How to Become a Psychedelic Therapist – Psychedelic Training Programs

As recent trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy enter the last phase of testing, the coming need for psychedelic training seems inevitable. The demand for many trained therapists and guides will be high. Until recently, the lone opportunity to train and work legally as a psychedelic therapist was by way of clinical trials. That will likely change over time as expanded access becomes the next step for current trials (evaluating MDMA and psilocybin) and if psychedelic-assisted therapies become FDA approved.

Michael Pollan’s 2018 book caused interest to explode. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence [1] pushed psychedelics mainstream. Reading it inspired many people to look for information about psychedelic therapy and opportunities to become guides or therapists. Providers are seeking training to become more informed about psychedelic experiences. They also want to know how to become certified to administer psychedelics in clinical trials and potentially become a licensed psychedelic therapist.

Still, many unknowns remain. What about psychedelic training programs outside of the drug sponsors? Will they need FDA compliance to dispense MDMA or psilocybin post-approval? FDA has never regulated psychotherapy. Yet medical devices often require certified program training. Regulatory agency compliance requires demonstration of competency and maintenance of acquired skills. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is one example of a specialized device with specific training requirements. It’s not yet known how FDA will regulate trainings for psychedelic-assisted therapies.

When Can I Offer Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?

The FDA may approve MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD treatment in 2023 or 2024. MAPS made this projection based on an optimistic (and likely realistic) finding of significant and positive results from one Phase 3 trial (the second Phase 3 trial is ongoing). Consequently, thousands of psychedelic therapists and doctors will be needed to meet the increased demand and opportunity for greater access. PTSD can be a difficult to treat condition with many individuals not accessing or responding to available treatments. Thus, this call for expanded access will be an exciting opportunity to provide care to a much larger number of people who are currently suffering. Learn more about MDMA in our substance guide.

After MDMA, the next likely candidate for FDA approval is psilocybin for depression treatment. In late 2018, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (Compass Pathways), and in 2019 for major depressive disorder (Usona Institute). This will help expedite its approval as long as results from clinical trials remain positive. Learn more about psilocybin in our substance guide.

What are the Options for Training in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?

Despite many unknowns, some psychedelic training programs already exist. Many more are expected to become available.

In 2015, the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) started a formal training program called the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research. The hybrid residential, in-person and online curriculum is a roughly 9-month course with rotating guest lecturers and a weeklong retreat. This program is broad in focus and interdisciplinary. It covers classic psychedelic medicines (e.g., psilocybin, ayahuasca, peyote, LSD) as well as the newer medicines (sometimes labeled empathogens or entactogens) like MDMA, or dissociative psychedelics such as ketamine.

To enroll in the CIIS certificate program, interested individuals must fill out an application, complete an interview, and receive an offer from the program’s selection committee. Applicants to become psychedelic therapists are required to be a licensed mental health or medical professional, counseling attorneys, or ordained or commissioned clergy and chaplains. The tuition cost is currently set at $10,000. Several, scheduled information sessions throughout the year explain more and answer questions about the program. Each cohort generally starts in the spring and graduates in December.

IPI Psychedelic Therapy Training Program

The Integrative Psychiatry Institute now offers an online Psychedelic Therapy Certificate Training Program designed specifically for the busy practitioner. The 200-hour program is taught by over 30 faculty with many of the leading researchers and clinicians in the field, including Michael Pollan, Gabor Mate, Robin Cahart-Harris, and Annie and Michael Mithoefer. The program educates providers on ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin therapeutic applications (includes 80 hours of CE units). It combines online self-paced modules, online lectures, virtual intensives, small group sessions, and an optional in-person ketamine experiential retreat. The training costs $8,000-$10,000 to become a certified psychedelic therapist.

MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program

More substance-specific trainings also exist. In anticipation of FDA approval, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has posted an application for the MDMA Therapy Training Program with an invitation to apply. Training is currently prioritized for providers who would likely qualify for the Expanded Access program or work on their clinical trials as psychedelic therapists. But many more providers are now being enrolled. The program went fully online in 2020 in response to Covid-19 restrictions, and now there are options for either a blended format (online and in-person) or fully virtual. MAPS PBC stated that at the end of 2021, nearly 2,000 clinicians from around the world had been trained in their program.

If accepted by FDA, more clinics will open for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD treatment during expanded access and post-approval. Requirements for clinics and providers are provided by MAPS PBC, including:

• Qualified medical professionals
• Qualified behavioral health practitioners
• Appropriate facilities for conducting MDMA-assisted therapy and storing controlled substances (requires DEA license)
• Approved research protocol or sanctioned legal status of MDMA-assisted therapy

If you would like to connect with others who are interested in starting up MDMA clinics or need/offer supervision and prescribing services for your psychedelic therapy practice, check out our free Professional Connect service.

MAPS MDMA Therapy Certification Criteria

Recently, MAPS PBC released the minimum criteria around who would qualify for the program, which includes the following:

• Hold an active license or registration to practice psychotherapy in good standing in their jurisdiction, OR
• In a post-doctorate, post-graduate internship, or residency program in the field of mental health OR
• Demonstrate a minimum of 1,000 hours of experience providing behavioral health services

MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program has evolved through the years. The program is currently 100 hours consisting of live webinars, participant case reports, role play, small group breakouts, reading and writing assignments, and either a week long in-person retreat or 3 virtual weekend retreats.

There is now new information available from MAPS regarding certification and recertification. As stated by MAPS PBC (and dependent on future FDA approval and recommendations for marketing MDMA), the requirements to become a MAPS-Certified MDMA-Assisted Therapy Practitioner are:

• Completion of the MDMA Therapy Training Program course
• Experiential Elective (eg, psychedelic clinical trial, medicine ceremony, shamanic drumming, sweat lodge, meditation retreat, or Holotropic Breathwork)
• Consultation (15 hours) and Clinical Experience (40 hours); additional cost of $1,000-2,000

Every two years, psychedelic therapists must be recertified by completing 16 hours of continuing education units offered by MAPS-approved vendors.

DEA Approval

Each clinic also needs a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) license. DEA approval requires a licensed medical provider who can prescribe (e.g., medical doctor (MD), doctor of osteopathy (DO), or other eligible prescriber). MAPS encourages interested providers to apply now in preparation for the expected post-FDA approval. The cost for the blended format training program (online and in-person) is currently set at $5,000 + additional fees for in-person retreat.

Other industry drug sponsors, such as Usona Institute and COMPASS Pathways, and various university researchers have devised their own trainings and ways to prepare psychedelic therapists to work on clinical trials. At this time, websites haven’t posted further information about training content. However, journal publications have described procedures, such as the Usona Guide Manual [2].

What Do You Learn in the Training Programs?

The CIIS program is approximately 180 hours and covers a wider range of topics related to psychedelic therapies. After that, more time is spent on historical and philosophical aspects of non-ordinary states of consciousness, including non-substance induced ones as seen in Holotropic Breathwork and deep meditation. Learning objectives focus more broadly on psychedelics and empathogens, rather than specifically on MDMA-assisted therapy [3].

The MAPS program is a multi-part course with didactic training and experiential learning components. Trainees start with online presentations covering MDMA pharmacology and its clinical safety profile, an introduction to the MDMA Treatment Manual [4], and some basics about clinical trials. Psychedelic therapists who treated the study participants view and discuss the MDMA session videos; small group discussions and additional reading and writing assignments follow. The next parts involve role playing, scenerio enactments, group and dyad activities, creative projects, and then treating a patient with MDMA under supervision and evaluation from experienced supervisors.

Some parts of these two programs overlap significantly. For example, the weeklong in-person retreat for both programs focuses on MDMA-assisted therapy. They are taught by Michael and Anne Mithoefer, MDMA psychedelic therapists in research trials and lead instructors at MAPS.

