Ketamine has made me a better teacher, father & husband | Ember Health Patient Stories: Daniel

In October of 2025, composer and Ember Health patient Daniel volunteered to tell his story as a part of a storytelling project run by documentarian Chandler Kauffman. The objective of the project is to raise awareness about how IV ketamine works to treat depression, and who it may help. We are humbled to serve extraordinary people like Daniel and others in our community so that they may experience the relief they deserve, realize their full potential, and make their marks in their communities.

You can read Daniel's full transcript below. If you’re seeking relief from depression and curious to explore care at Ember, we invite you to schedule a consultation call with a clinician from our team to understand whether IV ketamine care may be a fit.

My name is Daniel Felsenfeld. I'm a composer and I'm an educator. I've worked with some hip-hop people. I've worked on a Broadway tour. I worked with Jay-Z and The Roots. My most important thing is I write for orchestras and I write for opera companies and that kind of thing. That's what I really love to do.

When you're teaching music the way I teach it, it's not practicing the piano or playing scales - it's really trying to get to the heart of who that person is and help them become who they want to be and who they inevitably always were. I get the incredible joy of seeing people grow into themselves.

A few years ago, I had some sudden and unfortunate brain surgeries which nothing prepared me for. They were sudden, they were brutal. They upended my life and the lives of my whole family. Um, and it was a difficult recovery. This was in early 2020 when that all happened. And then 2020 - we all know how that worked out. So, a lot of people lost a lot of things and I think a lot of us were still recovering from that. And I was one of the people who I felt kind of was a little bit of the “post victim” of covid. I was having a hard time mentally from a lot of the treatments and a lot of what I lost.

I always struggled with depression or something like it. Anxiety, it runs in my family. I had tried some antidepressants once upon a time and they worked, kind of. I didn't love the side effects and I felt like the side effects outweighed the benefits. Honestly, I was scared of any kind of drug intervention ‘cause I'd had so many drug interventions for the crises I was in. But Kari Groff, who you know, recommended ketamine and I looked into it and I was completely suspicious and deeply leery and not looking forward to it. And I went to Ember on her recommendation - strong recommendation. I mean, I had done my research. I looked at a bunch of places and Ember seemed like the coolest. Kari said it absolutely is. 

Ember really helped me. What I got was this incredibly calm, centered, meaningful place that I felt like had taken me into account, like a good therapist's office with a medical angle to it. And when I got there, it was so comforting. It was scientific without being scientistic. It wasn't just data-driven and it wasn't just woo. Of course, the doctors were extremely helpful and knowledgeable, but I expect doctors to be helpful and knowledgeable, but like literally everybody else I met was helpful, knowledgeable, caring, but without feeling like I was being patronized.

Ember has earned my trust on several levels. I mean, let's start with the fact that the treatments work. Like it doesn't cure, because how can anything cure and I don't expect it to cure. And, in fact, during my foundation a really good friend of mine passed away and another friend of mine was diagnosed with pretty bad cancer. And I felt that it helped me feel that. It helped me feel that in an accurate way. I always say it helps me pay down the emotional principle rather than dealing with the emotional interest. That's, to me, the most amazing benefit of Ember is I don't get anxiety about my anxiety or depressed about my depression. I can actually sort of look at things head on.

To those who are about to do or want to do an IV of ketamine, it's a vulnerable place to be. You're in a room with one other person. And if I didn't trust the other person in the room to have my back, I would have felt unsafe. And I think when it comes to mental health, the structure of a safe place to be, to talk about things, is everything. And Ember provides that safety.

Ember helped me be clearer about my own struggles to overcome the stigmas, not just of ketamine - though, yes - but of mental health treatment at large. Like there's so many stigmas. They are so unnecessary. They do such a disservice. And the idea of the stigma melted away. And one of the reasons I'm actually sitting with you here is I would like to do everything I can to help with that destigmatization.

I think the ketamine treatments and the whole Ember experience has made me a better teacher. Um, I think it's made me a better father, a better husband, better friend. It's made me able to ask for what I need in a way that doesn't feel like I'm imposing on people. In a way I don't get anxious about trying to figure out what I need. It's made me clear about that kind of like, for lack of a better word, the sort of rhizomatic interconnection of the world, which makes every little thing matter less. You know, it makes me take things a lot less personally. It has made me able to address things a little more head-on. I can't think of a better gift.