Beyond the Molecule: Trauma-Informed Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Is This Course for Me?

This intermediate-level course is designed for the following seeking foundational KAP competency:

• Licensed mental health professionals: LCSW, LMSW (in supervision), LPC, LMFT, or PhD/PsyD.
• Psychiatrists or other licensed medical professionals: MD, DO, NP, RN, or PA.
• Pre-licensed clinicians in supervised practice, social workers, counselors, psychologists, nurses, and/or chaplains and end-of-life care professionals.

Overall course hours include 4 8.5 hour days and 4 hours of pre-assigned asynchronous readings and a reflective integration paper. This is a didactic and skills-based course. No ketamine or other psychedelic medicines are administered during the training. All experiential learning consists of supervised role-play, dyadic practice, and somatic exercises without the use of medication. The course will prepare clinicians to deliver KAP in appropriately supervised medical settings within their own scope of practice; it does not itself constitute clinical certification to prescribe or administer ketamine.

Course Learning Objectives:

• Explain the pharmacology, mechanisms of action, routes of administration, and therapeutic applications of ketamine, and distinguish the medical/anesthetic model from the ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) model.
• Evaluate the current evidence supporting ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for a range of clinical presentations, including treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety, substance use disorders, and end-of-life distress, and identify the legal and regulatory considerations that inform ethical practice.
• Conduct comprehensive client screening, assess contraindications, obtain informed consent, and develop preparation sessions that establish therapeutic alliance, clarify treatment intentions, and promote client readiness for KAP.
• Demonstrate trauma-informed, non-directive therapeutic skills for supporting clients during ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions, including maintaining psychological safety, monitoring client responses, and responding effectively to challenging experiences.
• Apply trauma-informed integration strategies using somatic, relational, and parts-informed approaches to help clients process, integrate, and translate ketamine experiences into meaningful therapeutic change.
• Apply ethical, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed principles to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, including maintaining professional boundaries, navigating therapeutic touch and consent, managing transference and countertransference, practicing within scope of competence, and supporting clinician self-awareness and well-being.
• Develop collaborative approaches for working with prescribing clinicians and other members of the treatment team while integrating ketamine-assisted psychotherapy into ethical, coordinated, and well-documented clinical practice.

Educational Design:

• The course is organized into 9 integrated modules delivered across 4 in-person intensive days, spaced to allow reflection and inter-session reading.
• Each module builds on the preceding one, moving from foundational knowledge through clinical skill development to applied and integrative practice.
• Instruction blends didactic teaching, faculty demonstration, facilitated case discussion, and supervised dyadic skills labs (role-play only — no medicine is administered).
• Also includes asynchronous resource readings/articles and podcasts that will precede each set of sessions, including a short reflective integration paper to consolidate learning.

Modules:

• Module 1 – Foundations of KAP: History; pharmacology and neuroscience; routes of administration; dosing; treatment models; Missouri legal/regulatory landscape; therapist vs. prescriber roles.
• Module 2 – Client Screening & Preparation: Inclusion/exclusion criteria; contraindications; informed consent; psychoeducation; set and setting; building alliance; documentation.
• Module 3 – Session Support in Non-Ordinary States: Therapeutic presence; non-directive stance; inner healing intelligence; music; working with difficult experiences; safety monitoring; therapeutic-touch ethics.
• Module 4 – Integration Theory & Practice: Somatic, IFS, Hakomi, and existential frameworks; short- and long-term integration; embodiment; working with trauma material.
• Module 5 – Ethics, Equity & Professional Practice: Scope of practice; transference/countertransference amplification; dual roles; cultural humility; equity-informed access; clinician self-care; consultation ethics.
• Module 6 – Medical Collaboration & Practice Development: Working with prescribers; medication interactions; safety protocols; documentation; practice models; billing; Missouri-specific resources.
• Module 7 – Special Populations & Applications: Treatment-resistant depression; PTSD; suicidality; substance use; end-of-life; cultural considerations; emerging evidence base.
• Module 8 – Skills Labs & Applied Practice: Supervised dyadic role-play across all protocol phases; peer feedback; faculty supervision; somatic opening/closing practices. No ketamine or other medicine is administered to participants.
• Module 9 – Community of Practice & Synthesis: Case conceptualization; peer consultation structure; ongoing learning pathway; regional KAP community development.

Admission prerequisites:

• No application is required for this program.
• All students must be willing to comply with Washington University policies.
• Please note that participation in this course while on OPT (Optional Practical Training) is not permitted. For questions, email us at browncertificates@wustl.edu

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Chantelle Thomas PhD
Executive Clinical Director, Integrata Consultant & Clinical Facilitator, Usona Institute (PSIL 301; U-PEP) Affiliated Clinician and Presenter, University of Wisconsin–Madison
 

Chantelle Thomas, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Executive Clinical Director at Integrata, where she leads clinical programming across substance use, trauma, and psychedelic-assisted therapy. She serves as a consultant and clinical facilitator with the Usona Institute, contributing to its psilocybin research program (PSIL 301) and its facilitator education program (U-PEP), and has trained and supervised clinicians in MDMA-, psilocybin-, and ketamine-assisted therapy across multiple research and clinical settings. Her clinical approach integrates trauma-informed, somatic, and attachment-based frameworks with the emerging evidence base for psychedelic-assisted treatment.

Dr. Thomas has developed and delivered graduate-level and continuing-education curricula, including Grand Rounds presentations at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and hosts the podcast Blind Spots, which examines the clinical and ethical dimensions of psychedelic therapy. She brings particular expertise in facilitator competency, fidelity and adherence monitoring, and the relational scaffolding that distinguishes ketamine-assisted psychotherapy from medical ketamine administration.