Over the years, I kept noticing the same thing. People would come in with a tremendous amount of insight. They understood their history. They understood their patterns. They could explain exactly why they felt the way they did. And yet nothing was changing. That’s what drew me to KAP. Ketamine can create enough space from a long-familiar way of seeing yourself that other possibilities start to feel real. I find the experience itself meaningful, and I find what comes after it equally so. Together, we make sense of what emerged and figure out how to carry it forward.
The people who come to me for KAP aren’t new to therapy. They’ve done the work. They’ve made real progress. They know exactly why they react the way they do. And yet something specific remains stuck. The understanding is there. What hasn’t happened is the shift that should follow from it.
KAP is not a shortcut. It’s a different kind of opening.
What I’ve noticed is that some people reach a point where understanding is no longer the thing that’s missing. The insight is already there. The challenge is that it hasn’t become something they can feel or act from yet. KAP can help move insights from being purely intellectual, something that just lives in the head, to something embodied and more deeply felt. That’s where it can sometimes make a real difference.
KAP tends to be a good fit for people who have already done serious work in therapy and are looking for something that can move what hasn’t moved. It may be worth exploring if you:
Before the dosing session, we spend time together building a foundation for the experience. We talk about what you’re hoping to access, what you’re afraid of, and what intentions feel meaningful to bring in. This is also a chance for us to get to know each other better and build the kind of trust that makes it possible to go somewhere real during the session. Preparation isn’t just something we do before the experience. It shapes the experience itself.
The dosing session takes place in my Brooklyn office. You take sublingual ketamine, put on an eye mask, and listen to music while the medicine takes effect. The effects typically last around an hour, sometimes longer if boosters are taken. My job during this part is not to guide the experience. It’s to be a steady, containing presence while whatever needs to emerge has space to do so.
In many ways, integration is where the therapeutic work begins. The ketamine experience can open something. But opening something and doing something with it are different. In our integration sessions, we work to understand what emerged, what it means in the context of your life and history, and how to carry it forward.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has been used safely in medical settings for decades. At lower doses, it creates a temporary shift in how things feel and how accessible certain emotions are. A lot of people describe feeling less trapped inside their usual way of seeing things. The medicine doesn’t do the work on its own. Psychotherapy is what gives the experience meaning.
Here’s how the process unfolds:
I came to KAP because of what I kept seeing in traditional therapy. People who had done years of therapy, who genuinely understood themselves, who could articulate exactly what was happening and why, and who still couldn’t seem to move it. That gap between knowing and feeling is what drew me here. I hold a certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and have completed several other courses in this field through Fluence Training. I offer KAP alongside my broader depression and anxiety therapy practice in Brooklyn.
What I value about KAP is that it doesn’t bypass the relationship or the work we’ve already been doing together. The ketamine creates an opening and a deepening. I’m there to help you use it. My role during the dosing session is to witness and contain. Together, we will integrate this experience into your life afterward.
I’ve also spoken about KAP and psychedelic-assisted therapy on two podcast episodes if you’d like to hear more about how I think about this work: Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression and Are Psychedelics the Future of Therapy?
If you’ve done the work and something still hasn’t shifted, that’s worth exploring. A consultation is a good place to start.
Reach out to schedule a free consultation.
KAP tends to be most useful for people dealing with conditions that haven’t responded to traditional treatment, or where the understanding is already there, but nothing has shifted at the level where it needs to. Presentations I work with most often through KAP:
For people whose depression hasn’t responded to therapy or medication, KAP works differently than either. Ketamine acts on NMDA receptors in ways that can produce rapid antidepressant effects, sometimes within hours or days. What makes KAP different from ketamine infusions alone is the psychotherapy: we use the expanded state to access the emotional material underneath the depression, not just the symptoms. The integration work afterward is designed to make those shifts last.
Many people living with anxiety or trauma know, intellectually, that they are safe. The challenge is that the body doesn’t always agree. KAP can create enough distance from those automatic responses that something new becomes possible. The goal isn’t to relive the experience. It’s to relate to it from a different vantage point and see what becomes available from there.
This is the presentation I see most often. People who have a genuinely accurate understanding of what’s happening, and who still can’t seem to shift it. The clarity is real. What hasn’t happened is the embodied felt sense that makes awareness functional rather than just conceptual. This is especially true for people who have been in depression and anxiety therapy for some time and feel like they’ve reached a ceiling.
A lot of people come to a dosing session not knowing what to expect. That’s fine. The experience is different for everyone.
As the medicine begins to wear off, you may experience yourself returning to a more ordinary state, but still feeling more emotionally open than you normally do. This allows us to spend the rest of the session doing powerful therapy in this expanded state.
People leave dosing sessions with very different experiences. Some feel lighter. Others leave with a sense of awe, aware of more questions than answers. For some, the session can open up difficult emotional states that take time to resolve. This is normal, and it’s part of why the integration work matters. What matters most isn’t having a specific kind of experience. It’s getting curious about what the experience might be showing you.
