If you’re a client who's in the middle of, or has recently completed Mindbloom's introductory program “The Basics,” you may be wondering what comes next in your healing journey. Some clients are content with the progress they’ve gained after just six sessions. Others finish their first program wanting to explore specific focuses for extended treatment.
As you look forward, you may notice that there are still some areas of your life that you’d like to work on. Many clients ask if there is a path to continue doing their work in the powerful container of ketamine therapy.
Fortunately, there is! There are a number of continuing Mindbloom® programs you can choose from, designed to focus specifically on unblocking different areas of your life. These programs are all created by our expert team of psychedelic therapy and mental health professionals.
How Mindbloom® programs are structured
All programs at Mindbloom® share a similar structure, which you may have already experienced in The Basics program.
Each program has six personalized ketamine sessions, paired with expertly-curated preparation and integration content. This programming solidifies and implements the experiences you have within sessions, and helps to make progress on your intentions.
Mindbloom’s continuing programs maintain this structure. To learn more about the specific themes that each program addresses and explores, keep reading.
Going Deeper
Going Deeper is the next evolution of The Basics with Dr. Casey Paleos, the first program you may have completed with Mindbloom. Using the psychedelic therapy foundation introduced in The Basics, join Dr. Paleos as you dive further into understanding the neuroscience and experiential toolkit of working with ketamine.
Going Deeper’s preparation content focuses on diving much deeper into our time-tested mantra of T.L.O. — Trust. Let Go. Be Open.
The lessons and experiences you have in sessions are just as applicable and salient outside of your session as they are within them. T.L.O. is no different.
T.L.O. is useful when preparing and navigating the ketamine experience, but it is just as powerful when approaching the rest of your life. How much do you “trust” yourself and the future? Are you able to “let go” of the past and the weight you’re carrying? And can you “be open” to experience as it arrives, welcoming it as an opportunity for growth?
Going Deeper’s integration content focuses on exploring the neurobiology of ketamine, providing a detailed understanding of the effects of ketamine on your brain, mind, and body.
This foundation allows you to use your integration window to its fullest, to understand the mechanisms behind neuroplasticity and brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) to catalyze major and long-lasting changes in your life.
Learning to Love Yourself
Learning to Love Yourself with Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and Guide Shannon Starr focuses acutely on the relationship that you have with yourself. It cultivates a deeper sense of self-worth, self-love, and invigorates new self-image and self-identity structures.
Many clients utilize this program to heal and address the relationship they have with themselves.
For example, they are not proud of who they are or what they’ve done, and they feel like there’s more that they could be. These frames of mind are what Learning to Love Yourself addresses.
Learning to Love Yourself explores two fundamental aspects of self: “Being,” the person you are right now in this moment, and “Becoming,” the person you are growing towards and the vast potential stored inside of you.
We often view these as separate parts of ourselves. Do you focus on appreciating who you are today, or get to work and build a better future for yourself tomorrow?
The experiential arc of this program explores the fact that these are not separate. The Being and Becoming are both necessary and crucial parts of yourself. People who are calm, strong, and content are often more successful in the future.
Cultivating a deep appreciation for who you are today and making the conditions for who you are becoming as favorable as possible is the crux of what Learning to Love Yourself explores.
Overcoming Anxiety
Overcoming Anxiety with Mindbloom’s Lead Clinician Kristin Arden has a very direct aim —to help you manage, overcome, and work with your anxiety.
Kristin will not only help you manage anxiety now, but provide a toolkit to make it an ally on your journey, something that can help you identify your priorities, what matters most to you, and highlight next steps forward.
By reframing key components of anxiety symptoms, and building an action plan to resolve the physical feelings of anxiety and keep them managed effectively, you will turn anxiety from an overwhelming experience into a powerful signal from your body’s inner intelligence.
This is a foundational pillar of growth: taking obstacles and turning them into opportunities.
Anxiety is something many clients come to Mindbloom to work on, and this Overcoming Anxiety program is catered specifically to this end: to turn obstacles into growth opportunities, allowing you to become the best version of yourself.
Beyond Depression
Beyond Depression is the second program with Lead Clinician Kristin Arden — and directly addresses, reframes, and provides a foundation to help you manage depressive symptoms and chart a course towards a life beyond depression.
Kristin provides the ideas, practices, techniques, and theory to help you manage the weight and experience of depression, while laying a firm foundation for the rest of your life, a life filled with positive emotion/affect, and one that has moved beyond the presence of depression.
Living with depression as a constant companion is a challenging experience, but it is not a life sentence. Through appropriate reframing, and with the guidance and expertise that Kristin brings as a mental health professional with decades of experience, you will build your own toolkit to help you reduce the weight of depression, manage symptoms and life experiences as they arise, and build a new life, with you in charge of your emotional states.
Depression is a signal from your body that there's room for growth and personal evolution. The Beyond Depression program is the companion for you along this journey towards healing and wholeness.
Questions? Next Steps?
If you have any questions about any of our programs, our team is always available to discuss more at support@mindbloom.com.
If you’d like to begin a new program listed here, just head to your Mindbloom dashboard and select your next program.
We’re honored to play a role in your healing journey. Thank you for choosing Mindbloom to be a part of your life’s most important work.
Considering Your Next Program?
Continue with your next Mindbloom program to keep your momentum going. Click below to start a new chapter.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment. If you are in a life-threatening situation, call, text, or chat the National Suicide Prevention Line at 988 or +1 (800) 273-8255, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room.
Important FDA Safety Information
Ketamine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of depression or anxiety. Learn more about off-label uses here.
Side effects of ketamine treatment may include: altered sense of time, anxiety, blurred vision, diminished ability to see/hear/feel, dry mouth, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure, excitability, loss of appetite, mental confusion, nausea/vomiting, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), restlessness, slurred speech, synesthesia (a mingling of the senses).
Do not proceed with ketamine treatment if any of the following apply to you:
- Allergic to ketamine
- Symptoms of psychosis or mania
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure
- CHF or other serious heart problem
- Severe breathing problem
- History of elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure
- History of hyperthyroidism
- Other serious medical illness
- Pregnant, nursing, or trying to become pregnant
Ketamine has been reported to produce issues including, but not limited to, those listed below. However, lasting adverse side-effects are rare when medical protocols are carefully followed.
While ketamine has not been shown to be physically addictive, it has been shown to cause moderate psychological dependency in some recreational users.
- In rare cases, frequent, heavy users have reported increased frequency of urination, urinary incontinence, pain urinating, passing blood in the urine, or reduced bladder size
- Ketamine may worsen problems in people with schizophrenia, severe personality disorders, or other serious mental disorders.
- Users with a personal or family history of psychosis should be cautious using any psychoactive substance, including ketamine, and discuss potential risks with your MindBloom® clinician before proceeding with treatment.
- The dissociative effects of ketamine may increase patient vulnerability and the risk of accidents.
To promote positive outcomes and ensure safety, follow these ketamine treatment guidelines:
- Do not operate a vehicle (e.g., car, motorcycle, bicycle) or heavy machinery following treatment until you’ve had a full night of sleep
- Refrain from taking benzodiazepines or stimulants for 24 hours prior to treatment
- Continue to take antihypertensive medication as prescribed
- Avoid hangovers or alcohol intake
- Refrain from consuming solid foods within 3 hours prior to treatment and liquids within 1 hour prior to treatment
- Ketamine treatment should never be conducted without a monitor present to ensure your safety