WHAT IS KAP? | Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, TELOS

Meet Our Provider Julie Ross

We are all unique pieces of art in this world. But throughout our lives, others have (for good or with harm) marked up, scratched and painted over the masterpiece.

These wounds happen with broken relationships, unhealthy relational patters and traumatic events and can leave an individual feeling depressed, anxious or traumatized.

I graduated from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology in 2011 with my masters degree. and have been working with children, teens, families and adults in various settings since then. In 2015, I started a three year journey working in community mental health working with low income children and their families. The level of trauma seen there was intense but a joy to offer hope and healing to that population.

I started my private practice in 2019, 6 months before the pandemic hit and work primarily with teens and adults on a wide range of mental health issues. I utilize PACE in therapy (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) as my primary therapeutic stance and rely heavily on Narrative, Internal Family systems, Existential, and Relational Psychoanalytic therapies.

While using talk therapy has offered many of my clients immense healing to these broken places in ourselves, sometimes the pain is so deep that talking isn’t enough. Those places require treatment that is as powerful in healing as the trauma was in breaking. Ketamine is offering this. I started offering Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in January 2021 and have been blown away by the power of this substance to really break through depression and trauma for those using it. It opens up the self and the brain in a way that talk therapy really cannot and allows the individual enough rest to reboot in healing ways. It’s been a great mode to offer clients.
Together my hope is that my clients and I will do the hard work of restoring the painting of their life to its intended beauty, free of the depression, anxiety and trauma that have left their marks on each of us. A good therapist holds the space of a supportive healer as the client works to identify the ways past and present harm control their being.

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