Open House
A Foundational Certification Program for Professionals
A complimentary live session on the 13-month certificate program and its Colorado licensure track, with time set aside for your questions.
Register at No ChargeOpen House - Live Session
The Session
If you are currently discerning which training aligns with your values and goals, this free Open House offers clarity on how the Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training is structured and what it asks of those who enter it.
Since 2018, the Synthesis Institute has guided more than 1,100 participants through legal, professionally facilitated group and individual psychedelic journeys. The Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training reflects our best practices, cultivated through diligent focus and with supervision from some of the world’s most experienced psychedelic experts.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” method for facilitating psychedelic experiences.
Four Lenses
The Synthesis approach recognizes that there are many ways of knowing. Our understanding of psychedelics and the psychedelic journey honors these different viewpoints. Our training is organized so that each month we look at a particular topic through each of four (4) primary lenses.
We each have a wellspring of wisdom inside us that we can access by committing to a path of personal growth and development. Through this lens, you will establish and/or strengthen ongoing somatic, spiritual, and self-reflection practices; examine your personal ethics; articulate your personal values; and integrate your learnings from the other lenses.
This lens explores the variety of ways that people make meaning in their life, including spiritual, philosophical, nature-based, and wisdom-based approaches that cultures developed long before, and in parallel with, modern scientific thinking. It acknowledges the wisdom keepers who have helped people navigate liminal spaces for thousands of years as well as contemporary practices that help people connect to themselves, others, and the more-than-human world.
Life happens in relationships. We are always relating to the people, organizations, or the environment around us. This lens asks us to develop a deeper awareness of our role in the greater ecosystem of our life. We look at ways to build relational skills; examine the role we wish to play with clients and in the psychedelic community; and explore how to be deliberate and intentional as we bring this important work into the world.
This lens looks at the contributions of history, philosophy, and science to our modern-day understanding of psychedelics. From neuroscience to psychopharmacology to harm reduction to best practices for psychedelic facilitation, we explore what is knowable through study, observation, and thought.
At the Open House
The structure of the program, with time set aside for your questions.
Asynchronous learning materials allow you to work through course content at your own pace, alongside the program’s live sessions.
Learn and develop your skills through four complementary formats: The Pod, the Skills Lab, Seed Groups, and Faculty Q&A. Each is designed to develop a distinct dimension of practitioner readiness.
The curriculum aligns with the educational requirements for the Colorado Psilocybin Facilitator License under the Natural Medicine Health Act.
Following the Core Training, continue your development through the Synthesis retreat apprenticeship program in the Netherlands, the Practicum program, Colorado licensure, or the MA and PhD academic track offered in partnership with Ubiquity University.
The Program
The Synthesis Institute’s Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training:
The Pod places you in a small group of eight to ten students, guided by an experienced learning facilitator for the full program year.
This is the primary learning group in which the relational qualities that shape a practitioner’s effectiveness — presence, humility, relational honesty, and embodied discernment — are given sustained, dedicated attention.
Through vignettes, role-play, case consultation, and peer supervision in scenarios of progressively increasing complexity, participants develop the competencies required to support the full arc of the psychedelic journey — from somatic tracking and preparation conversations through medicine session navigation, integration, and peer consultation.
This is the program’s primary integration container — the space where module content, formation work, and emerging questions are brought into sustained peer conversation.
Organized around the living questions of ethical, embodied, and multi-dimensionally informed psychedelic practice, this cross-cohort gathering builds the field orientation and professional community that sustains a practice over time.
Program Overview
Our program begins on Monday, January 18, 2027. For the first two (2) weeks, you will watch a variety of videos to orient you to the program. You will also meet with your learning facilitator and pod group during the week of January 18th, on either Wednesday or Thursday (depending on your pod times), to get to know each other and establish the ground rules for the journey ahead.
There are nine (9) themed coursework modules in the training, each lasting one month. The coursework modules span nine-month periods, with breaks in April, August, and December 2027, to allow for rest, self-care, and integration.
Each week, you will watch a 60- to 90-minute pre-recorded teaching session that corresponds to one of the four (4) lenses.
Each month includes four dedicated live sessions — two Pod sessions, one Skills Lab, and one Faculty Q&A — each with a distinct focus and format. Every week, you will also meet with your Seed Group of four to five peers for a 60-minute peer-held integration session. Together, weekly live engagement totals 2.5 hours.
You will be given a variety of assignments designed to support your active and engaged integration of knowledge and practices. We estimate assignments will take between 4 and 7 hours per month.
Enjoy talks and Q&A sessions from a rotating roster of thought leaders, wisdom elders, and visionaries.
After the conclusion of the nine (9) coursework modules, you will participate in an assessment period, and then you will be eligible to receive your certificate of completion and attend a final celebration to recognize your achievement.
If you are seeking licensure in Colorado, you can opt in for an additional 25+ hours of lectures, assignments, and materials covering the state’s required learnings. This module can be completed at your own pace during the Core Training once enrolled.
The session welcomes therapists, coaches, healthcare professionals, wellness practitioners, and others who arrive at this work from another path.
Registration is at no charge.
Certainty is not required. The session is intended to support your discernment before an application, and questions about fit are welcome.
The session runs from 9:00 to 10:15 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, November 17, 2026. Equivalent times for Eastern Time, Greenwich Mean Time, and Central European Time are listed at the top of this page.
The program brochure is an interactive flipbook, and the two-pager is a PDF overview of the program. Both are available to open or download.
Enrollment is by application only. For those interested in participating in the Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training, you must complete the program application. The application assesses your intentions and overall fit for the training program and includes inquiries about educational background, self-care practices, professional experience, group learning compatibility, and past psychedelic experience, if applicable. We encourage professionals with diverse educational backgrounds, professional experiences, and levels of knowledge in psychedelics to apply.
Please be aware that earning a completion certificate for the Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training does not authorize you to lead or facilitate psychedelic journeys. As local regulations and legislation are developing and changing rapidly, make sure to follow the laws pertaining to your place of residence. If you are seeking licensure in Colorado, you can opt in for an additional 25+ hours of lectures, assignments, and materials covering the state’s required learnings.
Registration
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
9:00 – 10:15 AM PT
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