What it is
PRATI is a Colorado 501(c)(3) founded in 2019 out of the Wholeness Center in Fort Collins by psychiatrist Scott Shannon and colleagues. Its flagship course, Foundations in Psychedelic Medicine, is a four-day in-person retreat at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, capped at 32 participants for the September 3–6, 2026 cohort. It is explicitly built around ketamine: PRATI's own framing is that “ketamine is currently the only legal and widely used psychedelic in the U.S.” and is therefore the entry point for the rest of the field. Trainees must stay on site for the whole program; family and friends are not permitted at the venue.
The distinguishing feature — and the reason clinicians talk about PRATI — is the experiential component. On days two and three, trainees work in dyads and may receive ketamine themselves by two routes, intramuscular and sublingual. This is legal because ketamine is a Schedule III FDA-approved anaesthetic (21 CFR § 1308.13(c)(7)) administered here by a contracted medical provider, Evolve Mind Wellness, whose psychiatric director German Ascani, MD also serves as PRATI's medical/psychiatric director. Participation is optional, requires a pre-training virtual medical evaluation, requires a four-hour fast, and costs a separate $330 paid directly to Evolve Mind Wellness (prorated to $130–$280 for scholarship recipients). PRATI states plainly that the training “remains fully valuable and complete” for anyone not medically cleared or not wishing to participate, and that non-medicine “inner journey” experiences are available instead.
Eligibility is open to LMFTs. PRATI requires an active license in good standing in a medical or mental-health field — provisional licenses are accepted — plus at least 1,000 hours of direct clinical service. It is not prescriber-only: acupuncturists, chaplains, chiropractors, end-of-life doulas, naturopaths, nurses and physical therapists are also listed as eligible. Massage therapists are explicitly excluded. Pricing is two-tier: $3,000 for all non-physician participants, $4,450 for MDs and DOs, with a $500 non-refundable deposit. Lodging and meals at Sunrise Ranch are booked and paid separately, by the bed, and are not included at any price tier. Partial scholarships exist in three tiers ($500 / $1,650 / $2,475 paid to PRATI) across five equity categories.
Two things a buyer should weigh. First, PRATI is not accredited to award continuing-education credit: on request it will issue “a statement and summary of training hours (approximately 20),” which means a California LMFT gets no BBS-countable CE from a $3,000 course. Second, it confers no regulatory standing. PRATI does not appear on Colorado DORA's list of Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs, and its own separate psilocybin practicum requires that you have already completed a Colorado-approved facilitator training somewhere else and hold a Natural Medicine facilitator training license. PRATI also runs an End of Life / Existential Distress psychedelic-assisted therapy training, a Business of Psychedelic Medicine course, KAP consultation groups and international “Embracing the Sacred” psilocybin immersions in Mexico; those are separate purchases.
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.
- Work as the therapist on a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy team in California. That is legal for an LMFT today — but it is your BBS license, not the PRATI certificate, that authorizes the psychotherapy. Ketamine is Schedule III and FDA-approved as an anaesthetic (21 CFR § 1308.13(c)(7)); it is prescribed off-label by a physician, NP or PA, not by you.
- Do preparation and integration work with clients who are receiving ketamine from a prescriber, or who have had psychedelic experiences elsewhere. No special credential is needed for integration work by a licensed therapist.
- Say truthfully that you have had two legal, medically supervised ketamine experiences yourself, by two routes of administration, and have sat for a peer during theirs. Very few US trainings offer that legally, and it is the single thing this course provides that reading and CE webinars cannot.
- Be more credible to a ketamine clinic or group practice that is hiring therapists — PRATI has run these since 2019 and has name recognition among KAP clinicians.
- Create a free profile in PRATI's public directory of practitioners and join the alumni listserv after completing a training.
- Build a base you could later extend: PRATI's own psilocybin practicum, its End of Life / Existential Distress training, and its KAP consultation groups are separate purchases layered on top.
- Cannot prescribe, obtain, possess or administer ketamine. An LMFT has no prescriptive authority in California and this course does not create any. In the training itself the ketamine is administered by a contracted medical provider, not by trainees.
- Cannot legally use psilocybin or MDMA with clients in California. Both remain Schedule I federally (21 CFR § 1308.11(d)), California has no state-regulated psilocybin or MDMA program as of August 2026, and FDA has not approved MDMA-assisted therapy since the August 2024 complete response letter to Lykos.
- Cannot practice as a licensed facilitator in Colorado on the strength of this course. PRATI does not appear on DORA's published list of Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs, and PRATI's own psilocybin practicum page states that participants “must have successfully completed a Colorado-approved Psilocybin Facilitator Training Program before enrolling” and must already hold a Natural Medicine facilitator training license.
- Cannot use it toward Oregon psilocybin facilitator licensure. Oregon only recognizes training programs whose curriculum has been approved by Oregon Psilocybin Services under ORS 475A; PRATI does not claim OPS curriculum approval anywhere on its site, and its FAQ says its training “does not fulfill all the requirements to become a licensed facilitator in these states.”
- Cannot count it as continuing education. PRATI states it is “not accredited to offer CEUs.” A California LMFT gets zero BBS-countable CE hours for $3,000 plus lodging.
