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InnerTrek, a program that trains facilitators for psychedelic mushroom sessions, raised its prices for its second cohort of trainees by $600, or 8%, from $7,900 to $8,500.
So far, InnerTrek has enrolled about 50 students for the training that begins July 21, said InnerTrek director of operations Nate Howard. It has received about 320 applications. InnerTrek produced Oregon’s trip-facilitator graduates in March, when 100 students finished.
Portland-based InnerTrek raised the price for its six-month training to avoid losing money if it enrolls fewer students, Howard said. That could happen because of competition from other schools, or because InnerTrek leaders decide that there is a glut of facilitators, Howard said.
“The question is, how many psilocybin facilitators do we really need?” Howard said. “We’ve been telling everyone, ‘Don’t quit your day job.’”
InnerTrek’s leaders are considering a class of about 60 for July, Howard said.
As of now, facilitators have no place to practice. No “service centers,” the state-approved venues where people can take supervised mushroom trips, have been licensed. That means that any facilitator working in Oregon right now is subject to criminal penalties.
Related: Oregon’s appetite for psilocybin is being fed outside the law.
Service centers are expensive to open because Measure 109, the initiative that created Oregon’s psilocybin program, stipulated that the system would pay for itself. The state charges service centers a $10,000 annual fee to operate, and state rules require that they have security systems, including cameras and a safe for storing mushrooms.
InnerTrek recently launched an all-virtual program, priced at $5,500, for people who live far from the retreat center near Portland that InnerTrek uses for in-person sessions. The all-virtual program doesn’t include InnerTrek’s in-person practicum, which is required by the state to be licensed as a facilitator in Oregon.
The practicum is 40 hours of hands-on experience with non-ordinary states of consciousness.
That is challenging because there are no service centers open in Oregon, Howard says. InnerTrek adapted by having students do holotropic breathwork: rapid, controlled breathing that brings on a dreamlike state. Other, more costly options include sessions with the anesthetic ketamine, and traveling to countries where psilocybin is legal.
“Practicum is a requirement for Oregon licensing,” InnerTrek says on its website. “Details regarding practicum add-on opportunities for virtual students are in the works now.”
If every student in the first class had paid the $7,900 tuition, InnerTrek would have grossed $790,000. But about 20 students needed tuition forgiveness, Howard said. That means InnerTrek will have a small surplus going into the July session. Its biggest expense, he says, are teachers, followed by costs at the retreat center.
“Our goal is not to make money,” Howard says. “Our goal is to get back from a half-century of the war on drugs.”