8 May 2026
Canada’s Experiment in Psychedelic Training
By: John Gilchrist, Director of Communications, TheraPsil
MAPS Bulletin: Volume XXXVI
I came to this work after watching a video of Thomas Hartle. He was the first Canadian to legally use psilocybin through a section 56 exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. An IT professional, a father of two, and a self-professed nerd, Thomas spoke publicly while living with cancer, severe anxiety, and the relief he found with psilocybin under clinical support. Thomas passed away in August 2024. Through his openness and courage, Thomas made this issue real for a lot of Canadians, including some of us who’d later end up working on it.
Canada’s early compassionate use program opened a door for patients. And once that door opened, attention shifted quickly to the clinicians who would be expected to provide this care. Psychedelic therapy can’t be improvised. Practitioners need preparation, medicine-specific training, a clear ethical frame, and structured firsthand experience. For three years in British Columbia, a decriminalization program created a window in which clinician-only MDMA experiential training could take place. It gave clinicians an opportunity to learn this work with steadiness and humility.
What changed legally
In 2020, the Minister of Health granted section 56 exemptions (one-off permissions to use an illegal substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) for psilocybin to people with end-of-life distress and to an initial group of 19 healthcare practitioners in training. Including practitioners reflected Health Canada’s expert guidance that firsthand experience improves safety and competence.
In early 2022, approvals for practitioners slowed, then stopped completely. With TheraPsil’s support, and represented by counsel Nicholas Pope, dozens of clinicians asked the courts to review the Minister’s refusals. In June 2025, the Federal Court of Appeal set those refusals aside and sent them back to the Minister for a new decision with clear reasons. We have been waiting for that redetermination for over 9 months.
While the Federal exemptions stalled, British Columbia received a 3-year exemption beginning in January 2023 that decriminalized possession of small amounts of several substances, including MDMA. The policy was designed as a harm-reduction response to the toxic drug crisis. But it also created the legal window that allowed clinician-only experiential training to take place.
So was it legal?
During that three-year period, such programs took place within the scope of the provincial exemption. There was no formal training category embedded in the policy. Instead, the work was structured within its broader legal limits, with clear attention to documentation, consent, and safety.
What an MDMA experiential session can look like
On a cool morning in Abbotsford, just east of Vancouver and close to the U.S. border, a circle of clinicians begin preparing the room. Phones go on airplane mode. Mats and blankets are laid out. The lights are softened. Someone checks the music. Someone else sets out water and electrolyte packets. In a few hours, several of these clinicians will take MDMA under supervision. Not as patients, but as practitioners who want to understand the psychological territory their patients may need to cross.
Preparation began weeks earlier: medical and psychological screening, assessment of readiness and contraindications, clarification of intentions, formal informed consent outlining potential risks, and a structured safety and integration plan. The training ran for five days. The first day was all about building trust among one another. The next two days were devoted to the MDMA sessions. A full day was then set aside for integration, when participants reflect on what emerged during their experiences and begin considering how those insights might shape their clinical work. On the final afternoon, the clinicians gathered once more to close the circle.
Each trainee worked in a dyad, once as client and once as primary practitioner, with assistants present. Observation was part of the learning. You began to notice how often a skilled therapist did very little, and how, when they did act, it was usually simple: adjusting a blanket, offering water, perhaps one short sentence and then quiet again.
Guiding psychedelic experiences is not the same as a standard hour of talk therapy. When someone turns inward, the room can shift quickly. Silence. Then intensity. Memories surface. Someone may shake. Someone may need to stand and breathe. If you have never felt the long shifts of time in these sessions, it can be difficult to understand what steady presence looks like.
Dave Phillips, a TheraPsil trainer and Registered Clinical Counsellor since 1992, puts it plainly:
“One hundred percent, [this training] is an issue of safety. Because it involves such an altered state, practitioners really do have to have first-hand experience of the territory. Having that understanding of what the space is like helps you move more fluidly. The mistake most new psychedelic therapists make is they over-function. For the most part, you just want to hold the space and stay connected.”
Why it matters now
What felt uniquely Canadian about these training sessions was the mix of backgrounds in the room. Alongside TheraPsil alumni sat clinicians trained with MAPS, CIIS, the Integrative Psychiatry Institute, and others. Different routes with one shared purpose: learning together safely, with clinical supervision. The tone was practical, welcoming, and kind. The focus stayed on developing skills that translate directly into patient care.
Beyond that room, the psychedelic landscape continues to move. State by state, the US is debating rescheduling these substances. Other countries are testing new access models for psychedelic-assisted care. Canada’s path has zig-zagged through exemptions, litigation, harm reduction policies, and one-off approvals, often with lawyers involved. What has stayed consistent is where the pressure for change has come from: advocacy, patient stories about being blocked from care their doctors supported, and small groups of clinicians continuing to focus on safety, equity, and competent treatment.
For three years in British Columbia, clinician-only MDMA experiential trainings did take place. The cohorts were small, and the opportunity was rare: a chance for clinicians to approach this work carefully, with preparation, supervision, and firsthand understanding. In a field where policy has often moved slowly, those opportunities to train carefully and responsibly mattered.
The work of preparing clinicians for psychedelic-assisted therapy in Canada continues. TheraPsil’s training programs remain part of that effort.
On the last afternoon, the circle closes. The trainees look tired, and yet, hopeful for what their clinical practice can look like when psychedelic-assisted therapy is legally accessible. Someone mentions taking the long way home to integrate the retreat before returning to daily life. Someone else describes a patient they will see next week and one small change they plan to make during intake. The room slowly clears in twos and threes. Mats are rolled. The playlist stops. The work continues, a little steadier, a little kinder, and one step closer to the kind of care people in Canada deserve.
John Gilchrist
John is an ardent supporter of drug policy reform and believes the growing acceptance of psychedelics and psychedelic therapy marks a paradigm shift in healthcare.
John was aware of the healing powers of psilocybin and other psychedelics but was truly blown away by a personal story from a patient in 2021.
Since then, John has focused on doing whatever possible to support the legalization of psychedelic therapy and to change public perception towards it.
He is honoured and privileged to support TheraPsil’s patients alongside such a professional and dedicated team.
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