PTSD Treatment in La Crosse, WI: A New Path When Nothing Else Has Helped

IV ketamine therapy and Spravato offer rapid, research-backed relief for PTSD and trauma-related conditions. Medically supervised, personalized to you, and delivered by a team that includes a Navy veteran with over a decade of ketamine experience.

PTSD Rewires the Brain. Ketamine Helps Rewire It Back.

raditional treatments like therapy and antidepressants provide only partial relief. The flashbacks continue. The hypervigilance doesn’t settle. Sleep stays disrupted. That’s not failure. It’s a reflection of how deeply trauma changes the brain’s circuitry.

Ketamine therapy works differently. Rather than masking symptoms or slowly adjusting neurotransmitter levels, it acts directly on the glutamate system, promoting rapid neural healing and plasticity. Research shows it can reduce PTSD symptoms significantly within 24 hours, including intrusive thoughts, avoidance behaviors, and the persistent negative mood that trauma leaves behind.

At Relevate Ketafusion, our team includes Lisa Knudtson, a Navy veteran and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with over a decade of ketamine experience. She doesn’t just understand PTSD clinically. She understands it from the inside. That matters when you’re deciding who to trust with this.
We also offer a 20% discount year-round for military, fire, police, and EMS through our Healing Our Heroes program.

Understanding PTSD: What Trauma Does to the Brain

PTSD develops when the brain’s threat-response system gets locked in a state of high alert following a traumatic event. The amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for detecting danger, becomes overactive. The prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate emotional responses and distinguish real threats from perceived ones, becomes underactive. The result is a nervous system that can’t fully return to safety, even when the danger is long past.

This isn’t a character flaw or a sign of weakness. It’s a neurological response to overwhelming experience. And because it’s neurological, treatments that work at the level of the brain’s circuitry rather than simply managing symptoms tend to produce the most lasting results. That’s exactly where ketamine therapy shines.

About 6% of the U.S. population will have PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the National Center for PTSD

About 13 million Americans had PTSD in 2020

Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men, with 8% of women and 4% of men affected at some point in their lives

Veterans who deployed to a war zone are more likely to develop PTSD than those who did not deploy

PTSD commonly co-occurs with depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, each compounding the others

Hear from Those Who've Found Hope

The team here made me feel safe and supported throughout the entire process. This treatment saved my life.

The medical team monitored me closely and made me feel valued and heard. This treatment is truly life-saving.

Ketamine therapy at Relevate Ketafusion, combined with integration sessions, helped me process trauma in ways talk therapy never could.

The racing thoughts quieted, the physical symptoms of anxiety decreased, and I can now do normal activities without fear.

The team here made me feel safe and supported throughout the entire process. This treatment saved my life.

The medical team monitored me closely and made me feel valued and heard. This treatment is truly life-saving.

Ketamine therapy at Relevate Ketafusion, combined with integration sessions, helped me process trauma in ways talk therapy never could.

The racing thoughts quieted, the physical symptoms of anxiety decreased, and I can now do normal activities without fear.

Address

2309 State Road La Crosse, 
WI 54601

Working hours

Mon-Thu: 7:30 am - 7:30 pm
Fri-Sat: 7:30 am - 12:30 pm

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Types of PTSD and Trauma We Treat

Trauma takes many forms, and PTSD doesn't look the same in everyone. Ketamine therapy has shown meaningful results across a range of trauma-related presentations. Here's where our team has seen the greatest impact.

Combat and Military PTSD

Veterans face some of the highest rates of PTSD of any population. The combination of combat exposure, moral injury, and the cultural pressure to push through without seeking help creates a particularly heavy burden. Our team understands this firsthand. Lisa Knudtson served in the U.S. Navy, and Dr. Schumaker's emergency medicine background gives him direct experience with trauma and crisis care. Relevate's Healing Our Heroes program offers a 20% year-round discount for military, fire, police, and EMS.

First Responder PTSD

Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians experience repeated exposure to traumatic events as part of their work. Over time, that accumulation takes a toll. First responder culture often discourages vulnerability, which means PTSD frequently goes untreated for years. We built the Healing Our Heroes program specifically to reduce barriers for this community, and our team approaches every first responder patient with the respect their service deserves. or antenatal depression develops during pregnancy and can be just as severe as PPD. Treatment during pregnancy requires careful clinical judgment, and our medical team, led by Dr. Howard Schumaker, approaches each case individually to determine the safest, most effective path forward.

Childhood or Developmental Trauma

Trauma that occurs during childhood, whether abuse, neglect, loss, or chronic instability, can shape the developing nervous system in ways that persist well into adulthood. Childhood trauma often presents as complex PTSD, characterized by difficulty regulating emotions, persistent shame, and challenges in relationships. Ketamine's ability to promote neural plasticity makes it particularly relevant for trauma whose roots go deep.

Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence

Trauma from sexual assault or intimate partner violence can be especially difficult to treat because the source of harm was another person. Trust becomes complicated. Traditional talk therapy, while valuable, can be retraumatizing if approached without adequate support. Ketamine therapy's ability to support neural healing without requiring detailed recounting of traumatic events can offer a gentler entry point for people whose trauma involves interpersonal harm.

