Despite strides in treatment options, many individuals continue to grapple with persistent suffering. Conventional approaches may fall short in addressing common psychological disorders, impeding individuals from reaching their utmost potential across various life domains—be it personal, relational, spiritual, or professional.

When conventional treatments prove ineffective, our Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy programs step in, offering a unique opportunity for healing through expanded states of consciousness and interpersonal connection.

Patients must have a referral from their most responsible physician, nurse practitioner, or other regulated health professional with a PRACID before our intake and screening process. If your clinician requests more information, please refer them to our KaP Information for Clinicians page.

For more information and inquiries, please call us at 780-784-8001 or email us at pap@edgarpsychological.com.

What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is a novel dissociative compound with some hallucinogenic effects, originally designed and used in medical treatment as an anesthetic. When used in conjunction with psychotherapy, research shows that ketamine has exciting potential for its use in mental health treatment at lower, sub-anesthetic doses.

While traditional antidepressants focus on neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine, ketamine targets NMDA receptors and the glutamate system. Ketamine's distinctive mechanism of action promotes mood regulation and growth of new neurological connections, along with features like rapid-acting effects, making it a promising option for various mental health conditions.

When used in conjunction with psychotherapy, clinical research excitingly underscores ketamine's potential for treating various mental health conditions, such as:

Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD)
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
Suicidal ideation
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Substance Use Disorder

Additionally, there is ongoing research exploring ketamine's efficacy for other conditions, including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Ketamine can be safely administered in four ways: intramuscular (IM), intravenous (IV), intranasal, or orally. At our clinic, we offer ketamine intramuscularly.

What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KaP)?

While ketamine offers high efficacy in symptom reduction and increased well-being, ketamine complements existing treatments, rather than replacing them. Psychotherapy provides preparation and integration of dosing sessions to support and maximize long-term positive outcomes. In our program, preparation and integration sessions include evidence-informed and session-specific education, skills building, discussion, and material provided for in-between session support.

We offer group and individual KaP programming depending on your specific needs and preferences as well as maintenance treatments for ongoing symptom management if required.

Individual Treatment

Individual Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy treatment consists of 6 weeks of individualized care. This includes psychiatric consultation and assessment, one-on-one psychotherapy, intramuscular ketamine treatment, as well as psychedelic-integration sessions.

Group Treatment

Group KaP sessions can address individual treatment-related goals while also building community by creating opportunities to share experiences, discuss intentions, learn through others, explore ways to integrate learnings, improve nervous system co-regulation through shared experience, and address personal challenges in a warm and supporting environment.

Groups Starting Soon:

Group Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy Program: Our 10-week KaP Group combines medically supervised ketamine dosing with an integrated group psychotherapy program. Delivered by a multidisciplinary team, our program weaves together ketamine treatment and community-based care. After completion of the group program, participants will have the opportunity to join Edgar Psychological's Psychedelic-assisted Therapy (PaT) alumni integration groups, and will have access to individual KaP maintenance sessions.
Unlock Your Inner Harmony IFS & KaP Group : This group combines Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy, a proven method for healing inner conflict and trauma, with the innovative healing potential of Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy.
Holiday Reset: Open to all previously in one of our Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy programs, the Holiday Reset group is designed to help you step into the celebrations feeling renewed, open, and ready to embrace connection with family and friends.
Ketamine Group Dosing for Women: For women previously in one of our Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy programs, we offer a 2-hour intramuscular ketamine maintenance session designed to help you sustain the benefits of your previous ketamine therapy.
Ketamine Therapy for First Responders Group: This specialized Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy group is designed to provide support and relief to public safety personnel affected by job-related stress. We offer a safe, medically supervised treatment in a group setting specifically designed for participants to heal together.

We are currently accepting client inquiries for Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy, contact us to learn more.

Patients must have a referral from their most responsible physician, nurse practitioner, or other regulated health professional with a PRACID before our intake and screening process. Clinicians can be referred to our KaP Information for Clinicians page for more information.

Benefits of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KaP)

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KaP) can quickly and profoundly allow individuals to reconnect with positive memories, shift negative thinking patterns, enhance cognitive flexibility, cultivate deep insight, reconnect with social supports, and help process and regulate difficult emotions.

Many individuals report lasting improvement in their condition within hours of a treatment session, with up to 70% of research participants experiencing significant symptom reduction following treatment. Research has also shown that an individual's personality and mood are improved in the days to weeks following therapy and that reductions in symptoms can be maintained with long term maintenance treatments.

What are the effects during treatment?

The most common experience from ketamine is short-term dissociation. This medication often distorts your perception of sight and sound while producing experiences of detachment from your environment or yourself, allowing you to gain new perspectives. During treatment, you may also temporarily experience the following:

feeling separate from your thoughts and feelings
visual hallucinations
alterations in perception of time and space
intense emotional states
headaches
nausea
dizziness
blurred vision
drowsiness
elevated mood
anxiety
elevations in blood pressure and heart rate

A licensed provider and compassionate witness will be with you during your medicine sessions to assist and support you through any physical, emotional, or psychological challenges you may experience.

Safety & Considerations

Ketamine administration occurs in a safe, controlled setting designed to optimize the experience. Our KaP-trained psychologists and medical professionals ensure that ketamine sessions are safe, comfortable and meet safety requirements and psychedelic therapy regulations outlined by the Government of Alberta and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. You will meet with our Intake Coordinator, Registered Nurse, and Medical Director to ensure it is safe for you to participate in the program based on your medical and psychiatric history.

Together, our team will work with you to determine the best approach and options based on your medical history as well as where you are at in your healing journey, creating a personalized plan through an environment of compassion, wisdom, growth, and safety throughout the process.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge that the use of psychedelics have been used for therapeutic and ceremonial purposes by Indigenous communities spanning thousands of years who continue to be stewards and knowledge keepers of this sacred work. We aim to respect these lineages by respectfully integrating principles of neuro-decoloniality, diverse cultural wisdom, and cultural humility into a modern therapeutic framework appropriate for our community, acknowledging this is an ongoing process.

We are grateful for the ketamine-assisted psychotherapy research and evidence-informed programming developed by Roots to Thrive, as well as the knowledge and experiences shared from their participants, both of which have inspired our program development.

Disclaimer: Edgar Psychological does not advocate for or facilitate access to illegal substances. The information provided is educational, not exhaustive, and psychedelic treatments are an emerging area. As such, we are constantly updating our program offerings to reflect updated research development in the field, as well as to ensure quality assurance. Only ketamine has legal approval for mental health use outside of SAP approval.

Next Steps

Our Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy programs may be covered in whole or part by your private health insurance/employee benefits plan. Please note that obtaining reimbursement from an insurance company is the responsibility of each client. You are encouraged to contact your insurance provider directly for details of your coverage, to verify that services will be covered by your policy, and any conditions of this coverage. Refer to our blog post for questions to ask your insurance company.

Our Psychedelic Integration team is here to help. For more information and inquiries, please call us at 780-784-8001 or email us at pap@edgarpsychological.com.