Frequently Asked Questions

Ketamine is currently the only psychedelic legally approved for therapeutic use in Texas. It’s a safe, effective, and evidence-based treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and emotional distress—especially when traditional medications haven’t worked.

Unlike antidepressants that act on serotonin or dopamine, ketamine targets the glutamate system, offering a different path to healing. Many find that ketamine works more quickly and deeply—especially when combined with therapy.

At Tree of Life Counseling Center, we offer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to help deepen emotional processing, self-reflection, and insight. All sessions are medically supervised and therapeutically guided to ensure your safety and well-being.

Note: We do not provide ketamine for pain management or as a primary treatment for substance use. Our focus is on emotional healing and mental health.

Unlike standard antidepressants, ketamine works through the glutamate system, which plays a crucial role in mood regulation and neural connectivity. While Ketamine alone is not a cure all, this unique mechanism can lead to rapid relief—sometimes within hours.

Ketamine was first synthesized in 1962 and has been used medically for years in emergency rooms, operating rooms and within the mental health field. Ketamine is approved by the FDA for use in children and adults for anesthesia and as a pain reliever during medical procedures. For over 20 years psychiatrists and medical doctors have been using Ketamine to provide relief for patients with depression, PTSD, anxiety, postpartum depression, OCD, and chronic pain.

When administered in a low-dose infusion, ketamine is a medication that may provide relief of symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute and chronic pain.

Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hrs. It works by blocking the brain’s NMDA receptors as well as by stimulating AMPA receptors, which are thought to help form new synaptic connections and boost neural circuits that regulate stress and mood. Ketamine has also been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement (source: MAPS)

2-Minute Neuroscience: Ketamine

There are several ways ketamine can be administered, including intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), sublingual lozenges, and nasal spray. Each method has different benefits and drawbacks, and choosing the right one depends on the setting, the goals of treatment, and the structure of care.

At Tree of Life Counseling Center, we use intramuscular (IM) administration—a small injection into the upper arm—because it offers a precise dose, predictable onset, and therapeutic consistency in a supportive, therapist-guided environment.

Lozenges (oral ketamine) are a more accessible and sometimes cheaper option—but they often have unreliable absorption rates, which can lead to inconsistent effects and less predictable outcomes. For this reason, we do not use lozenges as our primary method.

Please know that this decision was made with great care, keeping your safety and well-being at the forefront of our process.

Administration Chart

By utilizing KAP to bring down emotional barriers it enables you to be more open to discussing emotional trauma, wounding, and feel less overwhelmed by those memories. KAP is inner-directed, meaning the therapeutic content and the direction of the session is informed primarily by YOU and your own inner healing intelligence.

At Tree of Life Center, we use Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy / Therapy (We will refer to this as KAP sessions) with you in an effort to help ease your emotional suffering. For many KAP produces results that can be felt in weeks vs years of therapy.

Nothing that comes up in session is something you have not already been walking around and holding daily, KAP allows you access to this information by allowing you to bring up material that may be difficult for you to process with less emotional burden and pain. When we are able to process information in this way it allows us to get to the root of your wounding and process through it.

Ketamine’s use for treatment of pain, depression or other mental illnesses is considered off-label and therefore generally not covered by insurance plans. Off-label use of medications is legal and very common. In fact, about one in five prescriptions written in the US today is off-label. Please note that at Tree of Life Counseling Center we do not provide KAP services for pain management or primarily for substance abuse treatment.

An integration session is a therapy session that takes place after a psychedelic experience, such as a ketamine-assisted therapy session. Its purpose is to help the client process, make sense of, and apply what they experienced during the altered state in a meaningful, grounded way.

Here’s a breakdown of what integration sessions typically involve:

🧠 What Happens in an Integration Session?

• Reflection & Meaning-Making: Clients are invited to explore the thoughts, emotions, images, or insights that arose during the ketamine experience.

• Grounding & Emotional Processing: Therapists help clients process any unresolved feelings or confusing content that surfaced.

