FAQ about the AMHI Psilocybin-Facilitator Training Program

Q: Do I have to be a licensed psychotherapist or medical practitioner to apply to your training program?

A: Psilocybin services in Oregon are designed to serve clients for “wellness” rather than psychotherapy. Although therapists can apply, that type of background is not required to be a facilitator or to study in our program.

Q: What is your tuition?

A: The tuition for AMHI’s facilitator-training program is $6,500 for the coursework and $2,000 for the optional practicum, both of which are required for licensure. This is on the low end of the spectrum for similar training programs. There is a $500 discount if you pay up front rather than in monthly installments. If you are accepted to AMHI’s program, you will reserve your place by paying a $1,000 non-refundable deposit that will be deducted from your tuition. You will also have to pay for your transportation and hotel for the practicum, and we can discuss the most economical way for students to arrange this. Additionally, you will have to pay the service center to supply your mushrooms or psilocybin products.

Q: What other expenses are associated with becoming a licensed facilitator?

A: In order to apply for a facilitator license in Oregon, you will pay a $150 application fee and a $2,000 annual licensing fee. The total cost of AMHI tuition ($8,000 paid up front) and the Oregon State license fees is $10,150.

Q: What is the pay range for facilitators?

A: Operating on a sliding scale, licensed facilitators in Oregon charge a client between approximately $400 and $1,000 for a day-long administration session, plus a lower rate for the preparation and integration sessions.

Q: Are your classes in person or online?

A: Our coursework is online. However, students in or near San Francisco can informally meet together in person while logged into the virtual classes. This will help students get to know each other and strengthen their professional network, which will be helpful after graduation. The practicum will consist of an in-person meeting lasting about a week, or perhaps two in-person meetings on three-day weekends. The scheduling of the practicums will be arranged with student input in order to accommodate the needs of as many students as possible.

Q: What is the minimal age to participate in your program?

A: The minimal age to apply for a facilitator’s license is 21. AMHI would consider accepting a student under 21 who is mature enough to understand the course content and diligent enough to attend class and do the work. Society would benefit if young people got accurate drug information from a reliable source rather than from the recreational-drug subculture, so AMHI might even give a tuition discount or scholarship to a promising young person.

Q: What is distinctive about AMHI that sets it apart from other programs?

A: AMHI has a strict academic-freedom policy intended to foster an educational environment that encourages open and honest dialog. In many educational programs, the atmosphere is oriented toward enforced political correctness, with the predictable result that students may feel intimidated into self-censorship. Some training programs will expel any student who expresses “wrongthink”, even if that student did not break any rules in the student handbook. AMHI encourages free thought and the polite articulation of free speech.

Q: Why does AMHI emphasize academic freedom?

A: Facilitators are likely to encounter psychedelic experiences that involve strange ideas and unusual feelings. People who are easily “triggered” by freewheeling scholarly conversations about emotionally charged controversial issues will be unlikely to have the capacity to skillfully support a client who is having an extreme psychedelic experience. If you are unable to handle being in an educational environment where opposing viewpoints may be freely discussed, then perhaps you should not apply to AMHI.

Q: What is your curriculum like?

A: AMHI’s curriculum is based on the nine legally required modules specified in OAR 333-333-3050. This section of Oregon’s Psilocybin Services Act requires at least 120 hours of coursework instruction. AMHI also has an additional four-hour module dealing with “industrial facilitation”, which is using psychedelics to enhance creativity, to learn skills, and for technical problem solving.

Q: What is your practicum?

A: A practicum is an in-person experience where a student:

  • 1) Observes facilitation at one of Oregon’s licensed psilocybin-service centers
  • 2) Observes facilitation at a similar setting outside of Oregon
  • 3) Views films of facilitation, or
  • 4) Observes facilitation involving altered-states-of consciousness that are induced by non-pharmacological means.
  • The AMHI practicum will occur at a location outside of Oregon. AMHI will allow students who enroll in the classes to decline to undergo the practicum. However, students who pursue the practicum must complete a minimum of 40 hours of in-person practicum training. The students in each cohort will meet at the practicum site for at least week, or perhaps for two three-day weekends. The practicum and the coursework are both required in order for a student to apply for a facilitator license from the State of Oregon.

