How to Choose a Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator in Colorado in 2026
This article was originally posted on the Elemental Psychedelics blog.
Interest in psilocybin therapy in Colorado is growing since legal natural medicine services came into effect last year. With several training programs, including Elemental Psychedelics, having now graduated hundreds of legal psilocybin facilitators in the state, you may be wondering:
How do I choose the right psilocybin mushroom facilitator for me?
This is a nuanced choice, and not every facilitator is a good fit for every individual. A good facilitator who knows how to support you through this potentially transformative work can mean the difference between an experience that becomes a distant memory – and one that has real impact in your life.
Choosing the best practitioner for you means considering their training and experience, how they align with your unique needs, and how you feel during your initial consultation.
In this guide, we’re going to break down this decision so you can feel confident seeking out the best practitioner for you.
What is the Facilitator’s Training and Experience?
The first step when searching for a natural medicine facilitator is to look into where they did their training to get licensure. Several programs are licensed in Colorado to provide this training. While they must all align with the state-regulated criteria and curriculum, one program may differ from the next in terms of its values, mission, and depth of teaching.
Look up the program your facilitator trained with and feel into how their approach and core values align with what you want in a facilitator. For example, was the facilitator’s training entirely online? Or did it include in-person experiential components where the facilitator received guidance and feedback on their facilitation skills? Did the training lean more towards a medicalized approach, a spiritual approach, or something else? Ask yourself what kind of training and experience you would want your facilitator to have in order to feel confident in their skill and capacity.
You may also ask the facilitator if they receive ongoing consultation or supervision from peers or mentors. This is an important part of providing responsible and safe care and ensuring structures are in place to hold them accountable. This may look like professional consultation as part of their training, being part of a peer supervision group, or studying under an elder in a more traditional context.
The 150 hours of basic training required in Colorado provide only a foundation for ethical practice. Continuing education and consultation is a best practice standard. Even highly experienced facilitators should never feel like they are “done” learning and should always actively engage in peer consultation.
Consider also asking about their personal relationship with mushroom medicine. The more years a person has spent looking under the hood of their own psyche with mushrooms, the more experience they have to refer back to when guiding client sessions. While personal experience alone is usually not sufficient to provide skilled psilocybin-assisted therapy, it’s an essential part of being able to safely facilitate others’ journeys. From our perspective at Elemental, you wouldn’t want a lifeguard who’s never swum in the deep end of the pool.
A group journey during a practicum weekend with Elemental Psychedelics
Even better is if they have experienced psilocybin mushroom journeys at the hands of an experienced facilitator themselves. This direct experience of being on the other side of the facilitator relationship gives them a sense of the vulnerability and needs of the journeyer, and what they would value in a psychedelic therapist.
What Are Your Specific Needs as a Mushroom Journeyer?
Not all facilitators are a good fit for all seekers of psychedelic therapy. Before embarking on your search, consider what is unique about your situation, your intentions for the journey, and any specific expertise or modalities you feel would enrich your experience.
Licensed facilitators in Colorado are divided into Clinical and Original Facilitators. Clinical Facilitators also hold a license to provide health services, such as licensed professional counselors (LPC), licensed social workers (LSW or LCSW), nurse practitioners (NP), and doctors (MD), among others.
Original Facilitators do not have these licenses and come from an array of backgrounds, from energy healers to doulas to life coaches. Both Clinical and Original facilitators may have years of experience providing underground psychedelic journeywork.
If you are seeking out psilocybin mushroom journey work for a specific mental health condition, such as depression, substance use problems, or OCD, you may opt for a practitioner who can provide therapy for that specific need as part of your preparation and integration sessions. This would usually mean a Clinical Facilitator who holds a mental health license, such as an LPC.
If your intention is more geared toward spiritual exploration, curiosity, greater life purpose, or simply building a relationship with psilocybin mushrooms, then you may choose an Original Facilitator. Many Original Facilitators are trained in complementary modalities, such as breathwork, somatic therapies, or Reiki, so consider how these additional skillsets could enrich your mushroom journey work.
Whether you opt for a Clinical or Original Facilitator, make sure to ask them about previous experience supporting similar persons as you with psilocybin mushroom journeys and the approach they used with these folks.
Navigating Your Initial Consultation for Mushroom Journey Work in Colorado
Any licensed facilitator should require an initial consultation or screening call before you sign up for psilocybin mushroom journey services. During this first meeting (which may take place via video call), they should ask you questions about your intentions for this work and what calls you to mushroom medicine.
