A Therapist’s Guide to Psilocybin Therapy in Colorado: Healing Beyond the Hype
Written by Dori Lewis, LPC, LMHC, Owner-Operator of Reflective Healing Center and Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Elemental Psychedelics
Legal psilocybin therapy is now a reality in Colorado. Across the state, people are undergoing psilocybin mushroom sessions in licensed healing centers, under the guidance of trained facilitators.
Over the last few decades, mounting research has shown the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat conditions including depression and end-of-life anxiety. Psychedelics like psilocybin have gained increasing attention in the public sphere for their therapeutic potential.
At Reflective Healing Center (RHC), we’ve received interest in our psilocybin services not just from Colorado residents, but also from folks who live out of state.
If you’re a mental health professional residing outside of Colorado, your patients or clients may be asking about how and where to access legal psychedelic therapies.
Here at RHC, we’re eager to collaborate and establish partnerships with healthcare providers in other states and act as a trusted partner to whom you can send your clients for safe and ethical psilocybin services.
In this blog, we’re going to break down:
What licensed psilocybin services in Colorado look like
The therapeutic benefits of psilocybin-assisted therapy
How to know it’s a good time for your client to try psilocybin therapy
What it would look like to send your client to RHC for psilocybin therapy
How to best support your client before and after psilocybin therapy
Licensed Psilocybin Services in Colorado: How Do They Work?
In 2022, the state of Colorado passed Proposition 122: Access to Natural Psychedelic Substances. This bill introduced a legal framework for folks to access legal natural medicine services, including guided psilocybin sessions. It also decriminalized the use, growing, possession, and sharing of natural medicines that contain psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, and mescaline (except for peyote).
As of 2025, people can access guided psilocybin mushroom journeys in licensed healing and micro-healing centers (like RHC) by licensed psilocybin facilitators. This process should include initial screening to rule out contraindications, at least one preparation session, the administration session, and at least one integration session. While only the integration session is required by law to accompany the administration session, it’s strongly advised and considered best practice to include screening and preparation too.
Once screening and preparation are complete (either virtually or in person), the client must travel to the licensed healing center for their administration session. There, they are given psilocybin mushrooms that have been purchased from a regulated manufacturer at a dose determined, through collaboration and conversation, by the facilitator and client. The journey usually lasts from six to eight hours, during which it’s common to experience changes in perception such as visions, auditory, or somatic shifts in awareness, emotional catharsis, and profound psychological insight. The facilitator is there to support them throughout the entire experience, until they are “back” and no longer feeling the psychedelic’s effects.
At RHC, we typically recommend more than one preparation and integration session on either side of the psilocybin journey, so the client can feel as prepared as possible going in and derive the most benefit from their mushroom experience.
The Therapeutic Benefits of Legal Psilocybin Therapy in Colorado
In recent years, psilocybin has gained attention for its potential to treat a range of mental health conditions and support overall mental and emotional well-being.
This landmark study showed that psilocybin produces rapid and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in people with terminal cancer. In this randomized clinical trial, researchers found psilocybin therapy was effective in reducing symptoms of major depressive disorder.
Meanwhile, this study compared psilocybin to the SSRI escitalopram, showing psilocybin to be just as effective as the SSRI in reducing depressive symptoms. Psilocybin generally outperformed escitalopram in improving broader mental health and functioning markers, such as anxiety symptoms, work performance, and social functioning.
Psilocybin is even showing promise as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), with this study finding that psilocybin treatment produced a rapid and moderate to large reduction in obsessive-compulsive symptoms for up to one week.
But not everybody comes to psilocybin to treat mental health conditions in the same way that not everyone in therapy might have a clinical diagnosis. Many are seeking spiritual exploration and to have a transpersonal experience. Others may be seeking personal growth and self-awareness, or to move through moments of transition or loss.
In the Colorado model, people seeking help with certain mental health conditions and symptoms should look to Clinical Facilitators for support. These are licensed mental health professionals, such as LPCs or LMFTs, who are also licensed to provide psilocybin therapy.
For those who may be seeking a less clinical lens with which to explore their consciousness, working with an Original (non-clinical) Facilitator is another option. These are people who come from adjacent backgrounds, such as coaching or energy healing, who have completed the necessary training to facilitate psilocybin journeys. Many facilitators, both clinical and original, have been working in the underground world for several years or even decades, and have experience learning from community elders and spiritual traditions.
How to Know It’s a Good Time For Your Client to Undergo Psilocybin Therapy in Colorado
So, if you’re a therapist or counselor wondering when might be a good time to refer your client to psilocybin services, what are the signs?
At RHC, we’re firm in our belief that psilocybin sessions are best viewed as a single moment in the broader context of a person’s healing journey. Psychedelics are not a one-and-done solution to a person’s struggles, but they can accelerate their progress and help them move through a place of stuckness.
If you feel that your client has reached a wall and is struggling to make progress around a certain aspect of their story, it might be a good time for psilocybin. Sometimes, talk therapy isn’t enough to shift something buried deep in a person’s subconscious that’s necessary for them to process and move toward. This is when psilocybin could help, with the right support.
Your client might be seeking to connect with the spiritual or transpersonal aspect of being human. They may feel a sense of wanting to connect with a force that’s greater than themself or a deeper meaning of life. Psilocybin can help people access these states of spiritual connection. Check out this blog for a deeper dive on how transpersonal therapy and psychedelic medicine can work in harmony.
A journey space at Reflective Healing Center
What Would it Look Like to Send a Client to RHC for Psilocybin Therapy?
