Ketamine-Assisted and Culturally Attuned Trauma Informed Psychotherapy as Adjunct to Traditional Indigenous Healing: Effecting Cultural Collaboration in Canadian Mental Health Care.
Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) August 31, 2021 Sherry-Anne Muscat, Geralyn Dorothy Wright, Kristy Bergeron et al. 5 citations
Pairing ketamine therapy with culturally attuned trauma-informed psychotherapy in a collaborative cross-cultural partnership may improve treatment effectiveness and quality of life for Indigenous people. Decolonizing Indigenous health requires equal partnership between government and communities, built on a holistic foundation of mind, body, social, and spiritual balance within the context of colonialism. Ketamine, a fast-acting antidepressant taking effect within 4 hours even in acute suicidality, engages multiple systems damaged by intergenerational complex developmental trauma. Its brief alteration of waking consciousness is familiar in many Indigenous healing cultures, making it a potential core treatment modality around which culturally engaged approaches can be organized.