At Ennis + Associates Psychology we believe that talk therapy in conjunction with the Ketamine Treatments is one way you truly start to recover from certain conditions and feel engaged in life long-term. We have experience in helping patients navigate and integrate their psychedelic experiences (using ketamine) to help foster their recovery and gain a sense of freedom.  Our experience and prominent research have shown that therapy is an integral part of the recovery process.

Ketamine works in two ways to help promote mental well-being:  It works on the physical brain receptors and it provides a psychedelic experience. Both components are essential to long term recovery. Ketamine is known to block the NMDA receptor that is overactive in people suffering from mental illness and depression. By blocking the receptors people can experience immediate relief and mood elevation. In addition, new pathways are activated in the brain to repair and remap parts that have been altered by mental illness. The neuromodulating effects of increased glutamate, noradrenaline, and dopamine leads to BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) activation, which can repair gene expression and neural pathways. However, this physical transformation can be only short-term if not supported by talk therapy to reinforce the increased neuroplasticity and nascent neural pathways.

Talk therapy can help to integrate the psychedelic experience and reinforce the newly-available lesser-traveled paths as contrasted to the well-worn adaptive paths our brains have adapted to help us survive our mental illness. Depression dampens our emotional experiences so that we can tolerate living and it is partially a chemical problem as well as an adaptive response to overwhelming emotions and sometimes trauma. Patients who have suffered from depression and mental illness have adapted to their mental state and learned ways of being related to coping. We view treatment as a recovery process.

Ketamine opens up possibilities to engage with the world in ways we thought we couldn't. When the depression is lifted by Ketamine, we may not know how to deal with all the emotions and feelings related to the newfound hope. As we emerge from the depressive cocoon, we come up against ways of functioning that no longer serve us, and potentially, unresolved traumas. Like learning to walk again after an accident, recovery from depression is learning to transform our patterns and tolerate our emotional states so we can fully engage in life with flexibility and choice. Therefore, it’s important to have a licensed mental health professional help you manage this part of your ketamine treatment.
 
Some of the illnesses that benefit from the partnership of Ketamine Treatments and talk therapy are Major Depression, PTSD, Acute Stress Disorder, Seasonal Affective Disorder, and Bi-Polar Depression.

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