Ketamine for PTSD is an off-label treatment with controlled-trial evidence that it can reduce symptoms of chronic post-traumatic stress, at least for a time. At SomaVerse in Kansas, we pair sublingual ketamine with trauma-informed, body-based psychotherapy, so you can work with trauma without being flooded by it.
We see people carrying many kinds of trauma: a single terrible day, years of childhood neglect or abuse, a relationship that left them always on guard, or the slow accumulation of hard calls in military service, emergency medicine or law enforcement. The label matters less to us than how trauma lives in you now.
One thing we want you to know before anything else: ketamine therapy for trauma is not about reliving the worst moments of your life. You stay in charge of what you share, how fast you go, and when you stop.
You might be here because…
- Your body still reacts as if it’s happening. A sound, a smell or a face can drop you back in time.
- You’ve tried trauma therapy, perhaps prolonged exposure or cognitive processing therapy, and it felt like too much or helped only partway.
- Nightmares break up your sleep, or you avoid sleep because of them.
- You feel numb or far away from the people you love, and you miss feeling close.
- You served in the military, or work as a firefighter, officer, dispatcher, paramedic or nurse, and the job has followed you home.
- Your trauma isn’t one event but a childhood or relationship that taught you the world isn’t safe.
- You carry shame about what happened, or about how you responded, that talking hasn’t loosened.
How ketamine may help with PTSD
PTSD keeps the brain’s threat system switched on long after the danger has passed. Ketamine acts on glutamate, a chemical messenger involved in learning and fear memory, and researchers think it may temporarily make those over-learned fear patterns more flexible.
Clinically, what people notice is a softening. Many clients describe being able to think about a memory, or feel its edges in the body, without the usual surge of panic or shutdown. That softened state is not the healing itself. It’s an opening in which therapy can do work that has felt impossible when your nervous system is braced.
We plan integration sessions in the days after each dose, when clients often say the old reactions feel a little less automatic. That timing is based on animal research and clinical experience, not a proven human window, and we present it that way.
What the research says about ketamine for PTSD
Ketamine for PTSD has real randomized trial evidence, mostly with IV infusions, and the effects tend to be meaningful but temporary without ongoing support. Sublingual ketamine combined with therapy has been studied much less.
In 2014, a trial at Mount Sinai gave 41 people with chronic PTSD a single IV dose of ketamine or an active placebo, midazolam. Ketamine reduced PTSD symptoms more. A 2021 follow-up gave six infusions over two weeks: 67% of the ketamine group responded, compared with 20% of the midazolam group. Among responders, the benefit lasted a median of about four weeks.
A 2026 analysis pooled individual data from 12 studies, 533 people in all, that combined ketamine with psychotherapy for PTSD. More therapy sessions and more ketamine sessions both predicted greater improvement. But nine of the twelve studies were rated poor quality, and when the analysis was limited to stronger studies, only starting severity still predicted results. An earlier 2021 meta-analysis of the few available randomized trials did not find a statistically significant PTSD effect. The honest summary: encouraging, not settled.
You don’t have to relive it
Trauma-informed care starts with a simple principle: safety first, then everything else. In KAP, that means we don’t push you toward your hardest memories, and the session is not exposure therapy. Some people meet old material during a session. Others experience mostly rest, color, music or a sense of space, and that can be healing too.
We work within your window of tolerance, the zone where feelings are strong but manageable. If you start to tip into overwhelm or go numb and far away, your guide helps you come back: feet on the floor, a hand on your own chest, a slower breath, eyes open to the room. Then, if you want, you turn back toward what was there.
You never have to tell the story to heal from it. Many clients find the body processes things words haven’t reached, and what matters most is what you notice and choose afterward.
How SomaVerse works with trauma
Our program was built by trauma therapists. Program director Anissa Pfannenstiel, LSCSW has more than 20 years of practice and training in EMDR, Brainspotting and regression therapy, plus a psychedelic somatic practitioner certificate from EMBODY Lab. That background shapes how we prepare, pace and integrate every session.
Before your first dose, you’ll spend time building resources: places in your body that feel steady, images or memories that bring comfort, and people you can reach after a session. Your ketamine-trained therapist may draw on body-based and bilateral approaches during integration, and your guide helps you track sensations as they shift. Guides like Ian Cook, who is trained in trauma-informed care, can sit with you during dosing.
The rest of the team matters too. Clinical Director Brittny Jordan, LCPC, PAP is a Somatic Psychedelic Certified Therapist who sees clients in Overland Park. Our Psychiatry & Ketamine Medical Director, Angel Patterson-Tetuan, PMHNP-BC, leads evaluations and medical follow-up, and Joseph (Valentine) Dee, EMT, our Ketamine Medical Support, has assisted in more than 1,000 ketamine sessions.
Integration happens in one-on-one sessions and in small groups. For trauma, it focuses on the body and daily life: sleeping better, flinching less, letting someone close again.
Veterans and first responders
We work with veterans and first responders, and we understand that seeking help can feel like breaking an unwritten rule. Many people in these roles don’t carry one trauma. They carry dozens of calls, deployments or shifts that never got processed because the next one came too fast.
Research on group ketamine-assisted therapy is aimed squarely at this experience. In a Canadian program for healthcare providers with PTSD or depression, 86% of participants who screened positive for PTSD no longer did after twelve weeks. A 2025 case series of healthcare workers and first responders in seven-week group KAP found meaningful drops in PTSD, depression and burnout scores. Both were observational, without control groups, but they suggest a shared room can be part of the medicine. Learn about group ketamine therapy.
TRICARE and TriWest are among the plans SomaVerse works with for eligible medical and therapy visits. The ketamine medication itself is self-pay under every plan. If you receive care through the VA in Topeka or Kansas City, you can keep it; with your permission, we’re glad to coordinate.
Cost, insurance and locations
A single ketamine troche dose is $90, and the Individual Ketamine Healing Package is $480 for six sessions, including the prescription, a Journey Box, medical monitoring and a preparation session; both are self-pay. Bundled programs with medical visits, therapy, guide sessions and integration groups run $1,325 to $1,650, with payment plans. Self-pay KAP with a therapist present is $350 for two hours. Eligible medical and therapy visits may be billed to insurance. See our pricing page.
Troche sessions happen in office at all three of our offices: Lawrence, Topeka, and Overland Park, about 20 minutes from downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri residents are welcome at our Kansas offices. At-home sessions are possible only after you’ve completed our main program and are medically approved. Therapy and integration are also available by telehealth. Read more on our Kansas City page.
