What it is
SoundMind is a nonprofit-affiliated training run by Hannah C. McLane, MD, MA, MPH, who designed and teaches it. The 2026–27 cohort structure is: enroll any time between 15 March and 15 September 2026, start with a self-paced prerequisite 'Psychodynamic Techniques for Psychedelic Facilitators' course, then from September 2026 attend required live Zoom sessions on Tuesdays 7–9pm ET with guest lecturers, plus a supervised weekly accountability group (tentatively Thursdays 7–8pm ET). Expect 8–10 hours a week outside class for readings and homework. To be certified you must complete all readings, homework and quizzes, pass a written comprehensive exam, and attend the main class — five absences are allowed. There is a 'Global Access Program' for people who cannot make the live hours.
Tuition is stated only as a range, $5,800 to $10,300, 'depending on the program you choose', with the specifics reserved for a call. The 40-hour in-person practicum required for the full certificate is a further $2,500–$4,500 and is not included in tuition; you have two years after graduation to complete it. Practicums use psilocybin or ketamine depending on whether you want the Colorado psilocybin certificate. Refunds are full and no-questions-asked up to three weeks before the program starts. Roughly 30% of past cohorts were not clinicians — SoundMind takes an explicit position that restricting training to license-holders is itself an equity problem.
On equity, the concrete things — as distinct from the mission statement — are: the BIPOC Psychedelic Leadership Program, a free 10-month fellowship for 15 BIPOC fellows meeting monthly with five core facilitators, whose graduates SoundMind lists publicly so organizations can book them; a Psychedelics and Identity Initiative building retreat protocols and clinician materials around sexuality and gender-identity shifts that surface in sessions; a stated requirement that all teachers be 'grounded in an anti-racist, anti-oppression framework'; a Native American Outreach Coordinator (Belinda Eriacho, Diné and Zuni) who also instructs; a Peer Support Model aimed at Veterans, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ clients; and a curriculum module, 'Ethical and Inclusive Practice', covering consent, boundaries and BIPOC access. The affiliated Philadelphia clinic is the delivery vehicle for most of this.
On neurodiversity, be more careful. There is no neurodiversity module in the published curriculum. What exists is: McLane identifies as neurodiverse (dyslexia and ADHD) and researches cognitive diversity, psychedelics and ADHD; and SoundMind's own 2023 press release lists 'Neurodiverse individuals' among the populations its equitable-care models serve. That is a founder's research interest and an organizational claim, not a taught component you can point to in the syllabus. The one structural feature that arguably supports neurodivergent students — recorded lectures, five permitted absences, a self-paced Global Access track — is framed by SoundMind as scheduling flexibility, not as accommodation.
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.
- Keep practicing as a California LMFT with a certificate from a school. It confers nothing on your BBS license; the BBS neither issues nor recognizes a psychedelic-therapy credential.
- Take the Colorado track and, on completion, pursue Colorado natural medicine facilitator licensure. This one is real and checkable: 'SoundMind Institute Psychedelic Facilitator Training Program' appears on DORA's Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs list, with Didactic, Practicum and Consultation all marked Yes (checked 6 August 2026). SoundMind states you will still need 40 hours of consultation supervision after the program, at your own cost, to get a full license.
- Practice ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in California in collaboration with a prescriber — the training teaches you to hold space, prepare and integrate. SoundMind is unusually direct about the division of labor: 'To provide ketamine-assisted therapy, a facilitator must be affiliated with a physician who can prescribe ketamine.'
- Do preparation and integration work, which needs no credential at all, and which SoundMind explicitly emphasizes as a track in its own right.
- Have supervised hands-on experience with psilocybin or ketamine via the 40-hour practicum, in a jurisdiction where that is legal.
- Enter the field without a clinical license, if that describes you — this is one of the few programs that says so openly rather than quietly.
- Give you any legal ability in California beyond what your LMFT license already provides. Psilocybin and MDMA remain Schedule I federally and there is no California therapeutic framework: SB 58 was vetoed in October 2023, and California's 2025 legislative action was a bill to accelerate the study of psychedelics for PTSD, not to legalise therapeutic use.
