What a Psychotherapist Thinks About Psychedelic Therapy

There’s a lot of attention right now on psychedelic therapy, especially ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Some of it is promising. Some of it is overstated.

From a clinical perspective, the experience itself is not the treatment.

What the research shows

Ketamine has been shown to produce rapid symptom relief for some people, particularly in depression that hasn’t responded to other treatments.

Research on psychedelic therapies more broadly suggests they can increase emotional and cognitive flexibility and temporarily shift how someone relates to their thoughts and patterns.

That shift can be meaningful.

But it’s often time-limited without ongoing support.

Why integration matters

What determines whether this work is actually helpful is what happens around the experience.

Without integration, people tend to return to the same patterns—not because it didn’t “work,” but because insight alone doesn’t change behavior.

Integration is the process of:

• making sense of what came up

• connecting it to real patterns, especially in relationships

• translating that into something different in day-to-day life

That’s where change either takes hold or doesn’t.

A more grounded way to think about it

Rather than asking, “Does this work?” a more useful question is:

What would actually help shift the patterns I’m in—and what support is needed for that change to hold?

How I approach it

I’m trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and partner with Journey Clinical, where the medical component is handled by their team.

When I use this approach, it’s always part of a broader process. The focus is not the experience itself, but how it’s integrated into ongoing therapy and real-life patterns.

For some clients, it can be useful.

For others, it’s not necessary.

If you’re considering this and want to think through whether it makes sense for you, that’s something we can talk through.