“Depending upon dose, ketamine promotes a time-out from ordinary, usual mind, relief from negativity, and an openness to the expansiveness of mind with access to self in the larger sense. These effects enhance a patient’s ability to engage in meaningful psychotherapy during and after administration. Ketamine is potent for respite, analysis and meditative presence, and potent for recovery from depression and the lingering effects of trauma.”
-More et al., Journal of Psychoactive Medicine (2019)
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Email Asher and we can set up a 15 minute call to see if KAP might be a good fit:
asherpandjiris@gmail.com -
● Ketamine is a legal, safe and effective medicine used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD. Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hrs. after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks. It works by blocking the brain’s NMDA receptors as well as by stimulating AMPA receptors, which are thought to help form new synaptic connections and boost neural circuits that regulate stress and mood. Ketamine has also been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement.
● Ketamine can be administered in a variety of ways, including IV infusion, intramuscular injection, via nasal spray and using sublingual lozenges. In my work with Journey Clinical we only use the sublingual lozenge form.
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Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a holistic modality in which ketamine is used as a complement to psychotherapy to help eligible patients experience more frequent breakthroughs and sustained improvement in symptoms. I take on the psychotherapy portion of the experience, while Journey Clinical’s medical team supports you on all medical aspects. This includes determining eligibility, developing a custom treatment plan, prescribing the medicine and monitoring outcomes.
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Initial Consultation with Journey Clinical medical team
Preparation and Intention Setting with MeKAP dosing session either at home or in the office
Integration Sessions with me
Follow up with Journey Clinical medical tem -
The effects of ketamine, which most patients find pleasant, last for approximately 45 minutes. These effects can make you feel “far from” your body, and facilitate shifts in perception that can often feel expansive in nature. Your motor and verbal abilities will be reduced, so you’ll be lying down in a comfortable position during the experience. Once these effects subsided, we’ll spend the remainder of our appointment giving you space to process and discuss your experience. While it may feel hard to articulate what happened during the experience, patients feel like the insights gained are none-the-less clear. Studies have shown that the benefits to mood and neurological growth can last up to two weeks after the Ketamine experience.
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REMEMBERING LOST JOY
I have ketamine to thank for helping me navigate a particularly challenging year that has included; a cascade of autoimmune disease diagnoses (the isolation and demoralization of that journey!), significant lifestyle changes to accommodate my body’s evolving needs, supporting a dying family member and raising a teenager.
Despite years of therapy, there was unconscious pain I was so afraid of excavating and for good reason. I thought something like ketamine would throw me deeper into this murky suppressed place. But. My year with ketamine has allowed me to access the resources of my past that were forgotten. It has been possible to REMEMBER LOST JOY.
I re-acquainted myself with a vastness inside me that has been rendered almost inaccessible as a result of early childhood trauma, intergenerational haunting and navigating life in a chronically ill body. The atmosphere and texture of these traumas in my inner world, no matter how deeply I understand their significance, remains potent and challenging to de-emphasize. I have the (white, financially stable) privilege of “exploring” many avenues of healing. These avenues, these spaces of sustained safety, are not available to so many in our white supremacist, ableist, transphobic, heteropatriarchiarchical social order, especially those who inhabit multiply-marginalized bodies.
Supplementing extensive insight based therapy with ketamine has helped to open up some enduring stuck points. Supporting folks in this process is one of my newest passions.
-Asher Pandjiris (me!), September 2023 Instagram Post