At Reflective Healing Center, we are a licensed micro-healing center in Fort Collins offering integrative talk therapy and legal psychedelic therapies. We began offering psilocybin journeys at our center in August 2025 and have since expanded our team of affiliated licensed psilocybin facilitators.
We welcome referrals from mental health providers both in Colorado and in other states. Here’s a breakdown of what the process looks like if you’re a therapist looking to send a client to RHC for a psilocybin journey:
Step 1: You reach out to us via email at admin@doriglewis.com, and we send you our psilocybin screening form for your client to fill out. We can also speak directly to you to get a sense of where your client is at and if they’re ready to start the psilocybin therapy process.
Step 2: If we collectively decide it’s the right time, we connect your client with one of our therapists or licensed psilocybin facilitators and begin filling out the necessary paperwork. They may be a Clinical or Original Facilitator depending on the needs of your client. In the meantime, you start to prepare your client in their therapy sessions (more on how to provide this support below).
Step 3: You, the client, and the facilitator meet over a video call (or two) for a group preparation session. This is a space for both you and your client to ask any questions, define the logistics of traveling to our center, and understand what the administration session will look like. We will support in finding an appropriate accommodation that’s close by.
Step 4: Your client travels to Fort Collins for their psilocybin journey day. They may want to travel here to do an in-person preparation session with their facilitator a few days beforehand, or just in time for the journey day. They are also required to have one integration session with the facilitator, which can be done the following day.
Step 5: Your client travels back to their home and continues their integration work with you in therapy. The facilitator will provide you with notes and information on the psilocybin session and recommendations for the integration process going forward.
How Can I Best Support My Clients Before and After Psilocybin Therapy in Colorado?
Even if you have not personally experienced psychedelic therapy, as a therapist, you can still find ways to support your clients before and after psychedelic experiences. The first action to take is to become psychedelically-informed. Read books about psychedelic therapy – I suggest Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion by Michelle Janikian and The Psilocybin Handbook for Women by Jennifer Chesak. Dive into the literature and get a sense of what leads to positive outcomes and when things may go wrong. Gain an understanding of what psychedelics can and can’t do, so you’re able to set realistic expectations with your clients.
The first step of a positive psychedelic therapy experience is proper screening. This goes beyond just medical and pharmaceutical contraindications and extends into questions like: What kind of support system does my client have around them right now? Do they have a relationship with their inner world? Have they explored practices such as breathwork, mindfulness, and journaling?
Then comes preparation. A core component of preparing for a psychedelic journey is defining the intention. This is not always a simple process, and could take several therapy sessions to settle on. Preparation also means cultivating tools to help your client navigate the psychedelic realm, such as breath and body awareness and grounding “anchors.”
Following the journey, integration can look many different ways. Your client may experience the famous “afterglow,” and supporting them looks like accountability and habit change. On the flip side, they may feel more destabilized or confronted by psychological material that the mushrooms brought up. Integration, then, may mean focusing more on nervous system work and helping them come into a baseline state of regulation before trying to extract insights from the journey.
And of course, our team will be here to help you should you require consultation on providing preparation and integration therapy. We are experts in psychedelic-assisted therapies and can offer support, guidance, and resources around the whole process.
If you’re seeking to train in psychedelic facilitation yourself, I (Dori, Founder of RHC) am also the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Elemental Psychedelics, a training and education center for psychedelic practitioners. Our Psilocybin Mushroom Journey Facilitator Training is a DORA-approved natural medicine training for folks who want to become licensed psilocybin facilitators in Colorado.
A Trusted Partnership For Your Clients’ Healing Journey
If you’re working with a client who feels stuck, is ready for deeper exploration, or is curious about psychedelic-assisted therapy, it may be time to explore psilocybin.
At Reflective Healing Center, we partner with therapists to provide safe and ethical experiences, while keeping you closely involved in your client’s preparation and integration process. Our goal is to support and deepen the healing work you do with your clients.
If you’re considering a referral or simply want to explore whether psilocybin therapy could be a good fit for your client, we’d be glad to connect. Reach out to us at admin@doriglewis.com to start the conversation.
What is psilocybin-assisted therapy in Colorado?
Psilocybin-assisted therapy in Colorado is a legal, regulated process where individuals participate in facilitated psilocybin mushroom experiences at a licensed healing center. The process includes screening, preparation sessions, a facilitated psilocybin journey, and integration support afterward.
Psilocybin therapy in Colorado is designed to prioritize safety, structure, and therapeutic outcomes under the guidance of trained facilitators.
Who is a good candidate for psilocybin therapy in Colorado?
Psilocybin therapy may be a good fit for individuals experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, or feeling “stuck” in traditional therapy. It can also support personal growth, spiritual exploration, and major life transitions.
That said, not everyone is a candidate. Reputable Colorado healing centers (like RHC) conduct thorough screening to rule out contraindications and ensure the client has the necessary support for a safe experience.
How does a therapist refer a client to a psilocybin healing center in Colorado?
Therapists can refer clients to a licensed psychedelic therapy provider in Colorado by connecting directly with a healing center. The process typically includes:
Initial consultation and screening
Collaboration between the referring therapist and facilitator
Preparation sessions before the journey
Integration support after the experience
At centers like Reflective Healing Center, therapists remain an important part of the client’s care before and after the psilocybin session.
Can clients travel for psilocybin therapy in Fort Collins, Colorado?
Yes. Many people travel from out of state to access psilocybin therapy in Fort Collins and other parts of Colorado, where it is legally available through licensed centers.
Micro-healing centers like Reflective Healing Center often support out-of-state clients by coordinating logistics, offering virtual preparation and integration sessions, and collaborating with the client’s primary therapist.