Get The Most Out Of Your Ketamine Treatments
How you approach your ketamine therapy sessions can make a huge difference in how deep the experience goes and how much of it stays with you.
I’ve seen people come out of their first session confused, disconnected, or even disappointed—not because the medicine didn’t work, but because no one told them how to engage with it.
Worse, no one told them how important it is to work with a therapist, especially one skilled in psychedelic healing (perhaps the single most important thing you can to do to accelerate ketamine treatment effects.)
I’ve met people who didn’t realize that a simple blindfold could turn their experience from distracting to immersive.
Others didn’t know that music guides the journey, and instead of using a carefully curated psychedelic playlist, they played their favorite rock album—only to find that the pounding drums and driving guitars clashed with the medicine, pulling them out of the experience rather than deeper into it.
I learned this the hard way.
When I started ketamine for depression, I thought all I had to do was show up, take the medicine, and let it do its thing. And while the biological effects of ketamine kicked in, I realized later that I had missed opportunities—chances to go deeper, to engage with what was happening, to shape the experience in a way that gave me more insight, more clarity, and ultimately, more lasting relief.
That’s why I created this guide:
It’s chock full of practical tips, step-by-step instructions, things no one tells you until you’re already in the chair wondering why you didn’t prepare better.
What you’ll see below are the highlights, the essential takeaways from the guide. But if you want to make sure you’re getting the absolute most out of every session, I highly recommend downloading it.
And the best part? It’s FREE!
Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
A Week or Two Out From Your First Session
The groundwork you lay now can shape your entire experience. What you bring into that room—mentally, physically, emotionally—matters.
The Morning of a Ketamine Therapy Session
What you do in the hours before treatment can set the stage for what happens in the chair.
At the Clinic, Right Before Ketamine Is Administered
The minutes before the medicine takes hold aren’t just waiting time—they’re priming time.
During the Ketamine Treatment
You’re in it now. How you approach this altered state can determine what you take away from it.
As You ‘Wake Up’ From the Ketamine
The experience doesn’t end when the drug wears off. What you do next can help lock in the benefits—or let them slip away.
The Ride Home & Settling In
Integration starts now. The way you re-enter the world matters more than you think.
This isn’t a guide to sitting back and hoping your visits to the ketamine clinic works. This is about making sure it does.
A WEEK OR TWO BEFORE YOUR FIRST KETAMINE TREATMENT
1. Get A Therapist Before You Start
I don’t just think getting a therapist is a good idea—I think it’s the single most important thing you can do to make therapy with ketamine work for you. The medicine opens the door, but therapy is what helps you walk through it. Here’s a very personal account of how my therapist helped.
In the full guide, I break down exactly what kind of therapist you need, the single biggest mistake people make when choosing one, and how avoiding it can make a huge difference in your results.
2. Schedule Time Off
Low dose ketamine isn’t something you squeeze in between errands. It’s pretty much an all-day affair. Now, how do you explain this to your boss—especially if you don’t want to share too many personal details?
The key is framing it professionally while maintaining your privacy. Instead of saying, I’m undergoing ketamine therapy for depression, you can say… well, it’s all in the guide. And so is my best strategy for scheduling sessions so you don’t have to take more time off than necessary.
3. Arrange Transportation—You Cannot Drive Home
You might feel fine. You might even think, Hey, I’ve driven on less sleep than this. But make no mistake—getting behind the wheel after a ketamine session isn’t just a bad idea, it’s dangerous.
Ketamine isn’t like a drink that wears off in an hour or two. It alters perception, motor control, coordination, and reaction time—and just because the peak effects have faded doesn’t mean your brain has snapped back to full capacity. Here’s more on why you need someone to drive you home.
4. Get Anti-Nausea Medication—And Take It At The Right Time
You probably won’t get nauseous but if you do it can hijack the entire experience. In the guide, I tell you what % of people are likely to get it and what to do if your clinic doesn’t prescribe them automatically.
5. Lay Off The Booze and The Weed
Ketamine for depression does the heavy neurological lifting—it’s rewiring brain pathways, reducing inflammation, and restoring synaptic connections. Adding alcohol or cannabis into the mix? That’s like throwing static into a radio signal. It interferes with the process and can blunt the very benefits you’re trying to achieve.
Now, telling someone who drinks or smokes weed regularly to just stop before starting ketamine treatment isn’t realistic. In fact, forcing an abrupt change can create its own stress, anxiety, and even withdrawal symptoms, which could make depression worse before treatment even begins. That’s why my guide gives you 6 strategies to dramatically cut or eliminate consumption.
When I started ketamine therapy, I was drinking heavily—almost every day. Not casually, not socially, but as a crutch. Alcohol was woven into my routine, a way to smooth the rough edges of my mind, even though I knew it was also keeping me stuck.
