Often a person’s ability to tolerate changes and challenges is impaired by chronic stress and various conditions. The KAP process contributes to fostering more resilience and ability to lean into challenges in meaningful ways. Growth and adaptations can feel rooted in self, identifiable in process and tended to. ​ Ketamine stimulates neural regeneration, or neuroplasticity, in the brain while simultaneously supporting a person in a calm state during the dosing. The effects of ketamine during dosing allows people to access a state where they may feel more relaxed, connected, and open to therapeutic insights that may usually feel just out of reach or that have not yet supported a sustainable shift. The use of ketamine therapeutically sets the stage for long-term changes and rapidly decreases depression and avoidance. New connections aligned and accentuated with the therapy process both express and support the change; the change in your mood, thoughts, and perspective. These desired changes may usually be blocked for you by a strong learned map of fear, anxiety, depression, compulsions, addictions and/or trauma stored physically which ketamine assists in decreasing.

With the psychotherapy process of KAP- Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, we optimize the the regenerativity to establish and entrain the therapeutic insights and gains to deepen the impact of therapy. Each ketamine dosing session is first supported with an intention setting session and after with an integration session. My approach weaves a variety of counseling techniques, both somatic awareness tools and conversation approaches, to draw forth and support your ability to center and witness yourself in process. This is also called locating and resourcing your window of tolerance to explore new experiences. I primarily incorporate Internal Family Systems (IFS) and somatic nervous system regulation practices to bring understanding and relief to parts of you that have been coping and anticipating. We use externalizing and mapping techniques like collage work and visualizations to gain you future access to restorative states.

Adding KAP as an addition to your work with another therapist, or as an approach without other psychotherapy can both be available.

Further work with me in the form of groups, workshops and IFS/EMDR intensives, and sometimes more individual therapy, is often available. Visit my website for more information.

Ketamine has been shown to enhance overall neuroplasticity for lasting symptom improvement and psychotherapy optimizes this time for you by instigating and supporting meaningful change process within you. ​ Neuroplasticity is your brain’s physical ability to heal and form new connectivity. ​ Ketamine 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. They work together in excitatory synapses, with AMPA often handling initial signals and NMDA contributing to sustained activity and long-term changes. Their stimulation and balance is critical for normal brain function and learning, and is disrupted in neurodegenerative diseases and stress.

I partner with Journey Clinical, and they prescribe the sublingual lozenge form of ketamine with a dosing effect of about 45 minutes each time typically. ​ We have two options with ketamine dosing: ​ Psycholytic dosing is a smaller dose to support a regular talking therapy session and its insights to have more of your physicality available, meaning your felt experience maps and neural generativity, and the ability to experience insight without resorting to patterned coping is leveraged for your gain. Psychedelic dosing with a larger dose where you'd be in a 'dream-like state' , have a more of an internal, transpersonal experience in which you experience the process more internally and we integrate the experience once the medicine wears off in the last hour of the dosing session gently.

In low to moderate doses, ketamine shifts your consciousness in a safe, controlled way, helping the brain and body loosen their grip on stuck patterns. Many people describe it as a sense of spaciousness, a dissolving of inner walls, or a reconnection to parts of themselves that have long been hidden. Ketamine can make you feel a kind of calm “far from” your body, reinforcing a witnessing state, and facilitating shifts in perception that can often feel expansive in nature. Most people find the effects of ketamine pleasant and restorative. The effects last for approximately 45 minutes. Your motor and verbal abilities will be reduced, so you’ll be lying down in a comfortable position during the experience. I will be with you tracking your experience and incorporating awareness of the invitations you set during our preparation session. Rather than numbing or escaping, Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy invites you to gently ease and soften into yourself, accessing a center and new insights, emotions, and an inner clarity that may have previously felt just out of reach.

