Ketamine Therapy 101

Sometimes traditional “talk” therapy approaches can reach an impasse, where verbal and other “skills”-based work are inadequate in terms of reaching core sources of pain, suffering and conversely, inner-healing. The use of ketamine can allow someone to experience a lifting of their defenses, a connection to self-compassion and empathy, and a softening of the barrier between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. This essentially allows someone to “go deeper” into their own experience, story and psyche, to find and strengthen their connections to their core sources of meaning, resilience and strength.

Ketamine therapy aims to uncover “root causes” of psychological suffering, instead of managing symptoms.

A term often used in ketamine medicine is Inner Healing Intelligence, which means each person has an innate inner drive towards healing and wholeness (just as a seed has an inner drive to become a flower). Non-ordinary states of consciousness, produced by ketamine, can allow for increased access to our innate drive towards wellness and wholeness, and offer distance from the self-stories that aren’t serving us well. 

Intero believes that in our modern and fast paced society, there is a crisis of meaning and suffering often comes when we feel purposeless and disconnected, and when our lives are dominated by painful stories that are minds endlessly narrate to us. While Intero believes that ketamine should not be viewed as cure for mental health disorders, it does believe that the medicine can help individuals to have deeply meaningful experiences and to often reconnect with a sense of purpose and personal source of resiliency.