Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is an emerging intervention that can help clients access emotional flexibility, reduce shame, and soften rigid relational defenses—particularly when traditional talk therapy has reached a plateau. By temporarily quieting threat responses and entrenched cognitive patterns, ketamine can create a therapeutic window in which clients are more open to vulnerability, connection, and meaning-making. For clinicians working with couples and individuals navigating intimacy challenges, this window can be leveraged to support attachment repair and deepen emotional engagement.
This presentation explores how KAP can be thoughtfully and ethically integrated into sex and couples therapy through an Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and attachment-based lens, with particular attention to LGBTQ clients. Sexual and intimacy concerns are often rooted in attachment injuries, cycles of disconnection, minority stress, and identity-based shame. Participants will learn how ketamine-assisted sessions can support emotional accessibility, vulnerability, responsiveness, and corrective relational experiences. The session will address preparation, integration, consent, and relational safety, offering a trauma-informed, affirming, and clinically grounded framework for integrating KAP into attachment-focused sex and couples therapy.
About the Presenter
Amy Wilhelmi, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Iowa, an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, Certified Sex Therapist, and doctoral candidate in Clinical Sexology. She is the Founder and Clinical Director of Amy Wilhelmi & Associates and serves as Graduate Faculty and Clinical Lecturer at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. She previously served as Adjunct Faculty at DePaul University. Amy specializes in trauma-informed care, attachment-based couples therapy, sex therapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), integrating relational neuroscience, EMDR, and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) into her clinical and teaching work.
In addition to maintaining a multi-state clinical practice, Amy serves as a Midwest Group Therapist Trainer for Journey Clinical, where she provides advanced training and consultation to psychotherapists implementing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Her work bridges research and practice, translating emerging evidence in trauma neurobiology, attachment science, and psychedelic-assisted treatment into ethically grounded, relationally focused clinical frameworks.