--- title: "Startups Have a Fun New Idea: Workplace Ketamine Sessions" description: "Office vibes a little off? Some startups say you should try group workplace ketamine sessions. File under: that's one way to do it." date: "2023-06-02" modified: "2023-06-05" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/startups-workplace-ketamine-sessions" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "health" - "productivity" - "psychedelics" - "work" --- # Startups Have a Fun New Idea: Workplace Ketamine Sessions ![Office vibes a little off? Some startups say you should try group workplace ketamine sessions. File under: that's one way to do it.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* Office vibes a little off? We've all been there — and some workplaces, apparently, have bad energy to the degree that they're turning towards ketamine as a vibe cure. You can't make this up. According [to a report from *Bloomberg*](), some employers are turning — checks notes — *ketamine startups* in order to improve office vibes. That's one way to do it, we guess! "It's great when people have intentions around thriving and clarity and being more creative and productive in their life and work,” Reid Robison, chief clinical officer of ketamine company Numinus Wellness Inc, told *Bloomberg*. Robison, per the report, leads group "ketamine-assisted therapy" sessions, [as the company calls them on their website.]() And, well, these alleged therapy sessions are pretty much exactly what they sound like: users lay down with cloth over their eyes, wait for a facilitator to inject a syringe of the psychedelic in their upper arms, and trip with their coworkers. "We hope to take them out of the healing-only realms," he added, "and into healing and growth and ways of improving their lives." Per *Bloomberg*, part of the appeal of ketamine therapies is that, when compared to other powerful psychedelics, the club drug is legal-ish in the US — legal-ish meaning that it's legal for *some* things, but not in every setting that one might want to use it. For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a ketamine-laced nasal spray [back in 2019]() for specific therapeutic purposes, but the FDA has yet to approve the drug — which *has* been prescribed for depression off-label for many years now, as *Bloomberg* points out — for general mental health purposes. But it's much more acceptable than, say, the celebrity-beloved ayahuasca, the shamanic South American psychedelic that's illegal in most countries worldwide. "From a professional perspective," Niko Everett, a career coach in San Francisco, told *Bloomberg*, "it's much more palatable" than ayahuasca. According to the report, Silicon Valley executives and workplaces have taken a particular shine to the ketamine therapy — not terribly surprising, considering that the tech world is well-known for its obsession with productivity-boosting "biohacking" measures. "It's so hard for people to create new habits," Everett continued, noting that her clients — who per the report are "mainly high-level female executives in Silicon Valley" — have a tough time "\[unplugging\] from the overwhelm." Routine change is a difficult thing, and she and other ketamine fans argue that a malleable, drugged-up, post-ket cranium is more amenable to reworking hardwired habituations. But that said, work-focused keratine sessions aren't just contained to Silicon Valley. Chase Hudson, the co-founder of a CBD company in Provo, Utah, told *Bloomberg* that he and his company have looked to the psychedelic drug as a "bridge the gap between the psychedelic world and the corporate space." "I had this ego dissolution like, 'Oh, man. I'm sorry. I didn’t realize you were looking for this, this and this,'" said Hudson. "You're speaking from the heart and not the mind." If you're considering exploring group ketamine therapy for your own company, however, fair warning: according to the CBD founder, you might want to consider taking the drug separately and reconvening afterward. Things, apparently, can get a little weird. "We learned quickly it's too intimate, you're not in control of your body," Hudson told *Bloomberg*, and "you say things." **More on drugs at work:** [*Startup Trying to Test Whether People on DMT Experience a Shared Alien Universe*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()