Jessica Whitten, LCPC
Pscyhotherapist
North Yarmouth ME
The first step is to email me with your interest in KAP (Jessica@WhittenWellnessMaine.com). I will then refer you to a local ketamine provider with whom I have developed an ongoing professional relationship.
This is an important step to make sure you are a safe candidate for KAP and avoid any unnecessary costs to you if it is not a safe or appropriate intervention. This is a 45-90 minute session with the ketamine provider, reviewing your current and past psychiatric, medical and social history. Treatment planning and preparation for the medicine session will also occur during this appointment.
We will then schedule 1-3 preparatory sessions to facilitate your medicine experience. These are 50-minute sessions where you will receive important information about how to get the most out of your session, how to safely prepare for the medicine, and how to navigate the experience. This is also an opportunity for questions and build rapport.
Ketamine has many routes of administration, each with their own advantages. I work closely with a local prescriber using either oral or intramuscular administration. What works best for you will be part of a shared decision-making process in the beginning of treatment.
For oral doses, the client will pick up their prescribed medication and will administer the cube or tablet themselves for the medicine session.
For intramuscular doses, we will meet at Bird’s Eye Wellness in Biddeford, Maine, where the entire session will take place. The medicine will be administered via injections by a highly trained medical professional, who will remain on-site.
The next step, and perhaps the most integral, is integration. Integration refers to the recognition of insights, creating meaning out of the session, and incorporating these changes into our daily life. In my experience, it is one of the most significant aspects in garnering the benefits that KAP has to offer. In the days immediately following the medicine, the brain is at its peak malleability and reception for change. During this time, we integrate the lessons learned through medicine sessions and make sense of what can sometimes be unclear meaning or messages from the journey.
I grew up exploring Maine’s coast and mountains, with various training, schooling, and life experiences in New Hampshire, The Virgin Islands, New Mexico, and Colorado.
I received my Bachelor of Science in Family Studies from the University of New Hampshire, Master of Science in Clinical Counseling from the University of Southern Maine, and an EMDRIA Certification in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) from the Colorado Center for Alternative Psychology.
In October of 2022, I completed a year-long fellowship program for Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) with the Integrative Psychiatry Institute in Boulder, Colorado. This training also included a certificate program with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), of San Jose, California. These two programs cater specifically to the research, history, and implementation of ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA in psychotherapy.
Following my licensure in 2005, I began working with clients experiencing mental health crises and later managed a mobile crisis intervention team--assessing lethality and levels of care. While in Santa Fe, I practiced both outpatient and in-home family therapy. Living in the southwest was an integral part of incorporating the spiritual aspect of counseling into my practice, where I was able to participate in courses and ceremonies of indigenous, feminist, and earth-based traditions. Upon my return to Maine in 2010, I opened my own private practice serving adults, couples, and children in the Greater Portland area.
Currently I am offering tele-health psychotherapy appointments for adults, and in-person Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) at our offices in North Yarmouth, Maine.