Former Aspen City Council member to open psychedelic healing center

SANCTUM — the psychedelic healing center that former Aspen City Council member Skippy Mesirow is opening in the middle of June — will be the first healing center of its kind in Aspen.

In fact, it will be one of very few of its kind in Colorado, licensed to administer psilocybin, the active drug in psychedelic mushrooms, to patients.

Mesirow, who was an Aspen City Council member from 2019 until 2023, saw the writing on the wall when the Food and Drug Administration began researching the potential benefits of psilocybin use and expressed as much during his time on the board.

“I stood up at a (city council) meeting one day, just kind of on the fly, and said the FDA is working on this,” he said. “I don’t think we should wait. I think we should figure out a way to make this available to our citizens now.”

He found that psychedelic healing was impactful for him personally, to be able to accelerate his own healing and ability to relate to the world. 

“I had a very significant experience in 2019, it was my first therapeutic psychedelic experience,” said Mesirow. “I always say it wasn’t the answer. It wasn’t a light switch that went from sick to well, but it was a significant contributory accelerator to my own healing.” 

The psychedelic healing center will be operating with full, legal permission from the state of Colorado. After going through a long process, he received permission and licensing required from the state; now, he’s just waiting on state-approved testing of his center’s mushrooms before they can begin operating. 

The Natural Health Medicine Act of 2022 is what makes this all possible. In 2022, a ballot question was put to Colorado voters asking whether citizens should be allowed to use psychedelics for their own personal consumption, as well as whether healing centers should be allowed to operate professional psychedelic treatment.

Research at the time was beginning to suggest that people with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health struggles could reap immense benefit from controlled, therapeutic administration of psilocybin. That body of research has grown since 2022, with the Department for Veterans Affairs now funding research into the chemical. 

SANCTUM will be operating out of Aspen Shakti, a studio space that offers yoga classes, acupuncture, massage, and other wellness services. The space offers clients a secluded, private area where they can experience the psychedelic treatment with the guidance of facilitators, who are licensed in the state of Colorado to lead the sessions.

“To become a facilitator, you have to go through a 140-hour didactic training program that happens through a state-approved psychedelic training program,” said Mesirow of the long licensing process. 

He will be one of many facilitators working at the SANCTUM facility. 

It will be offering its treatment in one-on-one sessions, usually with repeat visits to prepare clients for the psychedelic experience. The whole process can take anywhere from several days to weeks or even months, depending on the individual client’s needs and requests. 

There will also be group sessions available for couples or larger groups. All sessions will be available in a wide range of formats that will vary in cost, starting from $3,000.

“There’s rarely a day I walk around town where I don’t pass someone on the street who, maybe no one else knows, but I know that their life has either been saved or changed significantly through the use of these medicines,” Mesirow said.

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