Denver Psilocybin Therapy
Because research shows that the mushroom experience itself is not quite enough for long-term healing.
Guided Psychedelic Therapy, Preparation & Integration in Denver, Colorado
Denver is one of the few places in the United Stares where adults (21+) can legally work with a Colorado licensed natural medicine facilitator and take natural psilocybin mushrooms within a real, safe and therapeutic process. With a licensed psychotherapist and trained natural medicine expert, not with an underground facilitator that may have a lot of medicine experience, but is not trained in ethical therapeutic practices, deep trauma work and the ins-and-outs of long-term healing processes.
Because we only go as deep as our mind feels safe, participating in the therapy-backed OUR HOUSE psilocybin assisted therapy programs allows clients to prepare with trauma-informed tools and support. Nikki Fall, LCSW and Camila Pastor, LCSW, SEP are licensed psychotherapists, with combined psychoanalyst, somatic experience and EMDR expertise. What is special about OUR HOUSE is that Nikki and Camila developed their own process tools, based on their many years of experience as psychotherapists. While much of the field is still discussing data of clinical trials, they are a already a step ahead in applying their expertise of how psychedelics unfold on people’s healing journeys after the experience. Their program meaningfully weaves in therapy tools for calmer minds, knowledge of the impact of trauma on mind and body, and behavior change.
Both OUR HOUSE co-founders are Colorado Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitators who offer exactly what research evidence teaches: Psilocybin appears to help depression (and other symptoms or conditions) and creates opportunities for lasting psychological change when combined with preparation and integration. Unlike most retreat models in the state, or outside of Colorado, OUR HOUSE developed clinically grounded psilocybin therapy in healing community environments for individuals and couples, that are clinically safe, beneficial, and financially more accessible than what other local healing centers offer.
Questions Denver Clients Ask Most
Why should I heal in a licensed healing center through Colorado's Natural Medicine Act?
In 2022, Colorado voters passed the Natural Medicine Health Act, and the state has since built out a licensing system for facilitators and healing centers. For Denver residents, and residents across the state this means they can now work with someone who has gone through actual clinical and medicine training, who is accountable to a licensing board, and who treats the medicine within a therapeutic healing process for immediate and long-term results.
That law and training program matters because licensed facilitators must undergo a thorough, state-regulated intake and screening process that keep clients safe and ensures the work is right for everyone who is interested. Research shows that most adults in the US are afraid of being harmed by psychedelics and psilocybin in particular. Clients who apply at OUR HOUSE can be certain that safety regulations will be followed and that their health and wellbeing is protected.
Denver residents should know that Colorado regulations determine the length of sessions and many other aspects of the psilocybin therapy experience to ensure safety, such as planning for rides and ensuring that clients leave their experience grounded and with a support system in place. The OUR HOUSE process is designed around all safety regulations as well as Nikki’s and Camila’s decades of therapeutic healing knowledge so that OUR HOUSE clients simply can follow their proven process. With their guidance, all clients are taught and prepared how to journey safely and how to move gently towards success and positive outcomes.
Why Mushrooms Work in Healing: A Psychoanalyst's View
Nikki trained as a psychoanalyst and trauma therapist before she trained as a clinical psychedelic facilitator, and years of working with clients, minds and trauma have shaped her work with psilocybin. Research out of Imperial College London describes something called the REBUS model, or Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics. Under psilocybin, activity at the 5-HT2A receptor appears to loosen rigid, long held beliefs about identity, worth, and safety, the very beliefs that keep depression, anxiety, and trauma locked in place.
Just like with relational psychoanalysis, psilocybin allows clients to access the roots of their long-held beliefs and to hold the root causes with compassion. What psychoanalysis is not able to do at the same time or at the same speed, is to help clients access positive beliefs about themselves. This kind of positive reframing can take years or decades, but with psilocybin, clients can often find direct access to self-love and compassion on their journeys.
Nikki and Camila help guide people to calmer spaces beyond their trauma beliefs. This type of deep healing always requires careful and gentle psychological insight and preparation which is hard to do for untrained facilitators.
