Inside Ketamine-Assisted Therapy: Exploring Healing Through KAP and EMDR with Beth Grandea, LCPC
As part of my deep dive into KAP, I’m meeting with KAP practitioners, researchers, and academics to learn more about how it’s supporting people’s mental health care.
To learn how KAP works in practice, I sat down with Cordia “Beth” Grandea, LCPC, a practitioner who integrates KAP with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Who KAP Can Help and How It’s Administered
Beth most often recommends KAP for people with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and for those who feel stuck and want deeper insight. She explains that KAP can help clients access parts of themselves that traditional talk therapy alone sometimes can’t reach.
When talking about the power of KAP, Beth says, “People can really explore early wounds more thoroughly - and often with less pain.”
There are three common therapeutic dosing ranges:
Microdosing (very low dose)
Psycholytic dosing (lower dose; you remain talkative)
Psychedelic dosing (higher dose; eyes-closed journey experience)
Along with different routes of delivery:
Sublingual (under the tongue) - most common in Beth’s work
IV (infusion or injection) - typically in medical clinics
Nasal options - often prescribed by a medical provider
When dosing is complete, the journey lasts around 45-60 minutes, and is followed by integration. “Clients share what came up, and we’re going to make sense of it,” Beth explains.
What a KAP Session Looks Like
KAP sessions are usually structured in two phases:
Dosing & Journey: Clients may experience vivid imagery or full-body sensations. Beth describes this as a liminal state, where you may feel in between being asleep and awake, which is often where the therapeutic work deepens.
Integration / Psychotherapy: Immediately after the dosing and journey, or in the following days, clients describe what they saw and felt. Beth looks for patterns, symbols, and archetypes to connect any insights to life themes and next steps.
Beth also notes that many of her clients benefit from focusing on an intention beforehand. However, she urges her clients not to mix their intention with expectations for the session. “I’ve had people disappointed because they didn’t get a big psychedelic experience, but they still have an important experience. I just try to get to that deeper reflection,” says Beth.
How EMDR Fits Alongside KAP
Along with being a KAP practitioner, Beth is EMDR-certified and a Consultant in Training, through which she offers supervision to newly trained EMDR clinicians. She often provides EMDR after a KAP session, as she says “48 hours after you do ketamine are considered the golden hours,” when people are especially open to developing new habits and insights.
The basics of EMDR:
You target a specific memory and your negative thoughts about it (ex. “I’m worthless”).
With bilateral stimulation - either through eye movements or tapping - you can reprocess the memory while tracking your distress level (often rated on a scale of 0-10).
Beth notes that with single-incident traumas (like a car crash or assault), she’s seen relief come in 3-5 sessions, while complex trauma typically takes longer. During EMDR, Beth watches the client’s body, looking for clues like jaw tension or fluttering eyes to see that something is changing internally. She sometimes works with a sound practitioner before her EMDR sessions to help clients settle into their bodies, noting that sound and rhythm can move people toward that same liminal state.
Final Thoughts
Whether through KAP, EMDR, or both, Beth believes the most important part is the therapeutic relationship. “That relationship is the most important no matter what,” says Beth, “The client needs to feel like they could tell you everything and not feel judged.” Feeling safe to be fully honest and yourself is the foundation that lets any modality do its work.
Coming up in this series, I’ll be talking to additional KAP practitioners about the benefits they’re seeing from it.
Beth Grandea, LCPC, and Liz Petrik, Clinical Intern
