The Center Origin, a newly established psychedelic-assisted healing center based in downtown Denver, is officially the state’s first licensed healing center.
The state began accepting license applications for healing centers, psychedelic facilitators, and mushroom cultivation centers at the end of last year. Just under three months later, The Center Origin has now received its license to operate as a standard healing center.
“We’re eager to see all these other places coming online and also be able to give the good news that ‘Yes, it's happening — we're there, it's happening,’” said Mikki Vogt, a licensed psychedelic facilitator and co-founder of The Center Origin. “I know it's been a long wait for everybody.”
While the new center can't immediately begin providing psychedelic-assisted therapeutic services — they still need to wait for the regulated medicine, psychedelic mushrooms, to become available — Vogt says she’s excited about this “next chapter.”
The Center Origin will also need to coordinate with local authorities on time, place and manner restrictions before providing services, according to a spokesperson with the state’s Natural Medicine department. There’s no timeline for that coordination to happen.
In 2022, Colorado voters approved Proposition 122, decriminalizing the personal cultivation, possession, consumption, and sharing of psychedelic mushrooms. The measure also paved the way for state-licensed healing centers, where psilocybin can be administered to adults 21 and older by licensed facilitators — making Colorado the second state in the nation next to Oregon to offer regulated psychedelic-assisted therapy.
While anybody 21 years or older who can afford it and passes a health screening can seek out psychedelic-assisted therapy, many healing center advocates say these therapies could be revolutionary in helping with certain chronic mental health diagnoses including anxiety, addiction, PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, and major depressive disorder, a severe form of depression.
Once fully operational, The Center Origin plans to offer a range of holistic healing services — including massage and meditation — alongside its psychedelic-assisted therapy program.
According to its website, The Center Origin also will serve as a space for outside facilitators to meet their clients and provide psychedelic-assisted therapy.
