Ketamine-Assisted Therapy (KAT)

Ketamine-assisted therapy may support change not only through the experience itself, but through changes in the brain’s ability to adapt and form new connections. One of the ways ketamine is thought to work is by increasing neuroplasticity—the brain’s natural ability to create, strengthen, and reorganize connections between brain cells. You can think of neuroplasticity as the brain’s capacity to learn, adapt, and develop new patterns. When we experience chronic stress, depression, trauma, or anxiety, our brains can become increasingly accustomed to certain patterns of thinking, feeling, and responding. These patterns can become deeply established and difficult to shift, even when we consciously want to change them.Research suggests that ketamine can temporarily increase processes associated with synaptic plasticity, creating a period in which the brain may be more receptive to forming and strengthening new connections. This is sometimes described as a “window of plasticity.”

A Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Approach
Ketamine-assisted therapy is not simply about receiving ketamine. It is a collaborative treatment that brings together medical care and psychotherapy. Each member of the team has an important and distinct role in supporting your safety and therapeutic process.

The Prescriber: Medical Assessment and Treatment Planning
The prescriber is responsible for determining whether ketamine-assisted therapy is medically appropriate for you.
Before treatment begins, the prescriber completes a comprehensive assessment that considers your medical history, current medications, mental health history, treatment goals, and any factors that may make ketamine treatment unsuitable or require additional consideration. If KAT is appropriate, the prescriber develops an individualized treatment plan, including the medication, route of administration, dosing approach, and number or frequency of treatments. The prescriber also remains part of the clinical team throughout your treatment and is available to assess changes in your response, address concerns, and make adjustments when clinically
appropriate. The prescriber helps ensure that ketamine is being used thoughtfully, safely, and for the right person at the right time.

The Nurse: Physical Safety and Medical Support
Because ketamine is a medication, medical safety is an essential part of KAT.

A trained nurse is present during the ketamine session to monitor your physical wellbeing, including vital signs and your response to the medication. The nurse works closely with the prescriber and therapist and follows established clinical protocols throughout the session.
The nurse provides a calm and reassuring presence while maintaining a focus on your physical safety and comfort. If concerns arise during treatment, the nurse is equipped to respond and communicate with the broader medical team.

The Therapist: Psychological Safety and Therapeutic Support
The therapist provides the therapeutic foundation of the experience. Before treatment, your therapist helps you prepare by establishing safety, exploring your intentions, and developing strategies for navigating the experience. During the ketamine session, the therapist provides a calm, compassionate, and grounded presence while allowing the experience to unfold without directing or controlling what emerges. Rather than telling you what your experience means, the therapist helps you explore it for yourself. Following treatment, integration provides an opportunity to reflect on what you experienced and consider how new perspectives, emotions, or insights may connect to your life and therapeutic goals.

Why All Three Roles Matter
Each member of the team brings a different area of expertise:

The prescriber asks: Is this treatment medically appropriate, and how should it be provided safely?

The nurse asks: How is your body responding, and how can we keep you medically safe throughout the experience?

The therapist asks: What are you experiencing, and how can we support you in exploring and integrating it therapeutically?

Ketamine may open a window for change. Your therapeutic relationship helps you explore what is possible within that window, while your medical team helps ensure you move through the experience safely. Together, these roles create a whole-person approach to care, recognizing that meaningful therapeutic change involves both the brain and body, as well as our emotions, relationships, experiences, and sense of self.

Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT)
PAT combines medically supervised psilocybin treatment with therapeutic support to create opportunities for meaningful psychological and emotional change. Research has shown promising and clinically significant results for major depressive disorder, including treatment-resistant depression, with studies finding reductions in depressive symptoms following psilocybin treatment combined with psychological support. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials have found meaningful antidepressant effects, including improvements that can occur relatively quickly following treatment.

Research is also underway exploring PAT for conditions including anxiety associated with serious illness, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other mental health concerns. While early findings are promising, these applications remain areas of ongoing research and should not be described as established treatments. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound that, when converted by the body into psilocin, interacts primarily with serotonin receptors in the brain. It can temporarily change perception, emotions, thought patterns, and our sense of self. For some people, this altered state may create an opportunity to experience familiar thoughts, emotions, memories, or life experiences from a different perspective. Psilocybin-assisted therapy is not simply about taking psilocybin. The therapeutic relationship, medical oversight, preparation, the experience itself, and integration are all important parts of the
process.

