In 2020, psychedelics are primarily used for recreational purposes. A wild Saturday night trip with some friends is certainly something to write home about, but more and more organizations and institutions are also investigating the potential applications of various psychedelics and their effects on the human body. The world’s first psychedelic therapy clinic is set to open soon in the British city of Bristol—a major step in this psychedelic revolution (as it’s so aptly called).
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Psychedelics and psychotherapy
The people behind this transformation in mental health care—a company called AWAKN Life Sciences Inc—say that combining psychedelics with psychotherapy is the next evolution in psychiatry. The company is led by scientists and advocates for drug policy reform, including Professor David Nutt and Dr. Ben Sessa. And with a staggering rise in mental health issues among people struggling with the pandemic, the need for progress in this area is greater than ever.
“We are on the verge of experiencing a massive wave of mental health issues—I’m already seeing an increase in the number of cases in my caseload,” said Dr. Sessa, who previously conducted a groundbreaking study on MDMA treatment for alcohol use disorder. “Now is the time for innovative approaches to transform the way we practice psychiatry.” The company plans to open clinics in major cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Brighton.
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Research, Implementation, and Training
AWAKN consists of three distinct divisions. The first division focuses on research, the second division is dedicated to developing clinics to provide treatment for issues such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, as well as addiction, and the third division is responsible for training clinicians interested in providing such therapies. The first treatment to be offered at one of the clinics is ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. This involves low doses of ketamine supplemented with talk therapy.
In the United States, ketamine has already been approved for medical use, but AWAKN’s research division will primarily focus on clinical trials of psilocybin and other psychedelics in the coming period. “We look forward to the day when these drugs are fully approved as medications to be administered to patients outside of research studies,” Dr. Sessa told Filter Magazine. “But at the moment, they can only be used as investigational drugs. That’s why we plan to conduct small research trials from our clinic as well, which means we can use MDMA and psilocybin in a research setting from our building in Bristol.”
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No shamans, but psychologists and psychiatrists
Once the clinic opens its doors, they hope to quickly train new “competitors.” “We need more people to provide these services, so we’re training people to compete with us,” he said. “Business schools might say this isn’t the right thing to do, but ethically, it is. We will offer certified training under the authority of a regulatory body—psychologists and psychiatrists, as opposed to shaman-like people with dreamcatchers.”
“This isn’t to discredit anyone, but we want to be the gold standard for medical and qualified practitioners to provide these services, so they must be people who are under the governance of the Royal College of Psychiatry,” said Sessa.
What do you think: will we soon see such clinics popping up like mushrooms in the Netherlands as well?