As a psychologist, I do not provide or facilitate access to illegal substances. I do, however, offer psychedelic preparation, integration, and harm reduction therapy. This is a time-limited, focused service designed to help people minimize the possible harms of psychedelic use, make sense of their experiences, and support integration into everyday life.
If you are considering a psychedelic experience, preparation sessions can help you approach it more safely and intentionally. We talk about what you are hoping for, what to be aware of, and how to prepare your mind and nervous system to be more receptive. If the experience is already behind you, integration sessions provide a space to understand what emerged and how to carry it forward. My approach draws on the same relational and insight-oriented framework I use in all my work.
A consultation is a good place to start figuring out if this approach is a fit.
We’ll talk about what’s bringing you here, what you’ve already tried, and what has you curious about KAP. I’ll answer questions, explain how the process works, and we’ll figure out together whether it feels like the right next step. You can also reach me directly through my contact page if you’d prefer to start there.
Frequently Asked Questions About KAP in Brooklyn, NY
KAP stands for Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. It combines supervised ketamine administration with psychotherapy before, during, and after the experience. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that, at lower doses, creates a mental state where certain emotional material becomes more accessible. Research suggests it affects the default mode network, the brain’s self-referential system, which may be why it can interrupt rigid patterns of thinking and create psychological distance from deeply held beliefs. The psychotherapy gives the experience structure. Without it, ketamine is just a medication. With it, it becomes something more.
KAP stands for Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. The acronym refers specifically to the combination of ketamine and psychotherapy, distinguishing it from ketamine infusions that don’t include a structured therapeutic component. In KAP, the medicine and the therapy work together. The ketamine creates an opening. The psychotherapy is what gives it meaning.
Ketamine acts on NMDA receptors in the brain, which are involved in learning, memory, and mood regulation. Traditional antidepressants target serotonin and take weeks to work. Ketamine operates differently and can produce antidepressant effects within hours. It also appears to enhance neuroplasticity, which may be why people sometimes find themselves relating to old problems in genuinely new ways. These biological shifts create a window. The integration work is designed to make use of that window before it closes.
KAP has the strongest evidence for treatment-resistant depression, meaning depression that hasn’t responded to traditional therapy or medication. It is also used for anxiety disorders, trauma and PTSD, and chronic pain. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a growing area of research. More broadly, KAP tends to be useful when insight has developed in therapy, but something has stopped translating into lived change.
KAP is most appropriate for adults who have already engaged seriously with traditional therapy and found that treatments haven’t fully addressed what’s going on. Traditional antidepressants and traditional treatments can be helpful, but for some people, they don’t reach what needs to move. When that’s the case, effective ketamine-assisted work can sometimes reach it. It’s most useful for people who have real insight into their patterns and are still finding that nothing is shifting at the level where it needs to.
KAP is not appropriate for everyone. It is not recommended for people with a personal or family history of psychosis or schizophrenia, active substance use disorder involving dissociatives or stimulants, certain cardiovascular conditions, or other medical contraindications that a prescribing physician or psychiatric nurse practitioner will assess. It is also not a suitable fit for people who are not willing to engage in the preparation and integration work that surrounds the dosing experience. The medication alone, without the psychotherapy, is not the treatment we offer.
The session takes place in my Brooklyn office. You take sublingual ketamine, put on an eye mask, and listen to music. The effects typically last about an hour. During that time, you may notice altered states of consciousness, visual imagery, a shifting away from ordinary thinking, or emotional states that are hard to access in regular consciousness. Blood pressure and heart rate may rise slightly, which is expected and transient. I’m present throughout. My job isn’t to guide what happens. It’s to be a steady presence while whatever needs to emerge has space to do so.
Preparation begins with an intake session to establish your clinical history and goals. Then we meet before the dosing session to set intentions, understand what to expect, and build the psychological foundation for the experience. We talk about what you’re hoping to access and what concerns you’re bringing. We also talk about what you can do to prepare your mind and nervous system to be more receptive to the experience. Preparation isn’t just something we do before the experience. It shapes the experience itself.
Integration is the psychotherapy that happens after the dosing session. Ketamine can open the psyche and surface material that’s been difficult to reach. Integration is how we make meaning of what emerged, in the context of your life and history, and find ways to carry it forward. A profound experience without integration tends to fade. The lasting change comes from the work we do in the weeks that follow.
The research on KAP is strong, particularly for treatment-resistant depression. Studies consistently show rapid antidepressant effects, often within hours or days rather than weeks. The psychotherapy component appears to extend and deepen those effects. For anxiety, trauma, and PTSD, the evidence is growing. KAP isn’t a cure for anything. What it offers is a different mechanism of access, one that can be meaningful for people who have found the ceiling of what traditional approaches can do.
KAP, as I practice it, involves medical oversight at every stage. A licensed prescriber legally prescribes ketamine following an initial evaluation of your medical history and contraindications. Before any dosing session, you complete a thorough medical evaluation with a prescribing physician or psychiatric nurse practitioner. Dosing sessions take place in my private Brooklyn office. Ketamine at appropriate prescribed doses has a well-established safety profile, and side effects are generally mild and brief.
