About Dr. Jeff Dufresne and Ketamine Keys Medical Clinic
Ketamine Keys Medical Clinic is a physician-led practice in Victoria, BC, operating out of Synergy Health Centre on Quadra Street. The clinic is led by Dr. Jeff Dufresne, CCFP, MD.
Lead Physician & Clinical Director
Dr. Jeff Dufresne, CCFP, MD
Dr. Jeff Dufresne is a physician based in Victoria, British Columbia. He holds the designations of Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Certificant of the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CCFP), and is a registrant of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia.
Raised in northern Alberta and British Columbia, Dr. Dufresne has practiced in rural BC since 2020, primarily in emergency medicine and inpatient care. Over six years of emergency practice, he has administered ketamine in clinical settings on more than one hundred occasions, working with the medication in some of its most demanding contexts.
That clinical exposure shaped his understanding of ketamine as a well-tolerated, predictable medication when used by trained physicians in a controlled environment. It also brought him into contact with the growing body of research on its application in mental health and chronic pain at lower, sub-anesthetic doses. As that research has matured, and as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC has issued formal guidance recognizing the clinical use of ketamine in regulated community settings, Dr. Dufresne built Ketamine Keys around that work.
His clinical training in ketamine-assisted care was informed by his mentorship under Dr. Kristensen, formerly of Vancouver Island Ketamine Clinic, whose pioneering work on the island laid the groundwork for what is now possible in regulated community practice. Dr. Dufresne carries that lineage forward at Ketamine Keys with his own approach.
In Dr. Dufresne’s view, emergency medicine taught him to handle medications that are powerful, time-sensitive, and consequential. Ketamine therapy applies that same clinical discipline to a different problem. For patients living with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, severe anxiety, or chronic pain that has not responded to standard care, the gap between what current evidence supports and what is available locally is wide. Ketamine Keys exists to begin closing that gap, in Victoria, under proper clinical oversight.
The clinic at Synergy Health Centre
Ketamine Keys Medical Clinic operates within Synergy Health Centre, an established multi-practitioner medical centre on Quadra Street in Victoria. The space is private, quiet, and designed for the kind of focused, extended session that ketamine therapy requires.
Our clinic in Victoria
3960 Quadra St #106, Victoria, BC V8X 4A3
What to expect on arrival
The centre operates as a professional, multidisciplinary health and rehabilitation clinic. Visitors check in at the main reception desk and are shown to a dedicated, private treatment room. The space used for ketamine therapy is set up to be entirely comfortable and low-stimulus, with quiet lighting and a treatment chair designed for the full session length.
A trusted person may accompany you to the clinic and remain in the building during the session. A driver to take you home after the session is required, as you will not be permitted to drive yourself.
While Synergy Health Centre is the primary site of care, arrangements can be made for in-home treatment in appropriate circumstances, similar to how some community-based medical services operate. This is determined case by case during consultation.
Angela Jamil
Angela is also responsible for the photography that appears throughout the site. The landscape and clinic images of Victoria and Vancouver Island are her work.
Stephanie McCune
Regulatory standing
Ketamine Keys Medical Clinic operates under the oversight of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC). Dr. Dufresne is a registrant in good standing.
The CPSBC has issued interim guidance recognizing intramuscular ketamine therapy for use by registrants in regulated community settings, and the clinic operates within that guidance. Patients can verify Dr. Dufresne’s registration status at any time through the CPSBC public registrant directory.
Take the first step
If you are considering ketamine therapy and would like to discuss whether it may be appropriate for your situation, the first step is a consultation with Dr. Dufresne. There is no fee to the patient for this assessment and no obligation to proceed.
