Ketamine- Assisted Psychotherapy PART 2: Ketamine & the Body
- Geetha Naidu
- Apr 3
- 13 min read
Updated: Apr 8
Part 2:
Ketamine & The Body
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Healing is rarely linear, and in most cases, it is not isolated to the mind alone.
Emotional distress, trauma, and psychiatric conditions often take root across the entire human system—affecting how we think, how we feel in our bodies, and how we make sense of our lives.
Ketamine-Assisted Therapy (KAP) offers a multi-dimensional response: a treatment that engages the brain’s chemistry, the body’s physiology, and the person’s deeper sense of meaning.
In this article, we explore the three distinct domains where ketamine exerts therapeutic influence:
Cognitive Repair (Brain)
Autonomic Regulation (Body)
Insight and Narrative Transformation (Soul)
When these domains are addressed in tandem,
the potential for meaningful, lasting, change
...increases exponentially!
That's exactly what we specialize in.
So what is Ketamine?
Pharmacologically, Ketamine is a non-competitive, NMDA receptor antagonist.
(Read PART 1: Ketamine & The Brain)
Useful Definitions For Part 2: Ketamine & The Body (Dropdown)
Insights from Van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score
& Peter Levine's Waking the Tiger
As I sat with the concepts from
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk,
I reflected on how trauma doesn’t just alter our thoughts but deeply reshapes how we exist in our bodies. Van der Kolk (2014) writes, “Trauma is not just an event that happened in the past, it’s the imprint left on the body and brain” (p. 175).
This realization helped me understand that trauma isn’t just stored as a memory in the mind; it becomes imprinted in the nervous system, affecting our breathing, heart rate, and even immune function.
Trauma creates a biological disruption that ketamine therapy has the potential to heal. Ketamine works by enhancing neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, forming new, healthier neural pathways. This neuroplastic effect is key in breaking through the rigid patterns of trauma stored in the body.
When combined with somatic therapy, ketamine can accelerate the healing process, helping the body release trapped survival energy and restore regulation, all while engaging the mind in profound emotional processing.
Peter Levine’s Waking the Tiger (1997) further deepens this idea by explaining how trauma is not just a psychological wound—it is a biological one, stored in the body’s nervous system. Levine’s work shows us that trauma can be released when the body safely discharges the stored energy, something ketamine can support.
Ketamine therapy can create a safe, altered state of consciousness, allowing patients to process and release that trapped energy, aiding in emotional and physiological healing.
What KAP makes possible is not simply clinical relief—but the restoration of interiority.
It invites a return to mystery, to sensation, to meaning.
To remember, at last, that healing was not just
"feeling better..."
You will return home.
Examination of Trauma's Effects on the Nervous System
Conditions like PTSD, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders often stem from dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When you experience trauma, your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) can become overactive, while your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) becomes suppressed.
This imbalance can cause you to feel constantly on edge or completely numb, a pattern of hyperarousal or hypoarousal.
Trauma dysregulates our internal systems, leaving you in a constant state of survival.
Over time, this manifests physically through chronic pain, fatigue, digestive issues, and a weakened immune system.
Ketamine-assisted therapy is unique because it offers a way to rewire these dysregulated patterns through neuroplasticity. Ketamine helps create new neural pathways that promote balance and safety within the body, reducing the fight-or-flight response, which has become ingrained due to trauma.
By reactivating the brain’s ability to form new connections, ketamine enables the body to return to a state of equilibrium. This process allows for somatic therapies to take effect, helping you physically release trauma.
Research shows that trauma can also disrupt the HPA axis (Yehuda et al., 2022), which regulates our stress response. Ketamine, through its NMDA receptor antagonism, promotes glutamate release, enhancing neuroplasticity and helping to restore balance in the HPA axis.
This mechanism is crucial for clients struggling with the physical consequences of stress, as it improves emotional regulation and reopens pathways for healing.
Read on.
Ready?
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Evolution and our Basic Stress Response:
(~500 million years ago)
🐟 Early Vertebrates
What Happened:
The earliest stress responses emerged in primitive fish-like species.
These creatures developed basic hormonal alarms (like adrenaline).
