Frequently Asked Questions

Yes — fully legal. Colorado's Natural Medicine Health Act (Proposition 122), passed by voters in November 2022, established the first comprehensive regulated psilocybin therapy framework in the United States. The law created a licensing system administered by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), covering healing centers, facilitators, and testing facilities under 4 CCR 755-1.

The Psychedelic Therapy Den is a DORA-licensed healing center (NMHC-00048). Every service we provide — screening, preparation, the psilocybin session, and integration — operates within Colorado's full legal and regulatory framework. There is no gray area here.

Psilocybin remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, but the federal government has historically allowed states to govern their own drug policies in practice — as with cannabis. Colorado's Proposition 122 created a state-level regulated therapeutic framework that makes psilocybin therapy legal within Colorado, regardless of federal scheduling.

Other states have decriminalized psychedelics (meaning personal possession is deprioritized for enforcement), but decriminalization is not the same as a licensed therapeutic framework. Colorado's system goes much further — it creates legal, regulated, professionally accountable psilocybin therapy, with licensed facilitators, licensed facilities, and standardized oversight. Oregon passed a similar measure (Measure 109) and has also begun licensing healing centers. A handful of other states are working toward similar frameworks.

For clients, this means: what happens at The Psychedelic Therapy Den is fully legal, regulated, and professionally accountable under Colorado law — and carries no legal risk to you.

No. Colorado law does not require a physician referral, prescription, or formal psychiatric diagnosis to access psilocybin-assisted therapy. You can come directly to us. This is one of the features that distinguishes Colorado's framework from traditional medical models — psilocybin therapy is a separate regulatory category, not a pharmaceutical treatment requiring a prescription.

However, we do require a comprehensive clinical screening before any session begins. And for certain situations — personal or family history of psychotic spectrum disorders, use of specific medications, or significant cardiovascular or kidney conditions — we require documented physician clearance before proceeding. This protects you and is required by law.

Yes. Colorado requires facilitators to complete a DORA-approved training program, pass a background check, and hold an active license — Natural Medicine Facilitator (NMF) or Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator (NMCF), the higher-level license. All licenses are public and verifiable through the DORA license lookup system.

Michael P. Biggans holds the NMCF license (NMCF-000017) — the highest level of psilocybin facilitator licensure in Colorado — and is also a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC-0019131). Our other facilitators, Tiffany Bendelow and Brian Stanton, hold active NMF or NMFT licenses. Facilitation at our center is legal, professional, and fully accountable.

Colorado law requires all participants to be 21 years of age or older — a government-issued ID is verified at intake. Beyond the age requirement, eligibility is determined through a comprehensive clinical screening that looks at mental health history, current medications, physical health, prior psychedelic experience, and personal goals.

Most people who inquire are eligible. The screening process isn't a gatekeeping exercise — it's how we understand your history well enough to work with you safely and effectively, and to build the right preparation approach for your specific situation.

In clinical research conducted at Johns Hopkins, NYU, and institutions around the world, psilocybin has demonstrated a strong safety profile when administered in a structured, supervised context. It is non-addictive, physiologically well-tolerated by most people, and carries no known lethal dose. Research consistently shows that serious adverse events are rare and, in properly prepared and supervised settings, manageable.

That said, "safe" doesn't mean "effortless." Sessions can bring up intense emotional material — grief, old trauma, difficult parts of yourself that don't usually get airtime. This is often where the most meaningful healing happens. The value of working with trained, licensed facilitators is that they know how to hold that complexity clinically, so you're never navigating it alone.

The risks of psilocybin increase significantly in unsupervised settings. Our clinical structure — preparation, professional therapeutic presence throughout every session, and integration afterward — exists precisely to minimize those risks and maximize the benefit of the experience.

Some conditions require physician clearance before we can proceed — they don't automatically disqualify anyone, but they do require documented medical approval:

• Personal or family history of psychotic spectrum disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar I with psychosis)
• Current use of antipsychotic medications
• Certain antidepressants — assessed case by case
• Significant cardiovascular or kidney conditions
• Active psychiatric crisis
• Pregnancy or nursing

Additionally, Colorado law requires all participants to be 21 or older. If you're unsure whether something in your history affects eligibility, the free consultation is the right place to ask — we'll give you a straight answer.

No. While clinical research has focused heavily on depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and addiction — and we have deep experience with all of these — psilocybin therapy has a long history of supporting personal growth, spiritual exploration, life transitions, creative unlocking, existential inquiry, and simply deepening a person's relationship with themselves.