- Does not change your license, title, or scope of practice in any way the California BBS recognizes. There is no BBS endorsement, registration or specialty designation for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
The field of psychedelic medicine is rapidly evolving, and ketamine is currently the only legal psychedelic that can be used in clinical practice across all U.S. states. At this time, there is no standardized national certification process required to practice ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Some states, like Colorado and Oregon, are developing regulated models for legal access to other psychedelics, such as psilocybin. While PRATI’s training may contribute to the knowledge and skills required for psychedelic therapy, it does not fulfill all the requirements to become a licensed facilitator in these states. However, it may meet certain prerequisite components of the licensing process.— Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), in its own materials
Why the answer is this narrow →
Cost, length and who can apply
What you would study
- Experiential ketamine (optional)
“Two optional ketamine experiences (intramuscular and sublingual) contingent on medical approval and supported by a fellow trainee.” Held on days two and three, in dyads, after a pre-training virtual medical evaluation by PRATI's contracted medical provider and a minimum four-hour fast.
source ↗ - Harm reduction and ethics
“Harm reduction and ethical practices in psychedelic medicine.”
source ↗ - Preparation and integration
“Preparation and integration strategies for psychedelic experiences.”
source ↗ - Guiding non-ordinary states
“Guiding clients through nonordinary states of consciousness” and “facilitating transformative sessions using effective tools and techniques.”
source ↗ - Music and playlist creation
“The role of music and playlist creation in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.” Course director Stephen Thomas, LCSW curates PRATI's KAP playlists.
source ↗ - Severe depression and suicidality
“Clinical care for severely depressed and suicidal individuals.”
source ↗ - Ketamine dosing and administration
“Ketamine dosing and administration best practices, including various routes of delivery.” Note this is taught to a mixed room; it does not give a non-prescribing therapist authority to dose anyone.
source ↗ - Set, setting, ceremony and ritual
“Exploration of set and setting, ceremony, and ritual in psychedelic medicine.”
source ↗ - Worldview and systemic change
“Perspectives on worldview and systemic change within the psychedelic paradigm.” PRATI describes its purpose as “restoring connection to the sacred” and weaves that framing through the course.
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.
- Scott Shannon, MD — founder; child psychiatrist and founder of the Wholeness Center in Fort Collins, the clinic PRATI grew out of after its involvement in Phase III MDMA research.
- Stephen Thomas, LCSW — Foundations in Psychedelic Medicine Training Director; Fort Collins psychotherapist and KAP practitioner, board member of the Nowak Society, and the person who curates PRATI's KAP music playlists.
- German Ascani, MD, MS — PRATI's lead psychiatric consultant and medical/psychiatric director for the trainings; the medical provider behind the experiential component through his practice Evolve Mind Wellness. Board-certified psychiatrist, former MAPS/Lykos associate consultant and Phase 3 MDMA study therapist, and a licensed Colorado natural medicine clinical facilitator.
- Christine (Chris) Pateros, MA, RN — founding team member, End of Life PAT Training Director and lead faculty; Ketamine Training Center-trained (2019) and MAPS MDMA-trained (2024).
- Jason Sienknecht, LPC, CAS — founding team member who led early curriculum development.
- Wilhelmina De Castro, LCSW — Executive Director.
- Board of directors includes Janis Phelps, PhD (founder of the CIIS psychedelic therapy certificate), Andrew Weil, MD, Joe Tafur, MD, Lia Mix, MS, MFT and Kwasi Adusei, DNP, PMHNP-BC — a useful signal of who vouches for the organization.
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. Registration is open for the September 3–6, 2026 cohort at Sunrise Ranch, capped at 32 participants; the scholarship application deadline was 27 July 2026 and full payment was due the same date. Verified 6 August 2026 on PRATI's event page.
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 published hour-by-hour schedule or syllabus; the “approximately 20 hours” figure comes only from the CE answer in the FAQ.
- Sunrise Ranch lodging and meal prices are only reachable through an off-site link, so the true all-in cost of attending could not be pinned down. Budget for four to five nights of lodging plus flights on top of the $3,000/$4,450.
- No CME is advertised for physicians and PRATI does not say whether it intends to seek accreditation.
- PRATI says it has “hundreds of alumni” since 2019 but publishes no cohort-by-cohort numbers, completion rates or outcome data.
- No independent journalism about PRATI specifically was found — the criticism cited here is field-level (experiential-training ethics, unaccredited training-company risk), not program-specific. Every positive quote about PRATI that could be located is a testimonial PRATI itself published.
- Oregon Psilocybin Services now publishes its approved-curriculum list through a JavaScript application that could not be enumerated from this environment; the “not Oregon-approved” finding rests on PRATI's own FAQ statement and the absence of any Oregon claim on its site rather than on reading the OHA list line by line.
- It is not stated whether the ketamine experiential creates any patient record with Evolve Mind Wellness, or how that interacts with a trainee's own medical history and future disclosure obligations.
Sources for this page (13)
- PRATI — Foundations in Psychedelic Medicine Training (cost, eligibility, scholarships, location)
- PRATI — Foundations training FAQ (certification disclaimer, CEUs, ketamine experientials, schedule)
- PRATI — September 3-6, 2026 cohort event page (dates, cap of 32, $330 medical fee, deadlines)
- PRATI — Foundations training policy statements
- PRATI — About / team, board and origins
- PRATI — Psilocybin Practicum (requires a Colorado-approved training completed elsewhere; NMIT license required)
- Colorado DORA — Natural Medicine program, Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs list
- Oregon Psilocybin Services — training program curriculum approval requirements (ORS 475A)
- 21 CFR § 1308.13 — Schedule III, ketamine
- 21 CFR § 1308.11 — Schedule I, psilocybin and MDMA
- Rosenbaum et al., Experiential Training in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: A Risk-Benefit Analysis, Hastings Center Report 2024
- Villiger, Personal psychedelic experience of psychedelic therapists during training, Int Rev Psychiatry 2024
- Psychedelic Alpha — Inside Synthesis Institute’s Implosion