Preparing for Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): What to Bring & How to Make the Most of Your Sessions
- Meredith Futernick-Gerak (she/hers), LPC, LCPC, LMHC, LPCC, ACS
- 24 hours ago
- 4 min read
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a growing therapeutic modality offering new pathways to healing, connection, and insight. Whether you’re a clinician providing KAP, a client preparing for your first session, or a psychonaut preparing for your 100th journey, the environment and tools you choose matter. How you prepare, how you experience, and especially how you integrate afterward can significantly influence therapeutic outcomes.
How Important is Preparation?
Ketamine temporarily increases neuroplasticity, loosens entrenched patterns, and allows greater access to emotional and somatic material (Joneborg et al., 2022). Because of this increased openness, the emotional and physical environment significantly influences the experience (Hartogsohn, 2017). Preparation is about fostering a felt sense of safety, the foundation for meaningful internal exploration (Garcia-Romeu & Richards, 2018).
1. Set & Setting Essentials
A therapeutic environment should feel like a sanctuary; calming and intentional. A trauma-informed approach is to have different options available to support autonomy in what may feel like unfamiliar territory.
Supportive items may include:
Weighted blanket for containment and nervous system support (I like this one because the material is what gives it it's weight, making it breathable. Others are weighted with small beads and some folks find that to feel too constricting).
Sleep mask or weighted eye mask (again, love this brand for weighted items because of breathability and its machine washable!) to reduce external visual stimulation.
Noise-canceling headphones for immersive sound
Grounding objects (smooth stone, furry pillows, putty, ect.)
🎶 2. Soundscapes & Music
Music can act as a guide, anchor, or emotional landscape during a session. The music listened to in non-ordinary states can really make a or break a session, so it is an important element to be intentional about. If you're feeling stuck around what kind of sound to choose, there are an abundance of resources available through different streaming platforms. Here are a few options:
A pre-made playlist. These are a few of my favorites:
Streaming platforms designed specifically for psychedelic-assisted therapy (I personally love wavepaths.com).
Make your own playlist tailored to your client or a theme. Choose tracks with minimal lyrics, gentle transitions, and emotional resonance.
3. The Role of Integration
Ongoing research supports that the therapeutic effects of ketamine treatment are maximized when the experience is paired with thoughtful integration support (Drozdz et al., 2022). Ketamine may enhance emotional, somatic, relational, and neurological wellbeing in the short-term; and integration helps those shifts become lived change rather than fleeting insights.
How to Support the Integration Process:
Using an integration framework or guide. If you'd like support navigating integration in a trauma-informed and semi-structured format, you can download this Free KAP Integration Guide .
Integration Therapy can help you process your experience, gain insights, and discuss how to apply any lessons learned to your daily life.Â
Consider keeping a "journey journal" specifically for capturing insights from your ketamine experiences. If old school pen and paper doesn't do it for you, you can always use a journaling or voice recording app instead. Speaking your insights aloud can help embed them more deeply and help you remember what you want to talk to your therapist about.
Incorporating Somatic Practice can help the brain and body process material that doesn't translate into words. For some simple ideas, download these Free Somatic Technique Cards.
Stock up on art supplies like high quality markers, a coloring pad, and color by numbers. I personally love color by numbers because I don't have to make decisions about what colors to use (decision fatigue, anyone?).
Check out this blog post for more "Mindless Mindfulness" ideas that can also be great integration tools. Being able to express myself creatively when I had previously dismissed the idea that I was creative has transformed my own integration process (more about that here.)
4. Other Considerations
Some folks experience mild nausea during dosing. Preparation can help reduce anxiety around this possibility.
Supportive options include:
Sea-Bands (acupressure wristbands)
You can also talk to your prescriber about prescription nausea medication, if that is accessible.
Some prescribers require a blood pressure monitor to track vitals before and after dosing. Arm cuffs tend to be more accurate, but wrist cuffs may be more accessible for some folks.
Whether you're a client preparing for a personal journey or a clinician supporting others, the tools we bring into these experiences matter. Preparation supports a felt sense of sanctuary. A felt sense of sanctuary supports access. Integration supports lasting change. Take your time. Go gently. Be curious with what unfolds.
References:
Drozdz, S. J., Goel, A., McGarr, M. W., Katz, J., Ritvo, P., Mattina, G. F., … Ladha, K. S. (2022). Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: A Systematic Narrative Review of the Literature. Journal of Pain Research, 15, 1691–1706.
Garcia-Romeu, A., & Richards, W. A. (2018). Current perspectives on psychedelic therapy: Use of serotonergic hallucinogens in clinical interventions. International Review of Psychiatry, 30(4), 291–316.
Hartogsohn, I. (2017). Constructing drug effects: A history of set and setting. Drug Science, Policy and Law, 3.
Joneborg, I., Lee, Y., Di Vincenzo, J. D., Ceban, F., Meshkat, S., Lui, L. M. W., Fancy, F., Rosenblat, J. D., & McIntyre, R. S. (2022). Active mechanisms of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 315, 105-112.
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