Rob Christensen’s six-week journey was filmed and a short film was later published in the New York Times.
BOISE, Idaho — The job of a first responder sees disasters, pain and heartbreak every day.
“You’re likely to experience seven to 10 traumatic events in your lifetime,” Rob Christensen, an Idaho firefighter, told KTVB. “There are like 1,000 in my career.”
Christensen is a second-generation firefighter who has tried to overcome PTSD in a variety of ways, including meditation and vocal therapy.
“I started counseling five years into (the job),” he said. “My first counseling appointment… I was embarrassed to have to go there because I was weaker than everyone. But what I soon learned was that the doctor I chose saw other first responders.”
She told him he was alone, he said.
A few years ago, Christensen wanted to add another tool to his toolbox: ketamine therapy.
He hoped it would help him with some of the PTSD and PTSI he was experiencing, he said.
Ketamine is a controlled substance that is only legal for use in a medical setting. Christensen underwent therapy at a Boise ketamine clinic.
He said he knew ketamine was a “party drug,” but this showed him other benefits.
“I was afraid,” he said. “Was it going to be me when I came out?”
For six weeks in 2022, Christensen underwent ketamine-assisted therapy at a Boise ketamine clinic. A combination of preparatory psychotherapy sessions, a series of intramuscular and intravenous injections and solo psychotherapy to end it.
He explained his experience, like emptying a backpack.
“We keep throwing stones there and pretty soon we won’t be able to carry them anymore and it will break us to the point where we won’t be able to think clearly,” he said. “We can’t sleep. We seek self-medication.”
To aid this process, Brandom Kapelow, a Wyoming filmmaker and photographer, wanted to capture it all on camera.
“I’m a suicide loss survivor,” Kapelow told KTVB. “I lost my father, Steven, to suicide when he was 12. And that set me on a path where I’m very passionate about mental health issues.”
Its fountain and home were a specific choice for Kapelow.
“I learned that the American West has the highest suicide rates in the country,” Kapelow said. “I wanted to tell a story about psychedelic therapy.”
Before Christensen started ketamine therapy, he wasn’t sure what he would get out of it.
“To be honest, I felt like I had overcome everything I was carrying,” he said. “I thought my backpack was pretty empty. But I discovered that the bottom of that thing was hard cement that hadn’t come out yet.”
Kapelow thought this was a chance to show the people of Idaho what he could see.
“The Bay Area doesn’t need any more convincing about psychedelics, there’s already great adoption there,” he said. “Whereas in a place like Idaho, there may not be as much acceptance and understanding around these compounds.”
After the ketamine therapy sessions, Christensen said he would be exhausted but also feel lighter.
“For me, it was a profound part of my healing,” he said. “I realized that, oh, wow, things are a little brighter, the music is a little better, the right food a little better. And, just my gratitude, just the love that I had, my heart was even more than before.”
The process also showed Kapelow a few things about himself.
“There were certainly moments in watching him go through therapy, where I felt like I could relate through moments of my own experience, with my own trauma,” she said. “It actually opened up the possibility of doing my own ketamine treatment to treat my own PTSD.”
For Christensen, she wanted others to know that there is support for everyone.
“A dear friend called me and said, ‘You saved my life,'” he said.
His friend watched the documentary twice, Christensen said.
“He just couldn’t control his emotions,” she said. “He was crying. His wife came home. And finally, she was on the table. And she had to say how she felt about thinking about suicide.”
It was that moment for Christensen.
“To play a small part in his current situation, he got help and went back to work,” he said. “I’m just grateful for that.”
With the help of the New York Times, Kapelow published the short film in the NYT in March of this year. You can see the short film here: Opinion | Ketamine therapy offers hope to this emergency worker – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Local Idahoans will also be able to see the film in person at The Idaho Film Society on Friday night. This will be the first in-person presentation of the program.
The first performance is at 7 pm and tickets are sold out. However, they added a second screening at 8:30 p.m.
Between the two screenings there will be a question-and-answer format, where people can ask Christensen, Kapelow and Dr. Michael Spiro, who performed ketamine therapy on Christensen.
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