Healing is a human right. That’s why it’s so difficult for me to see a price tag put on it–especially one that many cannot afford.
Psilocybin therapy has massive healing potential for so many. But in order for it to meet these masses, it needs to navigate the landscape of American capitalism that we find ourselves in. After all, there are substantial costs associated with care delivery. Most among them is the time and emotional energy of a highly trained facilitator who stands ready to guide us through the darkest corners of our minds and back out again. This is hard work.
I’m not a facilitator. I’ve only attempted to play this role a few times. Once was with my terminally ill father in the weeks before he died. Holding space for any person moving through their healing journey is a spiritual endeavor. It is art, not commerce. That experience helped me realize that being a facilitator is not my calling. But it also gave me a new one.
I’m an entrepreneur, trained in economics, applied at the intersection of technology and healthcare delivery. While maybe less spiritual, I can wield that paintbrush with a steady hand. So, along with my co-founders, we started Althea to serve these healers. In Oregon, in our country’s first legal psilocybin therapy program, we delivered a software platform to streamline the most monotonous parts of the work. Namely, regulatory compliance.
We love our users. These facilitators have devoted their lives to the healing arts. And the Service Centers who host them provide the sacred setting for the magic to unfold. It was through seeing their work firsthand that we realized how we might transcend our role as a supportive technology. Rather, we could leverage our position to enable the ecosystem, and potentially fix the market failures that are inherent in any market for human rights.
Today, I’m proud to introduce the Forward Fund for Psychedelic Healing. It’s a way to amortize our common goal of lowering costs to increase accessibility, implemented in a way that fairly and adequately compensates facilitators for their work. (See that page if you’d like to get into the mechanics of the fund.)
The idea was inspired by the sacrifices we see facilitators making every day for their clients. These aren’t the type of people to turn others away, especially when they know they can help. So sliding scale pricing models are put in place to attempt to improve accessibility. But they often end up leaving the facilitator on the shallow end of that slippery slope.
With Althea, facilitators set their price. Most of their clients will pay it. Some of their clients won’t. The Forward Fund covers the gap, keeping facilitators whole while effectively pricing along the demand curve. All clients will have the opportunity to pay it forward after their journey by contributing to the Forward Fund as well. Facilitators and clients do not have to discuss financials within their container.
This is a trust based model. We trust that participants will be honest with themselves, with their facilitators, and with us. That’s the only way it can work. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the tragedy of the commons, and why economists scoff at any method of allocating a scarce resource that involves considering anyone but yourself. But, I have also felt the epiphanies available through psilocybin therapy. That there isn’t a difference between myself, others, and love. That’s what I’m choosing to trust here: in those who are also on that healing journey and have found themselves sitting with the medicine. I trust you.
Then I met Henry. You know Henry. He’s the mind behind Tricycle Day, the heartbeat of psychedelics delivered to your inbox twice a week. We dreamt into how we could combine our platforms to actually help psychedelic healing find the people who need it the most. And that’s how the Forward Fund was born. Althea and Tricycle Day have seeded the fund. It’s enough to bring this healing modality to a handful of people who wouldn’t have otherwise found it. And enough to launch an experiment to see if this trust holds. I think it will.
So, if you’re hurting and think psilocybin therapy could help, we want you to try it with a professional. If your financial situation is holding you back, apply for funding through the Forward Fund.
If your life has been saved through this work, consider paying it forward so others might find what you have. And if you’re profiting from this work, consider becoming a Forward Fund partner. Send me a note and we’ll talk it over.
This is an industry where the rising tide truly raises all boats. People don’t find psychedelic healing by clicking an ad; they find it through the ripples created by those who came before them. The more people we can directly help find their way here, the wider those ripples will reach.
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