Ketamine-Assisted EMDR Intensives
The Deep Descent
There is work that happens in weekly therapy.
And there is work that happens here. You have been doing the work. The therapy. The reading. The journaling. You know the language of attachment and nervous system and parts. You can name the patterns. You can trace them back to where they began.
And still — something underneath has not moved. Something older than language. Something the protective parts of you have spent decades keeping out of reach. Something that does not surface in a fifty-minute session and does not soften because you understand it.
This is the work for that.
What This Is
A Ketamine-Assisted EMDR Intensive is a three-day depth protocol for adults whose healing has reached the limits of what weekly therapy can offer.
It is the careful integration of Attachment-Focused EMDR, Internal Family Systems, somatic integration, and the clinical use of ketamine as a medicine that softens the nervous system’s protective architecture — allowing trauma material that has stayed buried to finally come into reach.
This is not a retreat.
This is not a wellness experience.
This is clinical work, held in a therapeutic relationship, with a trauma-trained therapist who has spent over a decade in this terrain.
Who This Is For
This work is designed for adults who are:
- Living with complex PTSD or developmental trauma that has not fully resolved in years of weekly therapy
- Carrying treatment-resistant depression or anxiety rooted in early attachment wounds
- Stuck in the gap between knowing and feeling — psychologically aware, doing the work, and still waiting for something to actually shift
- Holding high-functioning trauma responses — perfectionism, hypervigilance, chronic over-
functioning, the inability to receive care - Ready to invest in focused, intensive work rather than another year of weekly sessions
This format is not appropriate for active substance use disorders, untreated psychosis, certain
cardiovascular conditions, or anyone in acute crisis. Medical fit is determined through a clinical
screening with the prescribing psychiatric provider.
What Happens in Three Days
Each day of the intensive holds the same shape:
One 90-minute ketamine-assisted EMDR session. Ketamine is administered via sublingual lozenge in a quiet, contained therapy space. The medicine creates a non-ordinary state in which protective parts soften and trauma material becomes accessible. EMDR is conducted within that state — allowing for resolution that weekly therapy often cannot reach.
One 60-minute somatic yoga integration session. Trauma is held in the body. Integration is where the
nervous system metabolizes what was processed in the medicine session — through somatic awareness, breath, trauma informed yoga, gentle movement, and parts-work dialogue.
The three days build on each other. What becomes possible on day three is rarely possible on day one. The system has been progressively softening, the relational container deepening, and the parts of you that needed to monitor the work have, by then, often begun to rest.
Preparation Is Required
Before the intensive begins, two 90-minute preparation sessions are required.
These sessions are not introductory. They are clinical foundation.
In preparation, we map your internal system— the way your nervous system learned to organize attachment, safety, and threat. We meet the parts of you that will be present in the work. We articulate what is actually being asked for, in clinically specific terms. And we build the relationship to the depth required to hold what surfaces.
The medicine does not do the preparation. The preparation is what makes the medicine useful.
Why This Format Works
Trauma is not a story to be retold. It is a pattern held in the body, encoded before language, and protected by parts of the self that have spent decades keeping it contained.
Weekly therapy, however skilled, runs into the limits of those protective parts. By the time the system softens enough to access the material, the session ends. The protection re-engages. The work begins again the next week from a slightly less defended place — but only slightly.
The intensive format respects how trauma actually moves: in waves, with momentum, in a contained therapeutic field where the work is not interrupted before it has gone where it needs to go.
Ketamine, used clinically, deepens this. Not by doing the work for you — but by quieting the defensive systems just enough to let buried material surface, without overwhelming the system that has spent so long protecting itself.
This is not about bypassing the therapeutic relationship.
It is about giving the relationship enough room to do what it is actually capable of.
The Clinical Approach
The work integrates four evidence-informed modalities:
- Attachment-Focused EMDR — addresses the relational and developmental roots of trauma, not just discrete events.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) — works directly with the protective parts that hold trauma in place.
- Somatic Healing — meets trauma where it actually lives, in the body and nervous system.
- Ketamine-Assisted Therapy — a credentialed, clinically supervised use of ketamine as an adjunct medicine within the therapy itself, not as a standalone treatment.
Ashley Hartman, LCSW, PMH-C, RYT-200, is the clinician guiding all aspects of the intensive. Ketamine is prescribed and medically supervised by a separate prescribing provider, who completes a psychiatric evaluation prior to the intensive.
Investment
The three-day Ketamine-Assisted EMDR Intensive is $4,500.
This includes:
- Two 90-minute preparation sessions
- Three 90-minute ketamine-assisted EMDR sessions
- Three 60-minute somatic integration sessions
- Post-intensive integration support
Ketamine medication and the psychiatric evaluation with the prescribing provider are billed separately.
A non-ketamine EMDR Intensive is also available for those who are not appropriate candidates for ketamine or who prefer to begin without it.
The Sacred Becoming is a private-pay practice. A superbill can be provided for potential out-of-network insurance reimbursement, though reimbursement is not guaranteed.
Locations
Ketamine-Assisted EMDR Intensives are offered to clients in Illinois and Colorado, where Ashley is licensed to practice. Ashley’s office is located in New Lenox, Illinois. Contact to schedule an in person or virtual intensive.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from going to a ketamine clinic?
Most ketamine clinics offer the medicine without integrated therapy. You receive a dose, you have an experience, you go home. The clinical evidence is clear: ketamine’s lasting therapeutic benefit comes from what happens in and after the medicine session — the therapeutic processing, the integration, the relational container. This intensive is built around that.
How is this different from weekly therapy?
Weekly therapy is paced for ongoing life support and gradual change. Intensives are paced for focused, contained trauma resolution. Many clients do both — weekly therapy with their primary therapist, with intensives layered in for deeper work. The intensive is not a replacement for ongoing care.
Do I need to stop my current therapy to do an intensive?
No. Many clients arrive with a primary therapist and continue that work afterward. With your permission, Ashley can coordinate with your existing provider before and after the intensive.
What if I’m not sure ketamine is right for me?
That is what the consultation is for — and what the medical evaluation with the prescribing provider determines. A non-ketamine EMDR Intensive is also available, with the same clinical structure minus the medicine.
What does aftercare look like?
Integration is part of the intensive itself, not an afterthought. You will leave with a clear sense of what to expect in the weeks that follow, and access to integration support during that window. Some clients also choose ongoing 1:1 work afterward — see Ketamine-Assisted EMDR Therapy for that format.
How do I know if I’m ready?
A 20-minute consultation will tell you. We will talk through what you have already done, what you are hoping to address, and whether this is the right next step — or whether something else would serve you better right now.
Begin With a Consultation
The first step is a 20-minute fit consultation. There is no cost.
You will have a chance to share what is bringing you here, ask the questions that matter to you, and get a clear sense of whether an intensive is the right next step.
If it is, we will outline the path forward. If it is not, you will leave with a clearer picture of what might serve you instead.