Last Year, We Trained 60 Legal Psilocybin Facilitators in Colorado. Here’s What We Learned.
- Shannon Hughes & Dori Lewis
- Feb 18
- 7 min read
2025 was a big year for psychedelic medicine in Colorado. Legal psilocybin mushroom services became available, and a host of organizations – including Elemental Psychedelics – began training the first generation of legal psilocybin mushroom journey facilitators in the state. By the year’s end, we had successfully graduated 60 students from our Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator Training.
We don’t take lightly the responsibility of helping usher in a new era of legal psychedelic medicine in our state. This has been a journey of learning, growth, and expansion for us as practitioners and educators, as well as for our students.
We recently sat down to reflect on the biggest lessons we’ve received over the last year around ethical practice, the craft of facilitation, and what makes a truly skilled psilocybin mushroom journey facilitator.
Here’s what we learned.
Personal Experience of Mushroom Facilitation Helps – a Lot
At Elemental, we have always held the belief that personal experience with mushroom medicine is vital to holding space for others as they traverse those realms.
What we’re discovering is that this experience should ideally be more than just recreational. Trainees who have had their own facilitated journeys are coming in with a deeper understanding of what it means to be in that position.
When you have had someone intentionally sit for you during psychedelic work, you gain a sense of the vulnerability and uniqueness of your needs at different moments. You also understand the nature of the client-facilitator relationship and complicated dynamics that may come into play, such as transference, and you feel into where your boundaries lie.
If you’ve only had recreational or personal use mushroom experiences – for example, camping with friends or solo journeys at home, maybe even with a spouse or friend present – that experience doesn’t necessarily provide sufficient context for guided mushroom work.
If you’re feeling called to train as a legal psilocybin mushroom facilitator, we highly recommend having your own guided experiences with another qualified practitioner to deepen your embodied knowing of feeling held and supported in the mushroom space.
It’s also helpful to learn the language of mushroom medicine, and there’s no better way to learn that language than by sitting with the medicine and engaging in your own process of integration over time. In time, our hope is that we become the medicine. We embody its wisdom. And it is from this place that we might best support others in their own discovery of working with mushroom medicine in meaningful and profound ways.
Helping Professions Translate Well to Psychedelic Work
Colorado’s model allows for non-clinicians to get licensed – and that’s an amazing thing. It means people who’ve been doing this work underground for years can move into the regulated space, as well as those who’ve been working in adjacent areas.
What’s become clear is that people who don’t have a mental health license but do have experience in a helping profession fare well. This could essentially be any role in which you’ve supported someone through a process of healing, growth, or self-exploration. It could look like life coaching, somatic modalities like hakomi or yoga therapy, energy healing, or bodywork.
These types of roles help develop transferable skills that we rely on in psychedelic practice – compassion, presence, non-judgment, and self-regulation.
Folks from these types of backgrounds often also have a foundational understanding of trauma and how it manifests in the body. They know the importance of a regulated nervous system for themselves and support this in their clients with tools such as mindfulness and breathwork. They may understand the difference between single-incident trauma, attachment trauma, and complex trauma, and how each may show up in different ways.
People often confront past traumas during psychedelic experiences. Holding space for somebody going through this requires knowledge and intentionality around what to say and do, and what not to say and do in certain moments. Having a basic understanding of trauma and how it can show up during a psychedelic journey is deeply beneficial while training to become a psilocybin mushroom facilitator.
Clinical Practitioners Are Unlearning the Need to Lead
For licensed mental health practitioners, whether a licensed professional counselor (LPC), licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), or licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), among others, supporting clients often puts the clinician in the driver’s seat. Therapists and counselors, for example, may recommend solutions or interventions to their clients and direct the sessions as they see fit.
With psilocybin mushroom work, many of these practitioners are discovering the need to unlearn this pull to steer the ship of a client’s healing process. Holding space during psychedelic sessions means stepping back and letting the individual lead the way, and taking a more supportive role that’s centered around curiosity, receptivity, and responding to the person’s needs. Clinical protocols on psychedelic therapy also emphasize the facilitator's role as a witness, not to direct or interpret the client’s experience.
