Understanding General Practicum Rules and Regs
TLDR:
You must complete practicum. It can be hard to find a compliant practicum site at a licensed service center
APL hosts its own practicum to train you well and meet all the requirements
You can work with a service center in your area, but they need to have a profressional connection to APL, have a declared practicum site supervisor, and run practicum that is coherent with APL educational standards.
Oregon and Colorado students MUST complete in-person practicum
In-Person Practicum Info for Oregon and Colorado
All accredited facilitator training programs in Oregon and Colorado must include 40 hours of practicum instruction designed to help students understand the actual work of facilitation. Ideally, all students would shadow working facilitators at service centers in their areas, watching as those more experienced facilitators worked with clients through all aspects of the client experience. Unfortunately, service centers are not operating in all parts of Oregon and few of them are set up to work with practicum students. Additionally, many facilitators do not feel comfortable bringing inexperienced students into their work, even for teaching purposes.
Fortunately, APL has had the opportunity to explore and implement various components of practicum per Oregon guidelines. That experimentation with method combined with expanded resources that are available for training students (for example, in the earliest days of training there were no licensed service centers or facilitators to serve as admin locations or mentor trainers) has led to a practicum design that combines the best parts of direct observation with activities that help students develop the muscle memory and vocabulary necessary for effective facilitiation. This combined approach creats a single experience that provides students with the greatest opportunity to really understand what this work is and how to do it well before they are licensed. Additionally, this model provides APL faculty the ability to inform and correct students as they perform the work of facilitation in a way that reflects real-world practice.
Practicum is scheduled with available practicum locations in Oregon now and in Colorado (when available) as licensed healing centers come online. Facilitation observation and practice components of practicum must be conducted in a licensed service center and with a licensed facilitator as a supervisor. A minimum of 30 hours must be spent in active observation and practice in administration with at least ten hours spent debriefing and discussing those experiences with APL faculty and other students.
Students are divided into practicum groups of no more than 4 students who are paired with a licensed facilitator. Students will be able to observe online preparation sessions with a client and then be present and observe the required administration sessions. Preparation for sessions is the most important element of creating rapport and trust with clients so students will be able to observe the whole facilitation process from start to finish to learn best practices from experienced facilitators. Practicum groups will be required to actively observe each stage of the facilitation process and to answer specific questions about their experience as part of a practicum journaling project.
Proof of attendance during practicum and tracking time spent in observation/practice vs discussion is mandatory.Contact information and license numbers is collected for all supervising facilitators and APL faculty organize and coordinate all of the practicum sessions to ensure regulatory compliance.
Students are required to fill out practicum time sheets and gather signatures from the licensed facilitators they are observing.
Students are required to maintain a practicum journal that will be submitted with final paperwork for the practicum part of the course.
These practicum requirements are met through “intensives,” usually as a Thursday through Sunday from 8:30-6:30. These intensives are usually placed in the last two weeks of any cohort’s schedule. If you are planning to satisfy your practicum hours at a Service Center seperate from the APL intensives, you’ll need to coordinate with the APL program directors. It is important to note however, that all practicum requirements must be met before certificates of completion are granted and they must be finished within 12 months of completing your didactic course work. So if you’re not sure whether you’ll be able to complete practicum at a service center in your area, plan to attend the APL administered practicum advertised as part of your cohort’s schedule.
All practicum must be administered by APL instructors or practicum coordinators officially associated with APL at a licensed service center. You may be able to satisfy your practicum requirement at a licensed service center in your area if you have contacts or opportunities you would like to utilize, but you will need to talk with our program coordinators to determine eligibility of the service center and feasabilty of implementation for that location before beginning any practicum work.
Understanding APL Practicum
Usually a four day intensive toward the end of any cohort schedule (though sometimes as a pair of weekends depending on space availability), APL has created a series of in-person activities to train you and give you the opportunity to practice real-world faciliation skills like patient intakes and preparation, de-escalation skills practice and situational challenges, and critical analysis of recorded sessions and videos to highlight best practicies and train the ability to recognize deficiencies in practice. These training opportunities are coupled with activities to help train non-drug induced changes in consciousness like meditation and breath-work.
When an ammenable client is available or if there are students in the training cohort who want to serve as a client for their peers to observe and learn from, APL works with licensed facilitators at a licensed service center to take the client(s) through the whole facilitation experience, start-to-finish, so that students can observe and ultimately discuss and debrief the process. It is not always possible to secure a willing lay-person client, and since taking psilocybin and undergoing a facilitation does not count toward the requisite practicum hours, there are not always students willing to undergo the process. Thus, APL practicums utilize real clients with real facilitation whenever possible, but will always provide the training and skills to practicum students regardless of whether a live client is available or not.
PLEASE NOTE: Taking a psilocyin journey is not a part of APL practicum in Oregon but is an allowed methodology in Colorado. If students have the opportunity to serve as clients for other students to observe under the care and direction of a licensed facilitator, the hours spent on the journey do not count toward practicum hours in Oregon but do count toward those hours in Colorado.
APL Connected Service Center Practicum Sites
Any non-APL sponsored practicum must be completed at a licensed service center. That service center must have a declared relationship with APL, have a practicum site coordinator, and fill out APL paperwork for the student to submit as proof of participation.
If you see a site in your area that you would like to work with, you can reach out to them directly to see if they have any practicum opportunities on their calendars and what the costs would be.
If you do not see the service center you want to work with listed below, please reach out to the service center to see if they are interested in hosting practicum students. If they are amenable, we are happy to explore new relationships and would love to have more sites where students could meet this requirement. However, that process is not guraranteed to work out, is likely to include more costs for the students than APL tuition alone, and can take some time to finalize. Plan your practicum options accordingly.
Current Service Center Opportunities
ASHLAND
Omnia Group
Status: Active and Approved
Contact: Email Omnia Group directly to see if they have any upcoming practicum opportunities (www.omniagroupashland.com)
PORTLAND
Chariot
Status: Contact established, possibilities being explored
Project Circle
Status: Active and Approved
Contact: Project Circle is a host site for faciliation observation during APL administered practicum weekends. Observation opportunities are coordinated through your APL program director.
Space Psychedelic Clinic
Status: Active and Approved
Contact: Space is a host site for faciliation observation during APL administered practicum weekends. Observation opportunities are coordinated through your APL program director.
DENVER
Status: Active and Approved
Contact: Center Origin is a direct partner with APL for practicum delivery in Colorado. If you opt for in-person practicum in CO, you will automatically be registered with Center Origin. No direct reach-out is necessary.