Why the Medicine Works: An IFS practitioner's View
Camila is trained as an IFS therapist and trauma therapist before she trained as a clinical psychedelic facilitator, and she observed and facilitated clients’ experiences with Ayahuasca under the guidance of the traditions of the Shipibo people in her native Peru, bringing a lot of experience and different perspectives to her natural medicine work. Having trained as a somatic experiencing therapist and as an internal family systems (IFS) therapist, Camila helped many clients to reconnect to their bodies and “parts “ of themselves; parts that have been disconnected and abandoned during traumatic experiences. The IFS model has become an integral framework in OUR HOUSE processes because it tends to be easily understood and helps clients frame their pain and goals more clearly. And importantly, IFS ‘parts’ of ourselves also help client understand aspects of their journeys better, when pain and shadows appear. Pre-existing knowledge and in-depth IFS knowledge is neither required nor necessary; clients understand the work intuitively with the OUR HOUSE teaching model. According to IFS healing happens when psilocybin connects us to who we really are, our core SELF, which allows us to gently hold our traumatic experiences (parts) with a greater capability. The result of holding pur pain, instead of abandoning it, is wholeness.
Coming out of journeys, client tend to frame their journeys naturally in these ways, as experiencing themselves as loving and compassionate (self) while also experiencing or witnessing painful scenarios or moments of their lives (parts). Camila helps guide people to calmer spaces within themselves, and she teaches clients how to take care of our nervous systems before, during and after journeys.
The Program, Start to Finish
The OUR HOUSE process opens with a free consultation, an honest conversation about a client’s fears and whether psilocybin therapy in a group is recommended for you at this time. Psilocybin is the one of the safest medicines according to research from Imperial College London, and is safe for most people. However, to ensure group cohesion and group nervous system regulation, OUR HOUSE develops more extensive trauma programs for clients who may be early on in their mental health treatments and with less access to their previous trauma experiences.
A 1:1 intake, along with a thorough Colorado-regulated screening process and medical assessment helps identify fit before any financial commitments are made. From there, clients prepare mentally and physically over the course of three weeks, building group relationship and beginning to access shadows and trauma. Two mushroom journeys, one low-dose, one high-dose, take place at a licensed facility in Denver and lasts 2-6 hours. The two journeys built meaningfully and powerfully on each other. Integration sessions follow over the next several weeks, working though material that will continue to surface and unfold after the dosing journeys end. Camila and Nikki dedicate a minimum of roughly thirty hours of clinical support time in total, not counting individual support and community group or process management. OUR HOUSE clients are supported and guided by two licensed psychotherapists, Nikki and Camila, and by additional in-person mushroom dosing support staff that can include another licensed facilitator or a registered nurse. OUR HOUSE always helps each group to create community connections with each other, for ongoing support throughout and after the process.
Nikki’s and Camila’s goals as therapists are to leave everyone with a clear understanding of the benefits of their journeys, to be able to continue growing and changing behaviors in every day life.
OUR HOUSE also offers ongoing, donation-based, virtual monthly integration circles to help clients with their ongoing integration and processing of psychedelic experiences. The integration process is key to long-term change that few people understand and that OUR HOUSE focuses on to ensure clients leave feeling empowered on their healing journeys.
About Camila Pastor
Camila trained as a licensed clinical social worker at NYU, and completed somatic experiencing training with Peter Levine. She is a licensed EMDR trauma therapist and trained in MDMA-assisted therapy at MAPS, in psilocybin facilitation at Fluence in New York, and she holds a Colorado Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator license. Camila has trained with Shipibo Shamans at Ayahuasca ceremonies for several years. She co-founded OUR HOUSE, a psychedelic healing community running group therapy programs and retreats across New York, and Colorado, and she is licensed to practice in both states.
About Nikki Fall
Nikki trained as a clinical psychologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany, earned her MSW at NYU, and completed psychoanalytic training at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York City. She is EMDR licensed and trained in both ketamine assisted psychotherapy and psilocybin facilitation through Fluence in New York. She holds a Colorado Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator license and co-founded OUR HOUSE, a psychedelic healing community running group therapy programs and retreats across New York, Connecticut, and Colorado. She is licensed to practice in all three states.
Start With a Free Consultation
If you live in Denver and want to know whether psilocybin therapy makes sense for you, the first step is free and safe. Consultations are available by phone or video, with in-person dosing sessions held at a licensed facility in Denver while the surrounding preparation and integration sessions are held virtually, in the evenings, on zoom.