Many clients come to us not because something is "wrong" but because they want more — more clarity, more meaning, more aliveness, more honesty with themselves about who they are and how they want to live. We take this as seriously as we take treatment-resistant depression. The medicine doesn't distinguish between "fixing a problem" and "finding something truer."

The individual program is a complete therapeutic arc from first contact to final integration session. Here's what's included in the $2,750 package:

• Free initial consultation to determine fit and answer questions
• Comprehensive clinical screening and intake
• 1 required preparation session (mandated by Colorado law) + up to 2 additional preparation sessions
• 6–8 hour guided psilocybin session at our licensed Denver healing center, in a fully private studio
• Psilocybin medicine provided by our center — no sourcing required (~$200–250 value)
• Continuous facilitator presence throughout the entire journey
• Same-day grounding and integration conversation before you leave
• 1 complimentary integration session included
• Flexible sessions — use additional sessions as 2 preparation or 2 integration, or a mix based on what serves you

You arrive at our licensed healing center on session day. Dosage, music, comfort protocols, and any intentions have already been established during preparation — nothing is figured out for the first time on session day. The session unfolds in natural phases:

• Arrival (20–30 min): Settle in, review protocols, confirm intentions. Quiet time to arrive fully before anything begins.
• Onset (30–60 min): Medicine is administered. Your facilitator is present, regulated, and unhurried as the experience begins to unfold.
• Peak (2–4 hours): The heart of the journey. Your facilitator holds space — present without being intrusive — while your own healing intelligence leads the way.
• Return (2–3 hours): The experience gradually opens and settles. Rest, reflection, gentle conversation. You leave only when you're fully grounded and transport is confirmed.

We don't send anyone home disoriented. A light snack, a grounding conversation, and confirmed transportation are all part of the session structure.

Traditional talk therapy works primarily through language, narrative, and conscious reflection — through the prefrontal cortex. It's valuable, but it has limits. Many of the patterns that keep people stuck — trauma responses, emotional avoidance, entrenched depression — live in parts of the nervous system that language doesn't easily reach. You can know intellectually why something is happening and still be unable to change it.

Psilocybin temporarily reorganizes how the brain processes experience — quieting the default mode network (the seat of self-referential thinking and rumination), increasing neural connectivity across systems that don't usually communicate, and creating unusual openness and access to emotional material that's often defended against. You can reach things that years of talking sometimes cannot.

Importantly, the therapeutic work still happens through relationship — through preparation, honest conversation, and integration. The medicine creates the conditions. What you do with those conditions is the therapy. Our facilitators are trained to work with the material that surfaces and help you translate it into lasting change.

Yes. Many clients travel to Denver specifically because Colorado is one of the only states with a fully legal, regulated psilocybin therapy framework. Preparation sessions can be conducted remotely (video or phone), which makes out-of-state scheduling significantly more manageable. Session day requires in-person attendance at our licensed healing center in Denver.

A few practical notes for out-of-state clients:

• You cannot drive after a psilocybin session — arrange a rideshare, taxi, or a trusted person to drive you
• We recommend staying in Denver for at least one night after session day
• We're happy to suggest nearby accommodation options during your consultation
• Integration sessions after your return home can continue remotely

We've worked with clients from across the country and are experienced at helping out-of-state participants plan a safe, logistically smooth experience.

Facilitation is responsive rather than prescriptive. There's no script, no predetermined path. Your facilitator is present throughout the entire session — not sitting in the corner looking at their phone, but tracking your state, attentive to what's arising, and available the moment you need support.

During the peak of the experience, most clients turn deeply inward — eyes closed, following the music, in territory that doesn't need words. The facilitator holds space in this. When support is needed, it might look like a calm, grounding voice; a hand on the shoulder if wanted; a gentle orienting question; or simply the steadying presence of someone who isn't alarmed by what's happening and who knows how to help you stay with it.

What we're always working toward is helping you remain curious and present with whatever arises — rather than overwhelmed, avoidant, or shut down. The medicine creates the opening. The facilitator helps you stay in it.

No. The frameworks we use — Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — are our tools, not a curriculum for the client. You don't need to know what they are. You don't need to study them before coming in. What matters is your willingness to explore yourself honestly.

