Kathryn Walker is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She worked as an Intensive Care Nurse for nine years before attending anesthesia school. She practiced anesthesia of all specialties for eight years before opening Revitalist 2018. Revitalist is a holistic medical space that helps treatment-resistant clients with chronic mood disorders, pain syndromes, and increasing general wellness.
As CEO of Revitalist, there are now nine mental health and wellness clinics with revenue surpassing $1 million. One of the modalities used by the integrative team of medical and mental health professionals at Revitalist is ketamine. I talk to Kathryn, or Katie as she likes to be called, about how and why it’s used. She takes special care to explain the power of promoting brain growth and how ketamine therapy can open our systems for neuron growth.
Katie focuses on advocating for the patient and achieving real growth and positive outcomes, not just putting a band-aid on the problem. This is a fascinating look into how changing our brains can solve trauma and addiction problems. We discuss how these alternative healing modalities can make a difference, and the future looks promising. This episode is also a great look into successful entrepreneurship and helping people through treatment, education, and advocacy.
- [02:18] The VA has deemed Katie an expert with ketamine. She's also a ketamine subject matter expert.
- [03:49] Katie was amazed by the results of ketamine.
- [05:14] Medical providers can confuse patients by not advocating for them. She wanted to build a company that looks at the person at the base and then builds the treatment modalities around that person.
- [06:14] Katie created Revivalist to be an advocating company that's on the same page with the person.
- [08:17] Feeling compassion for people who are hurting is learned. It's difficult for physicians and nurses to communicate. This is something that needs to be addressed in the future.
- [09:03] Katie started her business from the ground up. She wanted to help the people who were struggling who don't know how the system works.
- [10:33] Katie is standing up and advocating for others who can't advocate for themselves.
- [12:23] Revivalist is helping with education. Revitalist is having a webinar on January 12th on addiction with veterans and psychedelics. They're also having a January 19th webinar about mitigating risk for first responders with ketamine therapy.
- [15:12] Ketamine therapy can also be useful for people who have addictions to alcohol.
- [17:16] The VA is being the leader to trailblaze ketamine therapy.
- [18:11] How can you treat a drug with a drug?
- [18:40] Ketamine can be given in any capacity. IV is most effective. Ketamine blocks the NMDA receptors telling the brain to send out more glutamate. The glutamate stimulates the BDNF promoting brain growth.
- [22:17] With the IV, the ketamine peaks at 45 minutes and then it's out of your system just leaving the brain neuron growth.
- [23:44] The default mode network is how the brain duplicates what it knows. Understanding the patterns of what our brains are doing helps us to actually address those patterns.
- [24:55] We are all living in the neutrality of the present, but our past behaviors are duplicated.
- [25:58] Ketamine brings up previously non-processed experiences and allows us to objectively identify them.
- [27:58] We hold on to what saved us, not the negativity.
- [28:41] Our brains want to see the whole picture. If our brains can't see the whole picture, they hold on to something to protect us.
- [29:15] Ketamine brings up the non-processed short term memories and once we identify them, we can process them.
- [33:45] Ketamine is taking a drug to fix the root cause of your issues, not taking a drug to replace another drug.
- [36:01] The negative action of addiction creates a positive reward. Ketamine and psychedelics can reset the default mode network.
- [38:29] We need to stimulate our brains to maximize its capacity.
- [41:25] After a ketamine induction series, people only have to go back for occasional boosters if needed.
- [43:27] Katie shares the different therapies and stages of ketamine therapy.
- [45:30] Barriers include trying to introduce a brand new model to the established medical community.
- [47:56] The brain is one structure with so many different pieces. The brain comes first and addiction is second. Looking at the brain will make a big impact.
- [49:12] A big misconception about psychedelics is only that people who use drugs use them. We need to open the doors to learn more about the treatment.
- [51:36] Katie shares her hopes and ambitions for her business in five years. She wants to help people understand how to help themselves better.
- [56:40] Advocating for others is one of the biggest impacts that Katie is trying to make. She also wants to increase access to care.
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