Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies

Making psychedelic therapies safe and accessible.

hopeful

WELCOME

Psychedelic medicine and therapies have arrived.

The Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies (BPMT) is a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to creating board certification for psychedelic medicine practitioners and educating practitioners, the health care system, and potential consumers about the inherent value of the certification process.

Why is the Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies needed?

Psychedelic medicine remains in its professional infancy. Clinical standards are ill defined and informal. Psychedelic medicine has no current metrics to assess skill and competency for practitioners. Training is difficult to obtain, inconsistent in depth and without agreed upon competencies. Various subcultures exist within psychedelic medicine and each carries different beliefs and unique paths of study. Research centers have begun to appear around the country at major universities and the risk of over medicalization for this field remains quite high.

What are the risks to practitioners?

Liability issues are enormous and difficult to even assess right now. Insurance reimbursement and equitable access are many years away. The professional risk for personalized experiential training with these agents remains substantial even though most thought leaders within the field endorse the direct benefit to clinical practice. Psychedelic medicine has attracted a growing number of venture capitalists and for-profit clinical models with the full spectrum of integrity represented. This is currently a very risky, confusing and chaotic frontier of practice for any professional to enter, especially without a clear career path. For this field to become more than a fringe treatment option for the elite and affluent we need clarity, credibility and reimbursement.

What are the benefits of certification?

Certification carries a wide range of benefits. It creates unified clinical standards for psychedelic medicine and, in doing so, protects the public through rigorous safety and ethical standards. Certification also reduces the liability risk for practitioners and promotes equitable access to effective mental health care in the United States. This work is seen as critical to define the parameters of the field, enhance public confidence, clarify educational curricula, augment professional credibility, insure broad access, and create a distinct career path. Certification is the most direct path to accomplish these goals. This certification will speed psychedelic medicine towards its incredible promise to become a widely available treatment option.

Our Mission and Vision

Mission: The Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies will certify psychedelic-assisted therapists to ensure the competent, safe, and ethical delivery of psychedelic medicine in an equitable and accessible manner for members of diverse populations.

Vision: BPMT aspires to a future where psychedelic therapy contributes to healing people and the planet with equitable, safe and accessible care for all populations.

VALUES STATEMENT

The Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies (BPMT) envisions a world where psychedelic therapy contributes to healing people and the planet with equitable, safe, and accessible care for all populations. In pursuit of our purpose, we are committed to creating an environment where unique perspectives and contributions are valued, and every individual, volunteer, employee, and collaborator, can bring 100% of themselves to make a positive difference in the work and the lives of those we seek to serve.

Centering equity, diversity, and inclusion as drivers of innovation and excellence, we commit to:

  • Approach our work in the spirit of a beloved community, where people of diverse racial, ethnic, educational, class, gender, backgrounds, and identities come together in an interdependent relationship of mutual respect, care, and common purpose of providing safe care and healing for all populations.
  • Incorporating and elevating the voice of lineage and legacy practitioners.
  • Ensuring equity in our processes, practices, and products, for ourselves and the broader communities we seek to impact.

Donate

Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies (BPMT) is fiscally sponsored by Philanthropic Players Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports chariatable initiatives.

ppf-logo

PEOPLE

Our Staff

Nicole_Pro-sqr

NiCole T. Buchanan, PhD

Interim Board Chair and CEO

team-gina-head

Gina Magaña

Program Manager

F.A.Qs

Frequently Asked Questions

Mental health care in this country is in crisis and failing by almost every measure. Psychedelic medicine holds the promise to shift our paradigm in mental health to a model that embodies real transformation. Current research has indicated sustained benefits, and in many cases, a complete resolution of the underlying clinical issue after a few treatment episodes with either MDMA or psilocybin. Our current model of psychiatric care requires daily administration of medicine to reduce symptoms. Psychedelic medicine has the potential to become a new paradigm in mental health treatment that offers real hope and substantive progress.

A certification test provides a clear and coherent career path for practitioners. It will assess the skills and knowledge tailored to therapeutic work with psychedelic medicines, in particular MDMA and psilocybin. Practitioners who pass will be credentialed as a Board-Certified Psychedelic Practitioner (BCPP). This credential will identify those healthcare providers who are qualified to treat mental disorders using approved psychedelic medicines and therapy practices. The BCPP designation confirms that certified practitioners have met the requirements for certification through initial assessment and periodic recertification. This credential then can be applied to reimbursement requests, job applications, professional advancement and client confidence.

The actual work of the psychedelic therapist remains to be well defined in a coherent fashion. This critical step in the emergence of psychedelic medicine will be accomplished by a process called job analysis. The BPMT will elaborate, analyze, and refine the specific tasks and competencies involved in this new profession. This job analysis framework will be a detailed and formal study that defines and validates the knowledge, skills, and tasks required in the work of a psychedelic therapist. It will thus define the core competencies necessary for safe and effective practice with psychedelic medicines. These specific knowledge, skills, and abilities endorsed by the BPMT will establish the clinical guidelines for the practice of psychedelic therapies that apply across various professions and disciplines from social work, psychiatry, marriage and family therapy to psychology. By creating a core set of practice guidelines, the BPMT seeks to address practitioner liability issues, protect public safety, and find an appropriate balance between medical and psychotherapeutic practices. The test will closely reflect the skills and knowledge needed to effectively and safely practice psychedelic-assisted therapy.

The qualified professional will be required to possess both adequate clinical skills and a sufficient knowledge base in the realm of psychedelic medicine. The knowledge base required will include the history, cultural origins, clinical characteristics, applications, risk factors, time course, and other common features of each medicine. Beyond this, the certified practitioner will be required to possess sound clinical skills to appropriately screen in and out candidates based on mental health background and characteristics. Each certified practitioner must understand, embrace, and adhere to the code of ethics for psychedelic medicine. They will also need to possess the expertise needed to sit for and facilitate for a range of journey styles and complications. This includes comfort in managing extreme states, ability to respond effectively to adverse events, and the facilitation of a therapeutic set and setting. The board will post the content outline for the exam and weighting of each section later this year, well ahead of the test application process.

Once the job analysis framework is completed, the BPMT will define the basic eligibility requirements for the BCPP certification. It is critical that these eligibility guidelines reflect the emerging profession and the systemic demands for both safety and credibility. The first tier assessed will be health care providers licensed in the US. While the exact eligibility requirements have not been formally established by the BPMT, we expect candidates will be experienced healthcare professionals, licensed in the United States with demonstrated proficiency using psychedelic medicines in a therapeutic setting to plan and provide treatment for a range of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other traditionally difficult to treat conditions. As certified and licensed mental health care professionals, BCPPs are expected to practice in independent offices, hospital-based clinics, retreat centers, and multidisciplinary clinics among other settings. They come from a range of existing medical and mental health professions such as social work, psychology, psychiatry, professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists to name a few. The eligibility requirements will be posted later this year, once the job analysis is completed.

CONNECT

Our Contact Information

For quickest response, please complete the email form below.

Location:

9450 SW Gemini Drive, Beaverton, OR,
97008-7105

    Donate

    Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies (BPMT) is fiscally sponsored by Philanthropic Players Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports chariatable initiatives.

    ppf-logo