Getting Certified in Colorado: What Underground Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitators Need to Know

Guided psilocybin mushroom journeys are now legal in Colorado. This is a landmark development that many of us couldn’t have dreamed of just ten years ago.

So it’s no surprise that many underground practitioners are coming out of the shadows and getting certified to become mushroom facilitators throughout the state.

What does this transition look like in reality – and what do the practitioners who are on this path need to know?

In this article, we’ll explore the drive behind this shift from under- to above-ground and what to keep in mind if you’re planning on making this transition.

What’s Motivating the Move to Above-Ground?

Moving into the regulated space as an underground practitioner is not as simple as getting certified and then returning to your regular order of business.

So why are so many facilitators hanging up their unregulated hats and making this shift?

The clearest reason is to reduce legal risk. While personal use of psilocybin mushrooms is legal in Colorado, residents cannot distribute mushrooms or sell services outside of the state-regulated framework. 

Getting licensed means underground facilitators no longer have to operate with the constant risk of legal consequences for doing their work. They can openly advertise their services, reaching a larger number of people and more diverse populations.

Operating within the legal model also means that they can access formal training, supervision, and increased opportunities for community support and guidance. This ultimately enables practitioners to uphold a higher ethical bar and be accountable within a larger community.

While there are informal mechanisms for community-based mentorship in the underground, facilitators can easily become siloed. The above-ground offers clearer, more comprehensive pathways, helping to ensure practitioner legitimacy and client safety.

Following a state-approved professional pathway also helps facilitators add to their credentials and build a résumé that clients, collaborators, and maybe, in the future, insurers recognize. Many potential clients may have more confidence and trust in their services if their practice is state-licensed. They may also feel safer knowing that there are mechanisms in place for reporting concerns or misconduct.

When not to get licensed?

It’s important to recognize that getting licensed might not be for every underground practitioner.

Becoming a licensed facilitator means agreeing to rules that may not be in alignment with the way you’re used to working. For example, under the Colorado regulated access model, there are strict rules around touch while clients are under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms. Some practitioners who are highly trained and skilled in bodywork or touchwork as an essential part of their practice may feel limited by this.

Underground guides may also consider the financial implications of moving into the regulated space, especially if they feel like they would not gain much in terms of knowledge or skills from undergoing a training program. They may disagree with the way programs teach psilocybin mushroom facilitation, or take issue with the potential commodification of the mushrooms in a for-profit space. You might also have a strong referral network and not need the freedom to market for new clients. 

Whether you decide to take the legal leap or not is a deeply personal decision that requires careful consideration of its advantages and disadvantages.

Setting Yourself Up as a Psilocybin Mushroom Practitioner in Colorado

If you have decided that moving into the regulated space is the right step for you, here’s what you need to know to make a smooth transition.

Understand your pathway

The first step to entering the legal psilocybin mushroom space is understanding if you are a clinical or original facilitator. 

Clinical facilitators could be licensed therapists (LPC), social workers (LSW or LCSW), nurse practitioners (NP), or doctors (MD), among other professions licensed in Colorado. 

Original (non-clinical) facilitators do not have a professional license, and so cannot work with mushrooms to treat mental or physical health conditions. Original facilitators can theoretically come from any type of career background, and often have deep experience in the spiritual and ceremonial aspects of psilocybin mushroom journeywork.

Learn more about these two pathways here.

Choose a licensed training program

Your next step is to choose a DORA-approved training program. The legislation states that these programs must offer at least 150 hours of coursework, and students must complete at least 40 hours of supervised practicum and 40 hours of consultation.

The goal of these programs is to train ethical, competent, and safe psilocybin mushroom facilitators who practice deep inner-awareness and good relational care within their role.

At Elemental Psychedelics, we offer a 150-hour Mushroom Facilitator Training and opportunities for practicum and consultation, with in-person practicum opportunities taking place at Reflective Healing Center in Fort Collins.

Partner with a healing center

Once you’ve completed your training and supervision requirements, it’s time to build a relationship with a healing or micro-healing center wherever you’re based in Colorado. (See this list of Colorado healing centers maintained by the Healing Advocacy Fund).