Many people turn to KAP when they feel disconnected from themselves, from others, or from a deeper sense of purpose. Some arrive at this work feeling burned out or emotionally numb, while others carry the weight of unresolved trauma, grief, or chronic anxiety. Often, people seek KAP when they feel stuck in familiar cycles of self-criticism, avoidance, or fear, or when they’re simply ready for deeper healing and sometimes unsure where to begin. Ketamine’s effect of increased neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to learn, allows the body to drop coping patterns and to organize around the new possibilities KAP stimulates, especially with parts work and trauma sensitive therapy. Ketamine has rapidly-acting antidepressant and mood-enhancing effects, which can begin to take effect within 1-2 hours after treatment and last for up to 2 weeks. If you’ve tried therapy, medication, or meditation and still feel stuck in old patterns, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) may uniquely support the change you need. Unlike approaches that focus solely on the mind, KAP supports and stimulates healing through the body and can address its emotional and meaning-making maps and memories, providing a holistic path toward healing, transformation and reconnection with your world. ​

Journey Clinical (https://www.journeyclinical.com/)is a platform for licensed psychotherapists to incorporate science-based psychedelic therapies in their practice safely and effectively, starting with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP). Journey Clinical’s in-house medical team takes on patient eligibility, prescriptions and outcome monitoring, while Kristina provides the therapy. Their collaborative care model is designed to deliver personalized treatment to meet your individual needs and improve long-term outcomes. Journey Clinical medical team will evaluate your medical and mental health history, and if prescribed will provide and monitor your ketamine prescription.

Exact details will depend on your insurance and specific needs, but the following is a guide: 1. Journey Clinical estimated costs First-time patients: $338. This payment includes: • Initial medical consultation with Journey Clinical: $250 • Cost of ketamine medication: $88 (enough for 2 sessions) • Cost of shipping and processing ketamine medication • Note: medical consultation costs may be covered by insurance ‍ Ongoing treatment: $298. This payment includes: • Follow-up medical consultation with Journey Clinical: $150 (at least once per quarter) • Cost of ketamine medication: $148 (enough for up to 6 sessions) • Cost of shipping and processing ketamine medication • Note: medical consultation costs may be covered by insurance ​ 2. Costs of therapy are at my standard therapy fee. Payment will be collected at the time service is provided. My fees for psychotherapy services are $150 per session. The first two rounds of sessions will include a preparation session, dosing session of 3 hours and a separate integration frequently. When possible after the first two rounds, future preparation and integration phases may be accomplished in less session time and costs. ​ Estimated costs for the first 2 rounds of KAP are on average $750 each, for a total of $1,500. Future rounds of KAP may range from the $750- $450. Your preparation and integration sessions are eligible for reimbursement by your insurance as psychotherapy. ​ Your actual dosing session will not be billed to your insurance can be 1-3 hours, as currently insurance does not reimburse psychotherapists for this. Frequently, some portion of a 3 hour session is eligible for insurance coverage as psychotherapy. ​

I accept the following insurance plans currently: • Blue Cross/ Blue Shield • United Healthcare • Geisinger • Medicare • Enthea The actual dosing session will not be billed to your insurance, as currently insurance does not reimburse psychotherapists for this. This would be part of your out of pocket cost along with any deductibles, copays and other stipulations of your health insurance plan. ​​ ​A receipt called a super bill for you to submit to your insurance if you have out-of-network coverage with a plan not accepted by Kristina. I subscribe to Mentaya,(https://www.mentaya.com/) so you can use their website to research your out-of-network coverage for my service and submit your superbill with Mentaya, getting your reimbursement sooner.

Ketamine dosing sessions are at my office in the rural downtown of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, which is only 2.5 hours from NYC and 2 hours from Philadelphia. The roads to Honesdale passes through woods and along fields, and the downtown is vibrant and friendly and within a ten minute walk. My office is private and the rooms are exclusively used for your ketamine session. Consultation, preparation and integration sessions can be online or in person at my office.

As a trauma therapist and Journey Clinical trained Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapist treating depression, anxiety, depression and relational difficulties, I can help you learn about KAP, develop and support your desired outcomes for KAP. If you like the idea of developing a calmer center and approaching your coping and relational patterns with compassion, or if you are familiar with the Internal Family Systems - IFS therapy method, and want to include your somatic or felt experiences as part of your integration, I may be an especially good match. I guide you in safely exploring your inner and outer world as it relates to these desired outcomes, to assessing how you best reconnect with your body’s wisdom and to a sense of positive future, moving you toward personally meaningful and integrated healing. Integration means it will be accessible and available in your lived experience.

Yes, if you come to my office in PA for certain parts of the process.