But I was committed to giving therapy with ketamine a real shot, and that meant cutting back. The problem was, stopping outright felt impossible. The more I thought about quitting, the more trapped I felt, like I was being forced into something I wasn’t ready for.
So I played a little psychological trick on myself and it worked. It’s on Page 18 of my guide.
6. Get The Right Gear–It Makes a Big Difference
Ketamine therapy isn’t just about what happens in your mind—it’s about creating the right environment to get the most out of the experience. Small things, like an eye mask or a blanket, might not seem essential, but they can make a huge difference in how deep you go, how comfortable you feel, and how much you’re able to surrender to the experience.
Most clinics, including mine, provide a lot of what you’ll need—eye masks, blankets, sometimes even noise-canceling headphones. And for some people, that’s enough. But I found that bringing my own items made me feel more comfortable, more settled, and more at ease going into the session.
Take blankets, for example. My clinic had nice ones—soft, clean, totally fine. But I’m 6’2”, and the ones they had didn’t fully cover me. Lying there, half-covered, with cold feet pulling me back to reality, wasn’t exactly ideal. The next session, I brought my own. Problem solved.
In my guide you’ll get a complete list of must-have items to make your ketamine journeys more pleasant and effective.
7. Download a Psychedelic Playlist
It’s one of the most important things you can do to get the benefits of ketamine. Research shows that music isn’t just background noise—it actively influences mood, perception, and emotional processing during altered states.
The right playlist can guide you through shifting psychological spaces, from deep introspection to expansive, visionary states. It provides structure when time and reality start to blur, helps you stay on a therapeutic path instead of drifting aimlessly, and can even nudge you toward emotional breakthroughs instead of avoidance.
Get this wrong, and you risk being pulled out of the experience instead of deeper into it. In the full guide, I share my number one psychedelic playlist, plus a curated top five list that experienced therapists and ketamine patients swear by.
THE MORNING OF A KETAMINE TREATMENT
The best ketamine therapy session isn’t just about what happens once you’re in the chair—it starts the moment you wake up. The way you handle the hours leading up to your appointment can affect everything from your comfort to the clarity of your experience. The goal is to eliminate unnecessary stressors, minimize discomfort, and create the best conditions for ketamine to do its work.
8. Fasting
Fasting before ketamine therapy helps ensure a more comfortable experience. While nausea is relatively uncommon—only about 7% of people report it—it can happen, and having an empty stomach reduces the chances of discomfort.
This is especially important for IV and intramuscular treatments, which take effect quickly. Most clinics recommend avoiding solid food for at least six hours beforehand and limiting liquids two hours before your session. Following these guidelines helps you stay focused on the experience without unnecessary distractions.
9. Hydration is important, but don’t overdo it.
Small sips of water are fine, but don’t chug a bottle before your session. You don’t want to be mid-experience and suddenly desperate for a bathroom break.
10. Shower and Basic Hygiene
It might seem like a small thing, but taking a shower the morning of your session can help mentally and physically prepare you. You’re about to enter a state where your body might feel distant, floaty, or even nonexistent—feeling clean and refreshed beforehand helps ground you. Brush your teeth, wash your face, and do whatever small rituals make you feel put together.
11. Dress for the Experience
Loose, comfortable clothing is a must. You don’t want anything restrictive—no tight jeans, no stiff collars, nothing that will dig into your skin while you’re lying back in a chair or on a bed. Think sweatpants, soft fabrics, warm socks. Ketamine can sometimes make you feel cold, so wearing layers or bringing a light jacket or blanket is a good idea.
If you wear contact lenses, switch to glasses. Your eyes may feel dry, and you’ll likely have them closed for most of the session anyway. Glasses are one less thing to worry about.
12. Set An Intention—But Don’t Force An Agenda
The best mindset going in is curiosity, openness, and surrender. But there’s a specific way to set an intention that helps deepen the experience. The guide walks through the simple intention-setting exercise I used before every session.
13. Avoid Social Media, News, And Stressful Conversations
Your headspace going in matters. One bad comment, one annoying work email—these things can linger in your mind and affect your session. The guide shares my best techniques for protecting your mental space before a session.
14. Prepare a Go Bag—Don’t Scramble at the Last Minute
The last thing you want to do before a ketamine treatment is run around trying to gather everything you need. The minutes leading up to your appointment should be calm, intentional, and stress-free. That’s why preparing a go bag—a small bag with everything you need for the session—is a smart move.
Pack the Night Before or Morning Of
Aim to have your bag ready the night before or, at the latest, the morning of your session. Do not leave this for the last minute. The closer you get to your appointment time, the more your mind will be occupied with anticipation, and you don’t want to be frantically searching for your headphones when you should be settling into a relaxed mindset.
What to pack? My checklist is on page 36 of the guide.