In practice, this means preparation and integration look different for every person. Sometimes we talk about values — what actually matters to you, not what you've been telling yourself matters. Sometimes we talk about avoidance — the feelings, situations, or truths you've been staying away from and what that's costing you. Sometimes we explore inner conflict — the part that wants to change and the part that's terrified of what change would mean. Sometimes a session surfaces something old and unresolved that you've never quite had words for, and we work with that.

The clinical frameworks give us a coherent way to make sense of what arises and find the path through it. What the client brings is themselves — whatever is true, whatever is stuck, whatever they're ready (or not quite ready) to look at. We meet you there.

It depends on the person and what the session calls for. During the peak of the experience, most clients turn inward — eyes closed, headphones on — with minimal verbal interaction. This isn't because the facilitator has stepped back; it's because the inner process is doing the work. The facilitator is present, tracking your state, available the moment you need them.

Some people need more contact throughout — grounding, reassurance, orienting, someone to simply say "you're safe and this is temporary." Others move through hours of deep inner work with almost nothing said. We follow what the session needs, not a predetermined structure. Some sessions shift multiple times. We're comfortable with all of it.

Difficult material is often where the most meaningful work happens. When it arises, we help you stay present with it rather than shut it down or escape it.

What that looks like depends on what you need in the moment. Sometimes it's simple grounding contact — a hand on the shoulder, a calm voice reminding you where you are and that you're safe. Sometimes it's a gentle question that helps you move toward what's arising with curiosity instead of dread. Sometimes it's helping you breathe through something intense, or reminding you that what you're experiencing, however overwhelming it feels, is temporary and that your body is not in danger.

We don't try to guide you toward any particular experience or away from difficult ones. What we do is help you stay in the room with yourself — because the things that feel hardest to face are often exactly where the healing is. Preparation builds the trust and clinical readiness to meet those moments. Our presence holds the container so you can go there.

Our clinical framework is grounded in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — two evidence-based models that both pair naturally with the altered state psilocybin produces.

IFS understands the mind as a system of inner parts — some that protect, some that carry old pain, and a calm, compassionate core Self beneath them. Psilocybin tends to soften the defenses of protective parts and create unusual access to the parts that have been buried — making it an ideal time for the kind of witnessing and unburdening that IFS facilitates. ACT focuses on psychological flexibility — making room for difficult inner experience rather than fighting it, unhooking from the stories the mind repeats, and orienting toward what genuinely matters. Research identifies psychological flexibility as one of the core mechanisms through which psilocybin produces lasting change.

Again — you don't need to know any of this going in. These are our tools. What you need is openness and a willingness to meet yourself honestly.

Yes. We support the full spectrum of dosing approaches — from psycholytic (lower-dose) work to full macro-dose experiences. Dose selection is collaborative and based on your readiness, history, intentions, and therapeutic goals. It is not a predetermined formula, and we don't push anyone toward a higher dose than they're prepared for.

The right dose is the one that makes sense for where you are right now. Some clients start lower and work up over multiple sessions. Others come in ready for a full-dose experience from the beginning. We discuss this thoroughly during preparation and don't make final decisions until we're confident in your readiness.

Psycholytic (lower-dose) sessions use smaller amounts of psilocybin — enough to soften defenses, increase emotional openness, and make the inner landscape more accessible without producing a full visionary or ego-dissolving experience. Many clients find them a valuable starting point, particularly those with significant trauma histories, high anxiety about altered states, or those who want to build familiarity with the experience before going deeper.

Macro-dose sessions produce more profound alterations in consciousness — including visual experience, dissolution of ordinary self-boundaries, mystical or spiritual states, and deep access to unconscious material. They are typically quieter, more inward, and less verbally interactive. The most significant clinical outcomes in research come from macro-dose sessions. They require careful preparation and for many people, they produce shifts that simply aren't accessible at lower doses.

We don't use the term "hero dose" clinically, but high-dose psilocybin sessions are available for clients who are appropriately prepared and for whom that level of experience is clinically indicated. These conversations happen collaboratively during preparation — the decision is never rushed, and we won't administer a dose we don't believe you're ready for.

High-dose sessions can produce profound, life-altering experiences. They can also surface material that is difficult to navigate without the right preparation and a skilled facilitator present. We take that responsibility seriously.

No. The package price ($2,750 for individual) covers the complete therapeutic arc regardless of the dose approach selected. Dosing is a clinical decision made during preparation — not a pricing tier.