• Applying Insights to Daily Life: Together, the therapist and client identify ways to translate any breakthroughs or new perspectives into real-life shifts or goals.

• Supporting Nervous System Regulation: Since psychedelic sessions can be intense, integration work may also involve somatic practices or resourcing to support emotional balance.

Because ketamine acts on different systems than commonly used antidepressants, it has been found to be effective—especially when other treatments haven’t helped. While most antidepressants increase levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, ketamine works differently. It targets the glutamatergic system by binding to NMDA receptors and temporarily blocking the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays a major role in mood regulation and neuroplasticity.

A growing body of clinical research suggests that dysfunction in this system is a key contributor to mood disorders, and many individuals have experienced relief with ketamine when other interventions have failed.

That said, ketamine is not a magic cure, and we want to be clear: it’s one tool—not the whole toolbox. While we cannot guarantee that it will work for you, those who combine ketamine treatment with psychotherapy and a thoughtful integration process tend to see more meaningful, lasting change.

We approach your care with compassion, curiosity, and transparency. If you’re feeling stuck or seeking new options, ketamine-assisted therapy may be worth exploring—and we’ll be here to walk with you through every step of that decision.

SUBJECTIVE EFFECTS include:

· Altered auditory perception and proprioception

· Changes in perception, cognition, and emotion

· Dissociation and ego dissolution

· Experiences of death and rebirth

· Feeling of awe, wonder and disembodiment

· Mood enhancement

· Muscle relaxation

· Mystical experiences, out-of-body experiences or illusions

· Pain relief – not primary use at TLCC

· Transcendence of space and time

· Vivid imagery, visual hallucinations or distortions

NEGATIVE EFFECTS - Ketamine isn’t without its adverse effects which can impact the outcome of ketamine-assisted therapy if not tended to. These include:

· Accidents (falling, car collisions, etc) – We ask that you follow the direction of your provider in order to reduce this risk.

Your provider will be with you at all times and someone to drive you home is required.

· Anxiety (particularly as the medicine is onsetting)

· Blunted affect or emotional withdrawal

· Confusion and decreased concentration, recall, recognition, and mental sharpness while in medicine

· Distorted perceptions of body and self and disorientation

· Double or blurred vision

· Drowsiness

· Dysphoria

· Increased blood pressure, heart rate and intraocular eye pressure

· Laryngospasm (a rare involuntary contraction of the vocal folds that can impair speech and breathing)

· Loss of coordination, muscle trembles or jerks

· Nausea or vomiting

· Paranoia or psychological distress

Yes—you absolutely can. Many of our clients already have a trusted therapist or established mental health provider.

At Tree of Life Counseling Center, we believe in collaborative care. If you are working with an outside therapist, we can coordinate with them to ensure your ketamine journey is supported and integrated meaningfully into the work you're already doing. With your consent, we’re happy to provide integration summaries or collaborate directly with your provider to help you get the most out of your treatment.

Healing doesn’t have to happen in isolation—we’re here to be a part of your team, not replace it.

· Depression

· Bipolar depression

· Chronic pain with depression -Not service provided at TLCC

· Post-traumatic stress disorder

· Obsessive compulsive disorder

· Anorexia Nervosa & Eating disorders

· Substance Use Disorders - Not primary service at TLCC

IKetamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) can offer meaningful relief for many, but it’s not the right fit for everyone. At Tree of Life Counseling Center, your safety is our top priority. That’s why every client must be evaluated and medically cleared by our Medical Director before beginning treatment.

Medical Conditions That May Be Contraindicated

Some health conditions and medications require caution or may make KAP unsuitable. These include:

• Uncontrolled Hypertension – This may not exclude you, but a specific care plan will be created.

• Pregnancy

• Preeclampsia or Eclampsia

• Severe Cardiac Disease

• History of Stroke

• Acute Porphyria

• Schizophrenia or active psychosis

• Young Children – At Tree of Life, KAP is only available for adults.

Our intake process includes a comprehensive medical screening. Our Medical Director will review your history and any relevant concerns to determine if ketamine is a safe and appropriate treatment option for you.