Sergio Pérez Rosal

Medical Doctor; Specialist in Anesthesia, Intensive Care, and Emergencies Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapist in training Director of Quality and Training at OVID Health Systems MIND Academy Director

Talk date & time:
Sunday 12:00-13:00

The use of dissociative anesthetics like ketamine and esketamine has become popular in the field of psychiatry. There is a growing body of research validating its application in patients suffering from depression, anxiety, OCD, and even PTSD. However, treatment is not standardized. In most cases, the concept relies only on the pharmacological effects leaving out the importance and potential of combining psychotherapy with dosing sessions.

Based on recent findings on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and ketamine research, we have created a concept in which we combine the administration of an atypical psychedelic in sub-anesthetic levels with psychotherapeutic guidance and integration therapy. Our treatment plan harnesses the strengths of two proven methods and combines them, leading to a more significant effect than the sum of both approaches. With this approach, we can provide psychedelic experiences facilitated through ketamine with the same respect and therapeutic guidance as a serotonergic substance therapy.

Standardization of ketamine-assisted therapy rooted in the methodology used in high-level classic psychedelic therapy research could lead to safer therapy, more efficient, and significantly longer-lasting effects for a patient collective that has exhausted more established therapeutic models.

Sergio Perez works as a medical doctor at OVID Health Systems and as MIND Academy Director at the MIND Foundation. He´s a certified Beyond Experience Facilitator and Neuromeditation Instructor. Currently, he is training in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.

While practicing as a medical doctor specialized in anesthesia and emergency medicine in Hamburg, he was regularly invited as a lecturer at the Asklepios Medical School and the University of Hamburg. Sergio has broad experience giving practical workshops on emergency management, applied sonography, and basic and advanced life support for clinicians and medical students.

In the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, he thinks it is necessary to standardize procedures and educate professionals and the general public in a scientific and secular way to create a safe environment and legal framework for therapy and human development.