Plagued by nightmares, depressed and feeling suicidal, Elizabeth finally found relief and a new outlook on life through psychedelic-assisted therapy. She describes the treatments as her “brain spa” and says the therapy relieved years of persistent mental health symptoms.

A retired Air Force member who served as an aircraft technician for 24 years, Elizabeth tried several medications and conventional therapy over many years to treat her symptoms before a psychologist recommended she consider ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT) at an Edmonton clinic.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is a promising treatment for conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance use and PTSD, offering hope when conventional therapies don’t work. Research shows our brains are more receptive to changes in thought patterns under psychedelic effects, which also help to facilitate talking therapies.

KAT uses ketamine’s unique ability to induce an altered state of consciousness in order to free the mind from ingrained thought patterns and alleviate pain, allowing individuals to explore and process difficult emotions and memories in a supportive clinical environment.

“I had too many guards up for regular therapy to be effective,” explains Elizabeth. “Dark thoughts are difficult to share and I wasn’t able to talk about them. With the effects of ketamine used as a psychedelic medicine, I felt safer than I had in 20 years and was able to go deeper into my emotions.”

It was during Elizabeth’s third of six KAT sessions that she noticed the most significant breakthroughs. “My feelings of fear, anger, guilt and sadness blew off me like a bomb, the experience was so profound that it startled me,” she says. “Prior to these treatments, I didn’t know how to get rid of the persistent heaviness and protectiveness I felt.”

Elizabeth applied to Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for benefits coverage of KAT and was first approved and then was surprised to learn her claim was declined a year after completing the sessions. Ketamine is legal in Canada when prescribed by a medical doctor and Alberta supports the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies through regulations and clinical guidelines introduced in 2023. Health Canada also provides a pathway for health care practitioners to access MDMA (“ecstasy”) and psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) for use in psychotherapy with their patients through the special access program.

Despite these endorsements, VAC issued a statement in May 2023 stating more research is needed for it to recognize and approve psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. One of the concerns with offering these therapies is patient safety, particularly for those with a history of certain psychiatric conditions and addiction. Despite past substance use, Elizabeth did not feel susceptible to recreational misuse of ketamine after undergoing KAT. A systematic review on ketamine treatment for mental health and substance use disorders published in the British Journal of Psychology found no reports of ketamine use or misuse following medical treatment with ketamine.

“I will continue advocating for veterans to be supported in accessing this life-changing treatment,” she says. “For me, the therapy restored feelings of happiness and a desire to continue – it saves lives.”