'Teen Mom' parents Catelynn and Tyler discuss how ketamine therapy helped him process childhood sexual abuse trauma

• Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra sat down with Insider to talk about ketamine therapy.
• Baltierra has done ketamine therapy to address childhood sexual-abuse trauma.

When it comes to their children, Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra believe in doing whatever they can to break generational cycles of trauma. The stars of "Teen Mom: The Next Chapter" — which follows Lowell, Baltierra, and their castmates from "Teen Mom OG (2009)" and "Teen Mom 2 (2011)" — sat down with Insider to talk about Baltierra's experience using ketamine therapy to address his childhood sexual-abuse trauma.

Ketamine is a drug that can be administered intravenously or nasally as a painkiller or sedative. A doctor may also prescribe ketamine off-label to treat mental-health conditions like depression and anxiety.

Because of its anesthetic properties, ketamine is thought to help people access the unconscious mind and process feelings about past events. For some people, dreams, memories, or out-of-body experiences may occur while taking ketamine.

Talk therapy can only go so far

After varying success with cognitive-behavioral therapy, Baltierra explained that he wanted to try something different. He learned that ketamine therapy is legal in his home state of Michigan.

"I get to certain points in my life where I feel like I want to do something a little more intense," he told Insider. "Something where I'm forced to dive deeper into my head because I feel like so much talk therapy, it can get repetitive fast."

He researched treatment options and recommended that others do the same to find the right therapist and treatment facility. "Ketamine was the first jumping-off point for me to get down to the core issues that I have with my trauma and how it affects me as an adult," he said.

Lowell said that she's supportive of Baltierra working through his childhood trauma and believes that ketamine therapy has been beneficial for him. "Everybody's mental-health journey is different, and whatever you feel is going to assist you, like you know yourself the best, so of course, I'm like, absolutely go for it," she told Insider.

Sometimes you have to sit with your feelings

Starting ketamine therapy has been "very enlightening," Baltierra said. "It really helped me bring some trauma to the surface and the coping strategies that weren't working for me." One of these strategies is his tendency to "intellectualize" his feelings.

"I would feel a feeling, and then I would intellectualize it by reading books and articles about it," he said. He thought that he could heal and move on by putting his energy into researching mental health rather than dealing with his emotions.

"I never actually sat with the feeling and felt it," he explained. "And so, I feel like with ketamine, I can't intellectualize because you're at the mercy of the experience." In other words, he realized he couldn't rely on his usual coping mechanism of using science and knowledge to push away uncomfortable emotions.

Reducing stigma around child sexual abuse

Baltierra hadn't originally planned on speaking publicly about his experience with child sexual abuse. He changed his mind after considering how common it is for men to stay silent about this issue and wanted to break this pattern.

"It's kind of scary for me to do it, but I know it's necessary," he said. "I feel like I have a little bit of a responsibility with this platform to be vulnerable and as transparent as possible."

As a child, when he first told his peers about the abuse, he was surprised by their reaction. "I would tell stories, and a lot of the dudes would be like, 'Oh, cool, man,'" he said. "So I would pretend, like, I guess this is supposed to be cool even though inside it didn't feel cool. It was traumatic and scary."

Lowell praised Baltierra for helping raise awareness about sexual abuse against boys and young men. "I mean, you wouldn't look at a woman who was molested or raped and be like, 'Oh, that's so awesome you've had an older guy do those things to you,'" she said. "It's not a cool thing. It is still trauma. It's all about ending that stigma that just because it happens to boys makes it not that big of a deal, and that's not accurate."

Being a parent can force you to revisit childhood trauma

Like Baltierra, Lowell has sought mental-health support for coping with childhood trauma. What she's learned about herself in therapy has reinforced her commitment to "breaking intergenerational traumas" and ensuring she doesn't pass them on to her three daughters.

"As your children become certain ages where you experienced trauma, it can actually bring stuff to the surface for you," she explained. "You might end up getting triggered or having anxiety because of the traumatic experience that happened to you at their age."

Talking to kids about protecting their bodies

As a parent, whether you have a personal history of trauma or not, "sexual trauma should be a talking subject," Lowell said. "These are conversations that everybody should be having with their children."

When their now 8-year-old daughter Nova turned 3, the couple felt it was important for her to start learning how to label her own body parts. "How can you protect your own body if you don't even know about it," Baltierra said.

Lowell agreed, saying, "If something were to happen to your kids, and they were to tell somebody, they are using the correct terminology and not a nickname for it." Both parents recommended speaking to your kids at an age-appropriate level and letting their questions guide the conversation.

She gave an example of what these conversations sound like with their daughters: "Everybody's got a bubble, and if you feel uncomfortable about somebody coming into your bubble, it's OK to tell them that they're not allowed," she said. "They're not welcome. I don't like that."

Supporting your partner through their journey

In the episode that aired on September 13, Baltierra's therapist invited Lowell to participate in a couple's session as part of his ketamine therapy. Her immediate reaction was wanting to learn more about her husband's experience and what she could do to support him.

"I was going into it with a very open mind," she said. "I think it was important for me to hear the things that Ty had learned, so that way you can be that support system for your person. I feel like that's really important."

Baltierra agreed, saying that men need to talk about child sexual abuse. "Because when you have unresolved trauma in the body, it will resurface itself in multiple ways."

His advice for partners is to approach your loved one with curiosity and compassion. "Partners should go into it with an open mind and not be afraid of what you might discover or what you might hear and just try to be supportive," he said.

You can watch the new season of "Teen Mom: The Next Chapter" on MTV on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

For more tools and resources to support emotional well-being, visit mentalhealthishealth.us.