Reaction was simple: detect threat → move fast (dart away or freeze).🧠 Survival depended on instinctive, rapid action.
🐁 Early Mammals
What Evolved:
Introduction of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) for faster response.
Adrenal glands started releasing adrenaline almost instantly.
Body redirected resources to muscles, shut down non-essentials (like digestion).💡 More complex and efficient readiness to fight or flee.
🧍 Early Humans
How we Advanced:
The brain and body worked together: memory, emotion, and physical reflexes integrated.
Amygdala triggered responses, but cognition helped plan or avoid future threats.
Could react and reflect: survive a threat and learn from it.🛠️ Fight-or-flight became both instinctive and strategic.
🧑💼 Modern Humans
Where We Are Now:
The same system is still active — but now it's triggered by non-life-threatening stressors (e.g., emails, deadlines, traffic).
Chronic activation leads to burnout, anxiety, fatigue, and inflammation.
The nervous system stays stuck in overdrive without real physical danger.⚠️ Our biology hasn’t caught up with our environment.
🌱 Rewiring & Healing
The Path Forward:
The autonomic nervous system can be retrained through:
Breathwork
Vagus nerve stimulation
Somatic therapy
Mindfulness & trauma-informed care
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections, and ketamine therapy enhances this process, helping the brain form healthier pathways. By increasing neuroplasticity, ketamine aids in emotional processing, improves interoception (bodily awareness), and supports the healing of trauma by restoring the connection between your body and emotions, especially when combined with somatic therapies.
(Read Part 1: Ketamine & The Brain)
The Body’s Role in Healing: Embracing Your Sensations
Your body communicates through sensations—tightness in the chest, an aching back, or a gnawing stomach. These sensations are your body's way of expressing what cannot be said in words. For those with trauma, the body may carry physical reminders of past pain, fear, and unresolved trauma.
In ketamine therapy, your physical sensations become a vital part of the healing process. Ketamine induces a dissociative state that helps you step outside of your usual patterns, allowing you to witness your emotions from a new perspective. This can help you release old patterns stored in the body, such as muscle tension or emotional numbness.
Through somatic tracking and body awareness, you can reconnect with the sensations that were once too painful or overwhelming to process.
Ketamine makes it possible to experience this reconnection safely, enabling you to understand and release what your body has been holding onto.
Anxiety, Depression, & Trauma-
How Do These Present in the Body? (Expanded below)
Anxiety: The Body’s Response to Threat
Depression: The Weight of Numbness and Disconnect
Trauma: Letting Go of What is Held in the Body
Somatic Therapies: Supplementary Healing Methods
Each of the following somatic therapies plays a vital role in your healing process, especially when combined with ketamine-assisted therapy:
Binaural Beats: A Helpful Tool for Sleep at Home, but Not for In-Clinic Ketamine Therapy
Ketamine therapy focuses on deep emotional engagement and open discussion, requiring an environment that encourages emotional exploration. Binaural beats, while useful at home for relaxation and mindfulness, might distract from the introspective nature of ketamine sessions. An optimal therapeutic environment is distraction-free, allowing for a full immersion into one's thoughts and feelings, with our expert guidance, facilitates fresh insights and promotes healing during in-clinic ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
Final Thoughts
Trauma is not just an emotional experience; it firmly resides in your body, manifesting through various physical sensations and responses that impact your overall well-being. The intricate connection between the mind and body means unresolved trauma can lead to chronic pain, tension, and numerous other physical ailments, often unnoticed until they become overwhelming.
Innovative approaches like ketamine therapy and somatic therapy offer individuals a powerful opportunity to heal from within. Ketamine therapy, renowned for its rapid antidepressant effects, alters the brain's neurochemistry, and in time, breaks the cycle of negative thought patterns linked to trauma.
This leads to a significant reduction in PTSD and depression symptoms, allowing individuals to gain clarity and emotional relief.
Somatic therapy, on the other hand, focuses on the body's physical sensations and experiences, encouraging individuals to reconnect with their bodies in a safe and supportive setting. This approach emphasizes acknowledging and processing bodily sensations often tied to past trauma.
By engaging with these sensations, clients can release pent-up emotions and tension stored in the body, fostering restoration and balance!
