You’ve said the same things in therapy for years. You know your triggers, your patterns, your history, backward and forward. And the anxiety, the depression, the trauma response still fires the same way it always has.
That’s not a failure of insight. Insight lives in the conscious mind. A lot of what’s actually driving your symptoms doesn’t.
Ketamine-Assisted Hypnotherapy (KAH) at Brain Spa pairs a low dose of ketamine with guided hypnotherapy, using the temporary window ketamine opens in the brain to work directly with the subconscious patterns that standard therapy struggles to reach.
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KAH combines two things: a sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine, and hypnotherapy, a guided-relaxation technique that uses focused attention to access the subconscious mind.
On its own, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with documented rapid-acting antidepressant effects. On its own, hypnotherapy has a long history of use for anxiety, phobias, and behavior change, but it depends heavily on how suggestible a person is in the moment.
Put them together, and something specific happens: ketamine’s dissociative state appears to increase suggestibility, the exact quality hypnotherapy depends on to work. That’s the premise behind KAH, and it’s different from Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, which pairs ketamine with talk-therapy-based psychotherapy instead of hypnotic techniques.
Sessions happen in a private, comfortable setting, and can also be arranged in-home or in an environment of your choosing, with medical staff monitoring you throughout.
The ketamine side of the mechanism:
The hypnotherapy side of the mechanism:
A 2025 paper in the Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders examined exactly this pairing for depression, noting the increased suggestibility ketamine produces could help hypnotic suggestion land more effectively, while also flagging that formal research on this specific combination is still early and limited. Separately, NIMH-funded research continues to study ketamine’s rapid-acting effects on depression more broadly.
This is general background on how the treatment is believed to work, not a promise of outcome for any individual patient.
KAH gets considered most often for depression, anxiety, and PTSD that haven’t responded well to standard treatment, what’s clinically referred to as treatment-resistant. In practice, that usually means someone has tried at least two different antidepressant medications, at an adequate dose, for a full 6 to 8 weeks each, without meaningful improvement.
Typically a good fit if you:
Typically screened out or requiring extra caution:
This isn’t a self-diagnosis tool. It’s a preview of what your provider will assess directly during intake.
What To Expect
Each step goes a little deeper. The dip in the middle is the hypnotic state itself.
Your provider confirms candidacy and reviews history.
A low dose of ketamine is administered. Vitals are tracked.
Your hypnotherapist guides you deeper, working with suggestion while the window is open.
Dissociation and response are tracked throughout, 60–90 minutes total.
Someone drives you home. The rest of the day is for resting.
| Approach | What Happens | Who’s With You |
|---|---|---|
| Standard IV Infusion | Ketamine delivered through an IV. Monitoring is mostly vitals-based. | Medical staff, minimal in-session talk therapy |
| Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy | Ketamine combined with active talk-therapy-based psychotherapy during dosing. | A trained psychotherapist, present the entire time |
| Ketamine-Assisted Hypnotherapy (KAH) | Ketamine combined with guided hypnotic suggestion, aimed at subconscious patterns. | A trained hypnotherapist, present the entire time |
| Spravato (esketamine) | An FDA-approved nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression, separate protocol. | Medical staff for post-dose observation |
Ketamine Assisted Hypnotherapy is a treatment approach that combines the use of ketamine, a medication with anesthetic and analgesic properties, with hypnotherapy, a form of therapy that uses guided relaxation and focused attention to help individuals access their subconscious mind.
Ketamine Assisted Hypnotherapy has shown promising results in treating a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, and chronic pain.
While ketamine has been used safely in medical settings for decades, there are potential risks and side effects associated with the treatment, such as dissociation, nausea, and increased heart rate. It is important to discuss the potential risks and benefits with a healthcare provider before undergoing Ketamine-Assisted Hypnotherapy.
The length of a Ketamine Assisted Hypnotherapy session can vary depending on the individual and their specific needs, but they typically last between 60-90 minutes.
Clinically, it generally means you’ve tried at least two different antidepressant medications, at an adequate dose, for a full 6 to 8 weeks each, without sufficient improvement.
Uncontrolled heart disease, a history of psychosis, active unmanaged substance use, pregnancy, and poorly controlled bipolar disorder are common reasons a provider may screen someone out or require extra caution. Your intake evaluation is where this gets assessed for your specific situation.
Ketamine for psychiatric use is typically billed as out-of-network. Ask about an itemized superbill at your consultation, and see our FAQs page for more on billing.
