Integrating Psychedelics into Traditional Medical PracticesIntegrating Psychedelics into Traditional Medical Practices
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook talks with Katie Walker about ketamine-assisted therapy and psychedelic medicine, focusing on how brain-based approaches might shift addiction and mental health care. The conversation looks at clinical protocols, trauma processing, and access issues for groups like veterans, first responders and people with alcohol dependence.
1:00:16•27 Dec 2022
Psychedelics, Ketamine and Rethinking How We Treat Addiction
Episode Overview
- Ketamine infusions aim to reset brain patterns by stimulating glutamate and neural growth, rather than acting as a daily coping drug.
- Short-term memories with strong emotion can loop and cause distress until they are fully processed and moved into emotion-free long-term memory.
- Combining ketamine with prep, intra and integrative therapy sessions helps people make sense of what surfaces and turn scattered experiences into a coherent "constellation".
- Veterans and first responders may face job-related fears about seeking ketamine treatment, yet Katie argues they have every right to safe, supported care.
- Katie stresses that effective care starts with the person as the base, bringing specialties around them, and calls out the system for failing people who can’t advocate for themselves.
“Why can't we just look at it and say the brain is spiritual? The brain is medicated. The brain does have anatomy. It does have physiology.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol when traditional methods keep failing? This conversation between host Tim Westbrook and guest Kathryn "Katie" Walker digs into that question by looking at ketamine-assisted therapy and psychedelic medicine through a clear, clinical lens. Katie, a nurse anaesthetist and psychiatric–mental health nurse practitioner, lays out how ketamine is already being used within traditional medical practice to support people with addiction, chronic mood disorders and pain.
She breaks down the science in everyday language, explaining how ketamine boosts glutamate and brain-derived neurotrophic factors to promote new neural growth, helping the brain reset stuck patterns. As she puts it, "Why can't we just look at it and say the brain is spiritual? The brain is medicated. The brain does have anatomy.
It does have physiology." You’ll hear detailed discussion of the default mode network, short-term vs long-term memory, and how ketamine can bring unprocessed experiences to the surface in a neutral state so they can finally be addressed in therapy. Tim raises the classic concern, "How can you treat a drug with a drug?" and Katie answers by showing how short ketamine protocols differ from daily medications and aim at the root pattern driving addiction rather than simply numbing symptoms.
The episode is especially relevant if you're curious about newer approaches to alcohol and substance recovery, or if you work with veterans, first responders or adolescents. Katie talks about her clinics’ work with people aged 12 to 90, her push for better access through the VA, and her determination to advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves.
If you’ve ever wondered whether psychedelics and ketamine-assisted therapy have a place alongside abstinence-based recovery, this candid chat gives you plenty to think about. Could a different way of treating the brain be the missing piece in your recovery puzzle?
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