Feelings Part 4: Ketamine and Feelings - Opening the Door to Emotional Healing
In the last few blogs I have been discussing feelings, what happens when we suppress them, and how to begin reconnecting with long-buried emotions. In my work, I’ve seen that the hardest part of emotional healing isn’t always knowing what you feel—it’s allowing yourself to feel it fully. For many folks, years of stress, trauma, or depression have created emotional “armor” that makes it hard to connect with feelings at all. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) can help soften that armor, making it easier to access emotions and process them in a safe, supportive way.
Why Feelings Can Be Hard to Reach
Our minds often protect us from pain by burying emotions deep below the surface. While this can help us cope in the short term, it also cuts us off from joy, love, and connection. Over time, we may feel emotionally flat, detached, or stuck in repetitive thought patterns.
Why Ketamine Can Unlock Feelings
Ketamine works on the brain in a way that promotes neuroplasticity—your brain’s ability to form new connections. It also quiets the default mode network (DMN), the part of the brain involved in self-criticism and overthinking. This combination can provide a rare opportunity: to step outside the usual mental loops that keep emotions buried, and to experience them with more openness and less judgment.
Neurobiological Effects That Impact Feelings:
NMDA receptor antagonism → Ketamine temporarily interrupts entrenched neural firing patterns, allowing for new perspectives and emotional flexibility.
Increased neuroplasticity → The brain becomes more able to form new connections, which can help in re-patterning emotional responses.
Default Mode Network (DMN) modulation → Reduced DMN activity often correlates with a softening of self-critical narratives, making space for deeper emotional contact.
Therapeutic Opportunities
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can open the door to powerful emotional shifts. Clients may find themselves able to cry, laugh, tremble, or express emotions that have long been locked away, allowing for a sense of release and relief. Traumatic memories may surface in a way that feels less overwhelming, creating space to revisit and integrate them without becoming flooded. Alongside this emotional processing, many people experience a deepened sense of self-compassion—a newfound ability to extend warmth, understanding, and kindness toward themselves.
What People Often Feel During Sessions
Many people describe feeling a broader emotional range during and after ketamine sessions. For some, it’s the first time in years they’ve been able to cry, laugh deeply, or feel genuine joy. For others, long-suppressed grief or anger surfaces—not to re-traumatize them, but to finally be acknowledged and released.
The Therapist’s Role in Emotional Exploration
In KAP, the therapist isn’t there to “direct” the emotional journey so much as to hold space for it. This means creating a container where any feeling—whether tender, painful, or ecstatic—can be expressed without judgment. Gentle prompts might help you notice where feelings live in your body or slow down enough to feel them without becoming overwhelmed.
Integration: Where the Real Change Happens
The real magic often happens after the session, in integration work. This is where you talk through what came up—naming the emotions, tracing their origins, and exploring what they might be telling you about your life now. You might learn to recognize the physical cues of a feeling so you can stay connected to it in daily life, or make concrete changes that honor the truth that surfaced.
Why This Matters
Feelings are the language of our deeper selves. They tell us what matters, where we’ve been hurt, and what we long for. Ketamine doesn’t “give” you feelings you didn’t already have—it simply opens the door to them, sometimes for the first time in a long while. Walking through that door, with the support of a therapist, can be a powerful step toward a more authentic, connected life.
If you’re looking for guidance with this process - let’s connect. Schedule a free consultation today.