Ketamine Assisted EMDR Therapy in Wisconsin

Ketamine assisted EMDR therapy is a strong, emerging clinical therapy that is showing positive results for patients with a variety of mental health needs. Pairing EMDR with ketamine infusion combines neurobiological healing with psychobiological healing. Meaning the benefits of ketamine therapy compound with the benefits of EMDR therapy to provide relief from mental distress. Together, they shift memories from distressing and frightening to neutral memories that are healthy and integrated.

Schedule a Consult

Integrating EMDR Therapy with Ketamine Therapy

IV Ketamine assisted EMDR therapy offers a novel, evidenced based option for patients seeking relief from treatment-resistant PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief, and other distressing experiences.

Combining ketamine with EMDR strengthens the brain’s capacity to reprocess and reconsolidate distressing memories. This reconsolidation often results in substantial symptom relief with an overall improved quality of life.

At Reset Restore MD, this combined approach is delivered using IV ketamine, allowing for precise, personalized dosing and close medical monitoring. For patients who have not improved with standard medications or talk therapy alone, ketamine therapy can create a “window of opportunity” in which the brain is more flexible, less stuck in fear responses, and better able to process traumatic memories. Combining this with EMDR makes sessions more efficient, less overwhelming, and more likely to produce lasting change.

Pairing EMDR with ketamine is based on the idea that neurobiological and psychological healing work together when they happen at the same time. Ketamine appears to rapidly enhance neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new connections—while EMDR provides a structured way to transform how the brain stores and processes traumatic memories. Together they can shift memories from distressing, dreadful, frightening, and troublesome to neutral integrated healthy memories.

How Ketamine Therapy Works

Ketamine is a unique medication that, at higher doses produces anesthesia or sedation, and at lower doses provides more of a dissociative effect. It is primarily the dissociative effect of ketamine that is used to treat depression, PTSD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other various mental health issues. Ketamine targets the glutamate system—specifically the NMDA receptor—to rapidly boost signaling that supports synaptic connections (the connections between the neurons in your brain). It is these new connections which allow for different processing in the brain, allowing distressing thoughts to become manageable and even positive.

Key points about ketamine in this context:

It often produces noticeable symptom relief within hours to days rather than weeks. This is unlike many other medications which can take weeks to months to feel any positive change.
It may interrupt rigid, negative thought patterns and reduce “stuckness.”
It can induce a brief, dissociative or altered state that allows patients to step back from their symptoms and see their experiences from a different vantage point.

How EMDR Therapy Works

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy designed to help people process traumatic or distressing experiences that remain “stuck” in the nervous system. EMDR does not require detailed retelling of every aspect of a traumatic event. Instead, EMDR uses a structured protocol and bilateral stimulation (such as guided eye movements, taps, or tones) to help the brain reprocess memory networks.

Core elements of EMDR include:

Identifying target memories, present triggers, and negative beliefs formed around those memories.
Engaging bilateral stimulation while the patient briefly focuses on aspects of the memory, sensations, and thoughts.
Allowing new insights, emotional shifts, and adaptive beliefs to emerge and become reinforced.

Over time, memories that once felt overwhelming can be recalled with less emotional charge, and patients often report feeling more empowered, less reactive, and more present.

How Ketamine Assisted EMDR Therapy Works

Ketamine assisted EMDR therapy coordinates the timing of EMDR with the neuroplastic “window” created by ketamine. The goal is to combine the two therapeutic modalities to synergistically “recode” neural connections. This effectively reshapes emotional learning to prevent unwanted fight-or-flight responses and to achieve significant, lasting symptom reduction.

Combining ketamine with EMDR helps patients:

Enter EMDR with reduced emotional reactivity and increased openness.
Access traumatic memories while feeling safer and more regulated.
Consolidate new, healthier beliefs while the brain is in a highly adaptable state.

This integration is carefully planned for each patient so that the medical component (ketamine) and the therapeutic component (EMDR) support each other.

IV Ketamine vs Oral Ketamine for EMDR

IV Ketamine vs Oral Ketamine for EMDR At Reset Restore MD, ketamine is delivered by IV infusion, meaning the medication goes directly into the bloodstream. This route offers many advantages over other forms of ketamine administration such as oral or intranasal.

Important for EMDR, IV ketamine administration offers consistent, predictable onset and duration. This is critical for EMDR because it allows the two therapies to be intentionally synced and coordinated. Oral and intranasal forms have variable peak concentration times in the bloodstream making it more difficult to maximize the effect of ketamine with the EMDR session.

IV administration offers complete control of the dose and infusion rate. This means experienced clinicians can adjust in real time based on the patient’s response. It also provides a steady, constant dose of ketamine throughout the infusion time. This is a stark contrast to oral troches or lozenges where absorption is impacted by many factors such as metabolism and recent food intake. These variables affect how much is absorbed, how quickly it takes effect, and how long it lasts. Intranasal forms also have variable absorption rates and times to peak onset making both oral and intranasal forms more difficult to tailor to individual patients.

In addition, if someone were to ever feel overwhelmed or want to take a break, IV administration also allows clinicians to stop the infusion at any time. Oral and intranasal forms do not have this adaptability. The ability to stop gives patients a break and the chance to reset before continuing when they are ready.

Ketamine Assisted EMDR Therapy at Reset Restore MD

Ketamine assisted EMDR therapy at Reset Restore MD uses medically supervised IV ketamine. We work in conjunction with therapists at Renewed Focus who have specific training with ketamine assisted EMDR.

In clinic, patients have shown strong responses to this combined modality, with many reporting:

Faster relief from intrusive memories, hypervigilance, or emotional numbing.
Improved engagement in EMDR sessions.
Greater sense of safety and control during trauma processing.