They should also ask you about your medical and psychological history, as well as about any medications you are taking, to rule out any contraindications. They may ask you about the social support systems in your life, your relationship with spirituality, and your psychedelic use history.
The facilitator should be honest about their experience level and willingly answer your questions about their training and background. A good facilitator will be transparent about when they may not be the best fit for your needs, and ideally refer you to someone who is. They should also be forthright about the number of preparation and integration sessions they generally recommend, which could be anywhere from the state-required one session of each to many sessions over several months, depending on the facilitator’s approach to mushroom medicine work.
Last of all, pay attention to how you feel during and after the consultation. Did you feel safe and comfortable talking to the facilitator? Did you notice a sense of ease and openness in your body – or the opposite?
Finding the right practitioner for you requires asking questions and following your intuition. If something inside tells you it’s not quite right, even if you can’t put your finger on exactly why, then it’s important to follow that feeling.
Where to Find a Licensed Psilocybin Mushroom Facilitator in Colorado
At Elemental Psychedelics, we put together a directory of licensed facilitators who have graduated from our 150-hour Mushroom Facilitator Training. The practitioners in our directory are all trained in a model that centers ethics, safety, and personal relationship with mushroom medicine, and come from both clinical and wellness backgrounds. Althea also offers a comprehensive list of licensed facilitators and healing centers. Elemental’s sister organization, Reflective Healing Center, maintains a list of its member-facilitators who are all actively engaged in consultation groups as well.
You may also explore word-of-mouth recommendations for facilitators in your community. Perhaps you already know other adjacent practitioners that work in the healing arts who can recommend facilitators, or you could ask in local social media groups for personal recommendations. Getting real-life testimonials is one of the best ways of connecting with qualified and safe practitioners.
Even if you live out of state, there are ways to access legal psilocybin mushroom services in Colorado. Read more about coming from out of state in this blog.
Set the Right Foundation for Your Journey
Choosing the right practitioner for your psilocybin mushroom journey can make all the difference. With the right person, you should feel safe enough to be able to open up to the healing power of mushroom medicine. A good facilitator should know how to best support you in preparing for your journey, safely guide you during your session, and help you embody and integrate the insights you received during the journey in your daily life.
Psilocybin mushrooms are not a magic pill to automatic healing – but with the right container, personal responsibility, and a little patience, they can open the door to transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions: Psilocybin Therapy in Colorado
Are psilocybin mushrooms legal in Colorado?
Psilocybin mushrooms are decriminalized in Colorado for personal use, possession, growing, and sharing, under Proposition 122. This does not mean that you can buy psilocybin mushrooms in dispensaries for personal use. Since 2025, psilocybin mushrooms have been legal for supervised use by licensed facilitators in licensed healing centers. Read more about the specifics of legal natural medicine services in Colorado here.
How can I find a psilocybin facilitator in Colorado?
Check out our Elemental Psychedelics Facilitator Directory for a list of licensed, vetted practitioners in Colorado and elsewhere.
How much is psilocybin therapy in Colorado?
Pricing of psilocybin therapy in Colorado varies depending on your facilitator’s rates. Some practitioners offer sliding scale pricing to make their services more accessible. You can expect to pay between $1,000 and $3,000 for the mushroom journey, which includes a 4 to 6-hour mushroom journey session and one integration session. You will pay for each preparation and additional integration session separately, unless your facilitator offers a bundle of sessions.
At Elemental, we actually advise against session bundles because they can give a false impression of a one-size-fits-all approach. That is, for example, the often cited one preparation session, one journey, and one integration session is unlikely to be the best approach for the vast majority of people seeking psilocybin mushroom services. Some people might need three preparation sessions or five integration sessions, depending on the material and intention they’re bringing to their work with mushrooms. Be cautious of any one-size-fits-all approaches or other implied guarantees of what your unique journey with mushrooms will entail.
Can I travel to Colorado for psilocybin therapy?
Yes, you can travel to Colorado for psilocybin therapy. If you live out of state, then you will need to do one of the following options:
Choose an Original Facilitator who can offer virtual preparation and integration sessions, wherever you are based
Choose a Clinical Facilitator who holds a mental health license in the state where you are located, so they may legally offer the preparation and integration sessions in accordance with their licensing requirements
Complete a virtual consultation and screening with a licensed facilitator of your choosing, and travel to Colorado for your preparation, administration, and integration sessions. You can continue your integration work with a psychedelic-informed coach or therapist in your local area.
Read more on the nuances of coming from out of state here.