- Get you an Oregon psilocybin facilitator license. SoundMind was approved by OHA in June 2022 and announced it as being 'one of the first three programs in the world' — but it does not appear on OHA's current live list of training programs with approved curriculum (15 programs, checked 6 August 2026). The program's own 2026 page now markets state approval only for Colorado. If Oregon is your goal, this is the wrong program unless SoundMind can show you a current OHA approval and HECC licensure in writing.
- Prescribe or administer anything. Their own disclaimer: this training 'does not provide the ability to prescribe ketamine, psilocybin or administer them without proper medical licensure.'
- Be presented as an accreditation. SoundMind says it plainly: outside Oregon and Colorado 'there is no standardization or credentialing board for psychedelic-assisted therapy at this time, which means no individual course or program can provide "accreditation" to practice with psychedelics.'
- Qualify you to practice independently on completion. 'Continued hands-on learning and ongoing clinical supervision are strongly recommended before practicing independently.'
- Count toward your California BBS continuing education, as far as anything published shows. No CE or CME credit is advertised anywhere on the program page or FAQ — unlike IPI and PCH, which both publish accredited CE arrangements. Ask before you assume.
**Important Disclaimer: This training does not provide the ability to prescribe ketamine, psilocybin or administer them without proper medical licensure. It is designed for therapeutic and facilitative roles within a collaborative care framework.— SoundMind Institute (training arm of SoundMind; affiliated with SoundMind Center, Philadelphia), in its own materials
Why the answer is this narrow →
Cost, length and who can apply
What you would study
- Core Foundations of Psychedelic Facilitation
The research on ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA; psychodynamic skills tailored for psychedelic therapy; cultural, legal and ethical considerations.
source ↗ - Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Training
Ketamine's use in depression, PTSD and anxiety; guiding clients from preparation through integration; supervised ketamine sessions for practical experience.
source ↗ - Psilocybin Facilitator Training
Guiding clients through psilocybin therapy; immersive retreats in Colorado; 'Meet State Standards: Fulfill all requirements for certification to practice in Colorado.'
source ↗ - Contemplative and Mindfulness Training
Meeting your own thoughts and emotions; developing a personal meditation practice; training in leading others through guided meditation.
source ↗ - Integration Practices
Techniques to help clients integrate experiences into daily life; tools supporting reflection, self-awareness and actionable steps.
source ↗ - Ethical and Inclusive Practice
Clinical ethics and boundaries — consent, patient care, professional boundaries; cultural sensitivity and inclusion, 'ensuring healing spaces are inclusive for BIPOC and marginalized communities'.
source ↗ - Ceremonial Practices
Ceremonial and historical traditions informing psychedelic healing; their origins; applying culturally respectful and ethical practices; honoring traditions while adapting them responsibly.
source ↗ - Somatic Approaches to Healing
Somatic techniques for processing emotion and trauma through the body; the link between physical sensation and emotional healing; breathwork, grounding exercises, mindful movement.
source ↗ - Trauma-Informed Facilitation
Recognizing and addressing trauma responses during psychedelic sessions; creating a safe and supportive environment; managing difficult experiences.
source ↗ - Psychodynamic Techniques for Psychedelic Facilitators (prerequisite)
Recently added self-paced prerequisite curriculum giving all students a foundation in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapy skills before the live course begins.
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.
- Hannah C. McLane, MD, MA, MPH — founder and lead instructor; designed and teaches the program; physician and psychoanalyst; research on cognitive diversity, psychedelics and ADHD, psychedelics and touch, and power dynamics including narcissism and cult behavior in psychedelic communities; identifies as neurodiverse (dyslexia and ADHD).
- Claudia Cuentas, LMFT — Peruvian immigrant, bilingual/bicultural artist and therapist; drama therapy, expressive arts, Somatic Experiencing; Aymara and Quechua lineage; MAPS MDMA training parts A and B. The named faculty member closest to an LMFT reader's own role.
