What to Expect During a Ketamine Therapy Session, Part I: What Does It Feel Like?

One of the most common questions people ask before their first Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) session is deceptively simple:

"What does it feel like?"

It's also one of the most difficult questions to answer.

Trying to describe a ketamine experience can feel a little like trying to explain a dream. Or grief. Or falling in love.

The words never seem quite large enough.

Every experience is unique, and no two sessions are exactly the same. Yet over time, researchers and clinicians have noticed common themes emerging across people's experiences. Dr. Eli Kolp, a psychiatrist and researcher known for his work in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, described several categories of "non-ordinary states of consciousness" that people sometimes encounter during ketamine sessions.

While not everyone experiences all of these states, and many people experience none of them in a dramatic way, they can offer a helpful framework for understanding some of the territory people encounter during KAP.

A Softening

Many people describe feeling more connected.

Connected to themselves.

Connected to people they love.

Connected to memories, emotions, gratitude, tenderness, grief, or joy.

Parts of themselves that have felt distant or inaccessible may feel suddenly closer.

At times, people find themselves viewing old wounds with a surprising degree of compassion. Emotions that once felt overwhelming may become easier to approach. Defenses that have spent years protecting us can temporarily relax their grip.

This type of experience has been described as an empathogenic experience.

Not because something new has been added.

Because something that was already there is finally able to emerge.

A Wider View

One of the remarkable qualities of ketamine is its ability to shift perspective.

People often describe feeling less entangled in their usual thoughts and worries.

The argument that consumed them.

The disappointment they've been carrying.

The story they've been telling themselves about who they are.

Sometimes these things become visible from a different vantage point.

Like climbing a mountain and looking down at a landscape you have spent years walking through.

The individual details remain important, but suddenly you can see the larger pattern.

Many people describe recognizing connections they had never considered before, or gaining insight into longstanding struggles that had previously felt impossible to untangle.

Beyond the Shoreline

Some experiences become even more difficult to describe.

Time can feel different.

Past, present, and future may feel less separate.

Memories may arise unexpectedly.

Moments from different periods of life can appear side by side.

Some people describe encounters with deceased loved ones, ancestors, symbolic figures, or a sense of connection to something larger than themselves.

Others describe witnessing their life story unfold with a clarity and perspective that feels profoundly moving.

Researchers have sometimes compared these experiences to what are known as near-death experiences.

Importantly, this does not mean that a person is in danger. Rather, it refers to the subjective experience of moving beyond ordinary awareness and encountering a perspective that feels larger than everyday life.

People often struggle to explain these experiences afterward because they can feel deeply symbolic, spiritual, emotional, or mysterious.

Language rarely captures them completely.

The Ocean of Ego Dissolution

Perhaps the most misunderstood term associated with psychedelic experiences is ego dissolution.

The phrase itself can sound intimidating.

People sometimes imagine it means losing their identity or becoming disconnected from reality.

Fortunately, that is not typically how people describe it.

Many people describe an experience that feels less like losing themselves and more like loosening their attachment to the stories they have carried about themselves.

The anxious one.

The perfectionist.

The caretaker.

The achiever.

The person who always has to hold everything together.

Some Buddhist traditions offer a useful metaphor.

Imagine a drop of water in the ocean.

Most of the time, we experience ourselves as the drop: separate, individual, carrying our own struggles and concerns.

In moments of ego dissolution, some people describe becoming aware that the drop and the ocean have never truly been separate.

For a brief period, the boundaries of self may feel more flexible.

People often describe a paradoxical feeling:

A deep recognition of how meaningful their life is.

And how small one life is within the vastness of everything.

Both truths can exist simultaneously.

The Quiet Shift

And yet, one of the most important things I tell people is this:

The most meaningful ketamine experiences are not always the most dramatic ones.

Not everyone encounters visions.

Not everyone experiences profound spiritual states.

Not everyone feels as though they have traveled beyond time and space.

Sometimes the change is far more subtle.

A little more compassion toward yourself.

A little less certainty that old patterns are permanent.

A little more space between a thought and your reaction to it.

A little more curiosity about who you might become.

These quieter shifts can be just as significant as the more dramatic experiences.

The Experience Is Only the Beginning

One of the biggest misconceptions about Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy is that healing happens entirely during the dosing session.

The experience itself can be powerful.

But the experience is only part of the story.

Preparation matters.

Integration matters.

Therapy matters.

Whether your session feels profound, subtle, emotional, spiritual, disorienting, comforting, or simply different, the real work involves understanding what those experiences mean and how to incorporate them into your life.

Sometimes healing does not arrive as a dramatic breakthrough.

Sometimes it arrives as a quiet realization:

There may be more than one path forward.

Reference

This article draws upon Dr. Eli Kolp's descriptions of non-ordinary states of consciousness, including empathogenic experiences, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and experiences of ego dissolution/transcendence within Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy.