The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) is proud to have incubated this outstanding, first-of-its-kind program from 2021-2025, in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley School of Education (BSE). The information on this page preserves the history and offerings of the program and is no longer actively updated, effective July 1, 2025.
Curriculum
The curriculum focused on three medicines and was rooted in the program’s principles of inclusion, reciprocity, and respect for all beings.
Program Philosophy
Principles of inclusion, reciprocity, and respect for all beings guided the Berkeley Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program. The staff aimed to craft a learning environment that was safe and supportive for everyone, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, and other underrepresented groups. The interdisciplinary curriculum blended contemporary scientific knowledge with ancestral and communal perspectives. In gratitude for the Indigenous traditions that inspired the program’s learning, staff sought to respond with service and community engagement.
In the program’s first two years, each cohort was intentionally capped at 25-30 participants. This allowed the team to carefully craft and adjust the curriculum in response to the diverse community of learners. In the third year of instruction, staff expanded the classroom to include 60 learners. The staff is proud to share that this cohort was its most diverse ever, with over 50% BIPOC learners, 40% LGBTQIA+, 35% 1st or 2nd-generation immigrants, and professionals from many countries around the world.
The heart of the program was a team of core instructors who developed deep relationships with the learners through ongoing teaching and Q&A sessions. In 2024-2025, nine alumni returned as Program Fellows to support regular small groups and provide leadership in the classroom.
The core instructional team, guest faculty, and Program Fellows brought expertise in chaplaincy, medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and social welfare, as well as ethics and ancestral entheogenic traditions. Together, the team developed a critical social consciousness on matters of power, marginalization, and inclusion in the broader field, and participants examined how social positions shape experiences in the psychedelic-facilitation space.
The Focus: Three Medicines
The certificate program emphasized psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine facilitation, and their applications for spiritual and psychotherapeutic care. It focused both on traditional uses of psilocybin as well as current Western approaches to mental health. The certificate was approved as a Psilocybin Facilitator Training Program through the Oregon Health Authority (ID #TP-b174a696) and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission until 2027. To pursue licensure in Oregon, students completed a required 40-hour practicum. Those who completed licensure in Oregon are also eligible for licensure in Colorado, pending completion of Colorado-specific requirements.