Establishing the Gold Standard for Psychedelic Retreats

The psychedelic therapy landscape is rapidly evolving, with hundreds of psychedelic retreats for mental health emerging worldwide. Yet, it can be challenging to distinguish between what each offers, what makes them unique, why one is better suited for a person than another, and what sets the best ones apart.

Among all the options, MycoMeditations stands apart as the most data-backed psychedelic retreat experience available for addressing mental health challenges.

Through years of rigorous peer-reviewed data collection and comprehensive, third-party verified outcome tracking, MycoMeditations has established itself as the gold standard for evidence-based psychedelic retreats.

This comprehensive analysis examines what makes our program unique, not only in the psychedelic retreat space but within the legal psilocybin therapy space in general. From our groundbreaking quantity and duration of data collection to the superior clinical outcomes experienced by our guests who attend, our psychedelic retreats offer a unique blend of immersion into a natural retreat setting with a clinical rigor not found anywhere else.

We invite you to explore how our approach compares to leading clinical trials and how our model represents the future of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Data-Backed Psychedelic Retreats: Why Evidence Matters in Healing

Most psychedelic retreats for mental health rely on anecdotal testimonials and subjective experiences to demonstrate their effectiveness. While personal stories hold value and we have plenty of them to share, they don't provide the scientific rigor necessary to validate treatment outcomes.

Many years ago, MycoMeditations decided to take a fundamentally different approach to sharing the results of our retreat. We aimed to bring as much clinical rigor as possible into a non-clinical environment and utilize data to showcase the outcomes of guests who joined us.

As the only retreat center to systematically track guest outcomes using clinically validated mental health scales over many years, MycoMeditations has collected unprecedented data on long-term outcomes of psilocybin therapy. Our longitudinal surveys utilize standardized assessment tools, including the PHQ-9 for depression, GAD-7 for generalized anxiety, SM-SAD-10-Adult for social anxiety, and PCL-5 for PTSD.

This commitment to evidence-based psychedelic retreats sets MycoMeditations apart from all other retreat centers that operate without systematic outcome measurement. The result is a comprehensive dataset spanning over many years, highlighting group psychedelic therapy outcomes that match and often exceed those found in clinical research settings.

MycoMeditations Psilocybin Retreat Compared to Psychedelic Clinical Research Studies

The outcomes achieved by our evidence-based psychedelic retreats are shown to consistently match or exceed those reported in leading clinical trials within psychedelic therapy. This is particularly noteworthy, given the substantial capital investment into clinical research and the perceived credibility of a controlled laboratory environment.

Depression Results Exceeding Compass Pathways

We offer the best psilocybin retreat option for depression. In our data for the treatment of depression, MycoMeditations guests experienced a 59.60% reduction in symptoms one month post-retreat, compared to Compass Pathways' Phase 2 clinical trial, which showed a 37.62% reduction three weeks after treatment. The MycoMeditations baseline PHQ-9 score of 15.84 dropped to 6.40 one month post-retreat among 121 participants, while Compass Pathways' study showed MADRS scores declining from 31.9 to 19.9 among 79 participants.

A Psilocybin Retreat for PTSD Offers Outcomes Comparable to MAPS MDMA Research

When it comes to using psilocybin for PTSD treatment, MycoMeditations achieved results comparable to the renowned MAPS clinical trials using MDMA. At three months post-retreat, MycoMeditations data showed a 52.7% reduction in PCL-5 scores (from 44.1 to 20.9), closely matching MAPS' CAPS-5 results showing a 55.5% reduction (from 44.0 to 19.6) after 18 weeks.

First-of-Its-Kind Data on Psilocybin Retreats for Anxiety Disorders

MycoMeditations provides some of the first comprehensive long-term data on psilocybin therapy for generalized anxiety and social anxiety. Our data on psilocybin for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) showed a 66.7% reduction in GAD-7 scores one month post-retreat (from 14.97 to 4.98). Additionally, our psilocybin treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD) demonstrated a 72.8% reduction in SM-SAD-10 scores (from 25.44 to 6.91).

