What is Ketamine-Assisted EMDR and Is It Right for You?
If you’ve been in therapy for a while and feel like you’re circling the same material without getting to the root of it, you’re not alone. Many people find that traditional talk therapy helps them understand their patterns but doesn’t fully resolve them. This is where approaches like ketamine-assisted EMDR can make a significant difference.
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a well-researched therapy that uses bilateral stimulation — typically eye movements, tapping, or tones — to help the brain process traumatic memories that have gotten stuck. When trauma gets stuck, it stays active in the nervous system, meaning we can continue to feel the same emotions, body sensations, and painful beliefs about ourselves as if the event is still happening. EMDR helps move that material into the past where it belongs, reducing or eliminating the symptoms associated with it.
What is ketamine?
Ketamine is a medication that has been used safely in medical settings for decades. At lower doses — what’s called a psycholytic dose — it creates a state of heightened receptivity and reduced defensiveness without a full psychedelic experience. Research has shown that ketamine temporarily increases neuroplasticity, meaning the brain becomes more flexible and open to change. This is the window we work within.
What is ketamine-assisted EMDR?
Ketamine-assisted EMDR combines these two approaches. While you are in the ketamine state — relaxed, receptive, with your defenses lowered — we do EMDR trauma processing in real time. The combination can allow access to material that feels too defended or too painful to approach in a standard session, and can facilitate changes that might otherwise take months or years of weekly therapy.
This is not the same as a ketamine infusion clinic where you receive ketamine and then talk about it afterward. The therapy happens during the experience itself, which is what makes it distinct.
How does it work practically?
We begin with a preparation session to make sure you’re a good candidate, establish safety, and identify what we’ll be working on. The ketamine is prescribed separately by a licensed medical provider — I can help connect you with one if you don’t already have one. During the session itself I guide the EMDR processing while you are in the ketamine state. We follow up afterward to integrate what came up.
Sessions can be standard length or in an intensive format for those who want to go deeper in a concentrated period of time. This is available via telehealth in California and New Mexico.
Is it right for you?
Ketamine-assisted EMDR tends to be a good fit for people who have done some prior therapy work and feel ready to go deeper, those with treatment-resistant trauma or depression that hasn’t responded fully to other approaches, and those who feel like something is blocking them from accessing or processing difficult material in standard sessions.
If you’re curious whether this approach might be right for you, feel free to reach out for a free consultation. We can talk through what you’re working on and whether ketamine-assisted EMDR makes sense as part of your healing.
