The TeleWellness Hub Podcast

Ep 73 Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Unveiled Part 3: Sarah's Experience with Ketamine and Path to Wellness & Transformation

• Martamaria Hamilton

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Curious about the evolving landscape of mental health treatments? Join us for an enlightening session with Crystal Myers, a licensed professional counselor, and Sarah, her courageous client who embraced the transformative power of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Together, we navigate Sarah's decade-long journey through various therapeutic methods, including mindfulness, EMDR, CBT, and somatic therapy, culminating in her profound experience with ketamine. Discover how Sarah overcame her initial skepticism about ketamine's reputation and found it to be a groundbreaking tool in her healing process.

In this candid discussion, Sarah shares the remarkable improvements in her sleep, mood, and emotional connections, attributing these positive changes to ketamine therapy. We celebrate her resilience and the newfound harmony between her mind and body, which has empowered her to navigate life's challenges with grace. Crystal and I highlight the importance of self-love, setting healthy boundaries, and being open to different therapeutic approaches. This episode offers hope and practical insights for anyone exploring ketamine-assisted psychotherapy or seeking effective mental health support.

A personal message from Sarah (we are so grateful for her healing, the healers, and this innovative treatment option):
KAP has worked differently than EMDR or other treatments as it enables me to process forgotten trauma, missing memories, physical sensations, etc without having to remember the specific details. Over the years, these blocked memories and physical traumas have been the biggest obstacle to my treatment. I have survived the depression, anxiety, insomnia, and other cPTSD effects, through denying, minimizing, self harm (eating disorder + substance/alcohol abuse), over working, being over active, isolation, people pleasing, etc. Basically, my firefighters and critics have taken the wheel most of my life.

The antidepressant relief was felt immediately after the first session; the behavioral and mental changes have been more gradual over the last six months. 

Some changes include:  how seamlessly I can accomplish tasks, get out of bed, good posture and PT/yoga, keeping good habits, interviewing for over a dozen jobs, planning and showing up (I struggle with keeping plans or having energy) for friend adventures, reconnecting with positive people, less social anxiety, excitement to try new things, ability to maintain eye contact, genuinely interacting with strangers, to feel and be with an entire range of emotions (notably rage) without regression, to clearly express my emotions/needs, to express and uphold boundaries, and (the biggest one) disowning my life-long abuser and navigating the backlash/disregard of my complex traumatic experience.

I can feel my heart energy and want to love/help everyone feel better. I'm more connected to the left side of my body/right brain, than I can ever remember. I experience patience, grace, and respect for myself, my experience, emotions, struggles, etc instead of numbing out with marijuana and alcohol to push away the feelings that have been fighting to be expressed and felt. 

I feel blessed to be part of something bigger than myself, transitioning from surviving to thriving. I can finally feel for/connect with my inner child, being on her own from a very early age (possibly birth), and believe that I had no control over the things that were done to me. My bad habits aren't a reflection of my soul, it's what I did/do to survive. I can slowly transition away from these habits as I'

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Speaker 1:

Welcome, friends, to the tele wellness hub podcast, a space where listening is not just a simple passive act. It's an act of self-care. I'm Marta Hamilton, your host, and this is a new segment of our three-part series on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. We are joined by an expert in this field, crystal Myers. She's a licensed professional counselor and owner of the group practice, lifeworks Professional Counseling, which is based out of Virginia. If you haven't checked out part one of this series, I recommend you do, because I talk with Crystal in depth about this, and she is also joined today by a client who has worked with Crystal and has benefited from ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Sarah, thank you so much for graciously sharing your wellness journey with us today and for joining Crystal and I.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here.