Larger Sample Sizes than Psychedelic Clinical Trials

The statistical power of MycoMeditations' data is further demonstrated by our substantial sample sizes, which span a full year of post-retreat monitoring and consistently exceed those found in many clinical trials.

Every guest who submits a baseline response to MycoMeditations receives requests for follow-up data input in the months that follow their retreat. Only guests who are shown to have a minimum of moderate levels of depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, or PTSD—as determined by the standardized assessment tool used for that condition—are included in the dataset.

Our baseline datasets provide a solid foundation for comparing the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of psilocybin therapy at MycoMeditations. Our baseline datasets consist of 241 respondents for depression, 216 for generalized anxiety, 164 for PTSD, and 99 for social anxiety.

It’s important to note that these responses are entirely voluntary for our guests. The decline in responses at each follow-up stage is expected as time passes. Yet, we maintain objectively high comparison numbers at each post-retreat stage when compared to clinical research.

At multiple post-retreat follow-up intervals, our data remains extensive:

• 1 month: 112 respondents for depression, 94 for generalized anxiety, 62 for PTSD, and 51 for social anxiety.
• 3 months: the sample sizes remain strong, with 89 respondents for depression, 75 for generalized anxiety, 49 for PTSD, and 36 for social anxiety.
• 6 months: our datasets hold significant value with 65 respondents for depression, 54 for generalized anxiety, 42 for PTSD, and 30 for social anxiety.
• 12 months: we maintain robust sample sizes: 48 respondents for depression, 41 for generalized anxiety, 28 for PTSD, and 18 for social anxiety.

These large sample sizes provide greater statistical confidence in our findings compared to small clinical trials. For context, many psychedelic clinical trials involve only 20-50 participants studied within shorter periods, making MycoMeditations' datasets some of the largest and most comprehensive real-world collections of long-term psilocybin therapy outcomes.

Our commitment to gathering data at multiple intervals ensures a deeper understanding of the long-term effects of psychedelics, providing a level of insight not yet seen in traditional clinical psychedelic research.

Pioneering Research on Long-Term Psilocybin Therapy Outcomes

One of MycoMeditations' most significant contributions to psychedelic research is the comprehensive long-term data on group psychedelic therapy outcomes that we possess. While most clinical trials examine outcomes only weeks or months after treatment, MycoMeditations tracks guest progress for a whole year following the retreat. This also makes us the most data-backed psychedelic retreat.

Our data demonstrates sustained therapeutic benefits across all conditions following the psilocybin therapy sessions at our retreat when compared to baseline symptoms:

• Depression: 50.8% reduction maintained at one year
• Generalized anxiety: 57.8% reduction maintained at one year
• Social anxiety: 53.3% reduction maintained at one year
• PTSD: 51.8% reduction maintained at one year

This long-term data is particularly valuable because it addresses a critical gap in psychedelic research. Few clinical psychedelic studies examine outcomes beyond six months as primary timepoints, making MycoMeditations' year-long tracking uniquely comprehensive. We can safely say that our data-backed psychedelic retreats offer the potential of long-term healing.

Multiple Psilocybin Therapy Sessions in One Week for the Best Outcomes

MycoMeditations' data-backed psychedelic retreat differs significantly from clinical trial approaches, yet we are shown to achieve better long-term psilocybin therapy outcomes. While most clinical trials utilize single high-dose sessions with weeks or months between treatments, MycoMeditations provides three psilocybin sessions within one week, spaced on alternating days.

This intensive protocol, combined with comprehensive preparation and integration support, appears to optimize therapeutic outcomes. The rapid succession of sessions, supported by trained therapists and intensive group integration work, likely accelerates the healing processes that take place within our guests. We have found this to be ideal for achieving the best group psychedelic therapy outcomes.

