherapy is most effective and therefore more cost effective than IV treatment.

There is so much controversy around the pharmaceutical industry and the idea that emotional health is caused by a ‘chemical imbalance’. As a psychologist who has been a therapist for over 20 years, I can say with confidence that life circumstances and lifestyle are undoubtedly factors in our human struggle. However, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I have seen suffering be alleviated by medication and anyone who has been in this field long enough would be disingenuous to suggest otherwise. When I mention values above, the question is whether you believe that sustainable change comes from a pharmaceutical or whether you believe, like I do, that the best change comes from a combination of medicine and you taking the agency to make the change in your life.

When I mention to colleagues and people in the community that I provide KAP, they often ask me about abuse potential and safety, citing the tragedy of Matthew Perry. To be clear, he did not die of an overdose (Ketamine is actually incredibly hard to overdose on). Matthew Perry died because unscrupulous physicians took advantage of a wealthy addict and were willing to provide him with copious amounts of Ketamine to take unsupervised in his home. Matthew Perry died of drowning after taking huge quantities of Ketamine and falling asleep in his hot tub. Ketamine can be addictive and people who desire to check out rather than change their lives can fall into addiction. It is for these reasons, Inner Journey does not support nor advocate for at home use. For us, our ethics dictate that we prioritize the safety of the community by administering the medication by a licensed provider, in clinic, with a trained therapist.

What are the differences in trainings?

In the last 30 years, there has been a proliferation of trainings for providing psychotherapy. These include not only traditional degree programs such as we have at our local university-a PhD in Clinical Psychology, a Masters or PhD in Mental Health Counseling and a Masters in Social Work- but also numerous certifications in types of therapies- EMDR, EFT, and IFS to name a few. A bunch of letters after someone’s name tends to give them an air of competence. However for those of us who want to look deeper, we have to ask who is certifying this? What do those letters mean? What do the letters indicate about a person’s qualifications?

What should I ask when considering a program for Ketamine Therapy?

Over the years, I’ve noticed therapy clients becoming more savvy consumers of treatment. Therapists regularly receive calls asking for a consultation before they commit to a therapist. Just as with psychotherapy, it is important that you feel safe and comfortable with your provider. You want a healthy balance of education and knowledge with a sense of resonance with your therapist. When looking for a Ketamine experience, I encourage folks to ask questions. What is important to you? Do you value training? Do you value experience? What about the degree someone holds? What is the provider's training with regard to providing KAP?

Dr. Joey and I initially bonded when I had just concluded my 220+ hours of training in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy from the Integrative Psychiatry Institute out of Boulder, CO. Dr Joey was in the midst of a similar program at the California Institute of Integrative Studies (CIIS) in psychedelic medicines. We came together because we knew the value of treating a whole person and not just relying on one tool (medicine or psychotherapy). We wanted to create a program that included science but also valued the ‘insides’ of people both emotionally and spiritually.

When you are deciding on Ketamine (or psychotherapy for that matter) make sure you check for credentials in addition to good vibes. It is possible to find both of these qualities in one place. We believe we have created that place here at Inner Journey Healthcare.