- Kwasi Adusei, DNP — psychiatric mental health NP; co-founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York; MAPS Diversity Working Group; adjunct at CIIS.
- Michael Mithoefer, MD — ran two of the six MAPS Phase 2 MDMA trials; Senior Medical Director for Medical Affairs, Training and Supervision at MAPS PBC.
- Rick Doblin, PhD — founder of MAPS.
- Adele LaFrance, PhD — clinical psychologist, co-developer of Emotion-Focused Family Therapy.
- Chris Stauffer, MD — OHSU, dual board-certified in psychiatry and addiction medicine; also core faculty at IPI and a mentor for the CIIS certificate, which is worth noting when comparing programs.
- Harvey Schwartz, PhD — complex PTSD and dissociative disorders; training director at Polaris Insight.
- Daniel Wikler, PhD — Director of the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health; first staff ethicist for the WHO.
- Pierre Bouchard, MA, LPC — private ketamine practice in Boulder; supervises therapists around ketamine work.
- Belinda Eriacho, MPH — Diné and Zuni wisdom keeper; program instructor and Native American Outreach Coordinator.
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. Verified 6 August 2026: 'Enrolling for 2026 Cohort', training begins September 2026, with enrollment open from 15 March to 15 September 2026 for the 2026–2027 cohort. Source: https://www.soundmind.training/program (note the page's HTML title still reads '2025 Psychedelic Therapist Training', a stale artefact). Colorado approval confirmed live on DORA's list the same day.
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 fixed price. Tuition is a $4,500-wide range and the actual figure is only given on a sales call — which makes it impossible to compare against IPI's published $7,000 or PCH's published $5,000.
- No total hour count for the current program. The only hour figure published is 40 hours for the practicum plus a weekly commitment.
- No CE or CME credit is mentioned anywhere on the program page or in the FAQ. Given the BBS requires 36 hours per renewal and competitors advertise accredited CE, this looks like a real absence rather than an oversight in my search, but I could not find a page confirming either way.
- No explanation of why SoundMind is no longer on Oregon's approved list, and no statement on the current site acknowledging the change — the 2022 approval announcement is still published without amendment.
- Neurodiversity is claimed at organizational level ('programs for Veterans, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and Neurodiverse individuals') but no such program is described anywhere I could find, and there is no neurodiversity content in the published curriculum.
- The tuition difference between the tracks is not broken out — what specifically the $5,800 buys versus the $10,300 is not published.
- Independent reviews are unavailable from this environment: Reddit and Trustpilot both returned 403.
Sources for this page (12)
- SoundMind Psychedelic Facilitator Training — program page including full FAQ (tuition range, practicum cost, schedule, eligibility, curriculum, disclaimer, legal scope answers)
- SoundMind Institute homepage
- SoundMind Center — organization site (clinic, initiatives, BIPOC and identity programs, training hubs)
- Colorado DORA — Natural Medicine homepage with Approved Natural Medicine Training Programs list (SoundMind Institute listed; Didactic/Practicum/Consultation all Yes; checked 6 Aug 2026)
- Oregon Psilocybin Services — live list of training programs with approved curriculum (SoundMind absent, checked 6 Aug 2026)
- SoundMind — 'SoundMind Approved by the Oregon Health Authority to Train Psilocybin Facilitators', 18 June 2022
- SoundMind — 'SoundMind Trains Psychedelic Facilitators for Legal Psilocybin in Oregon' press release (200-hour/8-month earlier format, HECC licensure, populations served)
- SoundMind BIPOC Psychedelic Leadership Program (free, 15 fellows, 10 months)
- SoundMind Psychedelics and Identity Initiative
- SoundMind team page (Hannah McLane biography, neurodiversity, research interests)
- Oregon Health Authority — Facilitator License Fact Sheet (requirements; facilitators may not practice on another professional license while facilitating)
- California Board of Behavioral Sciences — Continuing Education requirements and recognized approval agencies