Download In this episode, Joe interviews Raquel Bennett, Psy.D. at Kriya Institute. In the show, they cover topics surrounding the properties and paradigms of therapeutic Ketamine use. 3 Key Points: The Kriya Institute is devoted to understanding the therapeutic properties of Ketamine. Raquel Bennett specializes in using Ketamine therapy for patients with severe treatment resistant disorders. There are three questions that should be used when determining if someone is fit for Ketamine therapy. Is it safe? Is it legal? Is it ethical? There are many different paradigms for Ketamine Therapy, but determining the best method for each individual patient is the goal. Support the show Patreon Leave us a review on iTunes Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community. Navigating Psychedelics Trip Journal                                             Integration Workbook Show Notes Kriya Institute The Kriya Institute deals with how to work with Ketamine specifically in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Kriya provides clinical services to patients, training for other clinicians, and Kriya conference The conference is a big collaborative meeting Raquel is trying to create a patient assistance fund to make services more available to people Ketamine Ketamine isn't addictive physically It is possible to become psychologically addicted to Ketamine Raquel thinks its a property of the person not of the object It's possible to become addicted to anything, shopping, sex, etc. About Raquel She first encountered Ketamine in 2002 when she was suffering from severe depression She was seeing a therapist that took her to a psychedelic shaman where she took Ketamine From the way she felt after taking Ketamine, she wanted to know if it was replicable for other people She is interested in people with treatment resistant mood disorders, such as severe depression, unusual bipolar disorder and people living with active suicidal ideation She remembers her teachers (who gave her Ketamine) saying they don't use it often, and don't know if it will work They were not seeking an antidepressant effect, they were helping her to connect to the cosmos and the universe, to find out why she was having such severe depression The fact that it acted as a rapid-acting antidepressant was a surprise to them, and that's what triggered her curiosity with it “Most of what I know of being a Ketamine provider, I learned from being a patient” - Raquel Ketamine and Patents Johnson and Johnson just came out with a filtered Ketamine product that they patented $850 for 84mg of filtered Ketamine $1.59 for 100mg of generic Ketamine They are only providing it as a nasal spray Companies tried to make a new molecule, but they couldn't Instead, they modified it, and filtered it, and then patented it (Esketamine) Ketamine Treatment Paradigms There is a lot of disagreement on the route, the dose, the setting importance, etc This was the reason she created the Kriya conference, to share ideas, to find the best possible methods One way is to give it as a low dose infusion out of the anesthesiology model (0.5mg of Ketamine per kg of bodyweight in an infusion center) They aim to get enough ketamine in the patient's body without the psychedelic effects They take the normal dose, divide it by 6, and space it out to avoid the psychedelic nature The patient is being forced into a passive role, they aren't being called to heal themselves, they are just showing up for the medicine Raquel says that's not all that there is to it, the medicine is only half of it Another paradigm for using Ketamine is facilitated Ketamine Psychotherapy In this way, the Ketamine is used as a lubricant for talk therapy We are using Ketamine to help people to talk about material that is too painful or too shameful to get to otherwise” - Raquel In this paradigm, the emphasis is on the therapy, not the Ke