Field Trip Announces “World’s First” Virtual Psychedelic Therapy, But Forgets To Mention They Aren’t the First and No Psychedelics Are Involved
Field Trip Ventures leads the charge to use “psychedelic” as a marketing buzzword for any kind of niche therapy.
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On April 21, 2020, Field Trip Psychedelics—a mental wellness company based in Toronto with a focus on the clinical use of psychedelics—announced that it was launching virtual “psychedelic” therapy services.
Although Field Trip has consistently marketed itself as the “world’s first” in a number of other psychedelic categories—including this one—the company would not actually be the first company to provide remote psychedelic therapy to patients. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Founder’s Fund-backed mental health and wellness company, Mindbloom, announced back in mid-March that it would offer remote ketamine therapy through its platform to New Yorkers. It’s not entirely clear if Mindbloom was the first either, but they were definitely offering it before Field Trip.
Plus, it appears that the remote services being offered through Field Trip are not even as psychedelic as advertised. The two options available through Field Trip are “Psychedelic Breathing,” plus integration therapy, and “COVID Coping Therapy.” These seem to amount to holotropic-like breathwork over Zoom with some talk therapy.
“No psychedelic molecules are involved in virtual therapy,” said Ronan Levy, the Executive Chairman of Field Trip, when asked for clarification. “At this point we do not have any plans for use of psychedelics or other drugs at home. Given the power of psychedelic molecules, we think the people we work with are best served by having a medical professional be present for any experience with psychedelic molecules, and we believe this will lead to the best therapeutic outcomes.”
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