PTSD with Depression or Anxiety

PTSD rarely travels alone. Depression and anxiety are among the most common co-occurring conditions, each making the others harder to treat. Standard antidepressants often address one layer while leaving the others intact. Ketamine therapy works across all three simultaneously, calming the overactive threat response, rebuilding depleted neural pathways, and reducing the persistent negative mood that trauma and depression share.

PTSD with Substance Use

Many people with PTSD turn to alcohol or other substances to manage symptoms that feel unbearable. It's a coping strategy that makes sense in the short term and causes serious harm over time. Treating the underlying PTSD rather than just the substance use tends to produce more durable recovery. Ketamine therapy's rapid action on the neural circuits driving trauma symptoms can help reduce the pull toward self-medication.

Your PTSD Treatment Journey at Relevate Ketafusion

From your first conversation to your last session, we're with you at every step.

01

Initial Consultation

Your journey starts with a virtual consultation. We'll talk through your trauma history, your current symptoms, what treatments you've tried, and what you're hoping to achieve. There's no pressure to share more than you're comfortable with. You'll receive a thorough mental health screening and medical clearance review, and we'll explain clearly whether IV ketamine, Spravato, or both make the most sense for your situation.

02

Personalized Treatment Plan

We build your plan around your specific presentation, history, and goals. For IV ketamine, that typically means 6 to 8 infusions over 2 to 4 weeks. For Spravato, the induction phase runs twice-weekly sessions for four weeks before tapering to maintenance. We'll also discuss how your treatment fits alongside any therapy or other support you're receiving, since ketamine works especially well when combined with trauma-focused therapeutic work.

03

Treatment Sessions

Every session takes place in a private, calm treatment room with ambient lighting and soothing music. Our medical team stays present throughout, monitoring your vitals and your comfort in real time. Most patients describe the experience as peaceful and reflective. Plan to have someone drive you home afterward.

04

Integration and Ongoing Monitoring

The period following each ketamine session is when the brain's heightened neuroplasticity makes therapeutic work especially effective. We offer integration support to help you process what shifted during treatment and build on that progress between sessions. Your team monitors your response closely and adjusts the plan as needed, then develops a maintenance schedule to protect the gains you've made.

The Science Behind Ketamine for PTSD

Standard PTSD treatments, including SSRIs and trauma-focused therapies, work for many people. But a significant portion of patients don’t achieve adequate relief, particularly those with severe or long-standing PTSD. Ketamine offers a neurologically distinct alternative that’s gaining strong clinical support.

PTSD involves dysregulation of the brain’s threat-detection and emotional regulation systems. Ketamine acts on NMDA receptors and the glutamate pathway, triggering rapid synaptic growth and neuroplasticity. This helps quiet the overactive amygdala, strengthen prefrontal cortex function, and interrupt the entrenched fear memories that define PTSD. The result is a window of neurological openness that makes healing genuinely possible, often faster than any other intervention available.

In a randomized controlled trial published in Nature Medicine, 67% of patients receiving ketamine infusions achieved significant PTSD symptom reduction by week two, compared to 20% in the placebo group

Improvements were observed within 24 hours of the first infusion and maintained for a median of 27.5 days in responders

Ketamine reduced symptoms across three of the four core PTSD clusters: intrusions, avoidance, and negative mood and cognitions

The same study found marked reduction in co-occurring depression symptoms, reflecting ketamine’s broad neurological impact

Why Choose Relevate Ketafusion for PTSD Treatment

01

A Team That Includes a Navy Veteran

Lisa Knudtson, our Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, served in the U.S. Navy and brings over a decade of direct ketamine experience to her work with PTSD patients. She understands military culture, the barriers that come with it, and the courage it takes to ask for help. That authentic connection isn’t something you can teach.

02

Healing Our Heroes: 20% Discount for Military and First Responders

We offer a 20% discount year-round for active duty and veteran military, firefighters, police officers, and EMS. This isn’t a promotional offer. It’s a standing commitment to the people who’ve given the most and often struggle most to ask for support.

03

The Only IV Ketamine Clinic in the Coulee Region

Relevate Ketafusion is the only provider in the La Crosse area offering IV ketamine infusions. The nearest alternative is over two hours away. We built this clinic so that people in our community wouldn’t have to make that drive to access care that works.

04

Spravato Covered by Insurance

Spravato is covered by most major insurance plans. Our team verifies your coverage before your first session and handles prior authorization. For IV ketamine, transparent self-pay pricing is available with HSA/FSA acceptance and CareCredit financing.

05

Continuous Medical Supervision at Every Session

You’re never alone during treatment. Our medical team monitors your vitals and your comfort throughout every session, responding in real time. For someone navigating trauma, knowing you’re safe and watched over matters as much as the medicine itself.

06

Founded by Someone Who Understands What It Means to Keep Searching

Tina Schumaker, our CEO and co-founder, lived with treatment-resistant depression and PTSD before ketamine therapy changed her life. She built Relevate because the nearest clinic was over two hours away and nobody in the Coulee Region should have to make that drive. Her story is the reason this clinic exists.

Book Now (608) 518-3915