AT THE CLINIC, RIGHT BEFORE THE KETAMINE IS ADMINISTERED
You’ve arrived. You’re minutes away from beginning, and this is the last chance to set yourself up for a smooth, distraction-free session. What you do in these final moments matters—once the ketamine takes effect, you won’t want to be adjusting blankets, fumbling with your phone, or trying to explain mid-dissociation that you suddenly need a bathroom break.
15. Set Up Your Personal Items
- Unpack your eye mask, blanket, headphones, water, and any other comfort items you brought.
- If you’re using a grounding object, place it somewhere accessible.
- A session is not the time to be messing with Bluetooth settings.
16. Put Your Phone on Airplane Mode—No Exceptions
I learned this the hard way. The first time I forgot to silence my phone, I was deep in the session when an incoming call shattered the entire experience. The vibration alone was enough to jolt me out of the dissociation, leaving me disoriented and pulled in two directions at once. It was awful, and I never made that mistake again.
Before your session begins:
- Turn your phone on airplane mode. No calls, no texts, no notifications.
- Double-check that your playlist is open and ready to go so you’re not searching for it when you should be settling in.
- Adjust volume levels now—too loud can feel intrusive, too soft might not be immersive enough.
Nothing pulls you out of a ketamine experience faster than an unexpected notification, a spam call, or a text from a coworker asking about something that suddenly feels completely alien to you. Block out the outside world before you begin.
There are four other things you need to do before the ketamine is administered and you can find them on pages 39-41.
DURING THE KETAMINE THERAPY SESSION
Once the ketamine takes full effect, control is no longer in your hands. And paradoxically, that’s where your real power lies. The more you surrender, the smoother the experience. Trying to fight or shape the session will only create unnecessary friction.
You’re not guiding this journey—you’re being guided. Your job is to allow it to unfold.
17. If You Have Psychedelic Visions
Psychedelic visions under ketamine aren’t just random hallucinations. They are your subconscious speaking in metaphor, revealing what’s hidden beneath the surface. Some are beautiful, filled with glowing landscapes, celestial beings, or a profound sense of connection. Others are dark, terrifying, or deeply unsettling. Some make no sense at all. I had tons of them–you can read how helpful they were to my healing here.
And all of them are there for a reason.
You can’t casually close your eyes and decide what to think about during therapy with ketamine. Once the medicine takes hold, you’re in it. You won’t have the ability to simply “change the channel.” The best thing you can do—the only real control you have—is to surrender to whatever appears.
You Might See the Most Beautiful Things You’ve Ever Witnessed
- Vast cosmic landscapes, infinite and awe-inspiring
- Beings that feel divine, guiding, or full of wisdom
- Scenes from childhood, memories that seem illuminated from within
- A feeling of dissolving into pure love, pure light, or the fabric of existence
Some people describe these visions as spiritual experiences—as if they’ve connected to something greater than themselves. Others feel awe, peace, or deep understanding without being able to explain why. If this happens, don’t try to grasp it—just let it happen.
You Might Also See Darkness—and That’s Okay
Not all visions are beautiful. Sometimes ketamine pulls you straight into the terrifying parts of your subconscious. It may show you:
- A monstrous figure, looming and menacing
- A vision of yourself disappearing, dissolving, or being erased
- Scenes that feel like past traumas reinterpreted in metaphor
- A sense that you are trapped, lost, or unable to escape
If this happens, do not fight it. The vision is surfacing because something inside you is trying to be seen, trying to be processed. The more you resist, the worse it will feel. Instead, surrender. Ask the vision questions.
What kinds of questions? You’ll find them in page 42 of the guide.
18. Handling Other Potentially Uncomfortable Experiences
Not every ketamine treatment is a cinematic trip filled with vivid imagery. Some are quiet. Some feel like nothing is happening. Some leave you floating in an empty, dissociative space with no reference points. None of these experiences mean the treatment isn’t working.
What If You Don’t Have Any Visions?
It’s easy to assume that big visuals = big healing, but that’s not how ketamine works. The most important effects of ketamine are biological, not visual. The medicine is changing your brain—restoring synaptic connections, increasing neuroplasticity, rewiring old thought patterns—even if you don’t see anything. Click here to see what ketamine actually does to the physical structure of your brain.
If you find yourself in a blank, dark, or uneventful space, let go of the expectation that something needs to “happen.” The healing is happening whether you perceive it or not.
Dissociation—The Most Fascinating Experience You’ll Ever Have
Some people hear the word dissociation and assume it’s something to fear. I couldn’t disagree more. It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life. Here’s what dissociation feels like in your body, and in your mind.
- The feeling of losing all sense of physical form—like my body had melted into the chair and no longer existed.
- The sensation of floating as pure awareness, completely detached from “me” as a person.
- The realization that I could observe my thoughts from the outside, like watching a machine operate from a distance.