KAP offers a deeper reconnection to your true self.
As you embark on this healing journey, you will find yourself not merely surviving but truly thriving, embracing life, with renewed vigor and authenticity!
Still not convinced?
Here's what Thrive Life Counseling Center offers that others do not.
How Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Transforms Mental Health Care at
In standard ketamine therapy models, the journey is often isolated. :(
Clients are given a dose, headphones, and eye shades, left to drift alone in an altered state with little preparation and minimal integration.
But what if healing isn’t meant to happen in isolation? What if your pain needs more than music—it needs meaning, presence, and sacred witnessing?!
While those solo sessions may offer temporary symptom relief, they often fail to touch the deeper roots of suffering—the symbolic, emotional, and spiritual layers where true transformation lives.
we go
beyond.
Before the medicine ever enters your system, we work with you to set intention and prepare the psyche. During your session, our therapists are present, not to intervene, but to hold a deeply attuned, healing field.
And afterward, we walk with you through integration, helping you decode the symbols, emotions, and revelations that arose, grounding them into your body, your story, your life.
This approach honors the full spectrum of your being: neurobiological, emotional, archetypal, and spiritual.
It transforms ketamine from a passive experience into an active healing ritual, where your subconscious becomes a source of wisdom, and your pain becomes a path toward awakening.
In this space,
you are not treated, you are transformed.
Connection sets us apart at
Thrive Life Counseling Center & differentiates us from
other Ketamine Clinics in the North Georgia area!
Our effectiveness shines through!
Ready to contact us for a consultation on our services?
For those seeking more than symptom relief and desiring a profound healing experience that integrates spirituality with psychotherapy, reach out for a consultation for transformative healing through Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) by clicking below:
PART 3
The Three-Fold Healing of Ketamine- Assisted Psychotherapy:
THE SOUL
Your Ketamine Psychotherapy experience should be
unique, intentional, and profound as you are!
Your personal healing deserves to be sacred,
Your journey deserves to glow from within.
Learn more here:
Thanks for reading!
Join in on the conversation below:
About the Author:
Geetha Naidu, Intern Therapist
Trauma-Informed Coach | Depth Psychology Mentor/Coach| Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Integration Guide
Hi, I'm Geetha!
I'm a intern at Thrive Life Counseling,
where I serve as a trauma-informed intern under Dr. Neil Monette, a KAP provider through Journey Clinical.
I also serve as Board Secretary at the Carl Jung Society of Atlanta. I am currently pursuing my LPC and preparing for a PhD in Depth Psychology—with a vision of becoming a Jungian Psychoanalyst. I am a creative visionary artist, writer, and animal lover.
“The encounter with the numinous is one of the most profound experiences of the human psyche, calling us to awaken to something greater than our ego and opening the door to the sacred.”– Carl Jung
I invite you to begin your journey
& watch as the darkest depths give way
to radiant self-discovery!
Citations
Some citations are directly mentioned in the text (even if only by journal name and date), while others are added to support the pharmacological and neuroplasticity concepts discussed:
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
Levine, P. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books.
Yehuda, R., Flory, J., Pratchett, L., Buxbaum, J., Ising, M., & Holsboer, F. (2022). Putative biological mechanisms for the association between early life adversity and the subsequent development of PTSD. Psychopharmacology, 239(4), 1105–1117.
Hölzel, B. K., et al. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36-43.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. Norton & Company.
Pagani, M., et al. (2012). Neurobiological correlates of EMDR monitoring—An EEG study. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 6(3), 133–143.
Mitchell, J. M., Bogenschutz, M., Lilienstein, A., et al. (2023). MDMA-assisted therapy for moderate to severe PTSD: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial. Nature Medicine, 29, 74–85.
Siegel, D. J. (2012). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy. Norton.
Scaer, R. C. (2005). The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency. W.W. Norton & Company.
Schore, A. N. (2020). Right Brain Psychotherapy: Process, Change, and Neurobiology. Norton & Company.
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 201–216.
Le Scouarnec, R. P., et al. (2001). Binaural beats and their use in the treatment of anxiety, stress, and sleep disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 647600.
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