She\u2019s trippin\u2019.<\/p>\n
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spent nearly $19,000 in campaign cash<\/a> last year on a shrink who specializes in controversial ketamine therapy.<\/p>\n The socialist lawmaker hired Boston-based Dr. Brian Boyle, the chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a chain of mental health clinics focusing on \u201cnovel\u201d therapies popular with Hollywood and Wall Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n AOC spent nearly $19,000 in campaign cash last year on a shrink who specializes in controversial ketamine therapy. Jack Forbes \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n Her campaign paid Boyle $11,550 in March 2025, another $2,800 in May, and $4,375 in October for a total of $18,725, Federal Election Commission records show.<\/p>\n The expenses were marked as \u201cleadership training and consulting.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what the sessions consisted of or who participated. Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Boyle, a Harvard-trained doctor, calls himself an \u201cinterventional psychiatrist\u201d and specializes in unorthodox methods for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and anxiety.<\/p>\n He\u2019s considered a \u201cleading authority\u201d<\/a> on ketamine, the controversial horse tranquilizer given to \u201cFriends\u201d star Matthew Perry in the month leading up to his tragic death<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI just saw the incredible power of what these treatments could do,\u201d Boyle said during a podcast appearance<\/a> last year about getting into the mind-blowing biz. \u201cIt\u2019s a ton of fun helping patients get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Brian Boyle is chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a mental health clinic specializing in alternative therapies. Stella Mental Health\/ Instagram<\/p>\n Boyle\u2019s clinic also offers other treatments popular with the 1 Percent, like stellate ganglion block, an anesthetic injected into a nerve cluster in the neck to calm the body\u2019s fight-or-flight response. Billionaires like Bob Parsons<\/a>, who\u2019s battled PTSD since returning from the Vietnam War, have raved about the treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cCelebrities tend to be more inclined to be on the hunt for highly effective solutions across beauty, health, mental health, nutrition and so on,\u201d Boyle said in an interview last year about the treatment.<\/a><\/p>\n AOC herself is no stranger to touting the benefits of hallucinogenic drugs for therapy.<\/p>\n The \u201cSquad\u201d rep, who campaigned to end the federal prohibition of marijuana in 2018, has three times proposed legislation<\/a> to make it easier to study magic mushrooms and other psychedelics.<\/p>\n As a freshman congresswoman in 2019, she introduced an amendment to allow the feds to spend taxpayer money on studying the medical potential of psilocybin, ecstasy and other drugs\u00a0to treat mental illnesses, calling the early research \u201cpromising.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s well past time we take drug use out of criminal consideration and into medical consideration,\u201d she tweeted<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n The amendment was overwhelmingly rejected then, even by her Democratic colleagues, and failed again when she tried a second time in 2021. But the \u201cBronx girl\u201d got it done on her third attempt, when she co-sponsored a similar bill<\/a> which was signed into law in 2023.<\/p>\n Ketamine was originally used as a horse tranquilizer, but has spiked in popularity for humans in the last few years. luchschenF \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n The Bronx and Queens lawmaker has previously talked about her own mental health, revealing she was in therapy following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots<\/a>, when she said lawmakers effectively \u201cserved in war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah, I\u2019m doing therapy,\u201d she said on the public radio show\u00a0Latino USA\u00a0in 2021, calling the day when she said she hid in the bathroom, fearing for her life as police banged on the door, \u201can extraordinarily traumatizing event.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had to take a beat,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n