How to Build the Best Spravato Playlist for Your Sessions
One of the only allowable variants you are permitted to control in a Spravato® session is your music selection. Your clinic, your prescriber, the medication — those are all non-negotiable variables. However, your playlist is yours. An ideal playlist has the potential to change the way you perceive and incorporate music into a treatment session.
I will provide you with six steps that I personally use to develop my playlists. If you would prefer to jump right into using playlists that are ready to use, check out our free curated playlists. free curated playlists are built with all of these principles in mind.
Optimal length
A Spravato® session from the administration of the dosage to the time a patient is discharged is roughly two hours. Your playlist should aim for a minimum duration of 90 minutes of music to cover the duration of the session. 20–25 tracks work best. Listening to a playlist that begins to loop risks creating a feeling of being trapped, which is the last thing you want to achieve.
Avoid lyrical music and meditations
Avoid lyrics. Language-based processing is engaged by both lyrics and meditation. Spravato® is attempting to dampen and silence that area of the brain. Stick to strictly musical selections. If there are a few words, eliminate the selection.
Define an emotional curve
Your playlist should be an emotional journey. To begin, choose something grounding and gentle for the onset phase (0–15 minutes) and something more expansive and emotionally open for the peak phase (15–50 minutes), and finally use something to warm and resolve with the medicine easing (50–90 minutes). In the beginning, do not use your most intense music; let the playlist build.
Mix genres intentionally
Classical, ambient, jazz, and new age have a spot in a Spravato® playlist; however, they have different functions. At peak, emotional weight tends to be carried by classical orchestral pieces, and at onset and integration, both new age and ambient are effective. Jazz piano works for the descent. Do not focus solely on one genre.
Avoid jarring transitions
A change that is abrupt and disorienting during a session can happen due to a change in either tempo, key, or dynamic level. Listen carefully to the transitions in each piece of your playlist. A sudden change from a loud ending piece to a softly beginning piece will feel disruptive. Try to have a smooth passing of energy, retain the same key, and shift dynamically.
Test it before your session
Take the time to relax and listen to your playlist — do not listen to this during your session. Notice how the playlist makes you feel and if it does feel open. Does the playlist feel jarring? Take the time to make adjustments before your sessions. Although the purpose of a playlist is to make you feel at ease, it should not bring you to a place that holds specific memories.
Don't want to build from scratch?
Start with our free curated playlists
Four playlists — classical, jazz, ambient, and Windham Hill acoustic — each built for the full arc of a Spravato® session. Available free on Spotify.
Now available
The Listening to Spravato® Book
Genre guides, session playlists, and the science of music-assisted healing — by Justin Page