Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and Queer KAP (QKAP)
Based in California | Queer & Trans Affirming | Trauma-Informed | KAP Provider
A New Path to Healing for Queer, Trans, 2LGBIANPK+* Folks
If you’ve landed here, you may be searching for a new way forward—one that goes beyond traditional talk therapy. Maybe you’re navigating the heaviness of depression or anxiety, the weight of trauma(s), or the fatigue of always having to explain who you are and why you matter.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) coupled with a Queer-Affirmative approach, or Queer KAP (QKAP), offers a different path: one that honors the complexities of Queer identities, expands possibilities for healing and wellness, allows for deeper emotional access without judgment, and one that provides for new ways to walk in the world.
For many Queer and 2LGBIANPK+ people, therapy has not always felt safe. Clinics and other spaces for help can still be steeped in cisnormativity, heteronormativity, and medical gatekeeping, among other anti-Queer stigmas and barriers as well as -isms like racism or ableism. KAP, when done intentionally and in a Queer-affirming space, creates openings for trust, safety, insight, vulnerability, and embodied transformation. You deserve care that not only sees you—but centers you.
*2LGBTQIANPK+ means people who identify as: Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Non-Binary, Plurisexual, Pansexual, Kink, and/or more.
KAP AS INTEGRATED PSYCHOTHERAPY
What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?
KAP is a therapeutic modality that combines the use of ketamine, a legal and fast-acting psychedelic medicine, with psychotherapy. Administered in safe, structured doses, ketamine helps shift mental and emotional patterns—allowing clients to explore thoughts, memories, and behaviors from a new vantage point.
Unlike some psychedelic therapies that rely on long, intensive sessions, KAP is designed to be flexible. It can support deep trauma work, existential exploration, or even relief from persistent depressive and anxiety symptoms. Ketamine’s effects on neuroplasticity—your brain’s ability to change and grow—make it a powerful therapeutic modality.
QKAP AS ENHANCED THERAPY & INTEGRATED HEALING
What is Queer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, or QKAP?
QKAP is the coupling of KAP with a committed and explicit Queer-affirmative (QA) approach to the process of healing, becoming, and recovery. A QA approach is effective and evidence-based with people who identify as 2LGBTQIANPK+; but it is also helpful for people who identify as cisgender and/or heterosexual.
A QA approach involves several important values, ethics, and activities, which are synergized with the on-going process of psychotherapy and the KAP protocol. A QA approach adopts a positive stance on sexuality and gender, regarding an active, lived relationship between the person and their environment. A QA approach assesses, addresses, and works to remediate historical and current stresses, coping strategies, relationships, and resilience related to walking in the world as a 2LGBTQIANPK+ person. Often, this work involves complicating, countering, and healing from normative or common-sense ideas, identities, behaviors, and socio-political practices. And, it involves looking at power, privilege, oppression, and our standpoints. The work together is active and collaborative, and it is a process to increase alignment with who you are, who you want to be, and how you want to walk in the world; all the while identifying, fortifying, and building the places and spaces in which to live in the world.
Why KAP and QKAP with Dr. Argüello?
I’m not just a therapist who offers KAP—I’m a Queer, Non-Binary, Gay psychotherapist based in California, with over 30 years of experience working at the intersections of health, identity, equity, and systemic oppression. I bring an anti-oppressive, relational, Queer-affirmative, and trauma-informed lens to everything I do. Therapy with me is not about "fixing" you, but about creating a space where you can remember, find, and be who you are.
Through my partnership with Journey Clinical, a trusted medical team that evaluates clients for ketamine eligibility and prescribes ketamine lozenges, we co-create a treatment process that integrates body, mind, and spirit. I work with clients through preparation, dosing, and post-journey integration in a collaborative, Queer-centered environment.
Why KAP is Uniquely Supportive for Queer and Trans People
By quieting the inner critic and amplifying intuitive wisdom, ketamine can help Queer folks in California and beyond access states of deep compassion, release old narratives, and cultivate more liberated self-understanding.
KAP can be especially powerful for Queer and Trans clients dealing with:
- Complex trauma(s) from family rejection, religious shame, or community violence
- Internalized homophobia, transphobia, and other anti-Queer stigmas
- Anxiety and depression rooted in marginalization
- Identity exploration, grief, and gender transition support
- The emotional toll of activism, caregiving, or living in systems that weren’t built for us
What to Expect in KAP Sessions
Here’s what the process typically looks like:
1. Medical Screening
You’ll first complete an assessment with Journey Clinical to ensure KAP is medically safe and appropriate for you.
2. Preparation Sessions
Before your first dose, we’ll meet to establish goals, discuss boundaries, and prepare for what might arise.
3. Ketamine Sessions
Ketamine is taken via lozenge during telehealth sessions. I provide a supportive, grounded presence throughout.
4. Integration
After each experience, we’ll meet to unpack insights, process emotions, psychotherapeutically integrate into ongoing work, and translate the experience into daily life.
I always pace the work to meet you where you are. Your consent, comfort, and cultural context guide the process.
Is KAP Right for You?
You might consider KAP if you:
- Have tried traditional therapy and feel stuck
- Experience chronic depression, anxiety, or existential despair
- Are curious about altered states as tools for growth
- Want a Queer-affirming guide to support your healing journey
Not everyone is a candidate for KAP, especially those with certain medical conditions or substance use histories. That’s why we begin with careful screening and conversation.
If you’re based in Sacramento or anywhere in California and looking for Queer-affirming psychedelic therapy, KAP may be a deeply supportive option.
FAQs
Eligibility is determined by Journey Clinical’s medical team through a comprehensive screening process.
Yes. I can coordinate with your existing therapist, or serve as your integration therapist if you’re receiving ketamine elsewhere.
Yes—especially in the right hands. I create an affirming, trauma-informed space and evidence-based approach where your full identity is welcomed and protected.
It varies. Some experience relief, recovery, and transformation in a few sessions; others choose to continue longer-term integration work.
Some people experience mild nausea, dizziness, or dissociation during or after the session. We talk about how to prepare and what to expect. All work is conducted in active collaboration with the medical providers/prescribers.
That’s important information to share. We go at your pace, and I tailor the process to your needs.
About Dr. Tyler Argüello
I am a California-based psychotherapist and Professor of Social Work who brings Queer research, critical pedagogy, and decades of clinical experience into the therapy room. My work is guided by health equity, cultural humility, and a belief in collective liberation. I am domestically partnered in a bilingual and inter-cultural relationship and a co-parent of two children. I know what it means to live and love at the margins—and I bring that knowledge into my work with care.
Getting Started with KAP in California
If you’re Queer or questioning, hurting and hopeful, stuck and still searching—I welcome you.
You don’t have to go through this alone. Together, we can explore whether KAP might be a meaningful next step in your healing journey.
To get started, reach out for a consultation. I offer therapy via secure telehealth throughout Sacramento and the state of California.