The care model at Reset Restore MD is collaborative, integrating:

Medical oversight by clinicians experienced in IV ketamine.
EMDR-trained mental health professionals who understand how to harness ketamine’s neuroplastic effects.
Ongoing assessment of symptoms, function, and quality of life, so treatment is tailored to you.

At Reset Restore MD, ketamine assisted EMDR therapy will include the following:

Medical Evaluation and Personalized Dosing

A thorough medical and psychiatric assessment is completed before treatment. The ketamine dose is tailored to each patient’s body, history, and goals rather than using a one-size-fits-all dose.

EMDR Preparation and Integration

Sessions can be scheduled for a length agreed upon with the patient and their therapist. Typically these sessions are between 40 minutes to 2 hours. Patients also work with their psychotherapist to collaboratively identify the EMDR target to work on. This may be during preparation sessions or in the ketamine-EMDR session itself.

Patients will activate the target memory before the infusion process begins.

IV Ketamine Infusion

A medical professional provides the ketamine through an IV, and they monitor vital signs, comfort level, and psychological experience. Because IV dosing is constant and controllable, the team can adjust as needed to optimize results.

The Combined Therapy

The ketamine administration is paired with bilateral stimulation and mindfulness prompts as the ketamine effects are felt. The bilateral stimulation method will be decided upon with your therapist before the session. No eye movements will be used because ketamine can cause light sensitivity and motion sickness. Instead, tactile bilateral stimulation is most often used through self tapping. Auditory bilateral stimulation is also an option that would be paired with tactile stimulation.

EMDR work can happen right before or during the infusion for resourcing, grounding, and gentle processing, and/or shortly after the infusion, when the brain remains in a flexible, highly plastic state and the patient may feel less defended or stuck

The therapist will cue you to the EMDR target and will engage with you in EMDR predetermined bilateral stimulation methods. The session will continue according to EMDR standard protocol and practice standards, progressing through phases of EMDR as clinically indicated.

Ongoing EMDR Sessions

The number of sessions may vary depending on presenting symptoms and outcomes within the sessions. Subsequent sessions will be conducted in the same procedural manner however, the EMDR targets may vary. The goal is to get subjective units of distress (SUD) associated with the target memory of belief down to a one or zero on a scale of 0 to 10.

Outcomes of Ketamine Assisted EMDR

Overall, ketamine assisted EMDR seeks to:

Lower the emotional intensity of traumatic material.
Increase access to adaptive, rational perspectives.
Support structured and more durable changes in mood, anxiety, and self-perception.

Effectiveness of Ketamine Assisted EMDR Therapy

Research on ketamine and EMDR separately is strong, and emerging clinical experience supports their combined use. While large controlled trials on the exact IV ketamine plus EMDR protocol are still developing, several factors contribute to its effectiveness:

Ketamine’s rapid impact on mood and neuroplasticity can reduce the barrier of severe symptoms that often prevent patients from fully engaging in trauma therapy.
EMDR offers a structured, evidence-based way to work with memories and triggers that ketamine alone does not directly address.
Combining them in a carefully timed protocol may enhance both speed of improvement and depth of healing.

For patients who have “tried everything” with limited success, this integrated approach can offer a new pathway—especially when delivered in a clinic like Reset Restore MD that prioritizes safety, personalization, and coordination between medical and mental health providers.

Ketamine Assisted EMDR for PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often involves intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, hyperarousal, and a persistent sense of danger. Many patients also live with co-occurring depression or anxiety, making daily functioning even more difficult

In ketamine assisted EMDR for PTSD:

IV ketamine can quickly reduce the intensity of fear, shame, or emotional numbing that keeps trauma unprocessed.
EMDR protocols then guide patients to safely revisit traumatic memories while the nervous system is less locked in the fight-or-flight mode.
Over time, traumatic events may no longer dominate the present, and patients can regain a sense of safety.

This approach may be especially helpful for:

Combat-related PTSD
Childhood or complex trauma (C-PTSD)
Trauma linked to medical events, accidents, or interpersonal violence.

Because IV ketamine is predictable and controllable, the clinic can aim for a psychological state that supports trauma work without pushing patients too far outside their window of tolerance.

Ketamine Assisted EMDR for Depression

Depression often brings feelings of hopelessness, loss of interest, fatigue, and negative self-beliefs that can be rooted in past experiences or chronic stress. Traditional antidepressants can take weeks to months to fully take effect and often don’t provide as much relief as desired.

Ketamine assisted EMDR for depression offers several advantages:

IV ketamine may provide rapid relief, in just hours to days, from severe depressive symptoms, helping patients feel well enough to engage in therapy.
EMDR helps identify and reprocess core memories and beliefs that drive depressive thinking, such as “I am worthless” or “Nothing will ever change.”
The neuroplastic state following ketamine infusions can make it easier for new, more balanced beliefs to stick.

Patients frequently report improvements not only in mood scores but also in daily functioning, relationships, and self-compassion when medical and therapeutic care are aligned.

Ketamine Assisted EMDR for Anxiety

Anxiety can show up as constant worry, panic attacks, physical tension, and difficulty relaxing or sleeping. It may stem from specific events, ongoing stress, or long-standing patterns of fear and self-protection.

In the context of anxiety:

IV ketamine can reduce baseline anxiety and interrupt cycles of catastrophic thinking.
EMDR can then target early experiences, triggers, and future fears that keep anxiety in place. Using ketamine and EMDR in conjunction produces a synergistic effect in helping patients decrease and overcome debilitating anxiety.
During and after ketamine infusions, patients may find it easier to approach feared topics, sensations, or memories with less avoidance and more curiosity.

Over time, ketamine assisted EMDR can help patients:

Decrease the intensity and frequency of anxiety episodes.
Develop a more grounded, flexible response to stress.
Rebuild trust in their ability to handle life’s challenges.