Glut of Shroom Guides Leads to Hold on Training

Synaptic Institute, one of two dozen schools in Oregon that train facilitators to lead psychedelic trips, says it is suspending its psilocybin training program because a glut of guides has made potential students wary of pursuing certification to do the work.

“There’s a lot of underemployed facilitators right now,” Synaptic founder Matthew Hicks said in an email to his mailing list earlier this month. “So it’s not necessarily the best financial investment to spend eight, nine, $10,000, becoming a facilitator if you’re dependent on income from doing that work.”

Psilocybin trips led by trained guides became legal in Oregon after voters passed Measure 109 in 2020. Since then, 417 guides have completed training at the schools and applied for licenses, and 356 have been approved, according to the Oregon Health Authority, which administers the psilocybin program.

Synaptic will continue training licensed health care professionals who want to administer ketamine, Hicks said. Its clinic, where patients receive acupuncture, naturopathic mental health care, and therapy with ketamine and psilocybin, will also remain open.

“It is a little heavy-hearted that we let the psilocybin program go,” Hicks said, “but we are confident that it is the right decision, and it’ll enable us to better fulfill our mission as a whole.”