A healing center has received state licensing to have licensed facilitators guide psilocybin mushroom journeys on their premises.

It’s important to feel connected to the space and the people running the center. While it may not be your own, you might choose to rent the same journey room each month and add touches that represent your style as a facilitator. Make sure to communicate with the team at the center on documentation, screening, and emergency protocols, and get into alignment around the way you work.

Understand pricing and what you can offer

There’s no doubt your overhead will go up once you move into offering legal journeys. Not only do you have to pay to rent a journey space at a healing center, while previously you may have welcomed clients in your home, but procuring the medicine from licensed manufacturers/cultivators, and/or subsequent healing centers, is also more expensive. 

Renting a journey space for a day at a healing center can cost anywhere from $150 to $700. Our partners at Reflective Healing Center have a reasonably priced membership model that allows you to maintain an affiliation with the healing center, receive consultation for your practice, and rent journey rooms at an affordable rate. Each healing center, however, will operate under its own unique model.

While costs are steep at the moment, we have hope that the price of mushroom products will continue to drop as manufacturers and cultivators make back their initial investment. Presently, state-licensed psilocybin mushrooms can cost anywhere from $6 to $10 per mg, with an average client journey dose of 25 mg.

Think about what kind of pricing model feels fair to you and whether you can offer a sliding scale to increase accessibility. Consider how many spots you could open up for lower-income brackets and how you would approach this conversation of affordability and financial exchange with your clients.

Get your head around the paperwork

Another challenge for freshly-licensed facilitators is to wrap our heads around the required paperwork – from screening to adverse event reports and everything in between. 

Your training program or healing center will likely have developed systems to help you navigate the documentation. And truly, much of the documentation is reasonable in scope, such as having clear touch agreements, a transportation plan, and informed consent.

Platforms like Althea make it simple to keep track of everything while staying compliant with client data privacy and security laws. Setting all of this up may feel like a significant time and energy investment in the beginning – but it’ll be much easier once you get into the swing of it.

Meet the change with openness

Many of our students have expressed a feeling of dissonance around leaving behind their underground practice and moving into a licensed healing center environment.

In our recent practicum weekends, where almost 50 Elemental students had their own experiences with legally-cultivated mushrooms, conversations emerged around this transition.

What would it look like to no longer be able to facilitate journeys outdoors, in our homes, in a yurt, or in someone’s backyard?

Will jumping through administrative hoops and feeling weighed down by paperwork suck the soul out of this deeply intuitive and sacred work?

Amidst these concerns, many of our students reported that the message they received from the mushrooms during practicum was clear: We are flexible. We are adaptable. We will meet you wherever you are – whether deep in a forest or in a healing center administration room – and the healing work will still be done.

And remember – regulated settings don’t mean leaving your sacred and ceremonial tools for journeywork at the door. Most healing centers will encourage you to bring in these elements, whether that means setting up an altar, playing live instruments, or using sacred objects that you are in relationship with. There are no rules to say you can’t integrate these into your legal work.

We only recommend that you consider the culture and context you’re working within. Adopting a ceremony style steeped in indigenous Mazatec wisdom, for example, may feel alien to your client from Colorado who came to you seeking relief from depression. It’s also important that you personally have a real relationship with any tools, objects, prayers, or practices that you bring into your work with clients.

We do consider, however, that this integration of sacred journeywork and Western models of mental health treatment is a beautiful expression of this renewed era of psychedelic healing. At Elemental Psychedelics, we strive to bridge these worlds in all of our training and education offerings.

Become a Legal Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator in Colorado

As we welcome in this new legal landscape for psilocybin mushroom journeys in Colorado, we are cautiously excited for what’s to come – and proud of the multiple pathways to healing that our state’s legislation has opened up.

Leaving the underground and stepping into the regulated space can feel like a leap, but it brings with it opportunities for growth, learning, and being part of the wider psychedelic advocacy movement. We need experienced mentors in this space who can help us hold the broader movement and the professional ethics required to serve well in our cultural context.

If you feel called to step into legal psilocybin mushroom facilitation, take a look at our 150-hour Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator Training. Our next cohort starts in March 2026, and applications are open now.