This varies widely, and we don't have a formula. Some people experience meaningful, lasting resolution after a single macro-dose session — particularly those without highly complex trauma histories who are coming with a clear intention and solid psychological readiness. The clinical research on psilocybin for depression and addiction has largely demonstrated significant outcomes from one to three sessions.

Others benefit from multiple sessions over time — especially those working with complex trauma (C-PTSD), OCD, deep-seated depression, or patterns that have been in place for decades. For these presentations, one session can open important territory that subsequent sessions continue to explore and consolidate.

There is no required minimum or maximum. We assess as we go, and you're never obligated to continue beyond what feels right for you.

Yes, there's no requirement to start with a high macro-dose experience. The standard clinical range is approximately 20-30mg, or 20-35mg, and so starting in the 15-20mg range can be significant for many. For those who are newer to psychedelics, have significant anxiety about the experience, or simply want to build familiarity with altered states before going deeper, beginning with lower-dose work makes clinical sense, and then we also offer the option of a booster dose to clients which can increase the amount taken on your journey day after the initial dose. Trust is built incrementally, and a gradual approach often produces better outcomes than jumping in at the deep end before someone is ready.

Both — it depends on the person and what they're working with. Some clients come for a single, intentional experience and find it provides exactly what they needed. Others return for additional sessions because the first journey opened territory they want to continue exploring, or because their goals call for more sustained clinical work.

Psilocybin therapy is not inherently a long-term treatment in the way that weekly talk therapy can be — sessions are episodic, with significant integration work between them. But the depth of change available typically deepens with more thorough preparation, multiple experiences over time, and sustained integration support.

We never push clients toward more sessions. We assess what's needed honestly and leave the decision with you.

Integration is the process of translating what happened in a session into how you actually live. A psilocybin experience can surface insight, emotion, memory, and perspective that doesn't automatically become lasting change on its own — that work happens afterward, with support, over time.

In practice, integration looks different for every person. Sometimes it means unpacking what arose in the session — making sense of images, emotions, or realizations that felt important but don't yet have clear meaning. Sometimes it means looking at behavioral patterns — the avoidance, the numbing, the habits that the session made visible — and figuring out what to actually do differently. Sometimes it means working through something old that surfaced unexpectedly and needs more space. And sometimes it simply means sitting with a shift in perspective that's still settling in, with someone who understands what you went through.

Like preparation, integration meets you where you are. There's no fixed agenda. We follow what the experience left behind and work with it until it's been translated into something real and lived.

Retreat settings vary widely, but most share a common limitation: what happens after. You arrive, you journey, you leave — often without ongoing clinical support, without a sustained relationship with the people who held space for you, and without structured integration into your daily life. Integration is where the work of a session becomes lasting change, and it's exactly where most retreat models are thin.

Our model wraps clinical support around the session on both sides. Preparation establishes the relationship, the readiness, and the context before you ever take the medicine. Integration follows with sustained, individualized work to translate what arose. You're not a person who showed up for a ceremony — you're a client in a clinical therapeutic relationship, and that relationship continues.

Additionally, every participant at our healing center undergoes individual screening. In a retreat context, you may be in a group where readiness varies dramatically and individual attention is limited. Our model — even in group settings — ensures that every person has been individually assessed and prepared.

Yes. Many of the people we work with have tried multiple rounds of antidepressants, years of traditional therapy, or various other treatments — and still feel stuck. Treatment-resistant depression, OCD, C-PTSD, and severe anxiety are among the presentations we work with most frequently.

Michael offers advanced clinical services for particularly complex presentations, beyond the standard individual package, for those whose history requires a more sophisticated, careful approach. These conversations happen during the consultation — we'll be honest with you about what level of care your situation calls for.

A few things genuinely distinguish us:

• Clinical depth. Michael is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the state's 17th-licensed Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator — combining psychotherapy and psilocybin facilitation together in an artful way.
• A coherent framework. Most providers will hold space while your experience unfolds. We do that — and we also have a coherent way to work with what surfaces during preparation and integration, so that the session becomes something larger than a single experience.
• Genuine flexibility. In dosing, session structure, how your sessions are used, and how integration is approached — we build around you, not a template.
• Team breadth. Tiffany brings somatic and sound-based expertise. Brian brings identity, narrative, and breathwork. Different facilitators genuinely serve different presentations.
• Pricing. We charge less than most providers for a more complete package.

The industry average for a single psilocybin session is $3,500–4,000+. Our complete individual package, including the medicine, is $2,750.

