Our CEO’s Personal Journey with Psychedelics

News
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February 24, 2023

Source: Insider Business

I used psychedelics to treat my PTSD after other treatments failed. My experience using these medicines with therapy led me to found my own company.

Insider’s Yeji Jesse Lee sat down for a conversation with Jonathan Sabbagh, the cofounder and CEO of Journey Clinical, a platform that connects therapists to ketamine prescribers. Jonathan shared how psychedelics and ketamine-assisted therapy successfully treated his PTSD and other mental health issues and that his experience led him to start Journey Clinical with Myriam Barthes, his wife and Journey Clinical COO.

Jonathan Sabbagh and Myriam Barthes, the cofounders of Journey Clinical, with their dog Banksy.
      Jonathan Sabbagh, Myriam Barthes, and their dog Banksy.   

In the piece, published on February 23rd 2023, Jonathan shared that doing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and working with a therapist helped him process his psychedelic experiences. He emphasizes the importance of the therapeutic container, stating,

“Psychedelics are not a panacea. These medicines are a tool. They’re not always for everybody. Being able to work with an experienced therapist using ketamine as an adjunct, psychedelics as an adjunct, is really what helped me accept that I was traumatized and work through that trauma. This was years of work.”

Through his own personal journey with psychedelics, Jonathan was inspired to start Journey Clinical, which empowers licensed mental-health professionals to safely incorporate legal psychedelic medicine into their practice as an adjunct to therapy. It’s his hope that this model will ultimately enable mainstream adoption of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, explaining that in the current environment,

“There’s a handoff that’s going on: A doctor will send the patient to a ketamine therapist, or to a clinic, or to a platform that sends the person the ketamine and they do it alone. You’re being asked to go do something very personal with someone you never met, and then you have to bring that back to this therapist who doesn’t necessarily have the experience of working with these treatments. It doesn’t make sense.”

We extend our thanks to Yeji Jesse Lee for covering Jonathan’s inspiring story. To read the full article, visit: https://www.businessinsider.com/i-used-psychedelics-to-treat-my-ptsd-started-psychedelics-company-2023-2

Journey Clinical’s decentralized clinic model helps licensed mental health practitioners offer ketamine to their patients by connecting them to our in-house prescribers and educational resources. To learn more, visit www.JourneyClinical.com.