Psilocybin Mushroom support Specialty

This speciality teaches students to safely provide personal support services for clients who choose to take psilocybin mushrooms. Students learn how to navigate the new laws of Colorado that legalized supported personal use as a profession. Students will learn about safe dosing protocols, psilocybin safety and contraindications, and proper guiding techniques. Each student will guide once and journey once. Optional Conscious Cannabis Experiences are also provided to students during the retreat. 

This program is comprised of webinars, 6 weekly classes and a 5 day intensive training retreat. Students gain ongoing supervision through an advanced credentialing program.

Intensive Duration: Retreat – Monday Afternoon through Saturday Morning

Psilocybin Mushroom Support Class Code: PSS3-P

Lead Trainer: Daniel McQueen

Tuition: 

• $5,500 (+$1,500 retreat room and board estimate)
• Scholarship Tuition ($3,300-$4,950)
• Medical Safety Review may be required if not yet completed, annual requirement

Payment plan – Payment for the standalone class can be split into two or three payments. Extended payment plans with credentialing and electives are also available.

Course Description

Are you ready to guide with psilocybin mushrooms but are uncertain of the new law and how to stay safe? Are you ready to explore the deep spaces of the psyche and support others seeking the same?

Psychedelic Sitters School, in conjunction with the Medicinal Mindfulness Foundation, is excited to bring psilocybin guide training (personal use support services) to Colorado now that psilocybin mushrooms are legal for personal use since the passage of Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act.

Our program will work with regulators as new rules come online to become a registered psychedelic healing center and training program. These rules will be approved in early 2024. 

In the meantime, Medicinal Mindfulness Foundation will support the safe and sacred use of psilocybin mushrooms for personal use through this retreat. This program is a harm reduction, education, and support program for those interested in guiding or assisting sessions in private settings, for personal exploration purposes and beneficial community events.

This training will be open to graduates of Psychedelic Guide Training.

Building from your skills from Psychedelic Guide Training, you will learn:

• How to stay in compliance with the Natural Medicine Health Act and the subsequent legislation
• Professional practice protocols to increase safety and reduce liabilities, including a legally developed waiver and informed consent documents
• How to test cubensis species for potency and implement safer dosing recommendations and protocols
• Specific harm reduction and guiding strategies to support clients in psychedelic spaces
• Lots of Q&A with experts in the field
• Preparation and Integration education for psilocybin sessions

The class will be split into two equal cohorts. Each student will participate in two psychedelic mushroom journeys where they will guide once and journey once. 

This program will consist of:

• 4 pre retreat weekly discussions, teachings on the medicine and preparation for the journey – lecture content recorded
• 2 post-retreat weekly integration sessions 
• 6 Day retreat from Monday evening through Saturday morning, with classes, community cannabis experientials, preparation and integration sessions, 2 mushroom meditations (journey once, guide once), and free time to explore self and nature

Why not journey twice and guide twice in a single retreat? This is an important question. We had to evaluate all of our assumptions about this medicine, one assumption being the Jamaican retreat model, and other programs where you journey twice with this medicine in a very short period of time. 4 journeys is a lot to process and it would be very physically and spiritually demanding. And it wouldn’t be as fun. Psilocybin does have a tolerance effect as well. We also wanted you to have a self care break between the sessions. We don’t have to rush this. It’s legal now. Let’s support best practices, self care, and sustainability. 

Policy and Commitments Regarding Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitation Training and Licensing

It is our intention to become a licensed psilocybin healing center, licensed training program and to train licensed psilocybin mushroom facilitators under the new Colorado regulations. CMM/PSS is actively working with both legal advisors and regulators to ensure we will be in the best position possible through this transition period. We are also actively advising allies and regulators on best practices and we have allies on multiple advisory committees that are helping shape the new regulations.

We have reviewed the new Colorado Natural Medicine Health Act (NMHA), Oregon regulations (which might be used as a template for Colorado Regulations) and the new implementation law, and we are confident that our training program and healing center already exceed the standards for licensing requirements. It will take some time and effort to shift some of our content and procedures as new regulations start taking effect and we are committed to this effort.

CMM is actively guiding with psilocybin mushrooms under the supported personal use aspects of the law, and PSS is hosting our first “psilocybin support training” under the same personal use guidelines. We have received substantial legal support to ensure we are doing this in full compliance with Colorado state law. We will continue to adjust as the laws and regulations become more clear.

Why start now and not wait until the regulations become more defined? 

Ethically speaking, due to the state of the world, we feel professionally and spiritually obligated to start working with these healing tools and teaching people to work with these tools as soon as legally possible. Just as we successfully did with psychedelic cannabis, we are using the same legal framework in our practice with psilocybin mushrooms. We are confident that we can make this transition into the regulated model when the time is right to do so, and possibly keep working under the personal use support model as well.

Under our guidelines, practitioners who have previously worked in “underground” settings, traditional spiritual settings, and under our new personal use support training program, will be considered “Legacy Practitioners” and we will advocate for Legacy Practitioners with regulators. Under the new regulations, Legacy Practitioners will be able to be grandfathered in for licensing requirements that they have fulfilled in other ways. Our program is committed to supporting Legacy Practitioners who wish to transition to the licensed facilitator model.

Because our program already encompasses many of the foundational licensing requirements for psilocybin facilitation, CMM/PSS is committed to our students in the following ways:

• Any content from our foundation guide training courses that qualify for licensing requirements will be adjusted where necessary and provided to our graduates for no additional charge. This includes psilocybin specific content that students have already paid for through the personal use support training. This education will most likely be provided as webinar content to make it as accessible as possible. Students just need to be active members.
• CMM/PSS is committed to working with our students to ensure that additional requirements for licensing that are specific to regulations that haven’t been written yet, or for compliance specific to the NMHA, will be provided to our students in the most financially accessible means possible.
• If there are specific practicum requirements (experiential sessions either guiding or being guided) similar to our current personal use support training program intensives, students who complete these programs before we make the shift to the licensed model will be considered Legacy Practitioners. We also commit to working proactively with all Legacy Practitioners in our program to support their transition. We will work with students and regulators to ensure that these programs count toward licensing requirements. If there are additional practicum requirements that exceed our standards, CMM/PSS will ensure these additional requirements remain as financially accessible as possible.
• We commit to being fully transparent with our students and provide ongoing updates as necessary to our students through student town halls. We commit to doing everything we can to support our students in becoming licensed facilitators in Colorado and other locations when these other locations legalize. 
• Due to the dynamic nature of this transition, we ask that students remain flexible as program requirements become more apparent. We also ask that students advocate for their needs proactively so we can address them. 

These are incredibly exciting times that are dynamic and undefined. We are experienced sailors on these waves of consciousness and have been successfully navigating the transition to legalization for over a decade now. We are confident we will be able to provide the necessary framework for legal, safe, ethical psychedelic guiding.