Cardea’s Lascaux Method is a short-term ketamine-assisted psychotherapy approach that integrates therapeutic principles with carefully guided ketamine sessions, all aimed at creating a fertile space for healing through the expanding aliveness offered by play.

Our approach is most strongly influenced by a Finnish model called Open Dialogue and the “dialogic” process it initiated. In this approach, the therapist’s job is to avoid the certitude of expert formulations, analysis, and diagnosis to create the right environment for play. Working this way, we offer an innovative approach to an “old school” ethos, since we see psychotherapy as it was originally intended: an improvisational art form helping people contemplate “problems of living” rather than an attempt to surgically remove symptoms.

certitude of expert formulations, analysis, and diagnosis to create the right environment for play. Working this way, we offer an innovative approach to an “old school” ethos, since we see psychotherapy as it was originally intended: an improvisational art form helping people contemplate “problems of living” rather than an attempt to surgically remove symptoms.

Our intention is to provide our guests with a chance to reconnect with their innate vitality and inherent ability to perceive the dynamic life in others; to feel more related to their relationships; to embrace head-on the life-enhancing potential of uncertainty; and to embark on a transformative journey of personal growth. The way to get there is to unleash the playful elements practiced in the best of psychotherapies and to turn up the volume on these, while seeing ketamine as an ally in this process, one that helps people open up to novelty and uncertainty, and a sense that their experience of themselves and others is ready to be sculpted into something new.

Our process is offered fourteen sessions at a time with the possibility of future care if needed. The first and last sessions are held with two therapists in the room engaging in a reflective process in which they intermittently communicate to each other regarding how they experience the client, and the client responds to their reflections. We see these sessions as almost jazz-like, creating a polyphony of voices in the room instead of one expert opinion: seriously playful, in other words. Following the first session, there are six full therapy sessions with a therapist using a similar method, and six ketamine sessions with a dialogic prep session facilitated by this same therapist before and after the experience. We finish the short-term therapy process with a collaborative discussion regarding the therapeutic road ahead for our guests: whether they wish to see their work with us as a launching pad for longer-term psychotherapy with us or others, or they aim to return to our Lascaux process when they feel they need it again; or they wish to move on from therapeutic care.

Read More about Cardea’s Lascaux Method of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

The first step to getting started is to set up a free virtual 30-minute consult with our clinical director. This is how we begin to get to know you and to understand your intentions. We will also share more information about our process and services, and will answer your questions.