Kim Welch, LMHC, is an expressive art therapist and Journey Clinical Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy provider located in central Massachusetts. She has been using art therapy in her practice since 2012 and has been doing Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) actively with clients for over a year. You can connect with Kim via her website.
Kim was recently recognized as a member of the Worcester Business Journal 40 Under 40 Class of 2024, an honor that highlights her dedication and impact in the field of mental health. We had the opportunity to sit down with her to learn more about her journey, how she integrates KAP into her therapeutic approach, and the insights she has gained along the way.
How does expressive art therapy work with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)?
Expressive art therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy is a beautiful pairing. As an expressive art therapist, a lot of what I do is helping clients externalize thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are experienced, and putting it out into the world in a creative way. It can be through an art medium as well as poetry, music, or movement. I often hear people say that it’s hard to put the thoughts and emotions that came up during their altered state of consciousness into words after a KAP dosing session; art is a great catalyst as another language to help them process and deepen their understanding of the psychedelic experience.
Can you talk about how you intersect IFS with expressive art therapy and KAP?
For me, IFS is interwoven naturally with expressive therapies, so whatever we’re working with can be more fully and wholly witnessed and held. As an art therapist I’m inviting clients to ‘express their thoughts, feelings or experiences out onto paper.’ When integrating IFS this gets translated for me into: ‘Let’s get to know the part creatively.’ by expressing and externalizing the part’s feeling, thought, beliefs, or the physical sensations..
Each client is unique and every treatment plan is going to be tailored to that specific person. Not all of my clients use expressive art therapy, but for those who do, I do see that there’s a deepening of the KAP experience when they’re able to utilize expressive arts throughout the process.
Can you walk through what it looks like to combine KAP with expressive art therapy?
Each client’s specific needs, openness, and interest in the art is going to reflect how it looks in each stage of the KAP process. For example, preparation can look like doing a vision board of our intentions, or it could look like really getting to know a part by creating art and externalizing it. I recently offered an intervention – to draw a bridge and use it as a metaphor for where they are at that moment and where they want to go through treatment.
For dosing sessions I often invite my clients to have their art materials ready and available in their space. Even though most clients don’t actively create art during higher-dose KAP sessions, I’ve found that just having a sketchbook or ongoing piece nearby can be grounding. It can serve as a mindfulness tool to help clients bring themselves back into the moment and engage in conversation as the medicine effects fade.
During integration, I’m checking to see if a client has interest in using creativity which I’m finding is often more accessible after a KAP dosing session. This has been seen as a client doing expressive arts between sessions and then bringing it in to explore. Or inviting a client to use their creativity to explore themes or metaphors that emerged and using images, colors, physical sensations, and messages that they received as starting points into the art making process.
Recently, a client shared that a message they received was ‘find the peace within.’ Another person shared ‘you are worthy of love.’ These are such profound and impactful messages to be receiving, and art is such a beautiful way to integrate those messages in their daily lives. One client of mine created a poem. Another had seen some imagery that reminded them of their favorite childhood song which led to visual art. The integration work for KAP looks very similar in many ways to the IFS process that I normally do with clients, but there seems to be an opening or softening of parts to feel more expressive and have more access to some of that creative energy.
What are some client outcomes that you’ve seen with KAP?
I’m really excited about the outcomes that I’ve been seeing with my KAP clients. I offer both higher dosing psychedelic sessions and low-dose psycholytic sessions. It has been a humbling and welcoming experience to witness the important shifts happening for people as a result of the KAP sessions. It does seem to allow true Self energy (as they say in IFS) or the inner healing wisdom to be more accessible, which I’ve observed leading to increased self-awareness, emotional unburdening and positive behavior change.
Clients are often reporting improved mood and inner spaciousness after a KAP session. This may be a subtle shift of being able to pause and have more distance from the strong emotions and ingrained thought patterns which allows them to work with the insights that are coming up. I am noticing that during integration clients are less blended with parts which helps to increase access to qualities of Self energy such as creativity, calm, confidence, courage, compassion and curiosity.
Do you have any advice for licensed mental health providers who are interested in offering KAP in their practice?
I have found that the KAP community is a welcoming bunch! Talking to others who are doing the work and asking them what they’ve learned. Exploring the research, discussing the results and getting connected to email listservs of people that are doing the work has been instrumental in my learning process. Joining Journey Clinical helped me build confidence with training, consultation groups, and support staff. I was a member for about a year before I even started with my first client. I love connecting with people about all different kinds of questions that come up and JC offers a robust community to tap into.
I also recommend engaging in the KAP process yourself in order to be a more effective KAP provider. I had done KAP outside of Journey Clinical prior to joining, and I would say that experience was one of the most important factors to me deciding to offer it in my practice. Being on the receiving end has allowed me to support clients more fully. Each KAP journey is unique but once you’ve done it yourself, you can share a much more detailed explanation of the little details – like what it feels like to swish ketamine in your mouth and the temporary numbing effect it has.
Do you have any advice for prospective patients?
My advice for prospective clients is to come into the KAP experience open hearted and willing to do the important preparation and integration work. The moment you start the conversation about engaging in KAP and decide it’s an option for you is the moment when preparation begins. It is helpful to be well-informed and feel fully supported throughout the process. So I also recommend asking as many questions as possible and getting in touch with any fears or concerns that come up around trying this new and ground-breaking approach to psychotherapy.