Our 2026-2027 applications will open on January 15, 2026. The priority deadline is March 16, 2026. The link to apply will be available on January 15, 2025 on these pages. Please sign up here for announcements about this cohort.

We strongly advise applicants to submit their materials before the priority deadline of March 16, 2026. Submitting your application by this date ensures a timely review, increases the likelihood of securing your place in the program and preferred cohort. Application fees are waived for applicants who submit before March 16th.

About the Program

Throughout its history, CIIS has been a leader in consciousness research. To address the demand for trained professionals to work in the expanding field of psychedelic studies, CIIS created the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research in 2015. To date, our certificate program has trained over 1,700 professionals to become psychedelic therapists, facilitators, and researchers, and is advancing the field with the highest possible standards of scientific rigor and safety.

The expansive roots of this certificate are in the work of clinicians, clergy, scholars, and researchers on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies, transpersonal psychology, consciousness studies, psychoanalysis, comparative mysticism, cultural anthropology, and Indigenous plant medicine practices.
 

The program has been of the highest quality of any educational programs I have participated. I am looking forward to putting this to use in upcoming research at Yale and when possible to integrate this into my private practice.

Robert Krause, MSN, APRN-BC, Lecturer, Yale University, School of Nursing

Center History

Throughout its history, CIIS has been a leader in consciousness research, including research into non-ordinary states of consciousness. In 1997, CIIS began offering the Robert Joseph and Wilhelmina Kranzke Endowed Scholarships, a gift of Robert Barnhart in memory of his parents, which supports scholarships for students conducting approved psychotropic research. 

Demand for trained psychotherapists working in psychedelic studies continued to grow. To address this need, and with the generous support of many individuals and organizations passionate about the scientific possibilities of this field, CIIS created the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research in 2015. Founding Director Dr. Janis Phelps has remained at the helm since then, leading the Center with her expertise and decades of experience in clinical psychology and psychedelic studies.

The Center continues to build strong partnerships with other universities, medical centers, researchers, and research groups. Top psychedelic researchers and scholars work with the Center to teach in the certificate program, mentor trainees, and sit on the Center’s council of advisors. This includes a history of collaboration with MAPS, the Heffter Research Institute, and the Usona Institute, three of the most renowned research organizations for psychedelic studies. The Center’s certificate program is the largest collaborative program focusing on psychedelic studies within a non-medical graduate university. 

In 2020, the Center received a three-year grant of $1.0 million from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation to support the expansion of our certificate program. The Foundation’s generous gift has helped the Center meet the rapidly growing demand for psychedelic therapist training and education. In addition to enhancing our course offerings and increasing cohort sizes, the grant supports new training sites, with Boston as the first additional location in 2021 and Oregon in 2024. In 2022, the Center received additional grants to share our curriculum and instruction with other universities beginning their own certificate programs. In 2025, the Center expanded eligibility to interested unlicensed professionals with a M.A./M.S. or a bachelors degree in all areas of medicine and mental health, and from such fields as the social sciences, humanities, the sciences, law, and business. These trainees will be secondary support as facilitators during psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions.

Certificate Alumni Publications 

Many graduates of the CIIS Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research are now leaders in the field of psychedelic medicine, overseeing major clinical trials, publishing hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and books, and speaking at conferences around the world. In 2025, we published the first edition of our CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research Alumni Publications Catalog, a booklet showcasing the impressive body of psychedelic peer-reviewed publications and books of scholarship and research written by graduates after completing the program. This collection of more than 135 journal articles and books highlights the depth and breadth of scholarship emerging from our distinguished alumni community and reflects their significant influential contributions to advancing the field of psychedelic therapies and research.

The Alumni Publications Catalog recognizes our graduates as well as the teachers and mentors of the certificate program who helped shape their journey and are now collaborating with them. This growing body of research stands as a testament to the intellectual rigor, creativity, and immense impact that this community has had and is having on the field of psychedelic therapy and research.

Download the Alumni Publications Catalog 
 

Values of Community Engagement and Belonging

A diverse academic community offers a rich and dynamic perspective to CIIS's intellectual environment. Diversity is broader than traditional categories. It encompasses socioeconomic status, family background, language, the level of academic preparedness, learning style, and even different communities with which our students, faculty, and staff are associated. As a result of intentional engagement with our own identities, we uncover our similarities through our differences, thus allowing us to celebrate and honor our shared humanity.

In addition, we respect and embrace those distinctive characteristics each member of the CIIS community adds to the institution to create a climate where all feel valued and appreciated. In our classrooms, there is substantive interaction between and within groups, such that the very space becomes renewed by those included and all are willing to be challenged and enriched by the introduction of ideas, ways of knowing, and perspectives that were not often enough centered. This environment best allows students, faculty, and staff to thrive as individuals and as a community.

The Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research has partnered with the CIIS Division of Community Engagement and Belonging to:

• Prepare trainees to meet the evolving challenges of communities in an increasingly complex world.
• Create a Culture of Belonging throughout the program in order to foster empathy, connection, and risk taking.

More about CIIS' Division of Community Engagement and Belonging

Instructions for Disability Accommodation

Students who request accommodation for a disability should contact the Office of Student Accessibility Services at the Office of Student Affairs by emailing osas@ciis.edu. Students will be guided through the registration procedures for accommodation. Any questions, requests for accommodation or access, or concerns regarding services for students or applicants with a disability as defined by law should be addressed to the Director of the Office of Student Accessibility Services. CIIS is committed to ensuring that students with disabilities have equal access to the programs and services available to all students at CIIS, in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as Amended (ADAAA). Further, equal access for students with disabilities is fundamental to the mission and educational philosophy of CIIS.

Information Packet

Download the Complete Information Packet for the 2026-2027 Certificate Program