Seeking Consultation as a Natural Medicine Facilitator in Colorado? Why You Shouldn’t Rush Your 40 Hours
You completed your 150-hour mushroom facilitator training, and you’ve just finished your practicum hours – congratulations, you’re ready to start practicing!
However, it’s not as simple as going forth and fending for yourself with your training license in tow. According to Colorado’s regulations, you must complete 40 hours of consultation in order to receive your full licensure.
Consultation is a crucial part of natural medicine facilitation, providing the opportunity for you to receive guidance and support on real-life cases in your practice. These sessions can help you navigate ethical dilemmas, hone your facilitation skills, and ultimately become a safer and more competent practitioner.
But while you have two years to complete your 40 hours, there’s technically no minimum amount of time you have to spend working them. You might be tempted to frontload these sessions or do them in batches over weekend intensives, so you can receive your full license sooner.
However, our belief at Elemental is that these hours are meant to be done as part of an ongoing process as you are actively practicing as a natural medicine facilitator – not rushed through in the space of a few weeks.
Let’s break down why consultation is so important for natural medicine facilitators in Colorado, the benefits of taking it gradually, and the benefits of both group and one-on-one sessions.
What is Consultation for Natural Medicine Facilitators in Colorado?
While the two aren't identical, you can think of consultation as similar to what clinical supervision is for therapists: an opportunity to receive guidance, reflect on your work, deepen your ethical compass, and continue developing skills and competence. Consultation can be done online or in-person, and within a small group of up to 10 licensees or one-on-one with a qualified consultant.
Importantly – consultation is not another classroom component. It happens as you begin to practice and encounter real-life scenarios, questions, and challenges in your work with clients.
In Colorado’s model of natural medicine services, core focus areas of consultation include non-directive approaches, relational boundaries, cultural competence, non-ordinary states of consciousness, ethics, and self-care. DORA’s regulations specifically state that consultation must include 10 hours of “discussion focused on ethical issues that arise in the licensee’s work as facilitators.”
Interested in consultation with Elemental Psychedelics? Discover our group and 1:1 offerings
Why Consultation Should Be an Ongoing Process
Beyond the fact that you have two years to complete your consultation hours while you’re practicing – so there is literally no rush – there are a few other concrete reasons why we believe consultation should be approached gradually.
You need actual cases to bring to consultation
The point of consultation is to bring real cases from your practice to the sessions. If you’re rushing these hours, especially if you’re just starting, you won't have enough real-life experience to consult on.
This kind of ongoing mentorship mimics a much older understanding of learning: some skills are developed through sustained practice, observation, feedback, and guidance from people with greater experience, and over time. It doesn't work if you don’t have material for those guides or mentors to provide feedback on.
Spacing consultation allows you to apply what was learned and return
When consultation is approached steadily, you can apply what you learned in one session and return to your consultation sessions to report back on how it went. You might even get more feedback on how you implemented a learning, enabling it to become an iterative, continuous process of gaining and applying insight.
For example, in one of our consultation groups, a facilitator was in the process of screening and preparation for a client who had been diagnosed with dementia. During consultation, a peer in the group who has a background in aging and dementia work provided some useful tips, including suggesting that the facilitator schedule the session for earlier in the day because of sundowning (dementia symptoms worsening later in the day).
The consultant and some of the other practitioners also shared from their expertise and experience, mentioning that transference can be heightened with dementia clients, and that the facilitator should prepare for this possibility with their client. Following the session, the facilitator reported back to the group on how the session went and how they integrated the insights they received in consultation.
You can’t anticipate the challenges you’ll face
When you finish your training and practicum, you may have some ideas around where you’ll need additional support or guidance as you begin practicing. But some of your most important learnings and blind spots will emerge as you encounter real-world cases and clients. You simply can’t anticipate all of them at graduation. Research into clinical skill development has also found that learners aren't always able to recognize for themselves where further development is needed.
You might think that your main challenge will be managing big, emotional outpours, when in reality you struggle to sit in the silence. You might have a client that triggers something from your own history, or one that crosses a boundary that you didn’t expect.
These are all things that are impossible to anticipate when you frontload your consultation hours. Yes – you’ll cover many common scenarios in your training program – but there will imminently be circumstances that you will not feel completely prepared for.
Ethics is not a box to check
Something we’re very vocal about at Elemental – and that is evidenced in our dedicated ethics programs – is that ethics is not something you “complete” once. Neither is it memorization of a rule that you neatly apply to a particular scenario. It’s a living and dynamic embodied practice of your own inner ethical compass.
While you can learn ethical frameworks in the classroom, the only way you’ll hone the skill of ethical judgment is when there’s a real human involved. Whenever you feel confronted with an ethical dilemma, or doubt whether you handled something correctly, consultation provides a space for you to bring that conversation and receive honest input from a trusted professional. Consultation is an opportunity to critically self-reflect on and hone your inner ethics.
