What it is
The MIND Foundation is a Berlin non-profit tied to the OVID Clinic and to German psilocybin research (the EPIsoDE and DiMension trials). Its Augmented Psychotherapy Training is a 15-month program built around two named things: 'Psychedelic-Augmented Psychotherapy' (inducing altered states inside a therapy process) and 'Integration-Focused Psychotherapy' (working with psychedelic experiences that happened outside the therapy room). The structure is three on-site intensive weeks in Berlin — for the ninth, English-language cohort: 7–13 Nov 2026, 3–9 Jul 2027, 19–25 Feb 2028 — plus weekly online sessions on Thursdays at 19:30 CET for the whole 15 months, plus a self-paced online course (Molecules) and a required four-day integration workshop (Beyond Experience). Cohorts cap at 32 people. Certification requires at least 80% attendance.
Tuition is EUR 15,000 paid in one lump sum, or EUR 16,800 across six installments — the site owner's recollection of 'roughly €15,000' is correct and verified on MIND's own admissions page. That figure explicitly excludes accommodation, travel, and the compulsory Beyond Experience workshop, which is listed at €690. So for a Californian the real outlay is €15,000 tuition + €690 workshop + three round-trips to Berlin + roughly three weeks of lodging and three weeks out of practice, spread over 15 months. MIND is a registered German non-profit and states that APT revenue cannot be extracted by individuals.
On the question that matters most for this record: the APT does include a supervised personal experience of an altered state, and it happens in Berlin during the intensive weeks — but it is ketamine and non-pharmacological methods (breathwork, guided imagery, music, stroboscopic light), not psilocybin. MIND's own FAQ is unambiguous: 'The self-experience curriculum in APT currently includes ketamine as well as all of the non-pharmacological methods mentioned above.' Germany has no legal framework for supervised psilocybin outside of clinical trials, and MIND says so directly. The program teaches about psilocybin and LSD; it does not give you psilocybin. Anyone choosing APT specifically to get a legal psilocybin session should not; that is not what this is.
What APT actually is, judged on its own terms, is a serious clinical training with unusually explicit gatekeeping. Applicants must be 25 or older, hold one of nine listed professional qualifications, and produce a police clearance certificate showing no drug or capital convictions. MIND's published exclusion criteria include 'uncritical attitude toward ideas that can be evaluated as pseudoscience, charlatanry, conspiracy theories, or esotericism' and 'illegal underground therapy practice.' For a California LMFT, the honest calculus is: you will get a deep, research-adjacent, European clinical education and a network of European clinicians; you will not get anything a US regulator, a US insurer, or a US employer is obliged to recognize; and the one modality you can practice in California when you get home — ketamine-assisted psychotherapy — can be trained for domestically at a fraction of the cost and none of the airfare.
See it and hear it
What it lets you do
This is the section the program’s own marketing is least specific about, so it runs before everything else. It was established against the program’s own materials and against the two state registers that matter — Oregon’s approved-curriculum list and Colorado’s.
- Practice integration-focused psychotherapy in California — working with clients before and after psychedelic experiences that happen outside your office. This needs no certificate at all; it is already inside an LMFT/LCSW/LPCC/psychologist scope. APT gives you a structured framework for it, not permission.
- Use the non-pharmacological methods the program teaches (breathwork, guided imagery, music, stroboscopic light) with clients, subject to your own competence and your board's scope rules. MIND: 'While non-pharmacological methods are at your disposal wherever you practice...'
- Work as the psychotherapy half of a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy team in California, where a physician, NP, or PA does the prescribing and medical monitoring — but note APT is not a KAP-specific training and there are US programs built exactly for this.
- Be a credible candidate for research-adjacent roles, European clinics, and clinical-trial site work, and hold a training credential from an organization with real ties to German psilocybin trials (EPIsoDE, DiMension).
- Say honestly that you have had a supervised, legal, medically screened personal experience of an altered state as part of a professional training — a ketamine session, in Berlin, under German medical supervision.
- Administer or possess psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA anywhere in the United States. Psilocybin and LSD are Schedule I under California Health & Safety Code §11054; there is no California therapeutic exemption.
- Prescribe or administer ketamine in California. You are a therapist, not a prescriber, and MIND's own certificate 'does not legally entitle you to work with medications or other pharmacological substances.'
- Use APT toward Oregon psilocybin facilitator licensure. MIND Foundation does not appear on Oregon Psilocybin Services' list of Current Active Psilocybin Training Programs (15 programs listed; checked 2026-08-06).
- Use APT toward Colorado natural-medicine facilitator licensure. MIND Foundation does not appear on Colorado DORA's list of Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs (checked 2026-08-06).
- Change anything about your California BBS license, scope of practice, or renewal requirements. The BBS neither recognizes nor requires this certificate.
- Count the training toward California CE hours as a matter of course. MIND's credits are German CME points for Molecules and Beyond Experience; they are not stated to be APA-sponsor CE, which is the route the BBS accepts.
After successfully completing the APT Program, participants are awarded a certificate in Psychedelic Therapy (Integration-Focused and Psychedelic-Augmented Psychotherapy). Depending on their professional background, certified professionals are qualified to work independently and lead multiprofessional teams providing psychedelic therapy, or to work in such multiprofessional teams under the supervision of a medical doctor with training in psychotherapy or a licensed psychotherapist. The certificate covers breathwork-, ketamine-, and psychedelic-augmented psychotherapy. However, the certificate does not legally entitle you to work with medications or other pharmacological substances. This authorization is acquired through country- and region-specific approbations and is subject to corresponding legal regulations. We strictly require all APT participants to comply with the legal regulations applicable at their respective place of work.— MIND Foundation gGmbH (partner of OVID Clinic Berlin), in its own materials
Why the answer is this narrow →
Cost, length and who can apply
What you would study
- Learning format: three on-site intensive weeks (Berlin)
'The on-site curriculum includes a varied program of theory units, practical exercises, and self-experience in altered states of consciousness.' Cannot be attended remotely because of the experiential content (role-play, exercises, self-experience with ketamine and breathwork).
source ↗ - Learning format: weekly online sessions
Lectures with leading international experts; a journal club on psychedelic therapy and research; small-group mentoring sessions (4–6 participants) with psychedelic-experienced therapists that focus on case discussion and include elements of clinical supervision; and meditation training. Thursdays, 19:30 CET/CEST.
source ↗ - Molecules (self-paced online course, included in tuition)
MIND's graduate-level certificate course on 'the neurobiology and pharmacology of psychoactive drugs, applied knowledge about psychedelic therapy and drug-related emergencies, and an extensive overview over psychedelic research.' Listed at €495 standalone with 35 CME-Points.
source ↗ - Beyond Experience (compulsory 4-day integration workshop, NOT included in tuition)
'A 4-day-intensive workshop... The focus is on the integration of experiences acquired in expanded states of consciousness, both substance and non-substance induced.' Listed at €690 regular price; reduced 'Access tickets' of 25–100% off available by application. Held in Berlin, Amsterdam, Mallorca, and expanding to Romania and Portugal.
source ↗ - APT Outcome 1–6: Basic Competencies
1. Apply psychotherapeutic concepts, methods, and attitudes in psychedelic therapy. 2. Understand the scientific, medical, and philosophical foundations of psychedelic therapy. 3. Understand the diverse cultural, social, and medical history of psychedelics. 4. Comply with legal requirements and address ethical challenges. 5. Understand and incorporate existential aspects of psychedelic experiences. 6. Cultivate a learning-oriented attitude toward psychedelic self-experience and reflect on its relevance for shaping therapeutic processes.
source ↗ - APT Outcome 7–12: Practical Competencies
7. Cooperate and communicate professionally with colleagues in multi-professional teams and health care institutions. 8. Prevent and mitigate adverse effects of psychedelics. 9. Screen patients and plan treatments. 10. Prepare patients for psychedelic experiences. 11. Induce and accompany psychedelic experiences in appropriate settings. 12. Support patients in the integration of psychedelic experiences and assist their transition to the post-treatment phase.
