Rewriting the Future of Mental Health: How Liminal Spaces Supports Next-Generation Care with Heart and Honesty
By Jillian Matyjevich, RN, NBC-HWC, LSSC
At Liminal Spaces Coaching, we care deeply about the people we serve. Every story, every setback, and every small win matters. Our mission is to help people bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be, using safe, evidence-informed tools that support mental, emotional, and behavioral health.
That includes responsibly supporting newer modalities in mental health care such as ketamine-assisted therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy. These approaches can create short windows where the brain becomes more flexible and open to change. That flexibility is called neuroplasticity. It can help you practice and install healthier thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
It is not a miracle. It is an opportunity. The work still matters.
Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Safety and Addiction Concerns
Let us clear up a big worry. People often fear that ketamine will lead to addiction. When used in a medical setting with proper screening, dosing, monitoring, and follow-up, ketamine has a low risk of addiction and a strong safety record. Risk grows when people use it without medical oversight or mix it with other substances.
A very public tragedy made headlines when actor Matthew Perry died in 2023. His death involved acute ketamine effects in a context of extreme misuse and negligence—not supervised clinical care. The lesson is simple: The medicine is not the plan. Safety, accountability, and integration are the plan.
The difference between therapeutic use and misuse cannot be overstated. In a clinical setting:
Medical professionals screen for contraindications
Doses are carefully calibrated to therapeutic levels
Vital signs are monitored throughout treatment
Follow-up care ensures proper integration
No unsupervised access exists
This is worlds apart from recreational use or unregulated access. Context matters. Oversight matters. Preparation and integration matter most of all.
How Change Really Happens
Medicines can open a door. You still have to walk through it. Coaching helps you decide where to place your feet, how to keep going, and what to do when old patterns try to pull you back.
Here is the garden analogy we use with clients:
Your inner life is like soil. Life experiences add nutrients or deplete them. Some experiences enrich growth. Others leave ruts and weeds that show up as maladaptive habits.
Ketamine can work like fertilizer for depleted soil. It can restore conditions that allow growth. But that alone does not grow a garden. You still need sunshine and water.
Sunshine and water come from the actions and experiences you design for yourself:
Consistent sleep that allows your nervous system to reset
Movement you actually enjoy, not exercise as punishment
Honest conversations that strengthen connection
Values-aligned boundaries that protect your energy
Practical routines for managing stress and mood
The enhanced neuroplasticity from ketamine creates a fertile environment. But without intentional cultivation—without coaching, skill-building, and daily practice—that window of opportunity closes without lasting change taking root.
The Science of Neuroplasticity: Why Timing Matters
Think of your brain's neural pathways like well-worn trails through a forest. Depression, anxiety, and trauma create deep grooves—automatic responses that feel impossible to escape. Your brain defaults to these paths because they're familiar, even when they cause suffering.
Ketamine temporarily disrupts these rigid patterns. It promotes the rapid growth of new synaptic connections, essentially creating new potential pathways through that forest. But here's the critical part: you have to walk those new paths while the ground is still soft.
This is where coaching becomes transformative. During and immediately after ketamine treatment, your brain is primed for change. This is when we work together to:
Identify the specific patterns you want to change
Practice new responses to old triggers
Build concrete skills for emotional regulation
Design environments that support your new patterns
Create accountability structures that prevent backsliding
Research shows this window of enhanced plasticity can last days to weeks after treatment. Miss this window, and the old pathways re-solidify. Use this window intentionally, and new patterns can become your new normal.
What to Expect with Liminal Spaces
We collaborate with trusted clinics and clinicians like The Good Drop Clinic in Avoca, PA. We provide preparation and integration coaching—the "before" and "after" that determines whether treatment creates lasting change or just a temporary lift.
Preparation Phase
Before your first ketamine session, we help you:
Clarify what you want to change and why it matters
Set specific, measurable goals beyond "feel better"
Identify triggers and existing coping patterns
Prepare questions and intentions for your treatment
Build realistic expectations about the process
Integration Phase
After each session, we help you:
Process insights and experiences
Translate feelings into actionable next steps
Track progress with concrete metrics
Design environments that make relapse less likely and growth more likely
Adjust strategies based on what's working
Together we translate insights into daily actions so change sticks. Because insight without action is just really expensive self-awareness.
