Group provides a safe, informative, and supportive place for therapists to discuss their therapy work with Ketamine.
Description
This group will meet weekly for 12 weeks, and will keep the same members for the 12-week period. We will be learning the principles of KAP and methods for working with psychedelic experiences in ongoing psychotherapies. Members will be asked to present case material from their own practices once or twice during the group, and guided discussion will be encouraged. This group will be a supportive environment with the same confidentiality parameters as a psychotherapy group, and invites personal sharing, but is not a venue for therapists to discuss underground work with psychedelics that they may have done as a therapist. The group is open to practicing, licensed clinicians of all persuasions, but will emphasize psychological and psychodynamic perspectives, including discussions of transference and countertransference. We are asking CCG members to commit 12 week’s participation upon registration; it is not a drop-in group.
A limited number of Diversity Fund scholarships are available, please complete this application, in addition to the course application.
Learning Objectives
Assess and reflect on the motivations for which patients seek KAP.
Assess and verbalize the complex motivations of patients to seek out and use ketamine.
Rate the variety of subjective experiences and emotions patients report with ketamine with nonjudgmental curiosity.
Describe and acknowledge therapist reactions to patients who are seeking KAP.
Rate in equal esteem ketamine experiences that are thoughtful and growth oriented and ones that are recreational, spontaneous, or dissociative.
Assess and articulate how KAP can amplify transference.
Assess and articulate how transferences to ketamine can become fused with therapist transferences.
Prepare for shifts in language, meaning, and self-concept that may accompany experiences with ketamine.
Explain openly (in appropriate settings) about emotional responses (countertransference) to patient reports as they relate to the therapist’s own relationship to psychedelic therapy.
Describe states of psychic disruption that suggest a need for more intensive treatment.
Describe extended support services for the patient, including family or community resources.
Plan the support of non-drug self-transformation efforts as part of KAP.
