Application Requirements

Candidates for the MDMA Therapy Training Program must meet one of the following eligibility criteria:

• Hold an active license or registration to practice psychotherapy in good standing in their jurisdiction, OR
• In a post-doctorate, post-graduate internship, or residency program in the field of mental health OR
• Demonstrate a minimum of 1,000 hours of experience providing behavioral health services

These qualifications outline the minimum requirements for the program. The Admissions Committee will take into consideration number of years of experience, education, and qualifications.

The MDMA Therapy Training Program acknowledges a diverse range of professional, spiritual, and traditional backgrounds. Mental health professionals, medical professionals, counselors, psychiatric aides, clergy members, chaplains, traditional medicine practitioners, hospice workers, somatic practitioners, and other professionals and certified practitioners providing therapeutic services are welcome to apply.

The MDMA Therapy Training Program enrolls compassionate and experienced practitioners who are committed to health and well-being, their own and that of their clients and community.

Experiential Elective

As with many therapeutic modalities, the MDMA Therapy Training Program believes that some of the best preparation for supporting others through a process, is going through a similar process oneself. The kind of knowledge gained from firsthand experience is invaluable and difficult to replicate.

In 2009 the FDA approved a MAPS-sponsored healthy volunteer trial permitting trainees enrolled in the MDMA Therapy Training Program to apply to receive MDMA-assisted therapy. The study is called MT1 and is nearly complete, enrolling 120 people in total. In 2019 MAPS submitted a similar protocol, called MT2, however this protocol is not yet active. Opportunities to receive MDMA-assisted therapy are very limited. MAPS-sponsored clinical trials for PTSD and other treatment indications have strict eligibility criteria. Efforts are underway in various countries to seek regulatory exemption to deliver psychedelic therapies to small groups of clinicians training to practice in the modality. At this time MAPS is not currently enrolling for healthy volunteer therapy training protocols.

Experiences in non-ordinary, and extra-ordinary states of consciousness are required as an elective in the MDMA Therapy Training Program. To satisfy the Experiential Elective requirement, trainees must:

• Demonstrate personal experience in a facilitated non-ordinary state of consciousness practice
  • Such as: psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trial or treatment, medicine ceremony, shamanic drumming, sweat lodge, meditation retreat, Holotropic Breathwork, other forms of breathwork
  • The practice must be an established practice and facilitated by someone trained and qualified in that modality where the trainee participates in a personal experience
  • Trainees applying previous experience for credit must have completed that experience within three years of enrollment in the MDMA Therapy Training Program
  • Elective must be 8 hours minimum
  • Strongly recommended that the experience include both one’s own personal experience in a non-ordinary state practice and the experience of sitting and holding space for someone else in a non-ordinary state practice, though the latter is not a requirement for graduation
  • Once enrolled, trainees may contact their training coordinator to discuss electives that may suit the trainee’s needs, including accommodations, medical conditions, and preferences