Most people begin with three dosing sessions, spaced to allow time for integration in between. Preparation and integration sessions happen around those. Some people find that a single dose moves something significantly, and feels sufficient. Others return for additional dosing beyond the three sessions. There is no standard protocol that fits everyone, and you do not have to commit to a certain number of sessions in advance. We figure out the number of sessions and pacing together.
Ketamine produces a mental state that is genuinely different from ordinary consciousness, in a way that makes certain emotional material more accessible and certain patterns more malleable. It acts quickly, which matters when someone has been stuck for a long time. It has a different mechanism of action than traditional antidepressants, which makes it valuable for treatment-resistant cases. At the doses used in KAP, it creates a kind of psychological distance from entrenched self-perception that can make it possible to see things from a vantage point that ordinary therapy hasn’t been able to reach.
People come to KAP because something hasn’t sufficiently moved in traditional therapy, or because their depression or anxiety hasn’t responded to medication. They come because they’re curious about a legal, supervised way to access a different kind of psychological state. And sometimes they come because a profound experience in their life has opened something they want to continue working with in a supported way.
In KAP as I practice it, I use sublingual ketamine: oral ketamine lozenges that dissolve under the tongue. Ketamine infusions via IV are another common method, typically used in ketamine clinics without a psychotherapy component. Spravato (esketamine) is an FDA-approved nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression, administered in a clinical setting.
This is the question I hear most often. The short answer is: sometimes, meaningfully, for the right person. KAP isn’t a guarantee, and it’s not for everyone. But for people who have done genuine work in traditional therapy and still find something hasn’t shifted, or who have tried multiple antidepressants without adequate relief, KAP offers a mechanism that works differently. Whether it will make a difference for a specific person is something we assess carefully before proceeding.
Research on ketamine for mental health has grown significantly over the past two decades. Traditional antidepressants target serotonin and take weeks to work. Ketamine works on glutamate pathways and NMDA receptors, produces rapid effects, and appears to interrupt stuck patterns of negative thinking in ways that traditional medications don’t. For people who haven’t responded to conventional therapy or medication, the evidence is meaningful. The field is moving toward personalized, holistic approaches that treat the psychological and biological dimensions together.
What distinguishes my practice is that KAP is embedded in an ongoing therapeutic relationship, not offered in isolation. I’m working with people I know, whose patterns I understand, and whose KAP experience is part of a broader arc. The ketamine sessions, the preparation, and the integration all happen with the same person. That continuity matters. A KAP experience is more useful when the person accompanying you already understands your history.
I work in collaboration with licensed prescribers, a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, who conduct the medical evaluation and provide the ketamine prescription. The prescriber and I coordinate care throughout. The therapeutic relationship between you and me is what gives the KAP experience its structure.
The KAP process unfolds in four phases. First, an initial consultation with me to assess fit and understand your history and goals. Second, a medical evaluation with a prescribing physician or psychiatric nurse practitioner, who provides a personalized ketamine prescription and treatment plan. Third, preparation sessions with me to set intentions and build the psychological foundation. Fourth, KAP dosing sessions followed by integration sessions. Preparation and integration are where the psychotherapy happens. The dosing session is the opening. The rest of the process is what makes it useful.
Before any dosing session, you complete a medical evaluation with a licensed prescribing physician who screens for contraindications. Dosing sessions take place in my private office, set up to be comfortable and containing. Ketamine at the doses used sublingually is within an established safety range, and side effects are generally mild and brief. The medical evaluation and prescriber oversight are the primary safety mechanisms.
People’s experiences after KAP vary considerably. Some feel lighter almost immediately. Others find changes emerging gradually through the integration work that follows. For some, the session can open up difficult emotional states that take time to resolve. This is normal, and it’s part of why the integration work matters. What tends to be consistent is a sense that something has loosened. The deep healing isn’t always dramatic. Patterns that showed up automatically begin to feel more like choices. Insights that lived in the head start to feel like they belong to the body.
The first step is a consultation with me. We talk about what you’ve been working with, what hasn’t moved, and whether KAP seems like the right direction. If it does, we move into a more comprehensive intake: a detailed clinical history, a medical evaluation with a prescribing physician or psychiatric nurse practitioner, and a personalized treatment plan. For your safety, I don’t offer KAP before I get to know you. If you’re new to my practice, we’ll likely spend about three sessions getting to know each other first. If conventional therapy or medication hasn’t responded, and you’re dealing with chronic stress, treatment-resistant depression, or trauma that hasn’t shifted, KAP may be worth a serious conversation.
KAP involves two distinct roles: the licensed psychotherapist and the prescriber. I handle the psychotherapy: preparation, the dosing session, and integration. The prescriber handles the medical evaluation and ketamine prescription. We coordinate care throughout. Licensed psychotherapists with specific training in psychedelic-assisted therapy provide the psychological container that makes the medicine therapeutically useful rather than simply pharmacological.
When I see a patient for KAP who is already in an ongoing therapy with another provider, that provider is also involved in the treatment. I coordinate care with them throughout the adjuncting KAP treatment.
Book A Consult
