Community, Collaboration, and Transformation: San Diego Psychotherapists Share Their Experiences with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Journey Clinical

August 16, 2024

In June, we hosted our San Diego KAP Provider Panel, where Journey Clinical member psychotherapists shared their experiences and insights into working with Journey Clinical and the transformative potential of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP). Throughout the panel, our panelists spoke about the importance of community, preparation, and integration, while sharing their excitement about the potential for KAP to transform lives.

A huge thank you to our incredible panelists:

• Breanne Ferrara, LCSW(breferraratherapy@gmail.com)
• Brooke Kettering, LMFT
• Chandra Khalifian, PhD
• L.J. Lumpkin III, LMFT

And a special thank you to our member Mini Rattu Psy.D. for hosting us! Check out this awesome Instagram reel Mini made from the event.

In case you couldn’t join us, we’ve compiled some of the key takeaways from the discussion below.

On Partnering with Journey Clinical

Journey Clinical supports licensed mental health professionals with everything they need to add Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy to their practices safely and effectively. As our panelists discussed how they have felt supported by Journey Clinical’s on-call support and community of 2500+ psychotherapists, LJ noted:

LJ added: “I went through MAPS for MDMA-Assisted therapy, and one of the things that I really valued there was community, and being able to collaborate with other clinicians. A lot of my journey through becoming a therapist and wanting to integrate psychedelics and altered states of consciousness was in isolation.

I work with a lot of trauma clients, and just getting to see them let out that sigh of relief – that was the big shift for me. I really went all-in for Journey Clinical and supporting other clinicians that are making that jump into offering Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. I think that when we band together, policies change, and I think that this has been a place where we’re seeing a lot of support for integrating newer ways of healing.”

Brooke and Breanne echoed similar values for working within a community:

• From Brooke: “The more that I worked with Journey Clinical, the more supported I felt. I went to the Psychedelic Science Conference and met the crew in-person. It’s a great organization. That’s what made me really excited about working with Journey Clinical, because I would want to be friends and work with the people behind it. ‍
• From Breanne: “Journey Clinical seemed like a great way that I could build my private practice, incorporate psychedelics in a way that gave me a lot of support, but also gave me a lot of independence at the same time. The training opportunities are fantastic. I felt like I had a huge community of therapists to go to for questions, and so I’m very glad that they were there to help me because I’m still in my first year of private practice. It’s been a great partnership so far.”

On Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Couples

Journey Clinical KAP Providers offer psychotherapy of many different modalities, including Couples Therapy, IFS, EMDR, and many more. Chandra provides couples KAP alongside fellow Journey Clinical member Kayla Knopp, PhD, in their practice Enamory. Chandra spoke about the unique role that KAP plays in couples therapy, helping partners break dysfunctional patterns:

Chandra continued: “When couples are coming into couples therapy, it’s typically because they’re stuck in some dysfunctional pattern. With couples KAP, we can see the healing that is happening between partners in the session. If there are fears around being unlovable, undesirable, or just not being enough, we watch individuals address that deep vulnerability and say to their partner ‘You are lovable. You are enough.’ It’s so rewarding to see that emotional shift in front of you between people who love each other but have been so disconnected and lost."

The Importance of Preparation and Integration

At Journey Clinical, we hold that the cornerstone of safe and effective KAP lies in the ongoing, positive, and trusting relationship between patient and psychotherapist. In our model, therapists support their clients in preparation, dosing, and integration sessions. We asked our panelists to speak more about the importance of doing this work with a therapist:

• From Chandra: “Integration is so important. Meeting with someone after your KAP dosing session and talking through what feelings came up for you and the changes that you want to make in your life is the only way that you’re going to have any sort of long-lasting behavioral shift.”
• From LJ: “I emphasized preparation and integration for a lot of military patients because they were tired of being on SSRIs and other substances. The cathartic experience that can occur when you feel safe and don’t have to monitor yourself was a selling point in a lot of ways for them. Before, even if they got to a place where they had this ‘aha’ moment, it would be lost because they would just be by themselves – versus having someone there to listen, reflect, and do the integration process afterwards. If we’re able to be in a space with someone else with our default mechanisms down, we can see that healing and explore it.”

KAP Patient Outcomes

Our panelists shared that their Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy clients were able to immerse themselves more quickly and deeply into the therapeutic work compared to traditional therapy sessions. We asked Brooke to share the types of outcomes she has seen from her KAP clients:

LJ also shared how Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy helped a client, and himself, to finally confront and release deeply suppressed emotions through vulnerability and trust.

From LJ: “I’m thinking of a particular client that suffered for years and never felt safe in a lot of ways. During their KAP session, it wasn’t an instant feeling of ‘everything’s good now.’ Instead, it made them aware that there was a lot of sorrow present. They weren’t able to recognize it before, and could now sit with it and let their emotions out when they were never allowed to. To be able to break down those barriers to where someone can actually allow themselves to rest is monumental. I can even speak to my own experience in that, when I was able to receive KAP, I didn’t realize how much I had been holding back. It took being in that state of vulnerability and being able to trust the clinician to support me through the experience to recognize it.”

How KAP Inspires Creativity

During our panelists’ conversation on patient outcomes, Breanne shared her experience with artist clients who rediscovered their creative spark after KAP:

Breanne added: “I think that a lot of the time, mental health symptoms are there because we’re stuck in a pattern that’s not working for us. With ketamine, the neuroplasticity creates more space to explore. I’ve had a few clients that make music, and a song will flow right out of them the next day. I myself like to paint for integration, and I love creating art in the days following my dosing experiences.”

Advice for Therapists Interested in Offering KAP

We invited our panelists to share their insights and advice for psychotherapists looking to explore KAP in their practice:

• From Breanne: “Take advantage of the membership and dive into all of the resources – you’ll get as much out of it as you put in. There’s a whole library full of webinars to watch with loads of information on all different topics from experts in the field. The consultation groups have been fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed learning from experienced clinicians – I joined one with Claudia Chika and now I know that if I ever have a question, I have a personal relationship with her to start from. There’s so much that the platform has to offer and a lot of friendly and amazing people work with Journey Clinical. It’s been great to be plugged into the San Diego therapist community. I’ve gotten a few clients referred to me and options to share office space through friends that I’ve made, which has been fantastic.
• From Brooke: “I always like to encourage therapists wanting to do this work to have their own experiences with it. In graduate school, I’m sure you were told that you can only take the client as far as you’ve gone. I can’t imagine trying to do this work and not having my own experience of going into non-ordinary states of consciousness. Being in the psychedelic space as a clinician, people will ask you a lot of questions. This came up recently with a client of mine: she had done an ayahuasca journey and was expecting KAP to be similar. Because of my own experiences, I could speak to her about what’s different and it normalized the fact that her experience with ketamine would be different.
• From Chandra: “If you’re a therapist, I would suggest getting a partner, team, or consultation group. There’s going to be a lot of challenging things that you’re navigating from running your private practice. Doing this work with a team is so much more fun, and much easier. I definitely would be lost without Kayla, so if you can find a good partner – do that.

You can listen to the entire panel here.