Ketamine Integration Chaplaincy: A Novel Spiritual Care Approach to Psychedelic Integration
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2025 Jeffrey A. Breau, Paul Gillis‐Smith, Tara Deonauth 2 citations
A university teaching hospital developed the Ketamine Integration Chaplaincy (KIC) program, one of the first instances of a major hospital providing ketamine integration modeled on spiritual care. The program offers virtual, one-on-one support to patients receiving ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, who frequently report spiritual or religious experiences similar to those from classic psychedelics. From 2022 to 2025, the program supported 50 patients and trained four student chaplains. The article reviews ketamine-assisted psychotherapy literature and argues that contemporary hospital chaplaincy techniques are well-suited for these patients, detailing six chaplaincy competencies: nondirective presence, facilitating meaning-making, spiritually supportive listening, altered states support, ritual design, and community care.