Ketamine is a prescription-only medicine that may be prescribed off-label by our medical team following a comprehensive assessment to assist in the psychotherapy.
Ketamine is a prescription-only medicine that may be prescribed off-label by our medical team following a comprehensive assessment to assist in the psychotherapy.
SPECIALIST SUPPORT FOR PTSD
PTSD can affect every part of life. You may feel constantly on edge, exhausted by hypervigilance, disconnected from the people around you, or unable to leave certain memories in the past.
These experiences are not signs of weakness or failure. They are often the result of a nervous system that has spent a long time trying to keep you safe.
This page explores what we currently understand about PTSD, how trauma affects the brain and body, and where ketamine-assisted psychotherapy may fit within a carefully structured programme of care.
Advanced
Treatment
Specialist
Psychotherapy
Support
Throughout
RECOGNISING PTSD
PTSD affects people in different ways, but many describe the same experience: feeling as though a part of them is still living in the moment everything changed.
You may find yourself constantly scanning for danger, avoiding certain places or memories, struggling to relax, or feeling disconnected from the people and life around you.
For some people, PTSD is loud. For others, it is quiet. Either way, it can be exhausting.
PTSD is not who you are. It is what can happen when the mind and body have spent too long carrying the impossible.
YOU MAY RECOGNISE
WHY THIS HAPPENS
PTSD develops when an experience overwhelms the brain and body’s ability to process what has happened. While many people recover naturally over time, others continue to live with a nervous system that behaves as though the danger is still present.
Hypervigilance, avoidance, emotional numbing and an exaggerated startle response are not random symptoms. They are often adaptive survival responses that, at one time, may have helped keep you safe.
The difficulty is that the mind and body do not always distinguish between past and present. Long after the event has ended, the nervous system may continue to prepare for a threat that is no longer there.
SURVIVAL ADAPTATIONS
Hypervigilance
Constantly scanning for danger in the environment.
Avoidance
Staying away from reminders of what happened.
Emotional Numbing
Creating distance from overwhelming experiences.
Startle Response
Remaining prepared for threat at all times.
The problem is not that your nervous system learned to protect you. It is that it never received permission to stop.
Your mind is not trying to punish you. It is trying to protect you using the only strategy it has ever known.
THE SCIENCE OF TRAUMA
PTSD is not simply a collection of symptoms. Trauma affects the way the brain processes threat, memory, emotion and safety. Modern neuroscience increasingly suggests that these changes are measurable — and importantly, that they may not be permanent.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is being investigated because it appears to temporarily increase neuroplasticity while creating a therapeutic opportunity to revisit longstanding patterns with greater flexibility and support.
The amygdala is the brain’s alarm system. In PTSD, it can become overactive, constantly scanning for danger — even when you are safe.
WHY KETAMINE MAY MATTER
Ketamine may help reduce excessive threat signalling in the amygdala, creating distance from fear responses and allowing for greater therapeutic engagement.
WHAT THIS MAY MEAN
For some people, the world begins to feel less immediately dangerous.
The hippocampus helps place memories in time and context. Trauma can disrupt this process, leading to fragmented memories and flashbacks where the past feels present.
WHY KETAMINE MAY MATTER
Ketamine appears to support neuroplasticity and memory reconsolidation, helping the brain update and reprocess traumatic memories with greater flexibility.
WHAT THIS MAY MEAN
The past may begin to feel more like the past — not something you are reliving in the present.
The prefrontal cortex helps with decision-making, impulse control and emotional regulation. In PTSD, its activity and connectivity are often reduced.
WHY KETAMINE MAY MATTER
Ketamine may increase connectivity in prefrontal regions and reduce the dominance of threat-based networks, supporting clearer thinking and greater regulation.
WHAT THIS MAY MEAN
Greater ability to respond, rather than react, to life’s challenges.
Chronic trauma can dysregulate the body’s stress system (HPA axis), leading to elevated cortisol, sleep disturbance, fatigue and a constant state of high alert.
WHY KETAMINE MAY MATTER
Ketamine may help modulate stress responses and reduce physiological arousal, supporting a return to greater balance in the body’s stress systems.
WHAT THIS MAY MEAN
Feeling less exhausted by simply existing.
Ketamine appears to temporarily increase neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to form new connections. This creates a window of opportunity where old patterns may be less rigid and new ways of thinking, feeling and responding become more possible.
This window on its own is not enough. It must be supported by skilled psychotherapy, careful preparation and meaningful integration to help create lasting change.
Ketamine does not erase traumatic memories. The goal is not forgetting. The goal is helping you build a different relationship with what happened.
