What if instead of confronting the barriers to healing that the sterile clinical treatment room creates, you could see it as a space waiting for the right frequencies to be resonated? Many patients describe the beginning of esketamine therapy as an overwhelming and difficult process. Filling the two hours of required monitoring time feels purposeless. The clinical environment is made up of fluorescent lights and the signs and sounds of distant halls and machinery. These elements can take you completely out of the therapy process. Without direction, it is difficult to understand what sounds help the medicine to work. The Listening to Spravato® book provides this much needed direction. It is a resource designed to help both patients and clinicians better understand how to structure the therapy environment, and to help support the process of healing.
Why a Structured Guide Is Essential for Spravato® Treatment
It is important to recognize that the administration of esketamine is not a process that should be confined to the clinical realm. Rather, it is a biological process that is therapeutically active in the opening of neuroplasticity. For Spravato® treatment to be optimally effective, it is crucial that the therapy room is calm and quiet, and devoid of stimuli. The first step to supporting that is to create a structured plan for the process.
It is common for clinicians to allow patients to choose their own playlist; however, this process can actually interfere with the therapeutic process as music with lyrics activates Broca's area, engaging the frontal cortex and limiting the brain's ability to process the non-verbal and emotional components of the treatment.
This guide will lead you to soundscapes that allow your subconscious to work on the processing of emotions that you perhaps wouldn't want to deal with. This guide builds a constant auditory picture and helps manage the startle reflex that is commonplace in the clinical field, and in turn helps to ensure that the insights gained in the session are brought into daily life with clarity.
Set and Setting
Set and Setting references in the context of esketamine therapy describe your inner emotional state as your Set and outward clinical state as your Setting. The book helps you fine-tune both. The pre-session reading creates a mindful intention that helps you throughout the induction phase. It helps immensely in managing anxiety and helping to replace the unknown with a clear, definitive plan. It helps to transform a bland medical clinic into a personalized audio sanctuary.
Clinical Protocol and Patient Experience
As clinicians focus on general biological markers during a session — such as blood pressure, dosage, and the ongoing assessment of vital signs — your internal experience becomes the primary healing factor. A reference guide (either physical or virtual) in the treatment room helps clinicians understand the needs of the patient to the best of their ability. Many clinicians have come to appreciate the book as it helps standardize the patient experience in many different clinical scenarios, and moves patients from being passive recipients of a nasal spray to being engaged participants of an advanced therapeutic procedure.
Inside the Book: Music Protocols and Genre Guides
The Listening to Spravato® book breaks the two-hour post-administration period into phases, which are correlated to specific types of music. Instead of leaving you to guess what comes next, it helps you interpret the framework of this process.
The Onset Phase (First 20 Minutes)
The book recommends Ambient and Textural genres for the first twenty minutes. These genres are recommended as the medicine transitions you to a non-ordinary state. This is easement music, and won't be focused on melodically. The genres are designed to have an atmospheric effect so you can relax — the book states that you are not required to focus your intention on the music to aid the start of the medicine's process.
The Peak Phase
The book recommends music genres with additional depth and resonance as you enter the peak phase. The self becomes less defined, and introspective and contemplative music supports the self in involving the process. The music used at this phase provides complexity for your focus and a level of abstractness to provide genuine introspective experiences. This is the phase where the genre balance is most important.
The Integration Phase
Upon completion of the process, grounding music is used to aid in the return of connection to your physical self and the physical room. The book primarily focuses on genres of music with the accompaniment of acoustic piano or cello. This transition is instrumental in integrating the insights from the session into your everyday life with finesse.
The Science of Sound and Silence
The methods in the book have a neuroscience foundation. During an esketamine session, the auditory environment is the main focus for the patient's consciousness. By prioritizing textures and frequencies over words, the book leaves your cognitive resources free for the work of healing as opposed to the work of decoding language. The book also provides recommended chapters with curated Spotify and Apple Music playlists. These can act as a starting point, and the guide shows you how to personalize your own journey, aiming for the right balance.
Choosing Your Format: Print, Digital, or Audiobook
The guide's success hinges upon how well it integrates into your unique clinical practice. Each edition of the book is designed to offer the same clinical value and empathy — the correct format is simply a matter of the book's expected use.
