WHAT IS KAP? | Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, TELOS

Meet Our Provider Andrew Bryant

What I offer – I work with people who feel stuck in roles, patterns, and ruts but don’t know why; or who know why but can’t seem to find a path out of that stuck place. My role, as I see it, is to help you discover new capacities for relating to yourself to others and to the world so that you can feel less stuck, more free, and more engaged with life.

Where ketamine fits in – We all enter adulthood with a story or a “script” about who we are—and we often feel compelled to follow that script even when it limits who we can become. Many of us go through life repeating these patterns without knowing how to change, feeling discouraged, hopeless, and self-critical.

Compared to this familiar realm of experience, with all its old and habitual patterns of relating and being, ketamine offers a very different way of perceiving ourselves and the world. This awareness of another way of being can open us up to change on a level deeper than words and ideas. This embodied experience, with the support of ongoing therapy and inquiry, can help us feel into how to function and relate in new ways.

In my work with ketamine, I see my role as a steady, experienced, and welcoming guide, supporting you as you venture into new, unknown, and potentially transformative terrain. I welcome anything that comes up – there is space for everything you bring, everything you carry inside you, and everything that arises.

Invitation – If you’re ready to try something really new; and if you’re ready to stretch yourself on an inner adventure with compassion and curiosity about yourself and reality, I invite you to reach out!

More about me – I have worked with individuals, couples and families for over twelve years as psychotherapist and co-director of North Seattle Therapy & Counseling. In addition to my work in Ketamine-assisted Therapy, I have a clinical interest in ecopsychology, our relationship with nature, and the psychological impact of climate and ecological crisis (see my work at Climate & Mind).

Meet our Medical Team

Rafael Gonzalez-Vizoso, MD

Dr. Gonzalez-Vizoso started his education at Brooklyn College where he earned his BA in chemistry while fulfilling his pre-med requirements, graduating Cum Laude. He completed his medical school education at Harvard Medical School where he also did a year of research in Tropical Medicine.

His internship was done at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a Tufts University Medical School affiliated program, and his residency in Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center, a Boston University Medical School affiliated program.

He has been board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine since 1996. He has been practicing Emergency Medicine in multiple settings -anywhere from Level 2 Trauma Centers in urban settings to small to medium rural hospitals- since his graduation from residency in 1994. He is currently the Medical Director for Emergency Services at a critical care access rural hospital in Eastern Washington. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Lightshine, a non profit organization dealing with the care of orphans -specifically in the setting of attachment disorder-, and has traveled extensively on behalf of this organization through Central and South America.

After arriving in Seattle in 1996, he taught Introduction to Clinical Medicine at the University of Washington Medical School as a clinical instructor for 5 years. He also engaged in outcomes research as the medical director of Health Research Associates, Inc. where he co-authored papers, wrote grants and lead studies for 10 years. For the past 18 months, he has been interested in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and has undergone all the appropriate training with The Ketamine Training Center, headed by Dr. Phil Wolfson, a leading authority on ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) and has become certified in this treatment modality.

Dr. Gonzalez-Vizoso’s interest in KAP was sparked by the dearth of options available for mental health patients in crisis as well as people with addiction disorders. This induced him to delve into the latest research in the use of psychedelics for mental illnesses. He has used ketamine as an anesthetic in the emergency medicine setting as aid for painful procedures and rapid sequence intubation for over 25 years and is very familiar with the use and safety profile of ketamine. During his training for KAP, Dr. Gonzalez-Vizoso experienced firsthand the amazing effects of ketamine. In association with veteran, ketamine trained psychotherapists, he has become increasingly active in the field of applying psychedelics in the setting of mental illnesses and hopes to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Besides his interests in medicine, Dr. Gonzalez-Vizoso holds two black belts in two different styles of martial arts, is an avid free diver and spearfisherman as well as an avid cyclist. He is an amateur historian and has serious spiritual and religious pursuits. He also writes poetry but is too afraid to show it to anyone yet.

If you are interested in future trainings or participating in KAT when alternative options become available you can send inquiries to scott.ross@salishseacounseling.com