IV Ketamine Clinic or Ketamine Therapy With a Therapist: What's the Difference?
If you've started looking into ketamine for depression or trauma in Chicago, you've probably noticed two kinds of places offering it: medical clinics that give ketamine by IV infusion, and therapy practices that offer ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. The main difference is the role psychotherapy plays.
Two treatment models, side by side
| IV ketamine clinic (medical model) | Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (therapy model) | |
|---|---|---|
| The main aim | Treating symptoms such as depression with the medicine | Using the medicine within a course of therapy |
| How the medicine is given | An IV infusion, given and monitored by medical staff | Usually a lozenge you take yourself while your therapist is with you |
| Before the session | Medical screening | Medical screening, plus therapy sessions to prepare, set intentions and build trust |
| During the session | Medical monitoring; a therapist may not be present | A therapist is with you for the whole session |
| After the session | Recovery and monitoring; therapy may or may not follow | Integration sessions to make sense of the experience and apply it to your life |
| Who decides if it's safe for you | The prescribing medical provider | The prescribing medical provider |
| Insurance | Varies by clinic | The medicine sessions aren't covered; related assessments and integration often are |
Some IV clinics also provide psychotherapy and integration, so the distinction is between treatment models rather than simply the way the medicine is given. If you're comparing places, the useful question to ask is whether a licensed therapist is part of the treatment before, during and after, and how.
What an IV ketamine clinic focuses on
In a medical ketamine clinic, the medicine is given and you're monitored medically to treat symptoms of depression or another condition. For some people that's the right fit, especially when the main goal is relief from symptoms and a medical setting feels most reassuring. Psychotherapy may not be part of the treatment, and when it is offered, it often happens before or after the infusion rather than during it.
What ketamine-assisted psychotherapy focuses on
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy builds the medicine into a structured therapeutic process. We begin with preparation sessions where we explore your history, set goals, build trust and identify an intention for the experience. During the medicine session, your therapist stays with you, supporting you as you move through whatever comes up. Depending on the approach and how you're doing, that might mean talking, noticing sensations in your body, or simply a steady, supportive presence. Afterward, integration sessions explore what emerged and how it connects to your everyday life.
Trauma usually happens in relationship. Here, healing happens in relationship too, and you're not alone in the room.
We take your blood pressure before the journey, and after that it isn't a medical setting: the lights are dim, you sit comfortably with your therapist beside you, and music supports the experience.
How to choose
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy may suit you if:
you're working with trauma, attachment wounds or patterns you understand but haven't been able to change
you want the medicine experience to be part of therapy rather than separate from it
you'd like someone with you during the session
A medical clinic may suit you better if your main goal is symptom relief in a medical setting, or if a prescriber recommends IV treatment for you. Either way, the prescribing medical provider makes the final decision about whether ketamine is safe for you. Ketamine is FDA-approved as an anesthetic and isn't FDA-approved for treating any psychiatric condition, so its mental health use is off-label.
You can read how a session works with us on our ketamine-assisted psychotherapy page, or about our small ketamine-assisted therapy group in Lakeview.
Who you'd work with
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy at Mind's Eye is led by Sharon Steckler, MSW, LCSW and Agi Corona Semrad, M.Ed., LPC, in person in Lakeview, with preparation and integration available by telehealth across Illinois.