Speaker 1:

I, I, uh, before we hit record, you know I in going back and forth and scheduling this appointment, I was just very, very uh grateful that we were able to have this conversation, because I think that there are many people who are interested in learning more. I actually sent some questions out in preparation for today, for the general audience, of what are some things that you wish you would know about, or what would you want to know from someone who has pursued therapy and then also decided to try out ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. And one of the things people had asked is well, how do I know if I should try ketamine-assisted psychotherapy? A lot of it was regarding wondering. You know I've tried these other methods and so I'm curious, if you don't mind sharing with us when did you first start pursuing therapy in general and maybe what therapy methods you had tried before trying ketamine?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

My therapy journey began in 2011 and I and I just really had no idea what I was doing but knew that I wanted to be more like into meditation and mindfulness.

Speaker 2:

So I engaged in talk therapy with more of a mindfulness meditation kind of route, but that that really wasn't helping me and that was through a different practice.

Speaker 2:

And then I came to be connected with Crystal and we were using methods more like EMDR, cbt and somatic therapy to help treat just complex PTSD and lifelong just things that I had been dealing with my whole life. And I got a lot out of the years that we worked together and was able to kind of take like a little therapy hiatus and then experienced a car accident a couple years ago and that kind of put me back in to this feeling of you're just white, knuckling it, nothing's helping. You know you're, you're ready to do the work, but you just need this extra push to help you get there. And luckily, the time that we live in, what's going on in the world and the changes around the purposes behind ketamine just all kind of seem to align with the timing of my you know need for something drastic to help with my symptoms and that's how we were able to connect the dots and begin this journey about six months ago.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's incredible. I appreciate you sharing, I think, especially because I sometimes I in in in general, we could paint therapy as this really like it feels good kind of journey. But it is such hard work and I I've gone through therapy myself and I know sometimes the struggles of finding the right fit, even just searching finding the right fit, even just searching, finding the right fit, trying out new methods. I mean you described, you know, the mindfulness and EMDR and CBT and somatic work and that's a lot to try to figure out, especially, you know I have in graduate school you receive some training or you might pursue training, continuing education, but there are so many techniques, so many approaches and it takes a lot of vulnerability to kind of say, okay, here's my life and I'm going to entrust this person with you guiding me through through these symptoms I'm having and, um, through my life. Uh, sharing it's a very. The therapeutic relationship is so important and valuable and it sounds like the timing came just right with the right person for you and I'm so glad for that.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. I am very blessed to have Crystal in my life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, crystal, I've said this before. I mean you're just, it's just colleague to colleague. I really hear just your professionalism and your care and your heart for your clients and your work. And I think, if I could, for anyone listening who's wondered about therapy, I think finding the right fit is important and I think just hearing now sometimes someone might be a great therapist but maybe it's not the right approach or technique for you and what you need. But finding that right fit, when you sharing on this podcast, trying something new, being on a podcast and sharing with so many, bringing value to so many listeners I mean you both it's just really an amazing gift to people.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, and it's been quite a blessing to work with Sarah. She shows up with courage and I don't know that she's aware of the depth of her strength and she's learning to use that strength for herself and it has been such an incredible experience watching her navigate this and learn to love herself you know, I think that strength you mentioned I'm curious about because what I'm hearing you say that you started your journey in 2011,.

Speaker 1:

You're trying different techniques, you do a hiatus, you try something new. That does take a lot of courage. It does take a lot of strength, a lot of resilience. In that I'm curious if, when you were, when you first heard about the use of ketamine, potentially you said I needed something, a drastic change or something major. Were there any hesitations or did you feel all in right away? I'm curious about just kind of your initial reaction with it.

Speaker 2:

That's a great question.

Speaker 2:

My initial reaction was just to compare, I guess, my life experience to the medication and I didn't see how it was going to help me because I'd only ever experienced people abusing it or using it at music festivals or in their personal life. So I really didn't take it seriously and I thought more that MDMA or psilocybin therapy may be something that I'm less afraid of, so to speak. Like, when I think of ketamine I'm thinking surgery, incapacitation, and just think I'm such a control freak I want to have my. You know I don't like disassociating and not being in my body, so it really just did not make sense to me at all. Crystal has recommended endless books that have just really helped educate me on the power behind using a medication as it's intended and just helped me understand by getting me connected to the psychiatrist that prescribes it just how this I guess it's an off-brand use of the drug it can really change the way your brain works and create new neural pathways so that you can experience your life differently than you ever may have remembered.