While under the influence of a medicine like psilocybin mushrooms, psychological content – both conscious and unconscious – can come to the forefront. The client is more emotionally vulnerable than in a regular therapy session. This is why being overly-directive can be counterproductive – practitioners should instead focus on holding a safe, supportive container that allows experiences to unfold at a pace the individual is ready for. Clinical professionals training how to be psilocybin mushroom facilitators often have some unlearning to do.
Facilitator Skills Are Built Through Slowness and Being
We love the enthusiasm in our students when they come into our program. There’s a real thirst to dive into all of the knowledge and skills around becoming a legal psilocybin facilitator and putting everything they’re learning into practice.
While this passion is beautiful – and makes sense within our Western frame of mind – over the years, we’ve learned that the real lessons are in slowing down and listening, especially in the early years of practice.
We’re conditioned to think that doing more means more impact; that to prove your worth as a facilitator, you need to be doing things to or for your client. Unlearning this has been key for our students. Oftentimes in psychedelic facilitation, the deepest skill lies in doing less. Sitting back. Being present when faced with a client’s discomfort and not trying to fix it or take it away or apply all our techniques and interventions to it.
Learning to simply be as a facilitation skill means taking things slowly in the beginning and, for many, focusing on their own medicine experiences. This is an important reminder for anyone stepping into journeywork facilitation – yes, do the training. Study, learn, and practice. But recognize that these skills are built slowly and through a cultivation of your own inner world, just as much as through hands-on practice.
What we do know is that completing a 150-hour psilocybin mushroom training program does not equip you with all the knowledge, experience, and skills that you will need to be a competent practitioner. This level of training provides a basic foundation for safe and ethical practice. Your medicine – your unique expression of your gifts in this space – takes much more time to discover and develop.
Becoming skillful in this space takes a lot of time, experience, consultation, and mentorship. Be patient with yourself and accept that you’re on a much bigger journey of learning and self-discovery as you listen to what your unique path is through this work.
Building the Next Generation of Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitators
Looking back on this first year, we’re proud of our graduates and feel deeply grateful for this opportunity to be part of the legal psychedelic landscape in Colorado. As the space continues to expand, we’re excited to keep contributing to a culture of facilitation that prioritizes safety, integrity, and genuine human connection.
If you feel the call to step into mushroom facilitation work, take a look at our 150-hour Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator Training. Applications to join the Fall cohort open on March 1st.
FAQs: Legal Psilocybin Therapy & Training in Colorado
Is psilocybin therapy legal in Colorado?
Yes. Following voter approval of the Natural Medicine Health Act (Proposition 122) in 2022, Colorado legalized state-regulated psilocybin services that are administered by trained and licensed facilitators within licensed healing centers.
Who can legally provide psilocybin services in Colorado?
Only trained and state-licensed facilitators can legally provide psilocybin services within Colorado’s Natural Medicine program. These facilitators must meet the age and training requirements and obtain their license through the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). Psilocybin cannot be sold retail outside licensed settings.
How can I get my Colorado psilocybin facilitator license?
To become a licensed psilocybin facilitator in Colorado, you need to:
Be at least 21 years old and meet basic eligibility requirements
Complete a state-approved 150-hour psilocybin facilitator training program, like the one we offer at Elemental Psychedelics.
Submit an application for licensure through Colorado’s Natural Medicine Program once training requirements are met.
Complete 40 hours of supervised practice and 40 hours of consultation (which we also provide at Elemental Psychedelics).
Colorado issues different facilitator license types (standard vs. clinical). Clinical facilitators can integrate psilocybin services into their professional practice to treat individuals with mental or physical health conditions. Non-clinical facilitators may come from a range of backgrounds, but do not have a professional license, and therefore cannot treat such conditions independently.
How can I choose the right psychedelic facilitation certificate program?
Choosing the right program depends on your goals and where you are based. If you are seeking to get licensed in Colorado, here are some pointers on choosing the right program for you:
Ensure the program is approved for Colorado licensure pathways if your aim is to become a licensed psilocybin facilitator.
Look for trainings that align with your own values and background. Some programs are better suited for clinicians, while others have pathways for non-clinical professionals.
Evaluate faculty experience and alumni success in licensure. Look for programs that prioritize ethical practice and ongoing community support – becoming a facilitator isn’t a one-and-done process.
Ask around in your network for recommendations and check online reviews to get a sense of alumni experiences.
