Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Eating Disorders
Building a life beyond an eating disorder can feel daunting - or even impossible - when you have lived in its grip for so long.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy offers a powerful approach to reshaping the beliefs and behaviors that are keeping you stuck.
Through KAP, a path to freedom from body, weight, and food obsessions can emerge.
Why Ketamine Has Emerged as a Treatment for Eating Disorders
Eating disorders can develop in a variety of ways and due to a variety of factors, but they share some core experiences:
KAP has emerged as a promising treatment for eating disorders because it can influence all of these factors and others.
How Ketamine Works in the Treatment of Eating Disorders
Ketamine is a medicine that has been associated with three types of changes, which can be amplified when we layer the experience in the process of therapy:
Activation & Anatomy:
Ketamine can activate neurotransmitters in the brain to help us think and feel better, and it can help neurons in the brain communicate more effectively. Ketamine also appears to have the effect of reducing inflammation in the body that may contribute to depression and compulsive behaviors.
Beliefs & Behaviors
When we pair ketamine with therapy, we find that our minds may be better able to develop new ways of thinking and more receptive to new behaviors and habits. Beliefs about ourselves or the world that have felt lodged in our minds forever can finally feel more flexible, giving us a new sense of freedom.
Cognition & Connections
Many people experience KAP as a meaningful or even mystical experience. These experiences often help shift people’s mindsets and they report feeling more alive and part of something. That can lead to greater feelings of empowerment, belonging, and an opportunity to live a valued life.
Who Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Can Help
KAP is considered a novel treatment, and so we are learning more each day about the ways that it can support recovery. A growing body of evidence demonstrates its promise for powerful change.
KAP may help if you are experiencing:
What KAP for Eating Disorders Looks Like
At Odessa, we take a thoughtful approach to KAP. We partner with any existing treatment providers you may have, and we approach this work as a part of your overall treatment plan.
1
Evaluation
We will talk together about your hopes for KAP, as well as your history and other aspects of your treatment. You will be evaluated to make sure you are medically appropriate for KAP and that it’s a safe option for you.
2
Preparation
We will meet for sessions to refine your goals and help build the tools to make KAP an opportunity for sustained change.
3
Dosing
You will self-administer the medicine and be guided through the experience to connect more deeply with yourself and your intentions.
4
Integration
You will meet for sessions following the dosing and during the window of time in which we see the most opportunity for new ways of thinking and feeling.
KAP generally involves a series of sessions, up to approximately eight, and you will discuss the number and timing of your sessions with your provider.
We can’t wait to meet you.
Selected Articles
Ketamine as a Novel Psychopharmacotherapy for Eating Disorders: Evidence and Future Directions
Ketamine as a Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa: A Narrative Review
A case series of group-based ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for patients in residential treatment for eating disorders with comorbid depression and anxiety disorders - Read here
Are Psychedelics the Future of Eating Disorder Treatment? - from Smithsonian Magazine
The Most Unlikely Treatment for Eating Disorders - from Oprah Daily
Anorexia nervosa, zinc deficiency and the glutamate system: The ketamine option
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