Exploring Your Bloombox: Your Experience Toolkit

Medically reviewed by

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C

Published on

December 8, 2022

Updated on

Summary

Your Bloombox has all necessary items you need for safe, effective, and powerful Mindbloom sessions. Your medication is delivered separately.
It includes session essentials such as an eye mask, journal, and blood pressure monitor.
Every Mindbloom client receives a Bloombox as part of their treatment.

This article explores your Bloombox, an essential component of your Mindbloom treatment program, designed by experts in ketamine therapy.

What is the Bloombox?

Your Bloombox is your toolkit for everything you’ll need throughout your treatment program. While your medicine is shipped from the pharmacy, there is a space in your Bloombox to keep it safe.

Your Bloombox helps set the stage for your dosing sessions, and gives you everything you need to prepare your set and setting, and to be well equipped for safe, effective, and powerful sessions with the medicine.

Why Do You Need It?

The Bloombox helps you with 3 core pillars of your experience:

Ensuring your safety throughout your session.
Supporting powerful healing experiences.
Helps you collaborate with your Guide/Clinicians.

Your Bloombox is important for every session of your program, not just the first one. We recommend using your Bloombox throughout your program.

What’s Inside the Bloombox?

Let’s explore the several key components included in your Bloombox:

Box: The Bloombox holds everything you need in one location. It is a home base for you to return to when preparing, running, and integrating your medicine sessions.
Welcome Guide: Your Welcome Guide points you in the right direction, walking you through what’s included, next steps, and advice from our team.
Integration Journal: Your journal is a powerful tool. It’s where you’ll write and keep your process and integration notes, record your intentions before a session, and take time to reflect afterwards. Having everything in one journal is powerful, so that you can reflect on the progress you’ve made as you move through your program.
Blood Pressure Cuff: Safety is a core part of any good ketamine therapy protocol, and the blood pressure cuff helps us do this. Your Guide will ask for your heart rate and blood pressure readings before and after your initial session. It's also important to always check your heart rate and blood pressure before and after every self-led session to make sure you're taking the medicine safely. You can always connect with your Guide to explore how to use this in more depth.
Eye Mask: Your eye mask helps you turn inward without distraction. We recommend using your eye mask every session. This helps prevent unwanted distractions from interrupting your experience.
Medicine Case: Your medicine will ship separately from our partner pharmacies, and the Bloombox includes a covered compartment for you to safely and securely store your medicine.

Ready to Try Your Own?

Check here to see if you’re eligible for Mindbloom treatment.

Mindbloom Editorial Team

Mindbloom is a leader in psychedelic therapy, transforming lives to transform the world. Our editorial team shares the latest Mindbloom news, and collaborates with Mindbloom clients to help share their stories with the world.

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C, is a psychiatric clinician who has conducted psychiatric evaluations and facilitated ketamine therapy sessions for over 250 Mindbloom clients. Chelsea obtained a master’s degree from the Interservice PA Program and has extensive mental health and primary care experience from her army career, where she treated thousands of Soldiers as a Battalion PA and a clinic Medical Director.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment. If you are in a life-threatening situation, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at +1 (800) 273-8255, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room.

Safety Information

Important FDA Safety Information

Ketamine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of depression or anxiety. Learn more about off-label uses here.

Side effects of ketamine treatment may include: altered sense of time, anxiety, blurred vision, diminished ability to see/hear/feel, dry mouth, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure, excitability, loss of appetite, mental confusion, nausea/vomiting, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), restlessness, slurred speech, synesthesia (a mingling of the senses).

Do not proceed with ketamine treatment if any of the following apply to you:

Allergic to ketamine
Symptoms of psychosis or mania
Uncontrolled high blood pressure
CHF or other serious heart problem
Severe breathing problem
History of elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure
History of hyperthyroidism
Other serious medical illness
Pregnant, nursing, or trying to become pregnant

Ketamine has been reported to produce issues including, but not limited to, those listed below. However, lasting adverse side-effects are rare when medical protocols are carefully followed.

While ketamine has not been shown to be physically addictive, it has been shown to cause moderate psychological dependency in some recreational users.

In rare cases, frequent, heavy users have reported increased frequency of urination, urinary incontinence, pain urinating, passing blood in the urine, or reduced bladder size
Ketamine may worsen problems in people with schizophrenia, severe personality disorders, or other serious mental disorders.
Users with a personal or family history of psychosis should be cautious using any psychoactive substance, including ketamine, and discuss potential risks with your MindBloom^® clinician before proceeding with treatment.
The dissociative effects of ketamine may increase patient vulnerability and the risk of accidents.

To promote positive outcomes and ensure safety, follow these ketamine treatment guidelines:

Do not operate a vehicle (e.g., car, motorcycle, bicycle) or heavy machinery following treatment until you’ve had a full night of sleep
Refrain from taking benzodiazepines or stimulants for 24 hours prior to treatment
Continue to take antihypertensive medication as prescribed
Avoid hangovers or alcohol intake
Refrain from consuming solid foods within 3 hours prior to treatment and liquids within 1 hour prior to treatment
Ketamine treatment should never be conducted without a monitor present to ensure your safety