UC Berkeley Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program
Training Program
Live
Sep 05, 2024
–
May 25, 2025
14,000
USD
Hybrid
9 Months
Awarded: Certificate, Psychedelic Facilitation
Description
Psychedelic research demonstrates promising benefits for improving mental health and spiritual well-being across a variety of populations. These studies, traditional uses, and state-by-state policy changes highlight the potential application of psychedelics for healing. As we integrate psychedelic care into our society, there is a growing need for professionally trained facilitators that can provide safe, legal, culturally sensitive, and effective psychedelic care. To address this need, BCSP’s Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program provides interdisciplinary training for advanced professionals, with an emphasis on spiritual care, ancestral traditions, equity, and access.
As psychedelics gain traction in health care and community settings, comprehensive education is needed for care professionals and recipients alike. In 2022, BCSP launched its Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program, designed for advanced religious, spiritual care, and healthcare professionals working in areas such as chaplaincy, ministry, medicine, nursing, mental health counseling, psychiatry, and social work. To diversify enrollment from members of historically underrepresented groups, financial assistance is available to qualified applicants.
Our program is a 9-month, 200-hour professional preparation for psychedelic facilitators:
160 instructional hours include in-person weekend immersions, small-group and online learning. The remaining hours are fulfilled through a 40-hour practicum.
We are committed to providing culturally sensitive training that prepares facilitators to adequately address the needs of people from a diverse array of faith traditions and communities of origin. We acknowledge and engage with Indigenous and other traditional communities that have long been stewards of healing practices with psychedelic substances. Throughout the curriculum, we explore matters of positionality, ethics, systemic marginalization, and sociocultural structures of power. Professionals from Indigenous or marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply.
This interdisciplinary certificate program integrates and applies nine core domains of knowledge:
Spiritual Care
Psychotherapeutic Methods
Ancestral Entheogenic Traditions
Clinical Science and Research
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Contemplative Practice
Ethics
Reciprocity and Ecological Awareness
Somatic Awareness
Program Philosophy
Principles of inclusion, reciprocity, and respect for all beings guide the BCSP Certificate Program. We aim to craft a learning environment that is safe and supportive for everyone, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, and other underrepresented groups. Our interdisciplinary curriculum blends contemporary scientific knowledge with ancestral and communal perspectives. In gratitude for the Indigenous traditions that have inspired our learning, we seek to respond with service and community engagement.
Each cohort is intentionally capped at 30 participants. A team of core instructors develop deeper relationships with participants through ongoing teaching and regular small-group meetings.
Our core instructional team and guest faculty bring expertise in chaplaincy, medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and social welfare, as well as ethics and ancestral entheogenic traditions. We aim to develop a critical social consciousness on matters of power, marginalization, and inclusion in the broader field. Participants will examine how social positions shape experiences in the psychedelic facilitation space.
News from the Program
In May, BCSP graduated its first-ever cohort from the Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program.
In October, BCSP welcomed the second cohort of students to the Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program. Veterans, traditional lineage holders and first-generation immigrants from Belarus, Japan and Mexico are among the 27 students joining the nine month course.
Our Focus: Three Medicines
Our certificate program emphasizes psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine facilitation, and their applications for spiritual and psychotherapeutic care. We focus both on traditional uses of psilocybin as well as current Western approaches to mental health. Our certificate is approved as a Psilocybin Facilitator Training Program through the Oregon Health Authority (ID #TP-b174a696) as well as the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
Parallel to our Certificate Program, BCSP’s clinical research team will be conducting basic psilocybin research in healthy volunteers. This FDA-approved study will investigate the mechanisms of action of low doses of psilocybin as well as the neurobiological, perceptual, and cognitive aspects of the psychedelic experience. Other studies will explore the enduring transformative effects of high-dose psychedelic experiences on emotion, stress regulation, and inflammation.
As psychedelics gain traction in health care and community settings, comprehensive education is needed for care professionals and recipients alike. In 2022, BCSP launched its Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program, designed for advanced religious, spiritual care, and healthcare professionals working in areas such as chaplaincy, ministry, medicine, nursing, mental health counseling, psychiatry, and social work. To diversify enrollment from members of historically underrepresented groups, financial assistance is available to qualified applicants.
Our program is a 9-month, 200-hour professional preparation for psychedelic facilitators:
160 instructional hours include in-person weekend immersions, small-group and online learning. The remaining hours are fulfilled through a 40-hour practicum.
We are committed to providing culturally sensitive training that prepares facilitators to adequately address the needs of people from a diverse array of faith traditions and communities of origin. We acknowledge and engage with Indigenous and other traditional communities that have long been stewards of healing practices with psychedelic substances. Throughout the curriculum, we explore matters of positionality, ethics, systemic marginalization, and sociocultural structures of power. Professionals from Indigenous or marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply.
This interdisciplinary certificate program integrates and applies nine core domains of knowledge:
Spiritual Care
Psychotherapeutic Methods
Ancestral Entheogenic Traditions
Clinical Science and Research
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Contemplative Practice
Ethics
Reciprocity and Ecological Awareness
Somatic Awareness
Program Philosophy
Principles of inclusion, reciprocity, and respect for all beings guide the BCSP Certificate Program. We aim to craft a learning environment that is safe and supportive for everyone, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, and other underrepresented groups. Our interdisciplinary curriculum blends contemporary scientific knowledge with ancestral and communal perspectives. In gratitude for the Indigenous traditions that have inspired our learning, we seek to respond with service and community engagement.
Each cohort is intentionally capped at 30 participants. A team of core instructors develop deeper relationships with participants through ongoing teaching and regular small-group meetings.
Our core instructional team and guest faculty bring expertise in chaplaincy, medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and social welfare, as well as ethics and ancestral entheogenic traditions. We aim to develop a critical social consciousness on matters of power, marginalization, and inclusion in the broader field. Participants will examine how social positions shape experiences in the psychedelic facilitation space.
News from the Program
In May, BCSP graduated its first-ever cohort from the Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program.
In October, BCSP welcomed the second cohort of students to the Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program. Veterans, traditional lineage holders and first-generation immigrants from Belarus, Japan and Mexico are among the 27 students joining the nine month course.
Our Focus: Three Medicines
Our certificate program emphasizes psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine facilitation, and their applications for spiritual and psychotherapeutic care. We focus both on traditional uses of psilocybin as well as current Western approaches to mental health. Our certificate is approved as a Psilocybin Facilitator Training Program through the Oregon Health Authority (ID #TP-b174a696) as well as the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
Parallel to our Certificate Program, BCSP’s clinical research team will be conducting basic psilocybin research in healthy volunteers. This FDA-approved study will investigate the mechanisms of action of low doses of psilocybin as well as the neurobiological, perceptual, and cognitive aspects of the psychedelic experience. Other studies will explore the enduring transformative effects of high-dose psychedelic experiences on emotion, stress regulation, and inflammation.
