Second Company Says It Has Been Approved to Train Facilitators for Therapeutic Psilocybin Trips

Fluence, a company based in Woodstock, N.Y., said it has been approved by Oregon state regulators to train facilitators for therapeutic psychedelic trips under Measure 109, which Oregon voters approved in 2020.

Fluence is the second company to announce the approval. InnerTrek, a Portland company, said it won the second of two necessary approvals earlier this year. Oregon law requires psilocybin service providers to be approved by the both the Oregon Health Authority and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms.

InnerTrek began offering training for trip guides on Sept. 30. The six-month course, taught online and in person at a retreat center in Clackamas County, costs $7,900. The state requires 120 hours of core instruction and 40 hours of hands-on practicum work with people who are on mushrooms. InnerTrek has 102 students enrolled, said director of operations Nathan Howard.

After six months, students will take a test to determine if they are ready to sit for the state certification.

“By the end of this March, people should be ready to take the state exam,” Howard said.

Fluence was founded in 2019 by psychologists Elizabeth Nielson and Ingmar Gorman. Its certificate program lasts 33 weeks and includes 120 hours of instruction. After that, they become eligible for a 40-hour practicum. The price is $9,550.

Fluence says it has trained 1,500 facilitators for psychedelic therapy in the U.S. and abroad. Many of them are in states where psilocybin isn’t legal but where people are keen to learn how to guide therapeutic trips. Fluence’s training there is done without using the drug, so it is within the law, a spokesman said.