OAKLAND, Calif., July 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sage Institute for Psychedelic Therapy, a nonprofit, sliding-scale therapeutic training clinic, received a $250,000 grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. This is the second grant from the foundation to support Sage’s program development for clinical and training programs on psychedelic medicine with a focus on underserved communities. Psychedelic medicines combined with psychotherapy are powerful agents for evoking life-altering insights and potentially transformative experiences, which can provide relief beyond traditional mental health therapies.
Sage Institute provides accessible psychedelic therapy to underserved populations. “The majority of clients at Sage Institute identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color, queer, transgender or gender nonconforming, and are low income and underinsured,” said executive director Deidra Somerville, PhD, MSW. “With the support of the Cohen Foundation, we continue to increase access to innovative mental health care. In addition, our clinical model can be adopted by and adapted for diverse communities nationwide.”
“We are pleased to support the Sage Institute’s efforts to further psychedelic-assisted therapy, expand training, and improve access to traditionally underserved communities,” said Alexandra Cohen, President of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation.
With cities and states around the country rethinking their relationship to psychedelic medicines, and psilocybin and MDMA receiving breakthrough status with the Federal and Drug Administration, Sage is a much-needed catalyst for underserved communities. Their mission is to provide high-quality training and programs, accessible psychedelic therapy and innovative research, fostering effective and culturally responsive mental health treatment. Sage also trains the next generation of diverse clinicians and leaders in the field of psychedelic medicine. Sage uses the grant funds to increase the number of licensed, culturally responsive, and effective psychedelic therapists as well as to deliver low-cost psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Another goal is to use the grant funding to help develop a sustainable financial model that allows Sage to best prioritize current and potential revenue streams. As the model is refined, Sage intends to widely share this knowledge, contributing to health equity and expanding healthcare access for communities in need, while increasing the overall number of clients served. Last year (2021), Sage served 244 primarily low-income clients and provided training to 53 therapists. In 2022, the plan is to service more than 300 clients.
About Sage Institute
Sage Institute is a sliding scale clinic that offers psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy (as it becomes legal) to underserved communities in the Bay Area. Their priority is to offer high quality, accessible and culturally sensitive services to individuals from a diversity of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences. They are a training clinic, providing rigorous educational programming in depth-oriented psychedelic-assisted therapy through a community-focused, social justice, and trauma-informed lens. They place an emphasis on training clinicians who reflect the diverse identities of the communities that they serve. For more information, visit https://sageinst.org.
About the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation is committed to inspiring philanthropy and community service by creating awareness, offering guidance, and leading by example to show the world what giving can do. The Foundation’s grants support nonprofit organizations based in the United States that either help people in need or solve complex problems. The Foundation also spearheads grassroots campaigns to encourage others to give. For more information, visit www.steveandalex.org.
