“You may feel like you’re going to die — but you’re not. Your body is right here in this safe place and we are monitoring you to ensure you are safe.”

That’s what Steph Mahrle, a 43-year-old stay-at-home mom from Bergen County, New Jersey, was told before her first ketamine therapy session at Nushama Wellness Center in New York City.

Mahrle had been battling complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) for years, and she was hoping the trippy drug would offer relief where other treatments hadn’t.

The warning from her integrationist — the person who helps patients prepare and then process what they went through — prepared her for when things got rough.

“When I felt like I was falling into an abyss of space, I would use my [wedding] ring as a totem of sorts to ground myself. Reminding

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