10 Things I Wish People Knew About Ketamine Therapy

What We’re Not Talking About Enough in Ketamine Therapy: Insights from Clinical Experience

After years of facilitating ketamine therapy in individual, group, and retreat settings, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing profound transformations. I’ve also had the opportunity to dispel several common misconceptions. Whether you're a curious seeker, a potential patient, or a fellow provider, here are ten things I wish more people understood about this powerful healing modality.

1. It’s Not Just About the Medication

Ketamine is a powerful tool, but the real healing comes from the process—the intention, the therapeutic relationship, the inner work, and the integration. Simply taking ketamine is not enough. It's the context, support, and meaning we bring to the experience that makes it truly transformative.

2. Ketamine Is an Extraordinarily Safe Medication

With decades of use in anesthesia and emergency medicine, ketamine has established an impressive safety profile. First developed in the 1960s, ketamine was widely used during the Vietnam War as a battlefield anesthetic due to its rapid onset, reliability, and, most notably, its ability to preserve cardiovascular and respiratory function even in high-stress, resource-limited settings.

Ketamine has also been safely used for decades in pediatric medicine, often as a preferred option for procedural sedation in children because of its excellent safety margin. These longstanding applications in both military and civilian settings underscore the medicine’s robust safety record.

When administered responsibly in therapeutic settings—particularly at the lower doses used in mental health treatment—ketamine remains one of the safest psychoactive substances available today. Its physiological stability, minimal risk of addiction in clinical contexts, and lack of impact on respiratory function make it a uniquely valuable option in the landscape of psychiatric care.

3. It Supports Mental Health in Multiple Ways

One reason I view ketamine as a truly holistic treatment is because it works on multiple levels—physiological, psychological, and, at times, even spiritual. It not only modulates glutamate (a key neurotransmitter) and enhances neuroplasticity (your brain’s ability to rewire), but also facilitates a powerful inner experience—one that can bring awareness to difficult or avoided emotions, offer new perspectives, and sometimes open the door to profound existential or spiritual insight.

4. Set & Setting Are Everything

Even in a clinical environment, the emotional tone and physical surroundings matter deeply. A calm, supportive space with compassionate, attuned providers can be the difference between a disorienting trip and a deeply healing journey. Intention, trust, and safety are foundational.

5. Ketamine Therapy Can Look Very Different Depending on Where You Go

While some clinics take a purely medicalized approach—offering brief sessions with little preparation or integration support—others, like ours, take a more holistic path. We combine the neuroscience of ketamine with intentional integration, creating space for meaningful behavior change, emotional healing, and deep inner exploration. Finding a provider whose philosophy aligns with your goals and values is a vital part of the healing journey.

6. The People Who Benefit Most Are Invested in the Process

Ketamine isn’t a passive fix. While it is entirely possible to benefit from simply receiving the medication with little intentionality or investment in the process, the most meaningful and lasting benefits happen when clients show up fully: preparing their minds and bodies, leaning into the work, and committing to integration afterward. It's not always easy—but it’s worth it. The commitment to the process and the integration work tends to lead to the most transformational results.

7. It’s Not Just for Treatment-Resistant Depression

While ketamine is widely recognized for its effectiveness in treating depression, including cases that are resistant to traditional interventions, its therapeutic potential extends well beyond that. Ketamine has shown promise in addressing a range of conditions, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain, grief, certain forms of addiction, and existential distress.

Additionally, as I’ve witnessed in my clinical work, ketamine therapy can be profoundly supportive during major life transitions—such as the end of a relationship, career changes, relocation, or retirement. Many individuals also turn to ketamine when they feel “stuck,” whether in their personal lives or within therapy, and are seeking a catalyst for movement and growth.

Beyond symptom relief, ketamine can be a profound catalyst for self-inquiry, deep inner work, and personal development. For individuals on a path of self-discovery and personal growth, it offers a unique opportunity to examine and release self-limiting beliefs and narratives, cultivate more empowering perspectives, and deepen self-awareness. Many find that it helps them reconnect with their values and sense of purpose, ultimately supporting a shift toward greater alignment, authenticity, and wholeness.

8. Dissociation Can Be Therapeutic

People often fear the “out-of-body” or “disconnected” feeling ketamine can bring. But in the right container, that dissociation can offer relief from persistent thought loops and emotional pain. It can create space for witnessing, processing, and healing from a new vantage point. Other benefits I’ve observed in clinical practice include a sense of expanded awareness, insight into one’s patterns, and the realization that we are “more than just our thoughts or our bodies.”

9. The Journey Tends to Get Easier (and Deeper) Over Time

Like any practice—meditation, music, movement—the more you engage with ketamine therapy, the more skillful and easeful the process becomes. Trust builds. Resistance softens. The nervous system adapts. And the insights go deeper.

10. Integration Is Where the Magic Happens

The ketamine session is just one part of the puzzle. What you do with the experience afterward—how you reflect, embody, and translate your insights into your life—is what determines the long-term impact. Journaling, therapy, somatic practices, and conscious lifestyle changes help turn epiphanies into transformation.

Final Thoughts

Ketamine is not a miracle cure—but it can be a catalyst for real healing when approached with care, intention, and support. If you’re curious about this work, I encourage you to find a provider who sees you as a whole person—not a diagnosis—and who’s willing to walk with you through the process, not just prescribe it.