Sundays @ CCP
****A recording will NOT be available for this session****
Kevin Barrett, LCSW
(Chicago, Il)
Holding, Containing, Dissolving: A Psychoanalytic View of Ketamine Treatment
Sunday October 25 , 2026
12-2pm (CST)
1132 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 502, Chicago
About this presentation: The landscape of psychedelic therapy has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years. Cities and states have moved to decriminalize a range of psychedelic substances, while psilocybin and MDMA have entered Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of major depressive disorder and PTSD. Ketamine clinics have proliferated across the country, making psychedelic-assisted treatment more accessible than ever before.
Even therapists who do not plan to utilize psychedelics within their own practice will increasingly be confronted with patients who have questions about these treatments or who arrive having already pursued them. Patients may come to sessions having undergone ketamine infusions, participated in guided psilocybin ceremonies, or explored MDMA-assisted therapy in clinical or informal settings, bringing with them experiences that require thoughtful clinical integration.
This presents a conflict for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, who value the depth and ongoing nature of therapeutic work and understand change as emerging gradually through the examination of unconscious processes, transference, and resistance. Psychedelic therapies, by contrast, are frequently promoted for their potential to catalyze rapid transformation. Yet, the relationship between psychedelic experience and psychoanalytic process may be more generative than it first appears. Both share a deep interest in the unconscious and in making previously inaccessible material available to conscious reflection. Psychedelic states may, in certain cases, lower defensive structures in ways that open new avenues for analytic exploration.
This talk examines the use of ketamine-assisted therapy within the context of a long-term analytic treatment, exploring the clinical, theoretical, and ethical questions that arise when these two treatments intersect.
Kevin Barrett has been a social worker for 20 years starting his career in foster care and supportive housing before moving into clinical practice 15 years ago. He currently practices in Chicago and lectures at the University of Chicago - teaching courses on psychoanalytic practice and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy. Kevin is a candidate at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. He was a 2019 APSAA teachers fellow and published an article in 2021 in Psychoanalytic Dialogues titled Psychedelic Psychodynamics: Relational Knowing and the Unthought Known. He has also published in ROOM and The American Psychoanalyst. He is an active member of AAPCSW.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to identify clinical and theoretical questions that arise when integrating psychedelic-assisted therapies, such as ketamine, into psychoanalytic treatment.
Participants will be able to explain how psychedelic experiences and psychoanalytic processes may complement each other in making unconscious material accessible for therapeutic exploration.
Fees
CCP members: free with annual $195 membership, payable at registration.
Students:free with annual $175 membership, payable at registration.
New Fellows / Ongoing: free with annual $250/$300 membership, payable at registration.
Non-CCP members, single admission: $50
Continuing Education
This program is sponsored for Continuing Education Credits by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the continuing education sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could be construed as conflicts of interest. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If the program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CCP is licensed by the state of Illinois to sponsor continuing education credits for Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Counselors and Licensed Clinical Psychologists (license no. 159.000941 and 268.000020 and 168.000238 Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation).
Professionals holding the aforementioned credentials will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits a completed evaluation form must be turned in at the end of the presentation and licensed psychologists must first complete a brief exam on the subject matter. No continuing education credit will be given for attending part of the presentation. Refunds for CE credit after the program begins will not be honored. If a participant has special needs or concerns about the program, s/he/they should contact Toula Kourliouros Kalven by October 15, 2026 at: tkalven@ccpsa.org
References/Suggested Readings
Rundel, M. (2022). Psychedelic Psychoanalysis: Transformations of the Self. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32(5), 469–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2022.2106139
Peoples, K., & Rundel, M. (2025). Expansion and Regression in Oceanic Experience: A Model of Psychedelic Consciousness for Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 35(6), 808–830. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2025.2574574
Guss, J. (2022). A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychedelic Experience. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32(5), 452–468. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2022.2106140
Fischman, L. G. (2019). Seeing without self: Discovering new meaning with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Neuropsychoanalysis, 21(2), 53–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2019.1689528
Caper R. Does psychoanalysis heal? A contribution to the theory of psychoanalytic technique. Int J Psychoanal. 1992 Summer;73 ( Pt 2):283-92. PMID: 1512118.
Bollas, C. (1987). The shadow of the object: Psychoanalysis of the unthought known. Columbia University Press.
Nardou, R., Sawyer, E., Song, Y.J. et al. Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period. Nature (2023).
Presented by
The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis/CCP Program Committee