Full Living: A Psychotherapy Practice

This is what some of the fuss is about Ketamine. Ketamine doesn’t change your thoughts. It gives your brain increased synaptic activity and a surge in neurotrophic factors fostering an environment where neurons can more effectively form and strengthen new connections, which is essential for learning, memory, and emotional adaptation. Not just during the medicine journey session, but for the hours and days and weeks following ketamine treatments our brains are ready to grow. Increased Cognitive Flexibility – With a decrease in default mode processing, it is easier to notice, be curious about, challenge and shift old thought patterns/ beliefs/ assumptions. Enhanced Emotional Regulation – A reduction in fear responses and heightened emotional resilience can alter our reactivity to internal and external stimuli. Reduction in Rumination – Ketamine disrupts rigid, repetitive thought loops, creating space for more adaptive thinking, and freedom from the relentlessness of negative self-talk. Strengthening of Positive Associations – For most folx, their ketamine experiences are filled with love and joy. But even after, this lovely neuroplastic brain loves to seek joy and goodness.

The "talking cure" asked that we contemplate, out loud , with another. There is majesty in that sacred hour, carefully constructed to allow for concentrated potency. Outpatient psychotherapy is decadent for sure, requiring an investment of time, energy and money. But if we have the capacity to lean hard into self-care, the rich gift of contemplative time is a brilliant tool for charging your story.

? 6 Week Training Practicum Experiential Program Details (which includes 3 pre-recorded videos answering some key questions https://lnkd.in/eftpeRUY Attend our 8PM Tuesday Q&A https://lnkd.in/eDEJcgvx?To Sign Up/Schedule Meeting/Discuss Various Supervision, Training, Practicum and Experiential and Treatment Program Options? https://lnkd.in/eRZADZmc Buy Ketamine Kollaboration’s co-directs book on the topic https://lnkd.in/ewuG7jkB

Early bird gets the worm, but there are less production-driven reasons to get up early. For me, it is the stillness of my home, and the slow unfurling of dawn light, and it rousing of song from all the little birdies. Delight. Build your life around all the little tid-bits that bring goodness to your soul. And then, in my case, take a nap later!

Considering if you and your practice are a fit for psychedelic assisted psychotherapy? Give yourself a chance to explore it. Connect with us by scheduling a quick chat, exploring our offerings on-line, reading Karen's book on the topic, or joining us Tuesday night a 8PM for a Q&A on our flagship program From Start to Finish: Onboarding Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in Your Solo or Group Practice, which includes 9 CEU’s of live, virtual KAP training, paired with practicum and experiential options, is a great place for anyone looking to weave KAP into their practice in a structured, ethical, and effective way. Don’t let your interest stay vague! Populate it with some information about what it would look like to work as a KAP therapist, what training and education would be required, what types of therapy modalities fit well in this field, what diagnosis and types of clients are well suited to KAP in particular, whether and when to try the medicine yourself, etc.? We additional support psychotherapists already involved in KAP work who are seeking community, operational support, practicum experiences, supervision, etc. Karen L. Smith MSS, LCSW Author of Prepare Yourself, Your Clients and Your Practice for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: A Step by Step Guide Dr. Sophia Brandstetter PsyD, LCSW Director of The Ko-op: Psychedelic Psychotherapist Cooperative One way to get all the details on our Sprint Cohort 2025 From Start to Finish: Onboarding Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in Your Solo or Group Practice is to join our Tuesday 8PM live Q&A on LinkedIn. Come, hear, and ask whatever you need to figure out how KAP can fit into your practice. ?? Understand the Process – Learn how KAP works, from client screening to integration.? ?? Assess the Fit for Your Practice – Discover whether KAP aligns with your clinical approach and practice needs.? ?? Explore the Transition – Learn the nitty gritty of what stepping into KAP actually looks while collecting and building the resources and connections in the larger KAP community to operationalize.? ?? Address Common Concerns – Is it ethical for psychotherapists? How difficult is onboarding? What does it take to get started?? ?? Get Answers – Feeling Confused About What Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Looks Like for Clinicians Like You? Get Hope to meet you on Tuesday for your journey! https://lnkd.in/ezK85Dzd

Piecing together a life with bits and scapes of beauty and wonder is as good as it gets. Hardship and suffering will surely find us, so we must gather all our favorite things into our picture. When I was young I might have dreamed of a "happy" or "content" life. While naive, it wasn't far off. Now I work to increase the moments in my life that hold happiness and contentment.

Some people associate therapy with receiving sage council and helpful advise. As an analytically oriented psychotherapy, I do give advise sometimes, but definitely not when I am on my A game. Most developmental theories teach us people will grow. We have an internal drive towards learning and growing, which can be derailed for sure, but exists inside our system. One way to view a primary role of therapy is simply to help dismantle the barriers preventing natural development, allowing for natural exploration and growth. The danger of advise, even from an educated, talented, trained, even potentially wise person, is it is their thoughts. We deserve the right to our own crafted solutions. Only we can fully taste and know our truth. Therapy is a vehicle to find it.

Here is one of the reasons you should definitely consider ketamine assisted psychotherapy. Ketamine doesn’t change your thoughts. It gives your brain increased synaptic activity and a surge in neurotrophic factors fostering an environment where neurons can more effectively form and strengthen new connections, which is essential for learning, memory, and emotional adaptation. It does this during the short 20 to 40 minute "trip", but also for days following each treatment. During the days and weeks and months of treatment, WE CAN LITERALLY CHANGE HOW OUR BRAINS FUNCTION! Not overnight. Not with one treatment. And truthfully, not with the medicne alone. The role therapy plays, around this particular function of neuroplasticity , is in the work unpacking the new thoughts/ experiences/ revelations into a newly accessible series of thoughts/ experiences / actions that strengthen and integrate those new synaptic connections. So, don't just try ketamine. Try ketamine assisted psychotherapy!

Much can grow in the dark. Our unconscious is alert and actively participating in directing our lives. Responding to the same stimuli as our waking selves, but sometimes, under our conscious awareness. Thoughts, fears, hopes, anxieties, resentments, joys, are all subject to unconscious percolation and mulling over...as it should be. Here is the rub: How is that soil in your unconscious? Have you feed it good nutrients , minerals, material over time? Pulled out any weeds? Set up any guardrails? Or is it still filled with archaic , hyperbolic , critical screaming superego messaging allowed to roam freely? Familiar with the landscape, or just a series of dark unexplored caves? Because it is true, some not great stuff can be living in your unconscious, totally pushing you around during the day to do its/your bidding. And, more not great stuff can be growing in that unconscious that is going to fight for control of your life. Solution: Tend to the quiet rumblings of your inner life, poke around shining light on stuff. While darkness is cool, we absolutely must provide SOME light to our unconscious. Dense, impenetrable darkness is no place for any of us, or any parts of us. Nothing can grow there, good or bad, which is really really bad. We can't always have our conscious selves focused on a issue. Sometimes, we have to put something on a back burner, out of mind, while we attend to other elements in our lives. Other times we don't understand why we keep putting something our conscious mind sees as high priority on the back burner. If we have a decently open relationship with our unconscious, have some light on our inner workings, then our unconscious has a richer place for its own contemplation. Sometimes our dreams, hopes, fears, and worries need some time to contemplate in a porous darkness before alchemy.