THE PATHWAY TO HEALING
Trauma
Overwhelming experience
Threat System Activation
The brain stays on high alert
Hypervigilance & Symptoms
Physical, emotional and cognitive impact
Ketamine-Induced Neuroplasticity
Increased flexibility and new possibilities
Psychotherapy
Exploring, processing and reconsolidating memories
Integration
Embedding change into daily life
Improved Function
Living with greater safety and freedom
Trauma changes the brain, but the brain remains capable of change. That possibility sits at the centre of everything we do at The Emerge Clinic.
COULD KETAMINE-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY HELP?
PTSD treatment is not about removing memories or pretending difficult experiences never happened. It is about helping people feel safer in their bodies, more connected to themselves, and less controlled by what happened in the past.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy may create a temporary period of increased flexibility and openness. Within a carefully prepared therapeutic setting, this can provide an opportunity to explore longstanding patterns, emotions and beliefs with greater support.
Healing often begins with feeling safe enough to stop surviving.
Trauma does not have to remain frozen in time.
Recovery is not simply the absence of symptoms. It is the return of a life that feels worth living.
PTSD IS NOT ONE CONDITION
PTSD presents differently from person to person. Some people are ready for trauma-focused work immediately. Others benefit from a period of stabilisation first. A comprehensive assessment helps determine whether ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is appropriate and whether additional support may be needed.
Trauma may become part of your story. It does not have to remain the author of it.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Reaching out can feel like a significant step — particularly when you’ve spent a long time managing things on your own.
Our role is not to pressure or persuade. It is to help you understand your options and determine whether ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is the right next step for you.
An opportunity to discuss your history, current experiences and any questions you may have.
A comprehensive psychological and medical assessment to determine suitability and ensure treatment is appropriate.
If appropriate, we begin a carefully prepared programme of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
Dedicated integration sessions help translate insight into meaningful, lasting change.
Whatever happens next, you do not have to work it out alone.
TRUST & EVIDENCE
PTSD is one of the most extensively studied mental health conditions. While ketamine-assisted psychotherapy remains an emerging area of practice, the growing body of research into trauma, neuroplasticity and ketamine continues to produce encouraging findings.
At The Emerge Clinic, we believe patients deserve both hope and honesty. The evidence is promising, but it is still developing.
FEATURED RESEARCH
A 2025 open-label trial combining ketamine infusions with Written Exposure Therapy in people with chronic PTSD reported large and durable reductions in PTSD symptoms, particularly in individuals with more severe presentations. Researchers concluded that larger controlled studies are now warranted.
Feder, A. et al. (2025). Ketamine and written exposure therapy for treatment of chronic PTSD: An open-label clinical trial. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 186, 476–485.
Ketamine & PTSD
Repeated ketamine administration has demonstrated rapid reductions in PTSD symptoms in several clinical studies, with some participants maintaining improvements beyond the acute treatment period.
Price, R. B. et al. (2020). Multi-site, open-label trial of ketamine for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177(4), 383–390.
Trauma & Neuroplasticity
Modern trauma research increasingly supports the idea that the brain remains capable of change throughout life. Neuroplasticity, memory reconsolidation and therapeutic intervention all appear to play an important role in recovery.
Yehuda, R., & Lehrner, A. (2018). Intergenerational trauma effects and epigenetic inheritance in humans. Biological Psychiatry, 83(12), 1016–1026.
Bessel van der Kolk, MD
Pioneer in trauma research, author of The Body Keeps the Score
Trauma is not just an event that occurred in the past; it is a wound that continues to shape the nervous system.
Rachel Yehuda, PhD
Director, Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research, Mount Sinai
The field of psychedelic research is entering an exciting phase, with the potential to transform mental healthcare.
A NOTE ON THE EVIDENCE
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD remains an emerging field. While early findings are encouraging, larger studies are still needed to determine who benefits most, the optimal treatment protocols and long-term outcomes.
We believe that uncertainty should be discussed openly. Patients deserve accurate information — not exaggerated claims.
Trauma has been part of human history for thousands of years. Our understanding of recovery continues to evolve.
TAKING THE NEXT STEP
If you’re curious about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and whether it could help you, we’re here to talk.
A brief conversation is an opportunity to ask questions, understand your options and explore what the next step might look like for you.
Compassionate & Confidential
Every conversation is private, respectful and without obligation.
Expert Care
Medical oversight and specialist psychotherapy, working together.
Guided at Every Step
From your first conversation through to integration and beyond.
SAFE. ETHICAL. EVIDENCE-LED.
We follow strict clinical protocols and work within all relevant UK regulations and safety guidelines.
Your information is safe and will never be shared.
We usually respond within 1 working day.
It is about becoming who you are meant to be.