source ↗ - Self-experience curriculum
MIND's FAQ, verbatim: 'We teach a broad scope of methods to induce altered states of consciousness: Pharmacological methods include classical psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, etc.) and atypical psychedelics (ketamine). Non-pharmacological methods include breathwork, guided imagery, music, and stroboscopic light. The self-experience curriculum in APT currently includes ketamine as well as all of the non-pharmacological methods mentioned above.' So: the training teaches about psilocybin and LSD but the supervised personal experience is ketamine plus non-drug methods, delivered on-site in Berlin.
source ↗ - Theoretical orientation
'The APT program takes a transtheoretical approach... No specific psychotherapeutic orientation or school is emphasized over others.' Organized around Klaus Grawe's general change mechanisms: resource activation, therapeutic relationship, problem actuation, motivational clarification/clarification of meaning, mastery.
source ↗
Who teaches it
Faculty is a large part of what these programs actually sell, and it changes between cohorts — check the current list before you decide on this basis.
- Henrik Jungaberle, PhD — CEO and Director of Human Development at MIND, Dipl. Music Psychotherapist; sits on the APT program committee
- Andrea Jungaberle, MD — CEO and Medical Director of OVID (MIND's clinical partner), medical psychotherapist and specialist in anaesthesia; relevant because the ketamine self-experience sits on the clinic side
- Gerhard Gründer, MD — psychopharmacologist, specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy; principal investigator on German psilocybin research and the name that makes the research claim credible
- Hans Rutrecht, M.Sc. — psychologist, gestalt facilitation, also on the meditation team
- Andreas Zeuch, Dr. rer. soc. — heads the role-play education strand
- Marijan Bernardic (Dipl. Psych.) and Liliana Vasquez-Mock (M.A.) — breathwork team, i.e. the non-pharmacological half of the self-experience curriculum
- Over 20 mentors/supervisors based internationally, including the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Switzerland
What people say about it
Quoted with the source attached in every case, including the program’s own claims about itself — which are labeled as such — and the critical ones.
Where it stands right now
Enrolling / waitlist — verified 2026-08-06 on the MIND admissions page: 'Enrollment for the waiting lists of both courses is open; you can apply... A limited number of spots is available in each course, and the spots are being filled continuously.' Ninth cohort (English) starts 7 November 2026; tenth cohort (German) starts 13 March 2027. Source: https://www.mind-foundation.org/augmented-psychotherapy-training/apply
What I could not establish
These are the things I looked for and could not establish. Take them to the program, and notice how quickly and precisely they answer.
- No total contact-hour figure is published for APT — MIND publishes the shape of the program (3 intensive weeks + weekly online sessions) but not an hours count.
- The exact clinical setting, dose, and supervision arrangement for the ketamine self-experience is not published — MIND names it as part of the on-site curriculum but does not describe the protocol, who administers, or whether it happens at OVID Clinic.
- CME figures conflict slightly: the APT FAQ says Molecules carries 37 CME credits and Beyond Experience 39, while the Molecules course page lists '35 CME-Points'.
- Whether any part of APT carries CE credit acceptable to the California BBS is not addressed anywhere on MIND's site. Assume not.
- No published refund or cancelation policy for APT tuition was found.
- No independent third-party reviews, journalism, or forum discussion of APT could be retrieved in this environment (search engines and Reddit were blocked). All qualitative material here is MIND's own.
- Whether MIND has ever applied to Oregon Health Authority or Colorado DORA for curriculum approval is unknown; only their current absence from both lists is verified.
Sources for this page (9)
- MIND Foundation — Augmented Psychotherapy Training (program overview, 15-month structure, cohort dates, 12 APT Outcomes)
- MIND Foundation — APT Admission and Application (tuition EUR 15,000 / EUR 16,800; admission criteria; exclusion criteria; cohort dates)
- MIND Foundation — APT FAQ (self-experience curriculum = ketamine + non-pharmacological; legal disclaimer; structure; CME)
- MIND Foundation — APT Faculty and Team
- MIND Foundation — Beyond Experience (compulsory 4-day workshop, €690)
- MIND Foundation — Molecules (€495, 35 CME-Points)
- Oregon Psilocybin Services — Current Active Psilocybin Training Programs (15 programs; MIND not listed; checked 2026-08-06)
- Colorado DORA — Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs (MIND not listed; checked 2026-08-06)
- California Health & Safety Code §11054 — Schedule I includes psilocybin and LSD