Field Trip Health offers a treatment program based in client-centered, trauma-informed care. This approach helps us ensure that each individual is treated according to their unique lived experiences and needs. Field Trip Health treats those dealing with treatment-resistant mental health conditions, including depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and trauma. Through our welcoming environments, intentional development of a therapeutic relationship, and carefully crafted treatment protocols, we offer clients a safe space to engage with their work over the two to three week treatment course. Here is how the treatment is mapped out:
Psychiatric consultation
The first step in the Field Trip Health treatment is a consultation with one of our medical providers. During this initial 60 minute meeting, individual medical and mental health history is reviewed. While Field Trip Health ensures a safe environment for psychedelic medical use, it is important that any contraindications are addressed and informed consent is obtained from the beginning. At the end of this session, the medical provider establishes whether or not ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is safe and appropriate for each unique patient.
Psychotherapist intake + Preparation
Once it has been determined an individual is a fit for treatment, they move into meeting the therapist that will take them through their entire treatment. The 60 minute intake session and 30 minute preparation sessions serve to begin establishing the therapeutic relationship, discuss intentions for treatment, and begin talking about what to expect during the ketamine sessions.
Preparation serves as an integral part of KAP. It sets the foundation for treatment, and empowers patients with the necessary tools for navigating the expanded states and integration processes that are to come.
Psychedelic + Exploratory
After the intakes and preparation, clients move into their first KAP exploratory session. In a comfortable set and setting, ketamine is administered via intramuscular injection (in the US) or sublingual lozenges (in Canada). The effects last 45-90 minutes. While each person’s experience is unique, most people report a sense of having increased space in their mind and body. This viewpoint invites client’s into a state of expanded awareness and offers the ability to process past experiences from a new perspective. Throughout the session, the therapist is present for on-going support. While the client is actively in the experience, the therapist will offer non-directive support, such as the encouragement of “trust, let go, be open”. If difficult material arises, the therapist is there to offer their expertise to help navigate whatever is present for the client.
As the client “comes down” and is increasingly able and willing to connect with the therapist, they will spend time beginning to explore what came up during the KAP experience. This time is the initial integration, utilizing the neuroplasticity present while the experience is still in the client’s system. Some clients may want to verbally process at this point, while others may desire non-verbal processing in the form of drawing or movement practices.
Integration sessions
A day or two after the exploratory session, the client will meet with their therapist for an integration session. The purpose of integration is to start making meaning out of the psychedelic experience and translate that meaning into practices to be integrated into daily life. The initial intentions identified in preparation, in tandem with the insights garnered from the KAP experience, lay the groundwork for the integration process. The goal of integration is to reorganize the self, internal system, and ways of being in the world to include the awareness and healing that arose during the ketamine experience – fostering sustainable change.
Psychedelic exploratory and integration sessions repeat
The psychedelic exploratory and integration sessions are cycled again. After the first two cycles, clients then do two psychedelic exploratory sessions in a row, followed by one integration session. In total, clients do four psychedelic exploratory sessions and three integration sessions.
While this is the standard treatment module, each client’s course of treatment is dependent on what is needed and agreed upon by the client and treatment team. Clients with PTSD and Complex PTSD typically engage with four-six KAP exploratory sessions and six integration sessions.
Throughout treatment, clients have access to the My Field Trip Health Portal, to access digital tools and educational articles as supplementary integration support.
Plus, our And Beyond program offers individual and group therapy for continued support after clients complete their KAP treatment. These therapy offerings are directed at longer term integration therapy and general therapy.
Written by Alexa Keeler for Field Trip Health