Shiva Howell Therapy
Shiva Howell Psychotherapy
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Art Therapist
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Provider
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy
Integrating ketamine into the psychotherapeutic practice can enhance the benefits of ketamine so that healing occurs at a deeper and longer lasting level. The use of ketamine within the therapeutic relationship can help the patient better identify and work through difficult experiences and behavior patterns, providing new insights and healing that might not have been possible otherwise. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy may allow a person to gain access to the causes of their struggles that were previously outside one's awareness.
Ketamine Assisted Couples Therapy
Incorporating Ketamine with traditional couple's therapy can help patients explore difficult topics, connect, and gain new perspectives.
During a session, both partners are given a therapeutic dose of ketamine and enter an altered state of awareness. Patients experience a relaxed, more vulnerable state allowing them to take a break from the reactive ways in which they communicate. With defenses softened, couples can share and receive information more openly.
Ketamine also aids in regaining a sense of warmth and connection towards their partners. In the days following their ketamine session, the couple continues to benefit from increased neuroplasticity, making it more likely that the couple will continue to sustain their progress.
I work directly and collaboratively with a board certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychedelic medicine researcher. Leana Smith MS, RN, PMHNP-BC has years of experience as a psychedelic session facilitator and site nurse practitioner with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and is a health research scientist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center conducting prolonged exposure therapy and PTSD assessments.
*Ketamine experience can be curated to be mild or psychedelic based on the patient's needs.