Busting Through Treatment Resistance with Ketamine – HPP 46

Dr. Will Van Derveer, MD

In this podcast, Dr. Will Van Derveer, founder and Medical Director of the Integrative Psychiatric Healing Center, shares his knowledge about Ketamine and its clinical uses in a psychiatric context. Ketamine has a long history in medicine, however, it is only recently that its healing benefits for treatment-resistant psychiatric patients are being discovered. When correctly used, it has been found to literally create breakthroughs for people with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, suicidality, and OCD.

Dr. Van Derveer explains the history and psychopharmacology of this medicine, and how it’s being administered in a clinical setting. He elaborates on what it’s like for a patient to under this treatment, how psychotherapy comes into play, an exploration into how it dissolves the ego defenses, and the deeper revelations a patient can have during the process.

Show Notes:

Why ketamine works on treatment resistant patients [00:45]

How ketamine is administered [4:15]

Current research on ketamine [6:00]

The ego and how it is impacted by ketamine assisted psychotherapy [34:15]

The benefits from ketamine assisted psychotherapy [35:00]

Why psychotherapy is so important in conjunction with Ketamine usage [36:30]

What can really happen in a single session [46:45]

Dr. Will Van Derveer, MD

Dr. Will Van Derveer is the founder and medical director of the Integrative Psychiatric Healing Center in Boulder, Colorado where he has practiced integrative psychiatry for 15 years. He holds an adjunct clinical faculty position at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and is the course director of the psychiatry resident course on integrative psychiatry. He co-founded the Psychiatry Masterclass where he teaches doctors and psychotherapists how to address severe psychiatric symptoms without medications. He and a team of researchers recently completed a phase II clinical trial evaluating MDMA psychotherapy as a treatment for chronic treatment resistant PTSD and he is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine and the New American Board of Integrative Medicine.