Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Arvada, CO - AVOS Counseling Center

If you're exploring ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) in the Arvada area, understanding the difference between a standalone ketamine infusion clinic and a KAP practice - where ketamine is integrated into an active therapeutic relationship - is the most important distinction you can make before booking an appointment. AVOS Counseling Center provides KAP in Arvada, CO, with sessions led by therapist Erica Bonham, who completed her KAP training at the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI).

• What it is: Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) combines a low-dose ketamine experience with active psychotherapy - before, during, and after the medicine session.
• Who provides it at AVOS Counseling Center: Sessions are led by Erica Bonham, a PRATI-trained therapist.
• Where: AVOS Counseling Center, 8795 Ralston Rd #200a, Arvada, CO 80002
• Who it may be for: Adults with treatment-resistant conditions who've cleared medical and clinical screening — not suitable for those with psychosis, mania, or on certain medications.

Research suggests ketamine may help grow new neural connections once diminished by chronic stress. The literature indicates a 70% response rate to ketamine of patients with treatment resistant depression, and a remission rate of 40-50%. 

What Is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is a clinical approach that combines the neurological effects of ketamine with ongoing psychotherapeutic support from a trained mental health professional. Unlike ketamine infusion clinics - where ketamine is administered intravenously or intranasally and the patient is largely alone during the experience - KAP sessions occur in the presence of a therapist who helps guide the experience and integrate what surfaces.

Ketamine is classified as a Schedule III controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Agency and must be obtained by prescription from a licensed medical provider - a physician or nurse practitioner. Sessions at AVOS Counseling Center are three hours in length and are priced at $600 per session.

Ketamine assisted psychotherapy may allow a person to gain access to the causes of their struggles that were previously outside their awareness. 

How AVOS Counseling Center Approaches KAP

Erica Bonham completed her training in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy through the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), a recognized training organization in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. At AVOS Counseling Center, KAP is offered as one component of a broader integrative counseling practice serving clients in Arvada and the surrounding communities.

The KAP session structure at AVOS is designed to support both the ketamine experience itself and the psychotherapeutic work that can deepen its effects. Sessions are three hours in length, reflecting the time needed for adequate preparation, the therapeutic experience, and initial integration before a client leaves the session.

AVOS Counseling Center is located at 8795 Ralston Rd #200a in Arvada, CO 80002.

Becoming a KAP Patient

Your medical provider, a physician or nurse practitioner who practices independently from, but coordinates your treatment plan with, your KAP therapist, will medically assess you to diagnose you and to ensure your safety when using ketamine. Your medical provider will also ask you to read and sign an informed consent document, much like this one, but with additional information about the physical and medical effects and potential side effects of ketamine. If in the judgment of that medical provider, you are assessed as an appropriate candidate for treatment with ketamine and KAP, you will then authorize your medical provider and your KAP psychotherapist to consult about how KAP might best work for you. You and your prescribing medical provider (not your KAP therapist) will decide on the dose and frequency of your ketamine; professional responsibility for those medical decisions lies exclusively with your prescribing medical provider.

Your KAP therapist will consult with your medical provider whose assessment will assist your KAP therapist to formulate a psychotherapeutic treatment plan to meet your particular KAP needs. Please be aware that while your medical provider and KAP therapist will be working in consultation with each other to assist you, they are each separate independent practitioners, each making their own independent assessments and each having exclusive responsibility for the separate aspects of your care that they each provide. The licensure and competence of your KAP psychotherapist is in providing psychotherapy including KAP, but not in prescribing or administering medications such as ketamine.

After you self-administer your prescribed sublingual ketamine, your KAP psychotherapist will support and guide you as you encounter and explore emotional issues that arise during the KAP session.

What To Expect in The KAP Experience

2.5-3 hours will be reserved for your KAP session. After you self-administer your prescribed sublingual ketamine in our office in accordance with the instructions given to you by your medical provider, your KAP psychotherapist will support and guide you as you encounter and explore emotional issues that arise during the KAP session. You agree to follow any direct instructions that your psychotherapist gives to you until the therapist determines that the session is over, and to remain at the location of the session until the therapist decides that you are ready to leave.

Ketamine is formally classified as a “dissociative” anesthetic, dissociation meaning a sense of disconnection from one’s ordinary experience of reality and self. At the dosage typically self-administered during KAP, most people experience mild anesthetic, anxiolytic (anxiety reducing), antidepressant and, potentially, psychedelic effects though these latter effects are typically minimal. The antidepressant effect tends to have a cumulative effect, that is, be more sustained with repeated use. It has been speculated that dissociative experiences are associated with greater and longer lasting beneficial effects. This may also include a positive change in outlook and character that some describe as profound and transformative.

Cost of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Arvada

KAP sessions are 3 hours long and cost $600. We usually spend the first 30-45 minutes setting intentions, discussing possible traumas or wounds that might come up and exploring and integrating resources that can help you in a more psychedelic state. You will then take your medicine. With sublingual troches, you must hold the Ketamine under your tongue for 15 minutes as it is absorbed in the glands of the mouth. During this time, you are encouraged to hold your intentions for the journey loosely and to practice breathing and surrender, trusting that the journey will be what it needs to be for you. People are usually in an altered state for about 40-90 minutes.  Some folks talk during the journey and others are silent, it’s totally up to you. As you come out of this state, we will integrate what came up, processing through any difficult memories or emotions, but also integrating any insights or new perspectives.