Ketamine, an illegal Class B drug when bought on the street, is normally associated with wayward, inner-city rave parties. But for Kimberly Juroviesky it was a lifesaver.
The disabled veteran who worked in the American military as a nurse practitioner had found nothing to relieve the agonising pain brought on by an injury ten years earlier. When she heard about a clinical trial offering ketamine for pain management, she signed up. It proved to be the only treatment that worked.
Not only was the drug effective at temporarily improving her symptoms, but it also stopped her suicidal thoughts and helped with her depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But since it is not a cure and its effects are temporary, in 2021 Juroviesky was once again fighting pain and depression.
She took up an invitation to a pilot programme offering ketamine with intensive therapy, and the long weekend was so “life-changing” that she asked herself, “How do I bring this to the veteran community and save the lives of those fighting suicidal thoughts and severe PTSD and depression?”
She decided to launch the non-profit organisation Healing Our Heroes Foundation in America, with the aid of a close psychiatrist friend and fellow veterans, to help those who have served on the front lines of a battlefield or hospital.
Healing Our Heroes’ cutting-edge new ketamine retreats – which have taken place in Hawaii, Florida, Arizona, Colorado and Texas with the support of volunteer medical staff, social workers and therapists – have so far helped more than 70 American veterans and first responders to combat their trauma and PTSD. They are now preparing to run them for Israeli soldiers affected by the war against Hamas.
After October 7, Juroviesky, who had lived in Israel for two years and has family there, was “heartbroken”.
She realised they needed to bring her healing programme to IDF soldiers who were suffering with PTSD and trauma. Meanwhile, clinical social worker and therapist Dina Beer, who had recently trained in psychedelics-assisted therapy, was also “desperate” to help soldiers in Israel. The pair were connected by a Jewish therapeutic organisation and decided to collaborate. They decided to start a spin-off organisation called Healing Our Heroes Israel, and are planning to hold their first healing retreats for IDF soldiers this year.
“It really was the hand of Hashem that brought Dina and I together,” says Juroviesky. “Our hearts both wanted to help those in Israel who have given so much to save our land and our people, and are now suffering greatly. We feel this is the perfect way to give back to them.”
Beer says: “We’re doing it for the IDF and people who are affected by October 7; there’s a lot of trauma. Ketamine can be an incredible, helpful component in people’s therapeutic healing, when it’s in conjunction with psychotherapy.”
Participants and volunteer workers on the Colorado Healing Our Heroes retreat, including (third from left) clinical social worker and therapist Dina Beer
While some IDF soldiers will be trying to return to their normal lives, the trauma of serving on the front lines can prevent them from moving on. Healing our Heroes Israel offers “a small escape, camaraderie and, most importantly, healing for both reservists and retirees of the IDF”, says Juroviesky.
Beer adds: “The goal is to reach a lot of people, our retreats have been really successful – we’ve seen incredible results in people with ten or 15 years of trauma that they couldn’t break.”
They also aim to work alongside major hospitals in Israel that run ketamine-assisted psychotherapy programmes, so that IDF soldiers can seek further help to solidify and implement their new changes after attending the retreats.
While it seems a far-out option, ketamine has been used medically since the 1960s. Because of its ability to relieve pain with minimal side effects, it was given to soldiers on the battleground during the Vietnam War. Without significantly raising patients’ blood pressure or heart rate, it enabled them to have further surgeries to repair injuries with a higher success rate.
Many psychotherapists are now using various psychedelics in conjunction with therapy. Ketamine, which is currently the only psychedelic medicine that can be prescribed by a doctor in America, can help multiple mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and PTSD. At the right dosage, it can help people who are suicidal.
Healing Our Heroes’ model is a five-day retreat during which the volunteer medical staff administer ketamine intramuscularly alongside trauma therapies and support.
Since the group starts by meeting prior to their retreat through online sessions, patients have the chance to bond and support each other.
Finding much-needed relief on a Healing Our Heroes retreat
The retreats are intended as “trauma intensives” where people take time out of their regular life to create a shift in their suffering with PTSD and trauma, and can return home and begin to integrate back into daily life, with further therapy sessions and the opportunity to receive more support from professionals in ketamine-assisted clinics if needed.
Beer points out that the model is vastly more effective than people simply turning up to a medical facility to get a shot.
