When Nothing Seems to Work

If you’ve been living with depression, trauma, anxiety, or addiction—and you’ve tried everything—therapy, medication, self-help books, even mindfulness—it’s not uncommon to feel as though you’ve reached the end of the road.

But what if there’s another path?

One that doesn’t promise quick fixes, but offers something more grounded: a new way in.

That’s what psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) offers—not just a treatment, but a therapeutic process built around presence, safety, and connection. For many, it becomes the place where healing finally begins to unfold.

What Is Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy?

PAP is a structured therapeutic process that weaves together:

• A carefully selected psychedelic medicine (such as ketamine, MDMA, or psilocybin)
• A series of guided therapy sessions—before, during, and after the medicine experience

“It’s entirely revolutionary. Normally in therapy, no medicine is used. But when psychedelic medicine is combined with psychotherapy, resistance goes down, ego control loosens, and the unconscious begins to offer up material to work with.”
— Dr. Dan McKinnon

This isn’t about escaping reality. It’s not about altered states for the sake of it.
It’s about deepening access to the parts of ourselves that traditional therapy sometimes can’t reach—and doing so within a safe, professional, and relational container.

What Can PAP Help With?

This approach is particularly helpful when more conventional methods have fallen short.
It’s often considered for people navigating:

• Treatment-resistant depression
• PTSD and developmental trauma
• Generalized anxiety and/or end-of-life concerns
• Addiction and compulsive behavioral patterns
• Unresolved grief or emotional numbness

“People get past their treatment problems by 50, 60, sometimes 70%—and these are people who haven’t been able to shift anything before.”
— Dr. Dan McKinnon

For many, PAP offers not just symptom relief—but movement. A sense of returning to themselves. Of finally feeling something shift.

Which Medicines Are Used?

In Canada, ketamine is the most widely available option, offered legally within licensed clinical settings.

Other medicines—such as MDMA and psilocybin—may be accessed through Health Canada’s Special Access Program, in collaboration with a qualified physician and certified clinic.

Each medicine is selected based on your emotional history, goals, and safety profile.

How the Therapy Works: A Three-Phase Journey

This isn’t a single session.
It’s a process that unfolds over time, with care.

1. Preparation

Before any medicine is used, you’ll meet with your therapist to:

• Build trust and therapeutic rapport
• Clarify intentions and emotional goals
• Explore past experiences, fears, or inner resistance

This phase helps anchor you in safety.
So when the time comes, you’re not stepping in alone—you’re stepping in accompanied.

2. Medicine Session

Held in a medically supervised, calming space, your session may include:

• Eye shades and music (optional) to support an inward focus
• Continuous emotional and clinical support
• A duration ranging from 90 minutes (ketamine) to several hours (MDMA or psilocybin)

This isn’t about the medicine doing the work.
It’s about the medicine opening the door, and the therapy helping you walk through it.

To learn what to expect during this phase, visit → What to Expect in a Psychedelic Therapy Session.

3. Integration

Within 24–48 hours, you’ll return for a dedicated session to:

• Reflect on what emerged
• Make meaning of insights, emotions, or images
• Explore how the experience connects to your daily life

“The unconscious opens up under the influence of medicine, and what arises is then integrated in the following therapy sessions.”
— Dr. Dan McKinnon

Integration is not an afterthought.
It’s where transformation begins to take root.

Why It Works: Where Science Meets Soul

The neuroscience of PAP is well-established.
Studies from institutions like Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, and MAPS show significant improvements in conditions like depression and PTSD.

But what makes this work so powerful isn’t just the research. It’s the relational frame that holds it.

“The goal for all of us in our life journey is to become more whole—with a W. This work is about wholing.”
— Dr. Dan McKinnon

That’s the invitation: not simply to feel better, but to reconnect with lost parts of yourself—your capacity to trust, to feel, to move forward.

For more about this relational depth, see → Hope Begins in Belonging.

Is It Safe?

Yes—when held within the right structure.

Every client goes through:

• A formal medical referral
• A comprehensive health and psychiatric screening
• Ongoing support before, during, and after the experience

You’re not left alone to “figure it out.”
You’re guided by a trained clinical team—every step of the way.

This is not recreational.
This is relational, ethical, and regulated therapeutic care.

A Path Back to Yourself

What if therapy could become more than coping?
What if it could become a return—to clarity, to connection, to hope?

“This work can be astounding. People come out saying, ‘I looked at something I never thought I could face—and I’m finally free of it.’”
— Dr. Dan McKinnon

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy isn’t for everyone. But for some, it becomes the bridge between survival and something far more meaningful: a life felt deeply, lived fully, and owned with clarity.

🌿 Ready to Explore Psychedelic Therapy?

You don’t have to navigate this alone.

Learn more about our approach and our services, or contact us today to begin the conversation.

Sometimes, healing begins with a conversation.
And sometimes, that conversation leads to something you never thought you’d feel again: hope.