Print Edition
The print edition is a dedicated focus for your sessions. In a clinical space where digital screens can be stimulating, a book brings a grounded focus. Many patients journal and reflect on their sessions in the margins. Having a physical journal of your sessions is a great way to provide structure for the emotional regulation you'll practice over the course of your many sessions.
Digital / Kindle Edition
There's a digital/Kindle version for immediate download and portability. It is ideal for people who want to keep their tools for session preparation on one device. It also has instant links and search capability for specific genre and protocol resources. It also has a dark mode for bright clinical spaces, which can be a game-changer for sensitive patients.
The Audiobook
This version is ideal for patients who find the most comfort in sound. The narrator and author — a conservatory-trained musician — creates an immediate sense of safety and rapport as she describes the sounds and musical concepts used in the sessions. This version is most useful as a pre-session tool. Listening to the sessions and discussions on the way to the office is a great way to prepare the nervous system and relax before you even make it to the clinic.
It's available for purchase at shop.listenspravato.com and on major audiobook sites.
How to Use the Guide Before, During, and After Sessions
The book is structured as a treatment manual to help you navigate the numerous treatment steps. It is especially useful as a pre-session aid and begins the day before your visit to the clinic.
Step 1: Pre-Session Preparation (48 Hours Before)
Read the genre guides forty-eight hours before the session. This will manage your expectations of what is going to happen and will establish what is often referred to as a "Set." With this music selection, you will lessen the stress of the onset of the medicine.
Step 2: Clinic Setup
The guide gives specific instructions for creating a sensory container — tips for placement of noise-canceling headphones, use of a contoured eye mask, and how to articulate your requests to your treatment team. A contoured mask allows for a greater focus internally, while noise-canceling headphones serve the purpose of blocking clinical distractions.
Step 3: The 40-Minute Peak
During the peak of dissociation, the book's instructions assist the process of leaning into the experience as opposed to resisting it. The music serves as a container and helps in reaching a safe state, while allowing enough room for real introspection.
Step 4: Post-Session Integration
Here, the book's provided journaling and grounding music transform insight into processed feelings. The guide emphasizes a rhythmic equation to the healing process to bridge multiple sessions and serves as a stimulant for thinking about how you evolve your musical and emotional needs.
Expert Insights from Justin Page
Justin Page is a book author as well as a conservatory-trained musician (Manhattan School of Music, Berklee College of Music) who, like his readers, sat in the treatment chair. This dual perspective — as both an artist and a real patient — is the book's most evident asset.
He has the clinical understanding of the protocols and the personal, vulnerable nature of the dissociative state. He uses his clinical understanding and empathy to lead with guidance along the path of recovery. His commitment is to the dignity of the patient.
Justin supports the use of "Music That Works With the Medicine" to describe the use of sound as an intentional and active part of the therapeutic process rather than something that is just background noise. It has been noted by clinicians that the book extends beyond the therapeutic session — it creates a common language that aids patient healing and recovery, providing intentional, informed, and guided healing to participants in passive recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I get the Listening to Spravato book?
You can find both the hard copy and the Kindle version on Amazon as well as Walmart, Kobo, Takealot (South Africa), and Booktopia (Australia). You can find the links to all vendors on the website.
Is the Spravato book available as an audiobook?
Yes. It is available on shop.listenspravato.com and on audio platforms like Apple Books and Spotify. The audiobook is narrated by Justin Page.
Can clinicians use this guide for their Spravato clinics?
Yes. The book builds the foundation for providers to express themselves constructively as they address patients' sensory needs and provides them with an easy-to-use sensory container, all whilst preserving patient dignity.
Does the book provide specific music playlists for esketamine sessions?
Yes. The book contains direct access to Spravato® treatment phase-specific, curated playlists on Spotify and Apple Music. It also explains how users can adjust these playlists to fit their emotional needs. The treatment playlists can be accessed directly on the site for free — explore the free playlists here.
Why is it important to have music without lyrics for Spravato?
Lyrics stimulate the language centers of the brain, specifically Broca's area. When the brain is figuring out the meaning of words, it is engaged with external narratives and processing thoughts. This can interfere with the neuroplastic state and the internal focus that needs to be present during esketamine therapy. Non-verbal, abstract soundscapes foster the processing of emotions.
Who is the author of Listening to Spravato?
The guide was written by Justin Page, a patient of Spravato and a musician who studied at the Berklee School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His dual experience gives him clinical knowledge and understanding of therapeutic music, and personal knowledge of the patient experience and the needs of patients.