“From a clinical perspective, it’s a trauma intensive: you’ve got individual support, group support, there’s yoga, nutrition… I’ve seen people go to a doctor, they’ll get the ketamine treatment, they’ll come out. It doesn’t last. That’s where the therapeutic component comes in.”
She explains that the brain’s neuroplasticity means that when someone takes ketamine it lowers their defences and allows them to get to the root of what’s going on and faster.
Numerous veterans have been seeking psychedelics to improve their physical and psychological pain where traditional treatments such as antidepressants and SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and talking therapies have failed. For Joshua, a United States Marine Corps combat veteran injured in battle, it was a lifesaver.
Meditation before the ketamine session
Working around the clock on two jobs – in the military, and elsewhere when not on duty – the father-of-two had no time to look after his mental health or the pain caused by his injuries and unsuccessful surgeries.
“I was really anxious and depressed,” he says. “It was escalating, and I needed to do something.”
Joshua started medication, but discovered that he was resistant to the typical pills prescribed. “I’ve cycled through virtually every SSRI and combination of medication. It helps for a bit and then stops.”
At the same time, the pain was only worsening. He tried to right his orthopaedic problems and nerve pain with yet more medication.
“It got to the point that the pain was so bad I couldn’t walk. I’d take my kids fishing for 30 minutes, and then I’d be done for the day. I would have to lie down in a dark room, doing breath work and sleeping, just to function and integrate in my family. I didn’t know what to do.”
After a decade of medication, he was a month away from a multilevel spinal fusion, a surgical procedure which he says was the last resort but far from guaranteed to cure his agony. He then heard about a ketamine treatment and sought it out nearby. Later, he would attend one of Healing Our Heroes’ retreats.
A final circle session on the retreat
“It worked,” he says. “Slowly, I had less pain. My body started to develop new pathways. I was working out more, eating more… And eventually I completely stopped pain medication. I still have significant issues, but they’re now at a mild to moderate level, and I can live life and be quite active.”
He then moved to treating his mental health, which was a similar transformation. “Slowly I could feel things like love and compassion, and I was able to start processing it. I’m much happier, and I can be there for my children every day. Thanks to ketamine, my trajectory changed 180 degrees, from spiralling down to upwards. It literally saved my life.”
Nurse Erica Cowan started her new journey as a ketamine-assisted therapist a few years ago, following her diagnosis with breast cancer. The resulting existential crisis she experienced led her to join a company which was observing patients receiving ketamine therapy, and to try the treatment out for herself. After the drug’s profound impact on her, she launched her practice, Thrive Health Consultants, with her husband Jaimie Dirks to help others.
“The relief was life-altering,” she says. “We changed our career paths so that we can bring these therapies to people.”
She says the medication is so safe that it’s used for children during painful procedures due to the drug’s dissociative effect that distracts patients.
What’s more, it’s widely used in much higher doses than it is for ketamine-assisted therapy, and any risk for patients is minimised by screening for medical health conditions that could be an issue, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure and sleep apnoea, and for mental health.
Dina Beer and attendees on the Healing Our Heroes Colorado retreat
Erica was able to witness the drug’s impact on veterans when she volunteered as a nurse at the Healing Our Heroes retreat in Colorado in September.
“Ketamine is incredible for trauma-processing and, like other psychedelics, in working on the default-mode network of the brain, where a lot of automatic thoughts happen, whether that’s a trauma response from battle or something else,” she says. “Ketamine shakes up that default-mode network so that you grow new pathways, or thoughts. Think of it as a new layer of snow over bumpy terrain; you can choose a new way of thinking and respond differently.”
It’s also one of the few things that she found can lift somebody out of a suicidal depression with a dose or two.
However, she stresses that it is not long-lasting; it requires work from the sufferer.
“But it lifts people out of that deep depression to where they can participate and allows them to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. These days, it is the treatment she most likes to prescribe.
“Anything else is just Band-Aids. They don’t help in a profound way like these substances can.
“To be able to use this and see the light back in their eyes is the most incredible thing. I have never done anything more fulfilling in my entire career.”
Healing Our Heroes Foundation and Healing Our Heroes Israel are run by volunteers and donations; 100 per cent of donations go directly towards helping the veterans attending the retreats. To donate, visit healingourheroesil.org