Our Data-Backed Psychedelic Retreat is Designed for Real-World Populations

Unlike clinical trials that carefully screen participants to exclude comorbid conditions, MycoMeditations assists guests with complex, real-world mental health presentations, where comorbidities are common. Our guests frequently experience multiple conditions simultaneously—depression with anxiety, PTSD with substance use concerns, or various combinations of mental health challenges. For instance, it is common for people to seek out a psilocybin retreat for anxiety and PTSD, as these conditions often arise together.

This population at our psychedelic retreats represents a more accurate reflection of the individuals within the societal mainstream who will eventually be seeking psychedelic therapy once legalization occurs. The fact that MycoMeditations achieves significant, positive outcomes within this complex population demonstrates the robustness and real-world applicability of our psychedelic retreat for mental health.

Psilocybin Therapy Dosing Protocols Optimized for Individual Needs

MycoMeditations employs advanced dosing protocols that differ from the standardized approaches used in clinical trials. While research studies typically use fixed doses regardless of any personal factors—which is understandable for the sake of clinical research—MycoMeditations chooses to tailor dosing for each guest’s psilocybin therapy session to account for numerous physical and psychological factors.

Below are our escalating dose protocol averages shown in the data across the four mental health conditions that were analyzed:

• Session 1: 3.5-3.7 grams dried Psilocybe cubensis
• Session 2: 6.5-7.0 grams dried Psilocybe cubensis
• Session 3: 8.1-8.9 grams dried Psilocybe cubensis

Converting these whole mushroom doses to pure psilocybin equivalents (using the moderate potency B+ strain of Psilocybe cubensis, which averages approximately 1% of pure psilocybin per gram of dried Psilocybe cubensis), MycoMeditations' sessions deliver roughly:

• Session 1: 35-37mg pure psilocybin equivalent
• Session 2: 65-70mg pure psilocybin equivalent
• Session 3: 81-89mg pure psilocybin equivalent

These doses exceed the typical 25mg high-dose standard used in psilocybin clinical trials, potentially contributing to the superior outcomes experienced by MycoMeditations’ guests. We believe that an evidence-based psychedelic retreat should offer protocols shown to be effective, rather than rigidly stick to protocols in clinical trials that may not be optimal.

A Truly Unique Data-Backed Psychedelic Retreat

The MycoMeditations psychedelic retreat methodology represents another optimal differentiation from other legal psilocybin retreats and the clinical world of psilocybin therapy research.

While clinical trials focus on individual participants, MycoMeditations facilitates group experiences with up to 10 guests supported by trained licensed therapists and facilitators. This is also what differentiates MycoMeditations from other psychedelic retreats, which have less therapeutic emphasis and support available from licensed mental health professionals.

Our facilitator-to-guest ratio of at least 1:1.5 ensures personalized attention while maintaining the valuable benefits of group work amongst the retreat guests. This also gives MycoMeditations a unique flexibility to offer private psilocybin therapy sessions, as done in clinical trials. This contrasts with the typical scenario at other psychedelic retreats, where guests gather in a circle for the ceremony while a small number of facilitators (or shamans) guide the session.

Over many years of operation and data collection, this psychedelic retreat approach has been shown to consistently produce clinically significant outcomes that match or surpass the clinical trials of psychedelic therapy. We have some of the best group psychedelic therapy outcomes.

Our Psychedelic Retreat for Mental Health Meets Strong Safety and Professional Standards

MycoMeditations operates under rigorous safety protocols that match or exceed clinical standards. Our team includes trained psychedelic therapists, medical professionals, and experienced facilitators who ensure safe, supportive experiences for all guests.

Each therapist and facilitator staffed by MycoMeditations completes six retreats of what we call “Facilitator in Training”. This training role allows new facilitators to gradually learn from more experienced team members while serving in an observational capacity. They learn through shadowing to understand how MycoMeditations psilocybin therapists and facilitators effectively work with a variety of guests, both during the psilocybin sessions, within integration, and during retreat downtime.