We believe professional, legally compliant, and clinically rigorous psilocybin therapy shouldn't require a $4,000+ price tag. Accessibility and affordability matter to us. We keep our costs low and are grateful to be doing this work, and structure our pricing to make this work available to more people — without cutting corners on the clinical depth or the quality of the therapeutic relationship.

Yes. All three of our facilitators bring significant professional backgrounds beyond the DORA facilitation license:

• Michael P. Biggans — JD, MS (Clinical Mental Health Counseling), Licensed Professional Counselor, Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator (NMCF-000017), former trial attorney. Author of The Psychedelic Self.
• Tiffany Bendelow — MPH in Epidemiology, 10+ years in clinical research, DORA-licensed Natural Medicine Facilitator, sound practitioner, founder of Resonant Medicine.
• Brian Stanton — MFA from CalArts, DORA-licensed Natural Medicine Facilitator, certified Neurodynamic Breathwork facilitator, founder of Psychetheatrics®.

Yes. We offer consultation, supervision, and mentorship for therapists, clinicians, facilitators, guides, coaches, and others seeking to deepen their competence in psilocybin-assisted work. This includes both general clinical consultation and post-practicum supervision specific to Colorado's regulated psilocybin framework.

For licensed mental health professionals who want to understand psilocybin therapy well enough to refer and support clients through it — or for coaches and guides who want to develop their integration practice — we're available for individual consultation.

Yes. Michael meets all DORA requirements for post-practicum consultation supervision under 4 CCR 755-1 Rule 4.1(H): active Clinical Facilitator license (NMCF-000017), 2+ years of facilitation experience, and 200+ facilitation hours. Consultation is available in group cohort format (satisfies all 40 required hours) and individual format (available as a supplement).

All consultation hours are formally documented throughout the process, and a written completion document is provided for your DORA licensure application. Availability is limited — reach out early in your post-practicum period.

Yes, and we take this seriously. We work with referring therapists regularly and are experienced at coordinating care across the referral relationship. With appropriate consent, we're happy to communicate with a referring therapist throughout a client's psilocybin program and facilitate a clean handoff back after integration.

If you're a therapist with a client who might be a candidate for psilocybin therapy and you want to talk through the clinical picture informally before any referral is made — reach out. We're glad to have that conversation.

We're open to this on a case-by-case basis. If you're interested in mentorship, co-facilitation, observational learning, or deepening your clinical approach to psilocybin preparation and integration, reach out directly and we'll have a conversation about what makes sense given your background and goals.

The $2,750 package covers the complete individual psilocybin therapy arc — everything, including medicine. Specifically:

• Comprehensive clinical screening and intake
• 1 required preparation session (mandated by Colorado law) plus up to 2 additional preparation sessions
• 6–8 hour guided psilocybin administration session in our fully private licensed studio
• Psilocybin medicine provided by our healing center (approximately $200–250 value at current market rates)
• Continuous facilitator therapeutic presence throughout your entire journey
• Same-day grounding and integration conversation before you leave
• 1 complimentary integration session
• 2 additional flexible sessions — use as additional preparation, integration, or a mix

No. All psilocybin medicine is provided by our DORA-licensed healing center in full compliance with Colorado State Law (Proposition 122) and DORA regulations (4 CCR 755-1). Clients never source, bring, or handle medicine. This is part of what makes our services fully legal and regulated — the medicine chain of custody is managed entirely by the licensed center.

Not currently. Psilocybin-assisted therapy is not covered by insurance under Colorado's existing regulatory framework. We may be able to provide “Superbills” for certain in-state clients to provide for reimbursement to their insurance companies for the preparation and integration sessions. We offer transparent, all-inclusive pricing to make this as accessible as possible — and payment plans are available for those who need them. Ask about this during your consultation.

$3,750 for both partners — mushrooms for both included (approximately $400–500 combined value). This works out to $1,875 per person, which is less than the individual package price despite each person receiving the full individual therapeutic arc (2 individual prep sessions each, 1 shared prep, session day together, 1 shared integration, and 1 individual integration each — 5 sessions per person around the main day).

The Couples Journey is structured as a two-person group under Colorado's DORA licensing framework, in full compliance with Proposition 122 and 4 CCR 755-1. See our Group & Couples page for the full structure breakdown.

Group pricing varies by offering and is significantly lower than individual sessions. Contact us directly or visit our Group Therapy page for current pricing on specific group offerings — men's groups, women's groups, the Threshold Group, Resonant Body, and others.