Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Trauma Resolution in Philadelphia
Many people arrive curious about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy after years of doing meaningful work on themselves.
They understand their history.
They can name their trauma.
They may even feel compassion for the younger parts of them that learned to survive.
And yet, the same emotional patterns continue to show up in their bodies, their relationships, and their sense of self.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is not about leaving those patterns behind or rising above them. At Spilove Psychotherapy, we use ketamine as a tool to help clients move into deeper contact with how meaning, trauma, and identity are structured inside them, so those patterns can be reshaped rather than bypassed.
Why Ketamine Alone is Not Enough for Trauma Resolution
Ketamine is sometimes offered as a stand-alone medical intervention or as an inward-facing experience with minimal therapeutic guidance. While ketamine can open perception and soften rigid emotional states, trauma does not resolve simply because consciousness expands.
Trauma lives in patterned relationships between sensation, memory, attachment, and meaning. Without active therapeutic support, powerful experiences can remain disconnected from daily life, or even reinforce confusion when clients return to familiar environments.
Our approach to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is grounded in the understanding that how an experience is structured matters just as much as the experience itself. The presence of a therapist, the clarity of intention, and the process of integration are what allow change to endure.
Preparation as Mapping Patterns and Meaning
Before any ketamine-assisted psychotherapy session, we spend time getting to know the full landscape of who you are. This includes assessing trauma history, attachment wounds, relational patterns, goals, and the parts of you that tend to organize your inner world. This preparation phase is not a formality. It allows us to understand the patterns you are coming from, how you make meaning, and what has shaped your nervous system over time. Ketamine does not erase these patterns. Instead, it temporarily loosens them so they can be approached with care and curiosity. Many clients engage in trauma therapy, parts work, or EMDR therapy alongside preparation. This creates a strong foundation so ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can be used intentionally, rather than reactively.
Intention as a Way of Organizing Experience
Each ketamine-assisted psychotherapy session begins with intention setting. Rather than focusing on insight or outcome, we invite clients to choose a feeling state they want to experience or something they want to create or explore internally. An intention such as belonging, safety, or self-trust does not function as a positive affirmation. It acts more like an organizing principle. Once an intention is set, everything that supports it and everything that stands in its way tends to arise.
This is not a problem to solve.
It is how deeper work becomes visible.
What Happens During Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Sessions
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is offered in many different ways. Some settings leave clients alone with ketamine.*Others provide a sitter or therapist who remains present as a witness but does not actively engage. At Spilove Psychotherapy, our approach is different.
We believe that trauma resolution requires more than observation.
It requires attuned, responsive, and skilled therapeutic involvement.
For this reason, our therapists are actively engaged throughout the ketamine experience, not just present in the room.
Our approach to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is informed by the work of clinicians such as Dr. Gabor Maté, who emphasizes that trauma is not what happened to you, but what happened inside you as a result. From this perspective, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is not about inducing extraordinary states, but about creating the conditions for compassionate contact with the places where meaning, attachment, and identity were shaped.
During ketamine-assisted psychotherapy at Spilove Psychotherapy, we draw from multiple trauma resolution modalities in real time. Ketamine opens a window of neural plasticity, and during that window we actively work with whatever modality best supports the client’s intention and nervous system. This may include EMDR resourcing, parts work inspired by Internal Family Systems, inner child work, attachment-based interventions, or other trauma-informed approaches as needed.
We are not rigid about technique.
We follow what is emerging and what the client’s system is asking for, moment by moment.
As ketamine takes effect, clients often enter a dream-like state. Visuals may emerge that feel symbolic rather than literal. Some people encounter younger parts of themselves, family dynamics, or specific trauma memories. Others experience imagery connected to creativity, nature, animals, colors, sound, or areas of the body that are asking for attention.
We also use the medicine wheel as a guiding framework during sessions. Before and during ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, clients are invited to notice whether their intention is calling for healing through the body, the mind, the heart, or the spiritual dimension of their experience. This orientation helps us guide the work toward embodiment, emotional processing, cognitive meaning-making, or existential and spiritual connection, depending on what feels most central.
Clients often find that ketamine naturally draws attention toward one of these directions. Our role as therapists is to help name and support that movement, and to gently guide clients back to their chosen orientation when needed. Clients often feel themselves moving through the emotional tones and frequencies of the music in combination with their intention.
Expansion, Contraction, and the Work of Integration
After ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, it is common for clients to experience a contraction following a particularly expansive session. This period is also part of the neural plastic window that follows ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. During this time, the nervous system remains more open to learning and reorganization. Integration sessions continue to draw from trauma resolution modalities such as EMDR, parts work, attachment-focused therapy, and inner child work to help stabilize and embody what emerged during ketamine. The sense of belonging felt during ketamine may be followed by heightened awareness of not belonging, isolation, or emotional vulnerability. This shift is not a setback. It reflects a natural balancing process.
For every expansion, there is a contraction.
For every contraction, there is the potential for further expansion.
Integration therapy helps clients work with what arises during this phase. We often describe integration as building a bridge. Ketamine experiences can create the front end of the bridge by offering a felt sense of what is possible. Integration builds the back end so those experiences can be accessed in everyday life.
When challenges, obstacles, or old patterns emerge during integration, we treat them like weeds in a garden. They are not signs that something went wrong. They are invitations to tend to what has been shaping you from the ground up.
How Ketamine Work Reshapes Daily Life and Relationships
As patterns begin to shift, clients often notice changes in how they relate to themselves and others. Emotional reactions soften. Boundaries become clearer. There is more room to respond rather than automatically protect or perform. Because our ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is rooted in trauma resolution and meaning-making, clients are not just having experiences. They are reshaping the patterns that organize their lives so they can live in ways that feel more aligned with their integrity and inner wisdom.
Beginning Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy at Spilove
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is not about escaping your life. It is about learning how to inhabit it differently. If you are curious about whether this approach is right for you, we invite you to reach out for a consultation. We take time to assess readiness, goals, and support needs before beginning. Our intention is to move slowly, thoughtfully, and in service of lasting change.
FAQs
How is Spilove Psychotherapy’s ketamine-assisted psychotherapy different from other approaches?
Our approach combines active therapy during ketamine sessions, intentional preparation, and ongoing integration. Ketamine is used as a tool to support trauma resolution rather than as a stand-alone intervention.
Can ketamine-assisted psychotherapy help with complex trauma?
Yes, when thoughtfully prepared and integrated. Many clients with complex trauma benefit from combining ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with trauma therapy or EMDR therapy to support nervous system regulation.
What if difficult emotions arise during or after a ketamine session?
Strong emotions often indicate that meaningful patterns are coming into view. Your therapist remains present during sessions and supports integration afterward so these experiences can be worked with safely and compassionately.
How many ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions are needed?
The number of sessions varies depending on your goals, history, and patterns. Some clients integrate ketamine-assisted psychotherapy into longer-term therapy, while others use it as part of intensive therapy.
Do you provide integration support after ketamine sessions?
Yes! Integration is a core part of our work. We help clients translate ketamine experiences into daily life so change can continue well beyond the session.