Speaker 1:

Sarah, it just sounds like such a place of empowerment to have the opportunity to read, to gather your own knowledge, your own perspective, to speak with the other professionals as well. You mentioned the psychiatrist being able to coordinate and connect that way.

Speaker 2:

I'm curious, then, when you saw these changes what did you notice in terms of benefits or changes before and after the ketamine? Definitely so. I guess, like the days after the treatments, the most immediate effect was just the relief I felt like my sleeping and eating patterns were well regulated. My mood was stabilized, in that like it's easier to get back to baseline and not stay in a triggered state. Stay in a triggered state and really just having that time to do like writing exercises or self-reflection has helped me just really connect the dots for all my behavioral patterns and every feeling that I've experienced. I think the greatest change I felt was feeling my feelings and not over intellectualizing everything or trying to rationalize that you know, if you just do these three steps, then you'll be fine, you can be normal, like, like. Any of that sort of judgment just disappeared and I was able to just finally feel my feelings, understand where they're coming from and just have grace and patience with myself.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, sarah, I think one of the biggest things for me was the day that you came in and we were preparing for a ketamine session and you said my brain and my body are finally communicating.

Speaker 2:

I've never experienced that before to get used to living on one half of your brain. It's really life changing to feel whole again and to have just a spectrum of emotion instead of just getting through the day and surviving all of these feelings and moods that come up without understanding why.

Speaker 1:

Sarah, that's so impactful. I and I'm hearing that you felt this even just days after like this is. You had, I guess, your first session or I don't know how many sessions you've done total, but even after your first session just a sense of freedom, a a sense of relief, and you know, in talking with other people there's just that sense. What you're describing is I had heard just like the ability to be, to feel your feelings, to not have judgment. Really it sounds like a place of freedom and being able to live in a way I guess that you hadn't before, to have an openness, and I know you stated the first session correct me if I'm wrong was about six, six months ago, right, so did. Is this something that you started experiencing since the first time and it's continued and grown? Or I'm curious about what that's been like in terms of how you've experienced these amazing like with sleep and eating. Is it pretty? Does it build upon itself? Was it pretty immediate?

Speaker 2:

absolutely so yeah, I would say it has an extreme trickle down effect because once reclaim myself my self-love, um, even if it came down to disowning or not talking to family members, um, or people that are unhealthy for me, so just really showing up for myself. And I guess another way that I felt this change is that during our treatments I was laid off from a job I had of nine years and, yeah, my response to that I mean I mean the day of it wasn't a beautiful reaction, but in the weeks and months and now it's been almost seven months since my reaction to the hell that is our job market right now the interviews, the applications, the rejections is a thousand percent different than what it would have been just a year ago without this treatment.

Speaker 2:

I yes, I first. I asked Crystal, is this indifference unhealthy? Like, am I just being manic? And she's like no, this is you managing a major life stress and not beating yourself up and just still putting in the hard work and doing the things you know have to get done. But you know your self-worth. You're not going to take the first job offered to you. You're going to fight for yourself in the way you haven't been able to show up for before and that I feel like is happening. I found out yesterday that I have possibly landed a dream job.

Speaker 2:

So not to like, act like this is a fairy tale. I mean, you know, stuff changes. I'm going to be realistic, but I'm going to be okay if it doesn't happen, I guess, right. So yeah, just I would say, after even just the first treatment and then the subsequent ones I've had in the last six months, my strength, my resilience, my ability to regulate my mood, my energy level, regulate my mood, my energy level it's all just getting better and better and I feel for the first time in my life, like a true connection to a higher power or a God and I was not raised religiously or a god and I was not raised religiously. I just understand that we're part of something much bigger and dumb. It's not just everything that's been done to you or has happened. That's not all that is. So I think these are probably the most significant changes I've experienced.

