What it is
This is the smallest and cheapest of the trainings in this directory, and the most concretely about work a California therapist can legally do tomorrow. It is six days in person in Santa Cruz — two three-day weekends, 10am to 5pm, no virtual option — taught by Dmitry Vulfovich, LMFT, the founder and clinical director of Spiral Process Therapy, a Campbell/South Bay practice that offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. The stated content is the full arc of a psychedelic-assisted session: assessment and vetting, preparation and priming, in-session facilitation using experiential methods (movement, chair work, expressive arts, guided imagery), touch and attachment work, integration, and coordinating with the prescriber who actually writes the ketamine script.
The unusual feature is the tuition structure. $1,950 covers the training and, per the program's own page, 'includes ketamine medicine (2 sessions) for each student.' Because ketamine has to be routed through a medical prescriber, the program says refunds will not be granted except for a compelling medical emergency. A $450 deposit plus $50 processing fee is due at registration. There is no published payment-plan schedule beyond 'available per request.'
Eligibility is broad on paper and narrower in the fine print. The Psychedelic Process Training page says the course is 'open to all healing practitioners including coaches, shamans, nurses, doctors, licensed therapists and registered associates,' and that the organization 'highly value[s]' applicants who have done its own Spiral Process Method (SPM) course or an equivalent experiential foundation such as Hakomi, IFS or Somatic Experiencing. The separate SPM course page states it more firmly: 'Completion of this course is also a prerequisite for the Psychedelic Process Training.' Those two sentences do not agree, and a prospective student should get the answer in writing before paying a non-refundable deposit. SPM itself is a separate 7-day, $1,750 course.
Continuing education is the other thing to pin down. Spiral Process Therapy is a CAMFT-approved CE sponsor (provider number 1000186) and awards 35 CE hours for the SPM course, explicitly meeting California BBS requirements for LMFT, LCSW, LPCC and LEP renewal. The Psychedelic Process Training page carries the same accommodations-and-grievances boilerplate a CE-approved course would, but states no CE hour count anywhere. Ask. Six days at roughly 6 instructional hours a day is about 36 hours of teaching, which would be meaningful CE if it is in fact approved.
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 ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in California as the therapist half of a two-role arrangement — you do the preparation, sit the session and do the integration, while a physician, NP or PA evaluates the client and prescribes the ketamine. Ketamine is an FDA-approved anaesthetic prescribed off-label for psychiatric indications; nothing about this training authorizes you to prescribe or dispense it.
- Offer psychedelic integration therapy in California. Integration is ordinary psychotherapy about an experience the client had elsewhere, and requires no special credential beyond your BBS license.
- Use the experiential, somatic and touch-based methods taught here inside your existing scope as an LMFT, LCSW, LPCC or psychologist, subject to your board's rules on touch and informed consent.
- Have had two supervised ketamine sessions yourself, which is the sort of first-hand experience clinics and KAP practices ask about when hiring.
- Plausibly claim California BBS continuing education — but only if this specific course is CE-approved. Spiral Process Therapy is a CAMFT-approved CE sponsor (provider 1000186) and awards 35 CE hours for its Spiral Process Method course; the Psychedelic Process Training page states no CE hours at all. Confirm before you assume.
- Change your license or scope of practice. This is a certificate from a private practice, not a credential from the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. The BBS does not recognize, require or register psychedelic-therapy certificates.
- Prescribe, administer, supply or possess ketamine. That is the prescriber's role, and it stays the prescriber's role after this course.
- Legally work with psilocybin or MDMA with clients in California. Psilocybin and psilocyn are Schedule I under California Health & Safety Code §11054(d)(18)-(19), and MDMA-assisted therapy has no FDA approval — the FDA issued Lykos Therapeutics a complete response letter in August 2024 and no MDMA product is approved as of August 2026.
- Qualify for the Oregon psilocybin facilitator license or the Colorado natural medicine facilitator license. Spiral Process Therapy does not appear on the Oregon Health Authority's list of training programs with approved curriculum, nor on Colorado DORA's list of approved Natural Medicine Training Programs (both checked 6 August 2026).
