A ketamine guide is a trained, non-clinical companion who helps you prepare for a ketamine session, sits with you while the medicine works, and supports you afterward. At SomaVerse, guides work alongside certified psychedelic therapists, EMT medical support and our Psychiatry & Ketamine Medical Director, Angel Patterson-Tetuan, PMHNP-BC, offering presence and practical coaching rather than psychotherapy or medical care.
Guides are built into every SomaVerse bundle: first-time and returning programs include three guide sessions, and first-time clients also get a guide preparation meeting before their first dose. You can also book a guide on their own, whether you want company during a dosing session or help turning insight into new habits.
Guides aren’t therapists, and we think saying so clearly is part of keeping you safe. Below you’ll find exactly what a guide does, what they don’t do, and how they hand things off to your therapist or medical provider when it matters.
A guide might help if…
- The idea of being alone during a ketamine session makes you anxious, and a friend doesn’t feel like the right company.
- You have a therapist you love, but they don’t sit in on dosing sessions.
- You leave sessions with clear insights and then watch them dissolve by Tuesday.
- You want practical help: sleep, movement, drinking less, setting boundaries, actually doing the thing.
- You’re new to altered states and want to learn the territory from someone who knows it well.
- You’d like support between therapy appointments at a lower cost.
What does a ketamine guide do?
A guide supports you at three points: before, during and after a ketamine session. Their job is to help you feel safe enough to let the experience unfold, and organized enough to use what it shows you.
- Before: clarify your intention, walk through what the medicine may feel like, choose music, and plan your setting and support.
- During: stay present for the whole session, offer grounding if you get scared, keep the space quiet and safe, and help you settle as effects ease.
- After: debrief what surfaced, notice what wants to change, and break it into small, doable steps.
Guides are not therapists: what that means for you
A SomaVerse guide doesn’t diagnose, treat mental health conditions, do trauma processing, give medical advice or adjust your dose. Those belong to your ketamine-trained therapist and our medical provider. Guide sessions and coaching aren’t psychotherapy and aren’t billed to insurance.
This isn’t a limitation so much as a design. Guides can offer something therapy sometimes can’t: unhurried presence, practical follow-through and a lower price. When something comes up that needs clinical skill, such as a trauma memory, thoughts of self-harm or a medication question, your guide brings in the right person instead of stretching beyond their training.
What is a ketamine sitter, and do I need one?
A sitter is a sober, responsible adult who stays with you while you’re under the influence of ketamine. Everyone starts with sessions in office. Once you’ve completed at least our main program and are medically approved, you may be approved to continue troche sessions at home, and then you need a sitter. The FDA has warned about compounded ketamine used at home without monitoring, and professional guidance calls for a responsible adult to be present.
A sitter can be a trusted partner or friend who’s been briefed on what to expect. A guide dosing session goes further: two hours with someone trained in altered states, $250. Learn more about in-office sessions and continuing at home.
The art of sitting with someone
Good guiding looks like very little from the outside. Your guide may say almost nothing for an hour. That quiet is deliberate: ketamine can make words feel far away, and a steady, unhurried presence tells your nervous system it’s safe to go deeper.
Researchers call this “set and setting”: your mindset and your surroundings strongly shape what happens in an altered state. A guide tends both. If fear rises, they might remind you to breathe, to move toward the feeling rather than away, or simply that they’re right here. Music, a blanket and a familiar voice do a lot of quiet work.
Ketamine wellness coaching
Coaching is for the long middle, the weeks when the glow fades and the old routines pull. A 45-minute coaching session ($75) focuses on behavior: what you want to do differently, what gets in the way, and the next small step.
Our coaches draw on motivational interviewing and the stages-of-change model, which treat ambivalence as normal and meet you where you actually are. Common goals include sleep, movement, cutting back on alcohol, creative practice, boundaries at work and following through on decisions that felt obvious in a session.
Meet Ian Cook and Joseph (Valentine) Dee
Ian Cook (he/him) is the SomaVerse Mental Health & Psychedelic Guide and our Journey Musician. He’s trained in health and wellness coaching, motivational interviewing, the Transtheoretical Model, trauma-informed care and psychedelic facilitation, and he brings more than a decade of teaching creative expression and offering peer support. Ian founded the Lawrence Psychedelic Society and serves on the NAMI Douglas County steering committee. His work leans on storytelling, ritual, preparation and integration.
Joseph (Valentine) Dee, EMT provides Ketamine Medical Support. He has assisted in more than 1,000 ketamine sessions and supports clients through preparation, sessions and integration, a steady, medically trained presence in the room. Meet the rest of our team.
What guide sessions cost
Guide dosing session: $250 for 2 hours. Guide integration: $80 for 45 minutes or $100 for an hour. Ketamine wellness coaching: $75 for 45 minutes. All are self-pay.
Every SomaVerse bundle, from Solo Ketamine ($1,505) to SomaVerse 12 ($1,650), already includes three guide sessions, and payment plans are available. See the full breakdown on our pricing page.
