You have a playlist appointment scheduled. You've packed your headphones. Now, you look at your music library to decide what you will listen to during your appointment. Most people decide what they will listen to when they get to their appointment and scroll through their usual playlists looking for something "calm" to listen to. There is no right or wrong answer to what people pick, but some things can pull you out of a session. Here is how to choose something better.
Think about what you are trying to accomplish
The first thing to consider is what do you want to achieve or feel? Think about what you want to process. Your music should not be about what you want to process; however, using certain music can help create an emotional state where it is easier for you to process.
The four rules most people don't know
1. No lyrics for the most part. This is the first and most important rule of them all, but most people break it. Lyrics drag attention. During a Spravato session, your brain is more receptive, and words can become more literal. A song that you have heard countless times can feel like it tells your story in ways that you could never anticipate. Unless there is a particular reason for not doing so, always stick to instrumental music.
2. Avoid songs with strong personal associations. The song that plays at your wedding, the song that is associated with a traumatic event, the song that perfectly describes your college experience — these all have highly strong emotional associations and are best avoided for this purpose. Think of music that is emotionally charged, but that is not personally loaded.
3. Match the music to the stage. The first slow and grounding phase of the process calls for more slow and grounding music. The peak of the process should be music that is more flexible. The final soft and settling phase calls for music that is less intense. Think of your playlist more as a journey rather than a consistent level of intensity.
4. Test the playlists that you use. If you can, sit in a quiet room with a playlist and take in what the music evokes. Does it make you want to move, think or do? Does it feel safe and open? Work from a lack of that, use what you have. The lack of "calm" music may surprise you.
This should help
Works well: Ambient and atmospheric electronic (Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid, Moby's ambient music), orchestral and neo-classical (Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Johann Johannsson), certain therapeutic albums designed specifically for ketamine, and some slow, modal jazz (Miles Davis' Kind of Blue).
Use with caution: New Age music (can feel saccharine), film scores (strong narrative associations), and singer-songwriter music (lyrics).
Generally avoid: Anything with strong lyrics that you know well, music with a lot of instrumental stuff happening, or dance music of any kind.
The playlist length problem
A Spravato session is usually of the length of 2–2.5 hours. Within that time frame, the medicine is active for approximately only 45–90 minutes. Most users create playlists of too short of a length and are in silence for the rest of the session, while others fill the rest of the time with music of poor quality. A good playlist should be carefully crafted and 90–120 minutes long.
Have another playlist with music of lower volume and slower tempo ready for the monitoring period after the session. It should be of short length and help you to relax and return to a grounded state.
Why this is harder than it sounds
Building an effective playlist for Spravato requires a good amount of time, research, and knowledge of how the medicine interacts with different kinds of music. Most patients don't have that time, and they shouldn't have to.
Listening to Spravato was created to help with this exact problem. The guide provides intended session phase playlists, step-by-step framework builders for a full treatment course, and the science behind the decisions. The guide is already accessible to those in the active treatment phase, and is the best means of eliminating guessing and beginning to utilize music in the intended therapeutic way. Get the guide here.