The world’s first psychedelic psychotherapy clinic of its kind is set to open in Bristol, UK, early next year.
The world’s first psychedelic-assisted therapy clinic of its kind is set to open its doors in the UK. AWAKN uses Ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin alongside psychotherapy to treat mental health disorders.
Run by Dr. Ben Sessa, AWAKN was formerly Mandala Therapy Limited, run by the author, researcher, and psychiatrist. Acquired earlier this year, Sessa now serves as the Chief Medical Officer for AWAKN, leading the opening of the company’s first clinic.
But if Sessa and AWAKN have their way, this opening will be followed by more, he told Filter magazine; the goal is to create training programs so that other psychiatrists and psychologists can lead similar programs across the UK. Once the substances are legal, that is.
“Enough of the incessant belief that mental health disorders cannot be cured, this is the legacy of the ill-informed,” Sessa said in a statement earlier this year. “Psychedelics have the potential to heal when used correctly and with psychotherapy pathways built for purpose. We are progressive thinkers at AWAKN Life Sciences and see the need for clinics that are experts in the use of psychedelic medicine under safe, efficacious and scientifically validated frameworks. We are building the centre of excellence for the UK.”
Sessa believes psychedelics and psychotherapy working together is a necessary evolution in mental health treatment, especially in the wake of the COVID crisis and how that’s impacting millions worldwide.
“We are about to experience a massive wave of mental health problems—I’m seeing a rise in cases already in my caseload,” Sessa said. “Now is the time for the innovative approaches to transform how we do psychiatry.”
The new AWAKN clinic, set to open in January 2021, will focus on treating anxiety, depression and eating disorders as well as addiction.
The clinic will start with ketamine therapy as MDMA and psilocybin still face legal hurdles. In the U.S. several cities and the state of Oregon have decriminalized psychedelics. Oregon, which passed its legislation earlier this month, will see psilocybin legalized in clinical settings. But substances like psilocybin and MDA are still a long way from federal decriminalization. Ketamine clinics and research trials are currently legal in the US and UK.
“We look forward to the day MDMA and psilocybin are fully approved as medicines to be delivered to patients outside of research studies,” Sessa says.
A number of these substances were once legal, studied widely in the 1950s and ‘60s. And it’s that work experts like Sessa are building on.
“This is a renaissance of psychiatry,” said Sessa, “not a renaissance of psychedelics.”
I have bipolar2 and borderline personality disorder. I was diagnosed in South Africa after a suicide attempt in Zimbabwe where I was born and grew up in the Rhodesian war. I was 29 years old. I recently moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Dec 2019. I watched the series How To Change Minds where I heard about the methods and your clinic
Firstly can you help me get off my chronic medication
I am on the following:
Sodium valporate 500mg morning and evening
Quetapine 200mg
Propanadol 40mg
Venlafaxine 150mg (psychiatrist took me off this as I was going into hypo mania)
Trisequens
From 2017 I have experienced half the year hypo manic and then half the year suicidally depressed.
I have overdosed 5 times and each time landed up on ICU 99% of thr time I have to be resuscitated.
So my faith in chronic medication is zero. However the psychiatrist and psychologists won’t support my desire to wean off chronic medication.
Please let me know if you can help me and what is the cost.
I look forward to your response.
Regards
Carolyn Hodgkinson
I’m bipolar and I need help please.
I have lived with depression and anxiety for 40 years. I have had many diagnoses and psychiatric interventions over the years. I regularly have intrusive images, which are too distressing to describe,. and are worse when my mental health is particularly poor.
I have attempted to take my life many times and regularly consider suicide. I often struggle to find joy and purpose in life. Like Carolyn, I watched How To Change Your Mind and was moved to tears several times. I felt that maybe there is some hope and would like to know if there are any clinics in Newcastle that offer psychedelic assisted treatment.
The medication I am currently prescribed makes me feel numbed and dislocated. I want to experience llife more fully and appreciate my existence.
Humanity has been buried in a Psychological & Spiritual Crisis for way too long. Time to lift the veil and heal with the help of the natural world. It’s been there since ancient times. Time to reconnect.
We shall raise our vibrations and float above the trees with the birds and the bees. We are all blessed even when it doesn’t feel like it. Stay strong.
I have PTSD with sleep terrors. I’m slowly but surely crippling my body up with the injuries sustained during sleep terrors. On various pharmaceuticals including Fentanyl, Venlafaxine, Propananol, Amitriptiline, Oramorph…