Journey Clinical

Journey Clinical operates a healthtech platform for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP), starting with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP). It functions as a two-sided marketplace: licensed psychotherapists receive the medical infrastructure, education, training, peer community and professional resources needed to offer KAP within their own private practices, while patients gain access to an in-house medical team and a network of KAP-trained therapists. The company's in-house medical team handles patient eligibility assessment, ketamine prescriptions, treatment planning and outcome monitoring via telehealth, while the network therapist delivers the preparation, dosing and integration psychotherapy sessions in person or remotely.

The patient pathway involves choosing a therapist based on insurance, modality and specialty; meeting the medical team for an eligibility assessment and prescription; and then beginning treatment with a dedicated care team, with follow-up medical appointments for ongoing collaborative care. Beyond KAP, Journey Clinical offers psychiatric medication management. The platform states it serves conditions including depression, anxiety, PTSD and trauma, eating disorders, OCD, ADHD, burnout, and couples and relationship issues. Company medical leadership includes a Medical Director (Kyle Lapidus, MD, PhD), a lead prescriber and senior prescribers who are psychiatric nurse practitioners, alongside clinical and scientific advisors.

The company describes itself as the largest network of licensed therapists offering KAP in the United States, and says it plans to expand to additional FDA-approved psychedelic modalities as they become available. It also states that it invests in clinical research, outcome monitoring and provider education.

Founding story

The company grew out of co-founder Jonathan Sabbagh's own experience with psychedelic therapies, through which he found relief from chronic burnout and PTSD. He and co-founder Myriam Barthes set out to help people with mental illness access such treatments safely and responsibly, building clinical infrastructure to deliver psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Business model

Two-sided marketplace model in which Journey Clinical does not employ therapists but instead equips independent, licensed mental health practitioners to deliver KAP in their own practices, allowing them to retain their therapy revenue. Journey Clinical supplies the medical layer — eligibility screening, ketamine prescription, treatment plan and outcome monitoring — delivered via telehealth by its in-house medical team.

Patients pay for medical appointments with Journey Clinical's medical team, which may be covered in network by insurance (standard copay or coinsurance) or partially reimbursed out of network; psychotherapy is paid to the network therapist. The company provides upfront cost estimates and a cost calculator, and states most patients save over $1,000 with insurance.

Traction

The company reports growth from 30 to roughly 700 KAP psychotherapists and more than 1,000 patients treated between February 2022 and January 2023, later citing over 2,500 trained providers. It states 87% of patients report improvement in depression and anxiety clinical measures after a course of treatment, and 92% of patients rate their provider five stars on Trustpilot.

Latest developments

In April 2024 Journey Clinical and Compass Pathways announced a research collaboration to inform care delivery of psilocybin treatment (COMP360) for treatment-resistant depression. The company has expanded insurance coverage, listing in-network relationships with Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, Cigna (Evernorth), Enthea, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Moda Health, Tufts Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare (including Optum and UMR). Leadership is listed as Myriam Barthes, Co-founder & CEO, and Jonathan Sabbagh, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of the Board.