What Is a Natural Medicine Facilitator? Colorado's New Profession, Explained

When Colorado passed the Natural Medicine Health Act in 2022, the state did something no U.S. state had done before: it created an entirely new regulated profession. A natural medicine facilitator is the licensed professional at the center of Colorado’s psilocybin therapy program — the person you work with for preparation, who is present during the administration session, and who guides the integration phase afterward. This is a new role, distinct from therapist, counselor, doctor, or spiritual guide, and the distinctions matter for anyone considering this kind of work.

This post explains what a natural medicine facilitator is, what the training and licensing actually require, what the scope of practice includes (and doesn’t), and how to evaluate whether a given facilitator is a good fit for you.

The Short Definition

A natural medicine facilitator is a person licensed by the State of Colorado to administer regulated natural medicines — currently psilocybin — to adults 21 and older, and to provide the preparation and integration support that surrounds the administration session. Facilitators operate under the oversight of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), and administration sessions take place at state-licensed natural healing centers.

Facilitator is a regulatory category, not a clinical credential. A facilitator may hold additional credentials — many facilitators are also licensed mental health professionals, nurses, physicians, or other clinicians — but the facilitator license itself is a separate authorization that addresses a specific scope of practice tied to the psilocybin program.

What Training Actually Looks Like

The Colorado facilitator license requires meeting specific training requirements set by the state. These include:

A state-approved facilitator training program. These programs typically include 150 hours of didactic instruction covering pharmacology, indications and contraindications, screening, cultural and historical context, ethics, session facilitation, and integration. Programs are accredited by the state, and only completion of an accredited program counts toward licensure.

A practicum. Supervised experiential training, typically 40 hours or more, where trainees work with experienced facilitators and progressively take on facilitation responsibilities. This is where the actual craft — holding space, responding to difficult moments, managing the arc of a session — is developed.

Consultation hours. Post-training consultation with experienced facilitators as the newly licensed facilitator begins independent practice.

Passing a state exam covering legal, ethical, clinical, and practical aspects of facilitation.

Ongoing continuing education to maintain licensure.

The bar is substantial, but it is also specific: the training focuses on what facilitators do, not on broader clinical training. Someone with a facilitator license alone has been trained to screen, prepare, facilitate, and integrate psilocybin experiences within the program’s parameters — they have not been trained as a psychotherapist, psychiatrist, or physician. This is an important distinction.

Scope of Practice: What Facilitators Do and Don’t Do

Under the Natural Medicine Health Act, a facilitator’s scope of practice includes:

• Screening potential clients for medical, psychiatric, and pharmacological suitability
• Conducting preparation sessions to clarify intentions, build trust, and develop the therapeutic frame
• Administering psilocybin at a licensed natural healing center
• Providing support during the administration session
• Conducting integration sessions in the weeks following
• Providing appropriate referrals to other clinical professionals as needed

What facilitators are not authorized to do under the facilitator license alone:

• Diagnose mental health conditions (though they may note their observations and refer)
• Prescribe or adjust psychiatric medications
• Provide ongoing psychotherapy for conditions unrelated to the psilocybin arc
• Act in place of a primary care provider or psychiatrist
• Provide psilocybin outside the regulated program framework

This is why screening and communication with a client’s existing clinical team — prescriber, therapist, primary care provider — are such important parts of the facilitator’s work.

Facilitators vs. Therapists

This distinction is a source of genuine confusion, partly because the two roles overlap in practice even when they are technically separate.

A licensed therapist (LPC, LCSW, LMFT, psychologist, etc.) is trained and licensed to provide psychotherapy — sustained clinical care addressing mental health conditions. Their scope generally includes diagnosis, treatment planning, and the ongoing therapeutic relationship that constitutes traditional therapy.

A licensed facilitator is trained and licensed specifically for the psilocybin program — screening, preparation, administration, and integration of psilocybin experiences. Their scope is tied to that work.

Many facilitators are also licensed therapists. In this case, the person may offer a more therapeutic model where the psilocybin work is embedded in a broader therapeutic relationship. Other facilitators come from different backgrounds — nursing, medicine, chaplaincy, contemplative traditions — and offer their facilitation within that frame.

Neither model is inherently better. What matters is the fit between the facilitator’s background, training, and orientation and what you are trying to do with the work. Our guide to choosing a facilitator goes deeper into how to think about this fit.

What to Look For in a Facilitator

Regardless of what other credentials they hold, a good natural medicine facilitator will typically:

Have an active Colorado state license. Check the DORA registry to verify. An active license should be a non-negotiable starting point.

Take preparation seriously. The preparation process should span multiple sessions over weeks, not a single rushed meeting. If someone offers to run a psilocybin session with minimal preparation, that is a red flag.

Screen carefully for medical and psychiatric contraindications. A thorough screening conversation is a feature, not a bureaucratic hurdle. See the contraindications worth screening for.

Work with a licensed natural healing center. The administration session should take place at a state-licensed healing center, not in a private home, hotel, or any other unlicensed setting.

Emphasize integration. Integration is the phase where lasting change actually happens. A facilitator who talks mostly about the session itself and only glancingly about integration has the weight wrong.

Welcome your questions. Including questions about their training, experience, ethical commitments, what happens in difficult moments, and what happens if something goes wrong. A facilitator who deflects basic questions about their practice is not someone to trust with a vulnerable experience.

Have clinical referrals. If you have ongoing clinical needs — prescriber, therapist, primary care — your facilitator should be comfortable coordinating with them or referring to additional support when appropriate.

What a Facilitator Is Not

A facilitator is not a shaman, a guru, a spiritual authority, or a priest, even if the work sometimes takes on those dimensions for the client. The role — as defined by the Natural Medicine Health Act — is clinical, not spiritual-authority-laden. A facilitator who positions themselves as a spiritual authority rather than a clinical support professional may be signaling something important about how they understand the role.

A facilitator is also not an illicit provider. The regulated program exists specifically to create a legal, licensed, accountable alternative to the underground scene that operated before Colorado law changed. A “facilitator” who offers psilocybin outside the licensed program framework is not operating under the protections and accountability the law creates.

The Indigenous Roots of This Work

It is worth naming that the therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms has deep roots in indigenous traditions — particularly in central and southern Mexico, where Mazatec healers like María Sabina worked with mushrooms as sacred medicine long before Western interest. The modern facilitator role borrows from these traditions while also being fundamentally different — regulated, clinical, secular in its licensing framework, and situated within a Western medical and legal context. Responsible facilitators acknowledge this lineage and approach the work with humility about what is being adapted.

What This Means for You

If you are considering psilocybin-assisted therapy in Colorado, the facilitator is the single most important variable in the quality of the experience. The substance matters, the setting matters, the law matters — but the person holding the space is what makes or breaks the work. Take the time to find a facilitator whose training, orientation, and presence feel right for you. Ask questions. Meet before committing if you can. Trust your instincts about the relationship.

Colorado’s program has created something genuinely new. The facilitator role is one of its central innovations — a regulated, trained, licensed professional specifically dedicated to this kind of work. That’s a meaningful improvement over what existed before, and it is part of what makes Colorado’s approach to psilocybin therapy worth understanding carefully.

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Considering psilocybin therapy in Colorado? Learn about our therapeutic process, read our guide to the full Colorado program, or get in touch to talk with a licensed natural medicine facilitator.