Treatment steps, and what we hold dear

Today, research into psychedelic-assisted therapy is advancing through rigorous clinical trials, led largely by the United States and Australia.

In the U.S., clinical trials proceed under FDA review, and examples such as esketamine have reached approval. In Australia, since July 2023, psychiatrists who meet the requirements have been permitted to prescribe these substances for treatment under a framework set by the national regulator (the TGA).

Behind these developments are treatment protocols established over many years by U.S. nonprofit research organizations such as MAPS, protocols that today are widely referenced as the de facto world standard.

Some of the core principles shared across this field include the following.

• Thorough preparation: Building trust and the right mindset (set) in the preparation session before the experience.
• A safe, calm environment: Holding the experience in a quiet space (setting) shaped with care for its atmosphere.
• Presence and support: The clinician does not steer the content of the experience, but simply receives whatever arises from the person. When anxiety intensifies, they offer gentle support as needed.
• Music as support: Using a music program designed first to ease tension, then to support the surfacing of deeper emotion and memory.
• An emphasis on integration: Doing the work, over multiple sessions after the experience, of reconnecting it to everyday language and daily life.

We build these principles into the medical framework of our ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Our treatment proceeds through the following steps. We explain the meaning of each one in detail below.

1. 01

   Assessment

   About 60 min

   A psychiatrist evaluates suitability

2. 02

   Preparation

   1–2 hoursSame day

   Building mindset and trust together with a mental health professional

3. 03

   The Ketamine Session

   About 2.5–3 hours on-siteSame day

   Experiencing it in a prepared environment, closely supported throughout

4. 04

   Integration

   Same day · 1 hourSame day

   Always held after the session: reconnecting the experience to your own words and your life

5. 05

   Two-Week Follow-Up

   Online available

   Checking in on what's changed, and thinking through what comes next together

More than the medicine’s action itself, we value the preparation that lets you meet it with a sense of safety, and the time afterward to put the experience into words. This entire arc is one treatment.

First, assessing suitability (about 60 minutes)

The first step is an eligibility assessment by a psychiatrist. We ask about your treatment history, current symptoms, any co-existing conditions, and medications, to determine whether ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can be carried out safely and appropriately for you. If there's a safety reason we can't offer treatment (a history of schizophrenia, uncontrolled hypertension or heart disease, pregnancy, or breastfeeding, for example), we'll let you know clearly.

At this stage, we also explain the risks and limits of treatment, including the fact that this is off-label, privately paid care, and you sign a consent form. Assessing suitability before anything else is itself the starting point of our safety management.

Building the foundation for the experience (1–2 hours)

The preparation session takes place on the day of the ketamine session, before it begins. This step heavily shapes the quality of the session itself. We never move to a session without it, because a well-prepared mindset (set) is understood to support both the safety and the quality of the experience.

In the preparation session, you and a mental health professional will work through things like the following.

• Building trust: You'll first meet and talk with the mental health professional who will be with you throughout the session. Getting to know the person you're about to entrust yourself to helps build a foundation of safety.
• Knowing exactly what to expect: We walk through the space, the position you'll be in, how long it will take, and what might happen. The unknown itself is often a source of anxiety, so we reduce it wherever we can.
• Preparing for dissociation: We explain what a shift in the sense of reality (a dissociative experience) might feel like during the session, and how to respond if it brings on anxiety. Knowing that this is a normal effect of the drug, not a dangerous abnormality, helps steady the experience itself.
• Putting your intention into words: What are you carrying, and what do you want to look at? You don't need to have an answer decided, but putting into words where you currently stand becomes a valuable anchor for integration afterward.

In a prepared environment, closely supported (about 2.5–3 hours on-site)

We translate the principle of shaping the setting into a concrete, physical environment inside our clinic.

Space and environment: The session takes place in a quiet, dedicated space kept calm rather than clinical. Instead of bright, sterile lighting, we prepare a room where the brightness and quality of light are chosen to help you settle. You can take whichever position feels safest (reclining, for instance). The space itself, built to make the experience safe and reflective, is treated as part of the treatment.

Music: You'll wear an eye mask and experience the session accompanied by a music program played through speakers, designed specifically for this purpose. In psychedelic-assisted therapy, music is never just background sound. It's understood as a companion to the experience, easing tension at first and then supporting the surfacing of deeper emotion and memory. We treat music as a genuine element of treatment, following that same understanding.

Presence and support: A trained clinician or mental health professional stays with you throughout the session. Our role is never instructional or leading. We respect what rises from within you. We don't steer the content of your experience; we quietly and empathetically support whatever surfaces. We simply watch over the experience as it unfolds at your own pace.

Administration: The medication is given by intramuscular injection under a physician’s dose management. You may continue taking your usual psychiatric medications as prescribed. If you are taking lithium carbonate, please consult your treating physician in advance. Throughout the session, we continuously monitor vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate, and respond promptly to any abnormality. You rest at the clinic until the effects have settled; after that rest, we hold the integration session. Attention to the quality of the experience and rigorous medical safety are never treated as separate things.

After the session: An integration session always follows the ketamine session. We never simply send you home afterward. Please do not come to the clinic by bicycle, motorcycle, or car on the day of treatment.

Making the experience your own (same day, about 1 hour)

The integration session always takes place on the same day, after the ketamine session. Once you’ve settled on-site, you look back on the experience with a mental health professional. Integration is the single most important part of psychedelic-assisted therapy, and the part most often skipped. We place it at the center of our treatment process.

What you experience during the session may be something strange and hard to put into words. Integration is the work of translating what you felt, noticed, or came to see into everyday language, and finding its place in the life ahead of you. In the integration session, you and a mental health professional will work through things like the following.

• Putting the experience into words: Slowly finding language, in a safe space, for what you felt and the images that arose during the session. We search together for the words when they don't come easily.
• Sorting through emotion and insight: Making sense of the feelings, unexpected memories, or realizations that surfaced, within the context of where you are now.
• No rush to interpret: We never impose a "correct" reading of your experience. Meaning tends to surface in its own time, at its own pace, and that pace belongs to you.
• Building a bridge to daily life: We think concretely together about how what you've noticed might carry into your daily life, relationships, and self-care going forward. Where it helps, we may also suggest approaches like journaling, so you can keep tracking the experience on your own.

With integration in place, a single experience doesn't just end as something strange that happened. It can become a real foothold for the change that follows.

Confirming change over time (online available)

About two weeks after the session, we schedule another opportunity to reflect together. It's common for changes that weren't visible right after the experience to emerge gradually once you're back in everyday life.

In this follow-up, we check in on any changes in symptoms or side effects, and look together at how what came up during your integration session has taken root in your life since. From there, we decide together on the direction going forward: whether to continue, and whether a further session makes sense. This session can be held online if that works better for you.

There is a preparation session, the environment is carefully set, clinicians stay beside you without imposing answers or a direction, and there is time for integration. This process follows the methodology that psychedelic-assisted therapy has built up over time.