What are the Experiential Components of Psychedelic Trainings?

Psychedelics administration perceives a first-hand experience in a non-ordinary state of consciousness as valuable. This dates back to the first research studies of LSD in the 1950s. The prevailing attitude suggests that by understanding the drug effects, the therapists can more readily establish empathetic rapport and presence to support a person’s therapeutic process. They can also engender a respect for the power and significance of these experiences.

Indigenous communities deem it essential that shamans or ceremonial leaders have personal experience with the psychoactive plants they give to others. However, in Western medical practices, the opposite is the case. Doctors are rarely encouraged (or even allowed) to take a medication to understand the effects a patient would feel.

Personal Experience Presents a Challenge

Thus, psychedelics present a new challenge for psychedelic therapists and medical training. If there is value in having a personal experience, then how can providers legally pursue an experiential learning component to their training? To date the evidence of potential benefits of doing so remain anecdotal due to lack of approved controlled research.

CIIS’s program is an “above board” program with no use of illicit substances. MAPS, however, received approval in their sponsored, FDA-approved study (and now MT-2 study) that allows trainees in their program to become the patient. Trainees receive one dose of MDMA in a clinical setting if they also are eligible for the research study as a participant. As with all clinical trials, participants in the approved study must meet criteria to enroll and provide data to assess potential benefits or harms. Even if they meet the basic inclusion criteria, trainees are not required to undergo an MDMA session. Some might have conditions that would counter-indicate the use of MDMA. For example, the study excludes pregnant women or individuals with cardiac disease. Trainees may also simply not want to take a drug.  

Holotropic Breathwork for Experiential Psychedelic Training

Holotropic Breathwork is one alternative to reach a non-ordinary state of consciousness without consuming any substance. A person can enter into similar drug induced states through accelerated breathing and stimulating music.

CIIS incorporates Holotropic Breathwork as experiential learning in their program. Therapists may consider alternatives. However, they should do so while considering carefully the legal and ethical guidelines of their licensing board and professional organizations. Psychedelic Support and its partners do not encourage or condone the illegal use of substances.

Given this reality, other possible alternatives for experiential learning do exist. They include attending plant medicine ceremonies in other countries where it is legal, shamanic drumming/chanting practices, sweat lodges, or extended meditation. Research is needed to understand if first-hand exposure by therapists impacts patient outcomes. If so, then what type of drugs or experiences are best for training? We encourage therapists exploring this new area to consult with their colleagues (find them in our Professional Connect) and even seek out legal counsel as they deem appropriate.

What Can I do Now?

If psychedelic therapy interests you, then here are some things you can do now to determine if this path is right for you. If it is, you can prepare for the future. Start by reading books and articles about psychedelic-assisted therapies. If you want hands-on experience supporting individuals undergoing a difficult psychedelic experience, one great way to do so is to volunteer for harm reduction services at festivals. Of course, taking our FREE psychedelic courses is the best place to start.

Already a health provider? Network with other professionals interested in this topic (Professional Connect)and attend psychedelic conferences. If you are a clinician, consider joining Psychedelic Support psychedelic educational courses with option of continuing education (CE/CME) for health professionals. If you’re already offering ketamine, consider getting you and your staff ketamine training (CE/CME).

In conclusion, educate yourself and share what you are learning with others. A new profession is evolving for psychedelic therapists. More opportunities are becoming available for those who wish to pursue a career in psychedelic medicine.

References

1. Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. London, United Kingdom: Penguin.
2. Cooper, K. (2014). Guide manual for pharmacokinetics of psilocybin in healthy adult volunteers study (Unpublished manuscript). University of Wisconsin, Madison.
3. Phelps, J. (2017). Developing guidelines and competencies for the training of psychedelic therapists. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 450-487.
4. Mithoefer M. (2017). A Manual for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Version (8.1).