On Saturday, June 14, SANCTUM, a new psychedelic healing center in Aspen, held their official opening ceremony. The community ceremony took place in Aspen Shakti, a yoga studio and wellness center which now also houses SANCTUM.
Former Aspen city councilmember and SANCTUM founder Skippy Mesirow, alongside SANCTUM co-leader Jamie Butemeyer Mesirow, took turns welcoming guests into Aspen Shakti for the ceremony. Visitors were then invited into the main room for a guided meditation session, followed by an open dialogue about psychedelic healing medicine.
The center will offer guided one-on-one psychedelic treatments and later plans to do group ceremonies, focusing on preparation and integration with a psychedelic-trained coach and/or therapist, optional yoga, sound, somatic and natural elements, breathwork and other therapeutic modalities alongside the use of psilocybin. Participants must first receive a consultation with SANCTUM and a screening to see if they are fit to engage in the administration sessions.
Research into the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin has gained momentum in recent years. Clinical trials at institutions like John Hopkins, Imperial College London and New York University suggest that psilocybin use alongside supportive therapy showed great reductions in symptoms of depression and other mental health conditions.
Mesirow said the seed for the center arose from witnessing the mental health crisis firsthand. While serving on city council, he recalled hearing about mental health crises in the community at an alarming rate.
Mesirow said that he struggled with mental health issues of his own. Part of his journey in addressing these issues involved psychedelic medicine similar to how SANCTUM will use it. “I just stood up at a council meeting and said, ‘Hey, I think we should do something about this locally,’” said Mesirow.
The center also intends to make these services accessible to as many people as possible by partnering with a local nonprofit, the Aspen Psychedelic Resource Center (APRC).
“SANCTUM supports Aspen Psychedelic Resource Center’s mission by providing a space for us to offer accessible education and support around psychedelic medicines,” said Laura Betti, who founded APRC alongside Martha Hammel. “One way we actualize this is through free monthly community integration circles held at SANCTUM.”
Until recently, spaces like SANCTUM weren’t permitted to operate. In November of 2022, Proposition 122 was passed which decriminalized psychedelic substances both for personal use by those over 21 years of age and licensed facilities like SANCTUM.
Following the passage of Proposition 122, Mesirow was appointed to the state’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board, a 15-member group tasked with helping the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies create safe, ethical guidelines for psychedelics use.
Since then, psychedelic healing centers have opened up in Colorado. The first was The Center Origin, founded by Elizabeth Cooke and Mikki Vogt, in Denver. But Mesirow noticed a lack of similar centers catering to people outside the Front Range and founded SANCTUM to close that gap.
Although these substances are now legal in specific contexts, SANCTUM is taking extra precautions to ensure safe use. Mesirow went through over 200 hours of training to become licensed as a facilitator of psychedelic substances in order to ensure the work they are doing is responsibly managed.
While psychedelics are a big part of the practice, Mesirow believes a bigger piece is working on solving issues in conjunction with the psychedelic treatment. “I find that about 95% of the healing opportunity is really in the things that are not the medicine itself,” said Mesirow. “It’s really about the work you’re putting in around it.”
While passionate about SANCTUM’s approach, Mesirow acknowledged that the journey to healing is personal and can take many forms.
“I don’t think that there’s one right way to do medicine work,” said Mesirow. “We’re offering something that is particularly helpful for healing, growth and transformation. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way.”