Speaker 1:

Sarah, I just it sounds like it's. This is so profound. I mean, just as someone that's listening. It's just relationships, purpose your heart. I just hear your heart and like a healing of your heart and your spirit and I'm so glad, I'm so grateful that this exists and that you're willing to share so vulnerably with us and I just think there are so many people hurting and so often, as a therapist, I don't have the training Crystal has. I've wanted more, I wish I could do more and it sounds like this is the more for a lot of people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I could only hope that this has the same physical and mental effects on other people. I'm so blessed that it is helping me. I would never want to sell anything as a cure-all. There is a lot of work you have to put in. I wish it was as simple as just taking a medication and waking up the next day in a different state of mind, but I'm getting there and I feel very strongly that this medication can help billions of other people as well.

Speaker 1:

That this medication can help billions of other people as well. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that, crystal. I don't know when it comes to recommending. I know you have training in talk therapy, emdr, as Sarah has mentioned Is this something that you see possibly benefiting a lot of people? I remember part one of our series. We talk about who it might benefit and how you do different screeners, but is this something that you have seen, with other clients, such as Sarah, typically benefiting from the first session? I hear this a lot, even in. I started doing a lot of research for this podcast and I'm seeing just the data is amazing in terms of the benefits for people who have been searching for hope for years.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's Sarah mentioning the fact that you know, it's not this, this magic panacea. But pretty consistently after the first session people are experiencing growth and a couple of people after the first one have come back in or we process a little bit before they leave and some of them will say, well, I don't really feel anything different. I'm not sure that worked. But then they come in the next day and we have another psychotherapy session to try to reinforce those new neural connections and pretty consistently they're able to say I experienced this, I'm not as anxious, I'm able to leave the house, whereas before I would, I wouldn't be able to do that. I don't have to make myself do these things and there is a mood left and again, like Sarah said, you have to put the work in and some of the ketamine sessions I just want to be honest are can be very intense.

Speaker 3:

People process a lot of body trauma that's stuck in their bodies. There can be pretty intense emotions, but I think, as Sarah was saying, it's that understanding that this is now giving me access to a part of me that I cut myself off from and I'm living through this. I have someone here who is monitoring and I trust them and I'm going to get through this monitoring and I trust them and I'm going to get through this. So it just builds those experiences that you, oh it just it's life-changing for me to witness. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And Sarah, if you had a loved one, a friend, someone who approached you and asked you I know hopefully this is, I believe that this conversation will bless so many you sharing this that there will be healing and value for listeners who may share with their loved ones or themselves. If you, if you had a loved one, a friend, a family member, someone you love dearly, approach you and ask you hey, I'm thinking about this. What would you say?

Speaker 2:

I would probably tell them all of the benefits and I actually have shared this with a few relatives and close friends. They're just really going through a hard time right now and have also been in therapy for years or tried different medications. I would tell them like you don't have to keep white-knuckling this or overworking and ignoring it there is, you know, this has worked really well for me and you deserve peace and even beyond that. I would probably offer myself like you need a ride to get there, you need help financially with this sort of like. This is something I believe so strongly and people at least trying once just to see how it can benefit them. I would fully support their decision and answer anything they needed to know about my experience well.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, sarah, for sharing with us, with me and with those listening, and though they may never get to meet you and ask some specific questions, I feel that you've shared so much and really have given a full picture so that those who may want to know more can get in touch with Crystal or seek out other providers in their state, and truly I think I have been blessed by this conversation with you, and I'm sure many listeners are as well, and so thank you both. Thank you, sarah, thank you Crystal for joining us and Sarah for sharing your wellness journey with us today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me on.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, Marta.