The MycoMeditations Facilitator-in-Training role involves training across 18 actual legal psilocybin therapy sessions—approximating 100 hours—which greatly surpasses the practicum training required by State licensing bodies, such as in Oregon or Colorado. Our team receives significantly more direct training with psilocybin than what’s offered by any of the psychedelic facilitator training programs available at organizations such as Fluence, Innertrek, SoundMind, Synthesis Institute, or the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

The retreat's location in Jamaica also provides access to completely legal psilocybin therapy, eliminating the legal complexities that can complicate psychedelic treatment in other jurisdictions.

Comprehensive and Evidence-Based Psychedelic Retreat Programs

The MycoMeditations model extends far beyond simply offering three psilocybin sessions to produce the positive results shown in our data. Our comprehensive, data-backed psychedelic retreat program includes:

Pre-Retreat Preparation

• Thorough medical and psychological screening
• Preparation call with a MycoMeditations therapist
• Materials to best prepare for the retreat experience
• Activities and exercises to explore
• Recommended reading
• Curated music suggestions for the psilocybin therapy sessions

During-Retreat Therapeutic Support

• Three private psilocybin therapy sessions
• Extensive preparation sessions before every dose
• Psychoeducation about the psilocybin experience and all relevant psychological and spiritual aspects to healing
• Pre-session mediation
• Extensive group psychedelic integration sessions
• Individual therapy sessions as needed
• 24/7 psychological, medical, and hospitality support

Post-Retreat Integration

• Multiple group integration sessions via Zoom
• Ongoing support and resources
• Introduction to a vetted network of private psychedelic integration specialists
• Long-term outcome tracking

This comprehensive psychedelic retreat program, which is specialized for the therapeutic use of psilocybin, is what contributes to the sustained benefits observed in MycoMeditations' long-term data.

Limitations and Transparency

MycoMeditations maintains transparency regarding our data collection methods, acknowledging that these surveys do not constitute formal clinical trials. While this data lacks the controlled conditions of academic research, it offers valuable insights into the efficacy of psychedelic therapy in the real world.

To ensure the accuracy of our data collection, we partnered with a third-party academic institution specializing in psychedelic research to verify these findings. Our commitment to scientific rigor, combined with our substantial dataset, provides confidence in our reported mental health outcomes. We do not claim that a data-backed psychedelic retreat guarantees psychological healing in all cases. However, the quality of the data does make MycoMeditations the gold standard in psychedelic retreats for mental health.

To read the full report of each dataset that this article examined, you may click the links below:

• Depression
• Generalized Anxiety
• Social Anxiety
• PTSD

Additional Research on the Benefits of Psilocybin Retreats

A wide range of evidence informs our data-backed psychedelic retreat. We can look beyond our own data collection to the scientific literature, and here we also find promising results. Other research shows that psilocybin retreats offer myriad benefits, encompassing much more than the alleviation of psychological distress.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs found that a psilocybin retreat led participants to experience increases in empathy, creativity, and well-being. In addition, a 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry demonstrated that taking psilocybin in a retreat setting can lead to:

• Reductions in anxiety
• Reductions in depression
• Reductions in neuroticism
• Increases in mindfulness
• Enhanced connectedness to oneself and others
• Mystical experiences
• Emotional insight

While there are differences between clinical trials on psilocybin-assisted therapy and psilocybin retreats, it’s becoming clear that a data-backed psychedelic retreat can powerfully transform people’s lives.

The Future of Evidence-Based Psychedelic Retreats

MycoMeditations represents a new paradigm of psilocybin therapy within a psychedelic retreat setting—one that combines the accessibility and holistic approach of retreat settings with the rigor and accountability of clinical research. The evidence highlighted in this article demonstrates that a data-backed psychedelic retreat can be equally or more effective than legal psilocybin therapy offered in a clinical setting.

As the psychedelic therapy field continues to evolve, MycoMeditations' pioneering approach offers a blueprint for how psychedelic retreat centers can contribute meaningfully to our understanding of these powerful medicines. We remain committed to data collection, outcome tracking, and scientific transparency, setting the standard for psychedelic retreats with our data-backed outcomes.