Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy

Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy refers to using psychedelic medicines that alter consciousness, combined with psychotherapy (talk therapy), to offer clients the opportunity to address difficult psychological issues, supported by their therapist.

The psychedelic medicine, in combination with talk therapy, allows the client to experience a deeper and more effective form of talk therapy.

Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, PTSD, Substance Abuse/Dependence, Chronic Suicidal Ideation, Self-Harm Behavior, Feeling Stuck in Life, Loss of Motivation, Lack of Focus
Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) can be particularly beneficial for helping you gain new insights and perspectives.

At present, insurance coverage may be limited under PPO insurance plans. You will be responsible for payment in full at the time of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy (PAP).

We will electronically submit a claim for the psychotherapy portion. Once your deductible is met, your insurance might reimburse about 25% of the PAP medicine session and 30-60% of the preparatory, medical clearance, and integration sessions.

Sessions conducted outside the US in Cancun are not billable to insurance.

Non-medicine sessions (preparatory, medical clearance, or integration) are 50-minutes long.

Ketamine medicine sessions are 2 to 2.5 hours long.

Mescaline (San Pedro/Peyote), MDMA or LSD sessions can last 6-12 hours.
Psilocybin medicine sessions can last 1-6 hours depending on the amount dosed.
BUFO (5-MeO-DMT) can last 10-30 minutes.

Ayahuasca, depending on whether it's smoked versus ingested as a tea, can last 30 minutes-8 hours.

After each medicine session, you will undergo an integration talk therapy session. You will have this integration session 24-72 hours after the drug dosing session.

You will not be able to drive yourself home after a medicine dosing session. We will request that you are accompanied home by a named individual whom you have identified in advance of starting the treatment.

Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) can improve brain plasticity, which means it becomes more interconnected. This can facilitate psychotherapy, as a person can more easily consider new perspectives. PAP can help people become 'unstuck' by adopting new, more flexible ways of thinking and behaving. It is important to put the new learning and insights from the therapy into practice daily to maintain the benefits. Your therapist will support you in doing this. The benefits of Ketamine and Plant Medicine have many similarities.

Currently, lab-generated prescription-based medications approved by the FDA are the only legal psychedelics available in California outside of clinical trials. These synthetic drugs have been used extensively in medicine since the 1970s. Used every day in hospitals all over the world at high doses as an effective and safe anesthetic agent for carrying out brief surgical procedures. It is so safe that it is often the anesthetic of choice for children. In the last decade, it has been an effective antidepressant with psychedelic properties. We have found these medicines to have a similar benefit profile to plant/natural medicines, including promoting new neural connections.

These medicines are an NMDA antagonist, working across multiple receptors in the brain. At lower doses (as we use), it creates an altered state of consciousness. These medicines are understood to increase brain plasticity (flexibility) and connectivity, meaning they can help a person become more adaptive and open to new perspectives. When combined with therapy, clients report that a single session can be as effective as three months of traditional talk therapy.

It is described as a "dissociative" drug, meaning the client experiences a sense of detachment from their usual self. Many clients describe this as a dream-like and floaty experience. Sometimes it is referred to as an 'out of body' type experience or 'floating magic carpet' experience. This experience, when combined with psychotherapy, allows the client to see their psychological problems in a new light and, together with support from their therapist, reflect upon and address their issues.

In the short term (1-4 hours), you may feel somewhat dissociated (or 'spaced out' where your mind feels separate from your body). There is a possibility of some initial anxiety that will pass, and you will always be supported by your therapist to help manage this. People sometimes describe feeling a bit light-headed or dizzy. You may feel nauseous, so we advise you to only eat very lightly during the 4 hours before your medicine session. People often describe feeling tired afterward, so it is a good idea not to make plans for the rest of the day.

The medicines we use are very safe. It is used every day in hospitals worldwide as a safe and effective anesthetic for performing minor surgical procedures. We will use a medicine dose that is lower dose than it is used as an anesthetic. All clients are carefully screened and fully monitored throughout. Safety is a priority. If you have uncontrolled blood pressure, diabetes or hypothyroidism you may not be a candidate. Clients who have undergone heart surgery would not be a candidate.

The benefit of a Ketamine medicine session is clients do not need to stop any of their psychotropic medications (i.e., anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications). Often clients preparing to attend a retreat with psychedelic plant medicines will undergo a series of Ketamine sessions to help facilitate tapering off psychotropic medications in preparation for plant medicine sessions. Psychotropic medications are only discontinued under a licensed medical provider in preparation for plant medicine sessions.

Disclaimer for Psychedelic Plant Medicine: While it is true that you must stop psychotropic medications to avoid serious and even fatal side effects for plant medicine, you should never discontinue any psychotropic medications without consulting a medical provider.