Patrick Wilson is the founder of Clinic Les Alpes, a fully licensed medical facility based in Montreux, Switzerland. He is focused on creating a safe space for his ultra-high-net-worth clients so they can enjoy a holistic experience without fear. Crain Currency spoke with Wilson about how he brought his dream to life with Clinic Les Alpes and how he’s helping people on their wellness journey.
How do you ensure privacy for your high-net-worth clients?
Ensuring our clients' privacy isn't just a part of what we do, it's at the core of our philosophy. Our secluded location in the Swiss Alps offers not only breathtaking views but a level of discretion and security that's hard to match. The clinic's layout, our stringent data protection measures and even the option for clients to use pseudonyms all serve one purpose: to create a space where high-net-worth individuals can seek treatment without worry. In a world where their privacy is constantly under threat, we offer a sanctuary of confidentiality and peace.
Those in high society or with high-profile positions are actually quite vulnerable as a population. While ample finances are traditionally associated with increased opportunities, the privacy, confidentiality and even hospitality requirements that come with such wealth highly reduces the available choice of duly licensed treatment facilities. As it happens, many of these individuals are at risk of being taken advantage of.
What was the impetus behind launching the clinic?
I have spent a great deal of my life dealing with the issues of dependency and mental well-being, and Clinic Les Alpes is a product of this journey. Addiction and mental illness do not discriminate between social class or economic status, and those with significant social status or wealth can struggle to find treatment that meets their hospitality expectations, clinical needs and requirements of confidentiality. My vision was to forge a place of excellence that not only meets the rigorous standards of Swiss medical licensure but exceeds them, marrying exceptional medical care with holistic wellness practices, wrapped in values of compassion, understanding and respect. Our goal has always been to provide a safe space where individuals can receive comprehensive, confidential and clinically excellent care tailored to their unique needs, all within a setting that promotes healing and well-being.
Talk to me about mental/emotional health and substance abuse. Why is it important to offer this in the program?
I believe that substance and behavioral dependency often comes from an individual attempting to heal or soften the effects of emotional or mental pain. Unfortunately, because this attempt chooses the wrong means, it turns into its destructive opposite. It is often the question of which came first: taking substances to relieve emotional pain or emotional pain caused as a direct consequence of taking substances. The end result is exactly the same. Within this question often lies the hidden answer to a more joyous and free life.
We also strongly believe in treating co-occurring disorders in parallel. Patients who undergo treatment for only one of these concerns are statistically more likely to experience relapses and struggle with social, mental and physical health difficulties long term. Therefore, providing care and support for both mental and emotional issues and problematic substance use prepares patients to live the best-quality life they can as independently as possible.
What does a 28-day plan look like in terms of meals, activities, exercise, programming, etc.?
Patients will begin their experience with a thorough medical, psychiatric and physical assessment conducted by our incredible team of doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. Our multidisciplinary team then works in collaboration with our patients to produce an individualized, bespoke treatment plan that addresses the patients’ unique needs and treatment goals. This includes 24/7 medicalized care and daily individual therapy, with each patient assigned a lead therapist who will decide if a secondary specialist therapist is required — say, for example, for unresolved traumatic events in the patient’s life.
Nutritional well-being is the foundation of physical well-being, and to this end, each patient works closely with our in-house dietitian to develop a tailored menu of balanced meals using fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. This means that not only are patients receiving diets and meals personalized to their tastes but also to their unique somatic and psychological needs using the latest tools in gut health testing and nutritional assessment.
Throughout their 28-day-or-longer stay, patients will work closely with their teams in accordance with their individualized treatment plans, taking advantage of a program that is flexible to their needs. In addition to daily individual therapy, clients are able to access group therapeutic processes and psychoeducation sessions.
In addition to traditional talking therapies, we also offer complementary therapies delivered by experienced practitioners. This includes therapies such as equine-assisted therapy, art therapy, and dance and music therapy. Clients can also take advantage of our fully equipped medicalized spa with our expertly trained team. Our wide range of therapeutic treatments ensures that the mind, body and soul are aligned in their healing through functional movement therapy, coached exercise, Ayurvedic treatments, meditations and more.
Before discharge, patients are given a final health check to measure progress and will get a detailed after-care plan to continue leading them on a path to healing beyond their time at the clinic.
When you say you focus on the holistic aspect of wellness, what does that mean to you?
Holistic well-being or holistic treatment refers to treating individuals in every aspect of their health — and doing so to cure the source of the difficulties, not merely the symptoms. Research consistently demonstrates how empowering patients to strengthen every aspect of their well-being — physical, social, mental, spiritual — results in a higher quality of life and better long-term outcomes in ongoing recovery.
