Seven Core Principles
Please review this page to learn more about our values as a program and to assess if this is the right course for you. We support you in exploring your options and choosing a professional path that inspires you and aligns with your needs.
1. Mindfulness Matters
Medicinal Mindfulness is equally passionate about both mindfulness and psychedelic medicines, and while each is incredibly valuable on its own, our work over the past decade has taught us about the profundity of the combination of these two ancient technologies for personal and global healing. Often times “drug” or “substance use” trends in our society involve the use of a prescription or illicit substance to numb or reduce symptoms, and to turn away from a difficult or painful experience. We believe in using the combination of safe, sacred, and legal medicines with mindfulness practices to turn towards underlying concerns and root causes of pain in order to resolve it.
2. Arts-Integrated Curriculum
Our center was co-founded by a Board Certified Art Therapist who has woven art experientials, processes and interventions throughout the training program in order to deepen and accelerate each student’s healing journey as well as their process of becoming a professional guide. Image & imagination work, rooted in Archetypal Psychology and Jungian theory, is integral to psychedelic work, and students will graduate from this program having come into deeper contact with themselves and their inner worlds, making them more competent and resilient guides. No previous art training is necessary.
3. Informed by Clinical Psychology and Assessment
Our clinical work is grounded in attachment theory, humanistic and feminist psychotherapy, and somatic trauma resolution practices while also acknowledging, to quote James Hillman, “We’ve had a hundred years of psychotherapy and the world’s getting worse.” While traditional talk therapy approaches are not always enough for stable transformation, having a strong clinical foundation supports both you and your client in creating the safest experiences possible. Our center was founded in 2012 by graduates of Naropa University with Masters Degrees in Transpersonal Counseling, and this essential mental health training is a foundational bedrock of this training.
4. Social Justice & Multicultural Awareness
Exploring issues related to social justice, unconscious bias, internalized oppression, inclusion, and so much more are a lifelong journey that involves personal and collective shadow work, awkward conversations, safe dialogue with safe people, and an ongoing commitment to deep listening. While this work will never be “done,” this training program strives to significantly deepen and extend the conversation, to uplift students and future clients from all backgrounds, and to sensitize our students and ourselves to issues related to social justice and our collective liberation. Learn more
5. Grounded in Transpersonal Theory and the Buddhist concept of Basic Goodness
These ancient ceremonial practices are as old as time, and the states that can be reached in these containers are a birthright. Humans are inherently good, and each of us has access to an inner healing intelligence (which psychedelic medicines can help remove certain obstacles to). We believe that stripping the spiritual orientation out of the field of Psychedelic Therapy is unethical and misses the point entirely. Intentional medicine practices are how we pray, and there’s nothing new or revolutionary about this. We are simply listening to our elders and following their teachings. We believe that “right relationship” to medicines and spiritual practices is possible for practitioners of diverse backgrounds, with proper training, in personally meaningful and culturally appropriate ways.
6. Trauma is Everywhere and Your Body is Wise
We know that all humans have experienced some kind of trauma in their lives and lineages, and therefore all clients need guides educated in trauma work.The principles of Somatic Psychotherapy and somatic trauma resolution practices are core aspects of our curriculum. We believe that your body is wise and knows how to heal and awaken, and our work together will help you grow these capacities for your own well being and in service of your clients.
7. Harm Reduction and Beyond
This program is an integration of evidence-based and research-backed approaches to safety protocols, assessment, dosage, and medical applications of psychedelic medicine. Medical doctors, psychiatrists, and nurse practitioners continue to be core members of our team and community and help to inform best practices.
What Makes Training with Medicinal Mindfulness Academy Different?
We are Psychedelic Practitioners: We aren’t just talking about psychedelic therapy, we actually do it! Our educators lead sessions with psilocybin mushrooms, psychedelic cannabis, ketamine and Natural DMT in legal above board sessions at our psychedelic therapy center in Boulder, Colorado. Our team has been guiding clients and groups with psychedelic cannabis since 2014, with ketamine since 2019, and with psilocybin mushrooms and DMT since they legalized for supported personal use in 2022.
- Accessible: We hold classes at our center in a specialized training space and online for greater accessibility. We focus on smaller classes over our bottom line, so class sizes always remain small. Experiential sessions are always in small groups or pairs.
- Experiential Learning: we know psychedelic guiding can’t be learned in a book! Partner work, client demonstrations, somatic practices, art therapy, movement, ceremonial design, and so much more, create a dynamic learning environment that engages the whole student (mind, body, and spirit).
- Diverse Professional Orientations are Welcome: This program wholeheartedly welcomes mental health and medical professionals as well as ministers, clergy, activists, yoga teachers, international students, artists, and other professionals. We believe accessibility to psychedelic therapy trainings and services is a social justice issue and firmly oppose the idea that these practices are intended only for licensed professionals with access to the privilege of higher education. We believe humanity is at a critical point in its evolution, and that this is an “All hands on deck” moment. Due to the urgency of this moment in time, and supported by the fact that many of the most amazing healers we know don’t identify as psychotherapists or doctors, we have chosen to prioritize diversity in our training programs over exclusivity.
- Extensive Application, Interview and Screening Process: We have an extensive and rigorous application review process and only accept students into this program who have displayed the resiliency and maturity necessary to become skillful and ethical psychedelic guides working within the scope of their practice.
- Family Owned & Fiercely Independent: We’re a small family-owned business founded in 2012, built brick-by-brick primarily by working-class healers, artists, and parents, along with a whole lot of support from the Unseen World. There is no corporate backing or team of profit-driven investors attached to our work. Our work has grown and expanded from this solid and down-to-earth foundation. Our business grew organically as our children grew, and now we lead a large team of guides, therapists, students, educators and community members.
- Our History: We believe in impossible things, and we do impossible things every day. Grounded in the simple mindfulness practice of accepting the present moment experience, we were inspired to create this business back in 2012 before legalization, and before we knew what would be possible someday. However, as activists and advocates, we were not called to work underground either. This meant that for the entire evolution of MM, we have been committed to legal above board work. This meant starting with only breathwork events, harm reduction classes, and offering services in psychedelic integration (2012-2014). When cannabis legalized in 2014, we began working with her as a potent psychedelic tool and ally who completely rocked our world and showed us what is possible when feminine power is given space to thrive. We integrated Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy into our clinical practice in 2019, and then Psilocybin Mushrooms and DMT starting in 2023. The training at Medicinal Mindfulness Academy is built on this experience.
- Learn From Our Resilience: We’ve got grit! With 13 years of legal, aboveboard experience, we can teach you the resiliency skills you will need to have a successful psychedelic practice in a complex world. We’ve seen it all, and know how to engage the ever-changing legal landscape with skill and integrity.