Neuroplasticity and the Window of Opportunity
One of the ways psilocybin may support therapeutic change is through its effects on neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt, learn, and form new connections. Research suggests that psychedelics such as psilocybin may temporarily increase processes associated with neural and synaptic plasticity. This may create a period in which the brain is more receptive to new learning and different ways of processing experiences. We can think of this as a potential “window of opportunity.” When we experience depression, anxiety, trauma, or prolonged stress, certain ways of thinking, feeling, and responding can become deeply established. We may find ourselves returning to the same patterns even when we consciously want something different. Psilocybin may temporarily disrupt some of these well-established patterns and create an opportunity to approach our internal experiences with greater flexibility.

The goal is not to simply “rewire the brain.” Rather, psilocybin may provide an opportunity for new perspectives and experiences, while therapy helps support the learning and integration that can follow.

The Importance of the Prescriber: Medical Assessment and Treatment Planning
The prescriber is responsible for determining whether psilocybin-assisted therapy is medically appropriate for you. Before treatment begins, the prescriber completes a comprehensive assessment that considers your medical history, medications, mental health history, current symptoms, treatment goals, and other factors that may affect the safety or appropriateness of psychedelic treatment. If treatment is considered appropriate and authorized through the applicable medical and regulatory processes, the prescriber develops an individualized treatment plan and provides oversight throughout the treatment process.
The prescriber helps ensure that psilocybin is being considered carefully, that potential risks and benefits are understood, and that treatment is provided within an appropriate medical and clinical framework.

The Importance of the Nurse: Physical Safety and Medical Support
Because psilocybin can produce significant changes in perception, emotion, and physiological functioning, medical support is an important part of the treatment environment. A trained nurse is present during the treatment session to monitor your physical wellbeing and response to the medication. The nurse works closely with the prescriber and therapist and follows established clinical protocols throughout the experience. The nurse provides a calm, grounded presence while maintaining a focus on your physical safety and comfort. If concerns arise during treatment, the nurse can respond and communicate with the broader medical team. This allows you to focus on your experience while knowing that your physical wellbeing is being monitored by a qualified healthcare professional.

The Importance of the Therapist: Psychological Safety and Therapeutic Support
The therapist provides the therapeutic foundation of the experience. Before treatment, your therapist helps you prepare by developing a sense of safety, exploring your intentions, identifying potential challenges, and developing strategies for navigating the experience.

During the psilocybin experience, the therapist provides a calm, compassionate, and non- directive presence. The intention is not to tell you what your experience means or direct you toward a particular outcome, but to create a supportive environment where you can safely explore what arises. Psychedelic experiences can sometimes bring forward powerful emotions, memories, sensations, or insights. Having a trained therapist present can provide grounding, reassurance, and emotional support when needed. Following the experience, integration provides an opportunity to reflect on what you experienced and explore how it may connect with your therapeutic goals, relationships, values, and everyday life.

Working With the Window of Opportunity
The goal of psilocybin-assisted therapy is not simply to have a psychedelic experience. The experience itself is only one part of the therapeutic process. Preparation helps establish safety, intentions, and therapeutic goals. The psilocybin session provides a supported altered state of consciousness, with the nurse monitoring your physical wellbeing and the therapist providing psychological and emotional support. Integration helps you reflect on the experience and explore how any insights, shifts in perspective, or emotional experiences may translate into meaningful changes in your everyday life.
Psilocybin may create a window of increased psychological flexibility and neuroplasticity. Therapy provides the support and structure to explore what may be possible within that window. The medicine creates an opportunity. The therapeutic relationship provides the container. Integration helps turn the experience into meaningful change.

Insurance Coverage
We recommend in checking in with you insurance company to see what parts of the therapy can be covered (ex. medication, nursing, and/or counselling). If applicable, we can direct bill for counselling sessions while other coverage will need to be submitted by the receipt we provde.

Flexible Payment Options

To help make psychedelic-assisted therapy more accessible, Evolve offers flexible financing through Beautifi. Eligible clients may choose from 6-, 12-, or 18-month payment plans, with promotional 0% interest options available. Our team can provide additional information about program pricing and financing options when you connect with us.

Financing is provided through Beautifi and is subject to approval and eligibility. Final rates, fees, and payment terms are provided by Beautifi before acceptance.

Accessing Psilocybin Through the Special Access Program
Psilocybin-assisted therapy is accessed through Health Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP).
The SAP provides a pathway for healthcare practitioners to request access to certain drugs that are not currently authorized for sale in Canada when appropriate treatment options are limited.
As part of the assessment process, your prescriber will determine whether psilocybin-assisted therapy may be appropriate for you. If they determine that an SAP request is appropriate, the prescriber completes and submits the application to Health Canada on your behalf.

Health Canada reviews each request individually, and approval is not guaranteed. If authorization is granted, your treatment will be provided under the oversight of your prescriber and the multidisciplinary clinical team.