Preparation is not a test you can fail. Nobody arrives perfectly rested, perfectly hydrated, and perfectly serene, and the medicine does not require it. But a handful of practical choices in the days before a ketamine or Spravato session make the experience easier on your body and more useful to your mind. This is the guidance I give my own patients.
The week before
Guard your sleep where you can. A tired nervous system can still have a good session, but rest gives the experience more room. Ease off alcohol; it muddies both the medicine and the days after. If you keep any kind of journal, spend ten minutes writing about what you want to bring to the session, not as a script but as a compass heading.
The most important rule of the week is about medications: do not stop or change anything on your own, ever. Some medications matter to how ketamine behaves and some do not, and you and I sort that out together at your evaluation, prescriber to patient. If anything has changed since you and I last spoke, a new prescription, a new supplement, tell me before session day.
Preparation, compressed
| The week before | The day before | The morning of |
|---|---|---|
| Protect sleep | Confirm your ride home | Comfortable clothes |
| Ease off alcohol | Keep the evening light | Arrive unhurried |
| Write the intention | Follow your written eating instructions | Clear the afternoon |
| Report any medication changes to me | Charge headphones if you bring your own | Nothing to prove, nowhere to be after |
| Never stop meds on your own |
Your own written instructions from the clinic override anything general.
The day before
Confirm your ride. Every session day needs a driver who is not you, and sorting it out the night before beats a scramble in the parking lot. Keep the evening unremarkable: a normal dinner, an early night if it comes. You will have written instructions from me about food and drink timing for the session itself; those are individual, so follow yours rather than something an article told you.
The morning of
Wear clothes you could nap in. Skip the strong perfume; scent gets loud when perception softens. Arrive with enough margin that you are not carrying the freeway into the room with you. And clear the rest of the day. The session takes about two hours, but treating the whole afternoon as spoken for is the kindest schedule you can give yourself.
Preparing the mind, without overdoing it
Nervousness before a first session is nearly universal and entirely workable. The medicine does not demand a calm arrival. What helps more than forced calm is a light grip: an intention held the way you would hold a bird, firmly enough not to lose it, loosely enough not to crush it. Some people bring a question, some bring a person, some bring nothing but willingness. All three work.
If it is psilocybin preparation you are looking for rather than ketamine, that is a different medicine under a different legal framework, and my other practice covers it properly: preparing for a psilocybin session at MycoMuse.
A note on Spravato days
Spravato (esketamine) sessions follow the same human rhythm, but the monitoring schedule is set by the FDA program it runs under: dosing happens in the office and you stay with me for observation for at least two hours afterward. Bring something unhurried to do in the later stretch, and plan rides both ways: after Spravato, driving waits until the next day, after a restful night's sleep. What the session itself is like is covered in what to expect during ketamine therapy.
If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911. This practice does not provide emergency services.