- Call yourself a 'psychedelic therapist' as a protected or regulated title. No such title exists in California.
Why the answer is this narrow →
Cost, length and who can apply
What you would study
- History of shamanism and ethnobotany
Listed as a taught topic; the instructor's master's thesis (John F. Kennedy University) was in Ethnobotanical Assisted Psychotherapy.
source ↗ - The altered state and 'inner healing intelligence'
Understanding the altered state and its opportunity to access the inner healing intelligence.
source ↗ - Assessment and vetting
How to assess if a client is appropriate for psychedelic treatment.
source ↗ - Preparation and priming
How to prepare a client for the psychedelic experience, and how to prime a client's process to help them orient for the most meaningful outcome.
source ↗ - Experiential facilitation methods
Movement, somatic work, chair work, expressive arts, guided imagery and more, used to deepen the client toward their inner healing intelligence; holding space 'in a dynamic, centered and non-agendized manner.'
source ↗ - Touch and attachment healing
How to use touch and attachment healing as part of psychedelic therapy.
source ↗ - Integration
How to help the client integrate and apply the lessons and newfound perspectives into their daily life.
source ↗ - Working with prescribers and community
How to work with the providers, prescribers and community leaders to give clients access to the medicine — the practical piece of KAP, since the therapist does not prescribe.
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.
- Dmitry Vulfovich, LMFT — founder, clinical director and the sole named instructor. Master's thesis from John F. Kennedy University in Ethnobotanical Assisted Psychotherapy; completed the MAPS PBC MDMA-Assisted Therapy Education Program (50 hours); trained directly by Don and Carol Hadlock in foundational and advanced Process Therapy including a year-long one-way-mirror experiential therapy program; 190 hours of dance movement therapy training with Bonnie Bernstein; introductory Hakomi. He is described on the site as a Process Therapy Master Teacher and a Zen teacher in the Vipassana tradition.
- Nadia Vulfovich — program administrator and the contact for eligibility, prerequisites, accommodations and grievances. Not listed as teaching faculty.
- No other named instructors, guest faculty or co-facilitators are published for this course.
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. September 2026 cohort dates are published (11-13 and 25-27 September) with a registration deadline of 21 August 2026. Note that the same page also carries a stale line inviting visitors to 'subscribe below to be notified when 2026 dates are announced,' so the page is not fully maintained.
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.
- Cohort size. Not published anywhere on the site for this course. The related SPM course page refers only to a 'limited in-person learning space model.'
- CE hours for this specific course. The organization is a CAMFT-approved CE sponsor and publishes 35 CE hours for its SPM course, but the Psychedelic Process Training page states no CE hour figure.
- Whether the Spiral Process Method course is a hard prerequisite. The two site pages contradict each other.
- Whether the two included ketamine sessions require a separate prescriber evaluation fee for the student, and whether the ketamine is administered at the training venue or elsewhere.
- Any independent review, journalism, alumni account, Trustpilot listing or forum discussion of this specific training. None found. Reddit is unreachable from this environment and general web-search engines were blocked, so this is a genuine gap rather than a finding of absence.
- Any named faculty other than the founder, and whether the program has run before (no past-cohort dates, alumni count or testimonials are published).
- Any YouTube video about this specific training. Spiral Process Therapy has a YouTube channel with general psychotherapy talks by Dmitry Vulfovich, but nothing found about the Psychedelic Process Training.
Sources for this page (6)
- Psychedelic Process Training for Therapists — program page (cost, dates, format, curriculum, eligibility, refund policy)
- Spiral Process Method course page (CAMFT CE sponsor number, 35 CE hours, prerequisite statement, $1,750 tuition)
- Spiral Process Therapy — Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy service page (how KAP actually runs in their practice, client-side costs)
- California Health & Safety Code §11054 — Schedule I, listing psilocybin (d)(18) and psilocyn (d)(19)
- Oregon Health Authority — list of psilocybin training programs with approved curriculum (Spiral Process is not on it; checked 6 August 2026)
- Colorado DORA — approved Natural Medicine Training Programs (Spiral Process is not on it; checked 6 August 2026)