    Q: Is psilocybin facilitation really legal?

    A: Psilocybin facilitation is legal in the State of Oregon provided that it follows the procedures in the Psilocybin Services Act. In the United States, psilocybin is still a Schedule I substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act. However, federal law apparently does not apply to Oregon’s program because strict chain-of-custody documentation ensures that the psilocybin is produced and consumed entirely within the state. Therefore, federal jurisdiction (which is based on interstate commerce) is not activated.

    Q: Must I have had personal psychedelic experiences to apply to your program?

    A: The law does not require facilitators to have personal psychedelic experiences. Nevertheless, everybody working in the field of psychedelic treatment recognizes that it is impossible for a facilitator to understand how to relate to clients unless that facilitator has personal experiences with mind-expanding substances. These experiences should be at varying dosages so the facilitator understands the qualitative differences that result at different intensities. Prospective students who lack personal experience could contact a licensed service center for an intake appointment. That said, some applicants may be reluctant to take a psychedelic due to a medical contraindication or (in the case of federal employees, government contractors, or military personnel) because of a fear of retaliation by employers. In such cases, explain this to us, and we can try to figure out how to accommodate your situation by arranging an alternative method of consciousness alteration, such as a two-week “dark retreat”.

    Bear in mind that facilitators never handle the psilocybin. The mushrooms or mushroom products must be administered by a service-center employee who possesses a worker’s license. Facilitators merely supervise and support the client who undergoes a psychedelic experience.

    Q: What type of applicants are you looking for?

    A: AMHI seeks to educate students who are smart, curious, open-minded, honest and ethical, and who would enjoy performing the role of facilitator. It also helps to be a “people person” with a good-natured personality. Psychedelic facilitation is an art that requires one to develop intuition as well as using factual knowledge. Facilitation entails personal growth for the facilitator as well at the clients. Being a licensed facilitator requires understanding the law and operating within the legal framework established by the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act.

    Q: What is the job market like for psilocybin facilitators?

    A: At the present time, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) has licensed almost two dozen services centers. There is work for facilitators in Oregon, however it may take some time to establish yourself so you should plan for the likelihood that you may not find full-time work right away.

    Q: What job-placement services do you provide?

    A: AMHI cannot guarantee that facilitators will find work. We can provide a list of service centers to contact, along with advice as to which might be the best fit for any particular graduate. Additionally, AMHI hopes to organize its alumni to eventually establish a service center that can employ some of our graduates.

    Q: Will there be license reciprocity when other states create legal programs for psychedelics?

    A: Colorado's Natural Medicine Program will offer license reciprocity for facilitators who have held a license for at least a year in Oregon (or eventually other states) and who actively practiced psilocybin facilitation throughout that time. Over twenty states have some sort of movement, ranging from proposed ballot initiatives to administrative organization of voter-approved ballot measures. In the coming years, psychedelic facilitation will definitely spread to other parts of the United States.

    Q: Where can I find out more about the process of becoming a facilitator?

    A: After reading all the information available on this website, you can email us so we can either arrange a one-on-one call or notify you when we have a group question-and-answer call.

    Q: How can I find out more about your program?

    A: Send AMHI an email to AlfredHubbard@protonmail.com so we can arrange a one-on-one online discussion or notify you about an online group question-and-answer meeting.

    Q: How do I apply to AMHI?

    A: You can download our applicaton form by clicking on the Apply button in the navigation menu at the top of this website. When you email us your application documents, please write "Admissions Application" followed by your name in the title of the email. This will enable us to more easily recognize your material.

    Q: Who was Alfred Matthew Hubbard?

    A: Captain Al Hubbard was an official North American distributor of Sandoz LSD. He also worked with psilocybin, mescaline, and DMT. He supposedly facilitated about 6,000 psychedelic sessions in the United States and Canada in the 1950s. In the 1950s and 1960s, he helped pioneer the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy, for producing mystical experiences, and for technical problem solving. Hubbard was the first person to recognize that LSD has a spiritual value. His biography is Seattle Mystic Alfred M. Hubbard: Inventor, Bootlegger and Psychedelic Pioneer (2021) by Brad Holden.