Breaking Through

Supporting Local Recovery Journeys with Ketamine Therapy…

Ashley McGee had been through a 30-year seesaw battle with substance abuse and after his latest relapse, the 50-year-old says he was left wondering if he’d ever find his way to sobriety. It was the summer of 2024 and he knew he had to stop; he also knew every previous effort had failed.

“I was at the end of my rope,” McGee says. “I didn’t know how to stop this and I didn’t know where to go. It would just get harder and harder each time.” That’s when he first considered trying ketamine, a powerful anesthetic with dissociative properties. “I was scared,” McGee recalls. “Using a drug to get off drugs? Plus, it’s expensive, but I had some savings.” 

McGee, apprehensive and suffering from alcohol withdrawals, underwent a two-hour ketamine infusion at NeuroRelief, a clinic in Los Angeles. “They titrate it and adjust the level in real time and keep you in a dissociative state. I came out of the session and right away, I knew everything had changed. It was immediate. This giant switch had gone off and reset in my body, my mind, my soul. I had no shakes, no thoughts of wanting anything.” 

Now a Redding resident, McGee says he has enjoyed 20 months of sobriety, his longest stretch ever and has discovered “a better, more peaceful version of myself.” He aids his recovery with meditation and a healthier diet, along with “booster” sessions of ketamine therapy, including one at the Shasta Meadows Wellness Center in Redding.

While in a dissociative state—“like being in a football game and going to the stands and watching it”—McGee says he was able to unearth some childhood trauma that he feels was driving him to drink and use other drugs. Ketamine “is a tool that allows you to open those doors and let go of those beliefs that don’t serve you. There are still challenges, but you can handle them differently.”

Veronika Gold, a licensed therapist and co-founder of San Francisco-based Polaris Insight Center, has been providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy since 2017. She says patients, especially those whose depression has not benefitted from conventional treatment, often find relief from ketamine’s ability to increase neuroplasticity. 

“It opens new communications in parts of the brain that were not communicating before because of the depression,” she says. “Psychologically, it gives a bit of distance, an observer quality. (Patients) have another perspective of seeing and observing themselves, a new way of looking. 

“They have greater access to a past memory. Maybe something difficult that happened and every time they think about it, they feel overwhelmed. (With ketamine) they are able to look at past issues and not feel overwhelmed.” In the end, she says, ketamine provides “a naturalistic way of healing and returning to wellbeing and balance.”

In addition to treating depression and substance abuse issues, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy has been effective in treating anxiety, PTSD, migraines and chronic pain. Ketamine was first synthesized in 1962 as an anesthetic and is still in use in emergency rooms. Its anti-depressant and dissociative properties were discovered later. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently lists ketamine use for treating depression as an off-label use, meaning most ketamine-assisted psychotherapy procedures are not covered by insurance. 

Although ketamine use without a prescription is illegal, its popularity as a party drug has increased over time. Use without proper medical supervision can be fatal (TV star Matthew Perry’s 2023 death was attributed to acute effects of ketamine and subsequent drowning) and chronic use has been known to cause bladder damage. 

Gold emphasizes that ketamine is not for casual use and should be limited to therapeutic settings supervised by healthcare professionals. “We want to create a safe, supportive therapeutic environment so clients can have this safe experience,” Gold says. A typical ketamine infusion session is two to three hours.

Integrating therapy into the ketamine experience is essential, says Redding resident Karen Karnatz, who recently completed a five-day training in providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical setting at the Polaris Insight Center.

“The whole thing was life-changing,” Karnatz says of her experience. Ketamine “opens the door to discussion, but the real work is done before and after.” Ketamine should be used, with intention, “in order to do change and not as a substitute for doing the work,” she says.

Karnatz, who spent 23 years in the funeral industry, is hoping to partner with a clinician to incorporate ketamine-assisted psychotherapy use into her new practice as a death doula. Karnatz uses her experience to help clients navigate the loss of a loved one, offering practical advice and support in preparing emotionally.

Life-changing also was the phrase Tana McClean used to describe her experiences with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. The registered nurse says the seven sessions she underwent brought her out from under a crippling case of PTSD she developed during her military service.

She was so moved by the experience she applied to work at Shasta Meadows Wellness Center and was hired six months later. “This was the reason I got into the medical field to help people and this is helping people,” she says. 

Alexandria Cannon, a fellow 100-percent disabled veteran, is also a patient-turned-employee at Shasta Meadows who hopes to help make ketamine-assisted psychotherapy available for other veterans. McClean says the East Street clinic was established by Dr. James Taggart and is now under the direction of Dr. James Bennie.

Maureen Seifert, a Redding-based licensed clinical social worker, incorporated ketamine-assisted psychotherapy into her practice a year ago after receiving formal training. When coupled with therapy, she says ketamine can help patients in several ways: it allows them to sort through and release difficult material (traumatic memories and painful feelings); it stimulates hard-to-access insights and breakthroughs; and allows for release and relief from deep emotional pain.

In connection with Journey Clinical, where she received her training, Seifert offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy at the lower-dose psycholytic level. Unlike intravenous transfusions, ketamine is administered in the form of lozenges.

“There is definitely a strong need for trauma-informed ketamine providers in Redding,” Seifert says. “I’m hoping with some positive public education, more of our local therapists will seek ketamine-assisted psychotherapy training and offer this life-changing therapy option.” •

shastameadowswellness.com • polarisinsight.com
mourningspace.com • maureenseifert.com