LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Oregon’s Psilocybin Services vs Psilocybin Assisted Therapy
Looking to become a psychedelic therapist and offer psilocybin-assisted therapy this year? ATMA is offering its Advanced PaT Certification Program for therapists to integrate Oregon’s legal psilocybin services into their practice without having to take an Oregon approved psilocybin facilitation training program.
On January 1, 2023, Oregon became the first state to sanction and regulate the use of psilocybin for adults over the age of 21. On January 2, 2023, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS), a branch of the Oregon Health Authority, began accepting applications for mandatory licenses and worker permits for those working in the psychedelic field. Below are links to the state’s rules and guidelines for facilitating psilocybin services in the state of Oregon.
Psilocybin can only be administered by a licensed facilitator, at a licensed facilitation center. Engaging a client in therapy during the medicine journey is prohibited according to the facilitator scope of practice.
Facilitator Scope of Practice
- A facilitator shall not engage in any conduct that requires additional professional licensure while providing psilocybin services to clients, including but not limited to diagnosing and treating physical or mental health conditions.
- A facilitator is prohibited from transferring, selling or otherwise handling any psilocybin product while they are facilitating a preparation, administration or integration session, regardless of whether the facilitator is also a licensee representative of a service center.
- If a facilitator holds a professional license in another field, the facilitator shall not exercise the privileges of that license while providing psilocybin services to clients.
How to Integrate Oregon's Framework
While this may look like a challenge for therapists looking to integrate the use of psychedelic medicine into their practice, if you are a mental healthcare professional or therapist anywhere near Oregon, you can likely begin offering psilocybin assisted therapy to your clients as early as mid 2023. Psilocybin assisted therapy can be broken down into three main components:
- preparation
- experience, and
- integration
As a psychedelic therapist, your psychotherapy role is to help patients prepare for the experience beforehand, and to assist them in integrating or unpacking their deeply personal experiences into everyday life applications afterwards.
Oregon’s model of licensure separates the facilitation of the psychedelic experience from the client’s therapy sessions. Psychotherapy does not occur during the facilitated experience of psilocybin, nor is it allowed in Oregon.
Instead, their framework creates two roles: the facilitator and the psychotherapist.
By utilizing a dual team (possibly even operating in different geographical areas) psychedelic assisted therapy becomes more affordable for the client to access, and allows therapists to provide psychedelic therapy in a more manageable way to more clients. Rather than participating in therapy during the psychedelic experience, the therapeutic integration takes place afterwards with the delivery team’s therapist(s). Therapists can partner with a facilitator to form a delivery team, or send their clients to Oregon for their medicine journey, while completing the preparation and integration in the client’s home state or province
Oregon Psychedelic Therapy Training
Therapists working with licensed facilitators will be able to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy by late 2023. This presents a huge opportunity to be a leader in this field and begin building your experience in psilocybin assisted therapy and providing many of your patients who could really benefit from this treatment modality.
ATMA offers two programs for those who are looking to learn more about psychedelic-assisted therapy:
Introduction to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Designed to help practicing psychologists, psychiatrists, and other medical professionals gain an understanding of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
This introductory course is continuing education credited and is a requirement for the Advanced Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PaT) Certification Program.
Advanced Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PaT) Certification Program
Education and training to become a psychedelic therapy provider in Oregon, and beyond. Through a world-class curriculum, in-person coaching, and participation in a Health Canada approved clinical trial, students will be able to embody the roles of both the psychedelic guide and the participant, allowing for the students to gain an understanding of the medicine from multiple perspectives.
Students must have completed the Introduction PaT Course to take the Advanced PaT Certification.
Psilocybin Licenced Facilitator Training in Oregon
Oregon’s legal psilocybin services comes into operation January 1, 2023. This is the new state-sanctioned program enabling adults over the age of 21 to access lab-tested psilocybin in a controlled setting, under the supervision of a licensed facilitator. If you would like to be a licensed facilitator for psilocybin in a controlled setting, you will need to be an Oregonian and take an Oregon Health Authority approved facilitator training course in Oregon.
Building Your Business & Building Community
Offering psychedelic-assisted therapy, facilitating sessions, or looking to offer services in the realm of psychedelics? We know that there will be a gap matching services with those who are searching for them so we’ve built a platform specifically for those in the psychedelics industry.
Learn more about our platform for facilitators, health care professionals and others in the space who are actively building a community to help support you in your journey to helping others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Therapy providers anywhere with clients willing to travel to Oregon can provide psilocybin-assisted therapy in complementary approach to Oregon’s psilocybin facilitation services.
Anyone with a high school diploma may take a facilitator course that has been approved by the Oregon Health Authority. The facilitator course is approximately 120 hours, with a minimum of 30 hours in-person training. This course is available only to Oregon residents until January 2025.
A facilitator sits with a client during a medicine session (4-6 hours generally), offering no professional counseling or psychotherapy. A psychedelic therapist is trained to provide pre- and post-medicine psychotherapy, helping clients to unpack and understand their experience and to integrate it into their lives.
As proposed by Measure 109, three sessions are included: a preparatory session, the medicine session, and a session after the medicine session for Q&A with the facilitator. No directive counselling or therapy is allowed.
Facilitators and facilitation service centers will begin the licensing process January 2023. It is estimated that services could be available to the public by late 2023.
If you are a mental healthcare professional, you do not need an Oregon-approved facilitator license to use our training for psychedelic-assisted therapy services. Licensed facilitators will act as your third party facilitator service provider.
Until 2025, facilitators in Oregon must be Oregon residents, but psychedelic therapy providers do not need to be Oregon residents. This means trained psychedelic therapists licensed outside of the state can still refer their clients for these Oregon psilocybin services while working with their clients on preparation and integration therapy.
If you are planning to practice using Oregon’s Psilocybin Services, you do not need any additional government certification.
Any practitioner may participate; however, the participating role in psychedelic-assisted therapy may differ between categories of practitioners.
Our Introduction to Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Course and our Advanced Psychedelic Training Program is a sufficient start for experienced therapy providers. We will provide additional coaching and mentoring session available to those seeking more assistance as they begin psychedelic assisted therapy under a legal framework.
Yes! While therapists are required to be licensed in the state or province in which their client resides, therapists can still leverage these legal services in the following ways:
Therapists can connect with facilitators in Oregon, sending their clients to Oregon for their journey and completing preparatory and integration work with their clients directly before and after their experience.
Therapists can offer their integration and preparatory services on ATMA’s psychedelic practitioners directory (coming soon), connecting with facilitators and potentially connecting with additional clients who are seeking the therapeutic support of an appropriately trained psychedelic therapist.
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