We also believe it’s important to treat people as whole individuals, not merely defining them by their diagnosis or their social circumstances. By identifying and fortifying not only areas of weakness but also areas of strength and validating individual identities, patients can feel empowered in their recovery, relationships and wider life choices. Recently, we have seen an increase in clientele who are struggling with everyday difficulties such as divorce, family relationships and family dynamics. We have seen a particular rise in younger clients coming to us who struggle with having extreme wealth but no meaningful purpose in their lives, or those who feel guilt or shame about having real financial means without having "earned" it.
The fragile power experienced by our high-net-worth clientele can be equally a blessing and a curse, and seeking help to find meaning and destigmatization for themselves can make a real change in their lives.
Navigating family wealth — virtually
By TOMMY MAYES
In the rapidly evolving landscape of wealth management, the concept of the family office is undergoing a digital transformation, giving rise to what many are referring to as the virtual family office (VFO). This approach leverages technology to streamline and enhance the traditional family office model, providing family enterprises a more efficient and flexible means of managing their wealth.
Just as the definition of what it means to have a family office depends on the context, the definition of a VFO offers a range of conclusions. It is not just an office with a remote workforce, nor is it simply the result of outsourcing everything possible. Instead, it is a thoughtful implementation of technologies that provide an efficient and integrated platform to manage a family’s business, and often nonbusiness, affairs.
THE VFO DEFINED
In its purest form, a VFO disrupts the traditional approach by embracing technology to create a more accessible and efficient solution. This may eliminate the need for a physical presence and certainly offers a digital platform where access to information and services enables the professional staff to focus on high-leverage activities, such as one one-on-one interaction with their clients.
I am often asked how much wealth is required to justify a single-family office, with the requisite staff needed to provide the services a family requires. I often answer like a professor would because it truly depends. If you can visualize a chart with Scale ($) on the X-axis and Complexity on the Y-axis, consider that you can have a lot of scale in terms of financial resources but not much complexity in terms of the nature of the assets or the ownership structure. Conversely, you could have a lower level of assets, but the type of assets and ownership structure creates complexity. The family office structure needs to match both, which in some cases allows for a very efficient office.
A VFO offers families the opportunity to create, or in some cases retrofit, their offices using the technology available to virtualize their service model either in part or entirely, thus rendering the scale/complexity model less important.
Of course, there are always trade-offs.
Some of the benefits of a VFO are:
- It allows families to choose the best experts for their specific needs — such as investment advisers, tax accountants, estate planners, insurance analysts and concierge services — regardless of location.
- It potentially reduces the overhead and complexity of hiring and managing a full-time staff of employees.
- It provides families more control and transparency over their financial affairs and decision-making processes through digital access.
- It can provide access to a network of peers and resources that can offer valuable insights and opportunities.
I am a proponent of outsourcing to access the halo effect of broad expertise. Ryan Loughrin, founder and CEO of Amplify Advisory, has focused his firm’s efforts on developing comprehensive and integrated platforms that can provide the tech backbone of a VFO. Ryan offered that “a family office does not simply design, deploy and operate a VFO data platform. This project requires advanced data solutions expertise coupled with practitioner experience to successfully devise and deliver a successful VFO data platform.”
There are, of course, challenges with a VFO model, such as:
- It requires families to have a clear vision and strategy for their wealth management and governance.
- It demands a high level of trust and communication between the family, staff and the external providers.
- It exposes families to potential risks and liabilities associated with outsourcing sensitive information and tasks. Cybersecurity is even more critical.
In my research, I asked Jill Creager, founder and CEO of iPaladin, her thoughts: “This shift to a VFO can seem overwhelming due to data spread out over many systems. Our deep dives and experience helping offices transition to the cloud reveal a 40% redundancy rate within traditional storage solutions. Worse still, 8% to 10% of crucial documentation tends to be missing post-consolidation. These metrics spotlight the real danger of sticking with fragmented and often highly disorganized systems. Regardless of the office model chosen, outdated family office technology severely risks both data integrity and how smoothly things run.”
Creager's firm provides a digital platform for daily workflow, administration and compliance that we recently deployed at the family office I serve.
THE FUTURE
Adapting to a more virtual and tech-enabled approach now will avail families of the technological advances just around the corner. The more progressive the approach the family office takes with technology, the more accessible the teams will be to new opportunities.
Regarding benefits of blockchain technology, Jill commented that “blockchain introduces unmatched levels of trust and transparency to family office management, thanks to its strong archival and immutable properties.” Her firm has deployed blockchain as a critical component of the platform.
And of course, there is artificial intelligence. We need an entire article to cover the potential applications; but in our office, we are already actively using GPTs for research, data analysis and visualization, and document review, to name a few.
The virtual family office represents a paradigm shift in wealth management, breaking down barriers and perhaps making a family office more accessible to a wider range of family enterprises. The cost effectiveness, flexibility and scalability inherent in the VFO model align with the evolving needs of high-net-worth individuals in the digital age.