Ongoing consultation provides crucial community connection
When done over time, consultation allows for practitioners to break down silos and start operating within the lens of community-based care. It provides the crucial support and accountability that all facilitators need – no matter where they’re at in their facilitation journey – and helps them to continue honing their skills.
At Elemental, community is one of our core pillars as well as one of the biggest benefits of getting licensed for underground practitioners. When you meet regularly for months at a time with a group of peers, there’s a sense of trust, camaraderie, and connection that evolves – and cannot be achieved over a weekend intensive. In a field that can often be isolating, this sense of not working alone is deeply fulfilling and important to be able to provide safe care to your clients.
Group vs. 1:1 Consultation: Which Should I Choose?
Both group and one-on-one consultation sessions have their benefits, and each may be useful to you at different times. One obvious pro on the side of groups is that they’re more financially accessible. You also benefit from the combined wisdom and experience of the individuals in your group.
Let’s say you have a case of someone whose child is struggling with PTSD, and there’s a teen trauma expert in the space – they could provide insight from their expertise that you wouldn’t necessarily get from one-on-one sessions. Groups also enable you to learn from other facilitators’ cases and clients and how they approach certain situations without you having to go through the same thing.
One-on-one consultation comes in handy when you have a particularly tricky case that needs dedicated time and space to unpack with your consultant. For example, perhaps you’re working with a client who has become increasingly dependent on you for emotional support between sessions, and you’re unsure of where to draw the line. A one-on-one setting gives you the space not only to explore what’s happening with the participant, but also your own reactions, boundaries, and blind spots, and how to move forward.
Consultation Helps You Become a Better Practitioner
Ultimately, the goal of consultation that takes place over a period of months or years is to help you become a safe, ethical, and competent practitioner. The learning never stops when it comes to psilocybin mushroom stewardship, and receiving regular consultation is a core piece of your continued growth as a facilitator. Our advice to anyone needing to fulfill their required consultation hours for natural medicine licensing is to take your time. Give your practice room to breathe and remember that there’s no finish line to rush toward.
At Elemental, we offer both group and one-on-one consultation for both clinical and wellness NMITs in Colorado. Discover more about our offerings, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions at admin@elementalpsychedelics.com.
Frequently Asked Questions: Consultation for Natural Medicine Facilitators in Colorado
How many consultation hours do Colorado natural medicine facilitators need?
Natural medicine facilitators in Colorado must complete at least 40 hours of consultation as part of the pathway toward full facilitator licensure. Consultation takes place after completing the required didactic education and supervised practicum and while practicing under a Natural Medicine Training License. The consultation period is designed to support developing facilitators through case review, ethical discussion, feedback, and evaluation of their developing competencies.
How quickly can I complete my 40 consultation hours in Colorado?
Colorado regulations allow trainees to complete their 40 hours of natural medicine facilitator consultation as quickly as they and their DORA-approved training program consider feasible. A Natural Medicine Training License may be held for up to two years, giving trainees time to complete the requirement.
Although consultation hours can legally be completed quickly, there can be significant value in spreading them over a longer period. Ongoing consultation gives you time to gain real-world facilitation experience, bring emerging cases and challenges to your consultant, apply what you learn, and return for further feedback as your practice develops.
What happens during natural medicine facilitator consultation?
Natural medicine facilitator consultation in Colorado includes case review, ethical discussion, professional reflection, and evaluation of facilitator competencies. Colorado regulations identify competencies including a non-directive approach, relational boundaries and use of touch, cultural competence, working with non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-care, and ethics.
At least 10 of the required 40 consultation hours must focus on ethical issues arising in your work as a facilitator, making consultation an opportunity to explore real situations you encounter as you begin practicing.
Can Colorado natural medicine facilitator consultation be completed in a group?
Yes. Colorado allows both individual and group consultation, and consultation may also take place virtually. Group consultation is limited to no more than 10 trainees. Group sessions can offer the additional benefit of learning from other facilitators’ cases, perspectives, and areas of expertise, while one-on-one consultation can provide more dedicated space for complex cases, personal reactions, boundaries, or other issues that benefit from greater privacy and depth.
Many facilitators may find that a combination of group and individual consultation serves them well during their 40-hour consultation period.
Who can provide consultation for natural medicine facilitators in Colorado?
Colorado sets experience requirements for people providing natural medicine facilitator consultation. A consultant may be a licensed natural medicine facilitator utilizing psilocybin who has at least one year of experience facilitating natural medicine services. Colorado's rules also provide a pathway for certain unlicensed consultants who have at least 200 hours of qualifying psilocybin facilitation experience within the previous five years.
Before beginning consultation, trainees should make sure their chosen consultant meets current Colorado DORA requirements and that their consultation arrangement will count toward the 40 hours required for natural medicine facilitator licensure.