What Ketamine and Psychedelics Can Support
The research is increasingly clear about therapeutic benefits:
Faster relief for some people with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic pain—often within hours or days rather than weeks
Interrupting rigid thought loops so new patterns can form instead of replaying the same painful narratives
Improved capacity to notice thoughts and feelings without reflexive avoidance or suppression
Increased motivation to take healthy actions and sustain them over time
Enhanced ability to access and process difficult emotions safely
Reduced rumination and self-critical thinking patterns
Greater sense of connection to oneself, others, and purpose
These aren't vague promises. Multiple peer-reviewed studies demonstrate these effects when treatment is administered properly and combined with therapeutic support.
What They Do Not Do
Let's be honest about limitations:
They do not fix everything. Ketamine won't repair a toxic relationship, solve financial stress, or change external circumstances. It changes your internal landscape, which then allows you to respond differently to external challenges.
They do not replace therapy, medical care, or coaching. They enhance these modalities. They create conditions where traditional interventions become more effective.
They do not remove the need for skills practice, daily routines, and honest support. The neuroplasticity window is temporary. The habits you build during that window determine long-term outcomes.
This is not passive healing. It's collaborative transformation. The medicine creates opportunity. Your choices and actions create results.
Who Is This Approach For?
Ketamine-assisted coaching may be particularly helpful if you:
Have tried traditional therapy or medication with limited results
Feel stuck in thought patterns you can't seem to break
Experience treatment-resistant depression or anxiety
Struggle with trauma that feels "locked in" your body
Want to make behavioral changes but feel blocked
Are committed to doing the deeper work, not seeking a quick fix
Understand that medicine is a tool, not a solution
Have the support system to sustain changes over time
It's not for everyone. And that's okay. We offer non-medicine paths with the same care and clarity for those who prefer traditional approaches or aren't appropriate candidates for ketamine therapy.
Our Commitment to You
Care for the whole person. You're not a diagnosis or a symptom cluster. You're someone with a unique story, valid struggles, and specific goals. We see all of that.
Evidence-informed guidance. We stay current with research. We acknowledge what we know, what we don't know, and what remains uncertain. We don't oversell or make promises we can't keep.
Clear boundaries and safety. We work within established protocols. We refer out when appropriate. We never blur lines between coaching, therapy, and medical treatment.
Realistic expectations and measurable results. We define success together upfront. We track progress with concrete data. We adjust when something isn't working.
The Bigger Picture: Why This Matters Now
Mental health care is at an inflection point. Traditional approaches help many people, but leave too many behind. The suicide rate hasn't meaningfully improved in decades. Depression and anxiety continue rising, especially among young people. We need new tools.
Ketamine and psychedelic therapies represent the most significant advancement in mental health treatment in 50 years—not because they're "magic," but because they work differently than anything we've had before. They target neuroplasticity directly rather than just managing symptoms.
But innovation without integration is just disruption. New tools without proper support create new problems. This is why the coaching component is non-negotiable. The medicine opens doors. Skilled support ensures you walk through them wisely.
At Liminal Spaces, we don't chase hype. We build durable change.
First we tend the soil—addressing sleep, nutrition, movement, and stress management.
Then we bring the sunshine and water—therapy, coaching, community, and if appropriate, carefully administered medicine.
Then we keep gardening together until growth is visible and repeatable.
Your Next Step
If you want to learn more about preparation, integration, or whether this path fits your goals, reach out. We'll walk you through options, including non-medicine paths, with the same care and clarity.
You don't have to commit to anything. Just start a conversation.
Because sometimes the hardest part isn't the treatment or the work—it's believing change is actually possible for you.
We're here to help you believe it, build it, and sustain it.
Ready to explore ketamine-assisted therapies? Click here to take a deeper dive and see if Ketamine therapy is right for you.
Visit our partner clinic: The Good Drop Clinic
Contact Liminal Spaces Coaching: info@liminalspacescoaching.com
This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers for personalized guidance.