The dissociation you’ll experience at the ketamince clinic is not distressing—it’s liberating. It allows you to step outside your usual self, to see your mind from a completely different vantage point. It’s not a loss of control. It’s a shift in perspective.
If you feel uneasy about it, follow my 3 step plan on p. 46.
19. What If It Feels Like Nothing Is Happening?
Some sessions feel empty, almost like you’re waiting for something that never arrives. This can be frustrating, but trust that your brain is still doing the work.
- Instead of searching for meaning in the moment, trust that insights will come later.
- Allow yourself to simply exist in the experience without needing to analyze it.
- If you feel aimless, focus on the music, your breath, or the sensation of floating.
Final Thoughts—Surrender to the Process
Ketamine is not something you can control. Once it takes hold, the best thing you can do is surrender.
- You don’t need to “do” anything for it to work.
- You don’t need to understand it while it’s happening.
- You don’t need to judge whether it’s “working” in real-time.
Trust the medicine. Trust your mind. Trust the process.
AS YOU ‘WAKE UP’ FROM THE KETAMINE THERAPY SESSION
The moment the ketamine begins to fade, you’ll notice something shifting. It’s subtle at first—like waking up from a deep dream but still feeling tethered to it. This period is called the emergence phenomenon.
19. Prepare For The “Emergence Phenomenon”
Anesthesiologists use this term to describe the transition from deep dissociation or unconsciousness back to full awareness. It’s a strange in-between state where your mind is reassembling itself, and sometimes, there are fragments of visions, emotions, or insights floating to the surface.
For me, some of my most interesting ketamine therapy experiences didn’t happen during the peak—they happened in the moments when I was coming back. I’ve had visions flash in and out, symbols that felt important but only for a second, realizations that were clear and then gone. If you’re not paying attention, these insights can slip away before you even have a chance to grasp them.
20. Post-Ketamine Actions
The most important thing you can do as you emerge is capture what’s still lingering before it fades. Ketamine experiences feel like dreams—vivid and meaningful in the moment, but frustratingly hard to recall later.
Journaling: The Key to Making Ketamine’s Breakthroughs Last
Journaling isn’t just a nice idea—it’s how you hold onto the breakthroughs that ketamine gives you. Ketamine treatments can feel vivid, profound, even life-changing in the moment. But like a dream, the details fade fast.
You might wake up the next day knowing something important happened but struggling to remember exactly what. That’s why writing it down as soon as possible—even in fragments, even if it doesn’t make sense yet—is crucial.
This isn’t just about recording what you saw or felt. It’s about capturing insights before they slip away. The way a vision made you feel, the sudden realization about your life, the shift in perspective—those things might not seem like much in the moment, but when you go back and read them later, patterns emerge. Clarity deepens. The work continues beyond the session.
Journal your experience as soon as you can
Right after a session, your thoughts are fluid, fleeting—sometimes profound, sometimes just out of reach. If you don’t capture them quickly, they fade like a dream. But here’s a problem: What if you’re too groggy to write?
It happened to me every time. My thoughts felt important, but holding a pen, forming sentences on paper? Impossible.
I found a great workaround—dictating my thoughts onto a Google Doc. Just opened my phone, hit voice-to-text, and started talking. No pressure to be coherent, no struggle to hold onto words before they slipped away.
You can also use your phone’s notepad or any voice recording app. In the full guide, I explain exactly how I journaled, what I captured, and the one simple trick that made my post-session reflections so much deeper.
THE RIDE HOME & SETTLING BACK IN
Walking out of the clinic after a ketamine therapy session isn’t like leaving a dentist’s office. You might still feel unsteady, foggy, or slightly detached from reality. The transition from the clinic back into everyday life is just as important as the session itself.
20. The Ride Home—Choose Your Exit Carefully
The session doesn’t end when you leave the clinic. What happens on the ride home can shape how much of the experience stays with you. Your mind is still in a transition state—open, sensitive, and absorbing everything around you. If you don’t handle it right, you can feel scattered, overwhelmed, or like the insights are already slipping away.
There’s a right way—and a wrong way—to handle this crucial moment. In the full guide, I reveal why your choice of transportation matters more than you think, the single biggest mistake people make with rideshares, and the trick I used to make my ride home a continuation of the session, rather than an abrupt return to reality.
21. Arriving Home—Ease Into Reality
Walking through your front door doesn’t mean the session is over. Your brain is still recalibrating, your emotions still settling. How you handle these first moments back in your space can make the difference between a smooth transition and feeling like the experience is already slipping away.
Most people don’t realize how small details—light, sound, even what’s on your phone screen—can either help you integrate or pull you right out of the afterglow.
In the full guide, I share the exact steps I took to ease back in, the simple adjustment that kept me from feeling overstimulated, and the one mistake I made after an early session that completely disrupted my headspace.