First state-licensed psychedelic-assisted therapy center opens in Pikes Peak Region

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - It started in 2022 when Colorado voted to decriminalize the growing, distribution, and use of psilocybin and other plant-based psychedelic substances.

Then, three years later, the state started licensing natural medicine, or natural health, centers that could use psychedelics to treat patients. Now, nearly two years later, the Elevated Healing Center, a psychedelic-assisted therapy center, has opened its doors in Manitou Springs.

"I really believe in this work," said Scott DeWalt, a licensed Natural Medicine Facilitator, licensed clinical social worker, and founder of Elevated Healing Center.

DeWalt says psilocybin works in ways that talk therapy and SSRIs don't and could be extra helpful to military veterans who could have extra trauma from combat experiences.

"Some people have said that it's like getting five years of therapy in five hours," DeWalt said. "That's not true for everybody, [but] it's true for some people."

But you can't just walk in and sign up to receive this treatment.

"The assessment process at the very beginning of this involves checking to make sure that people aren't taking certain medications and [checking] a little bit of their mental health history," DeWalt said.

Opening day for the first natural medicine treatment center in the area hasn't come without roadblocks.

In 2024, in anticipation of the state starting to license the use of psychedelics to treat patients, the Colorado Springs City Council passed a rule that outlawed a natural medicine center from setting up shop within one mile of any school or residential daycare center, substance abuse treatment center, or other natural medicine healing center.

The rule effectively banned natural treatment centers within city limits. In our reporting of that first vote, a big reason the 1-mile rule passed was concerns about psychedelics getting into the hands of children. A 2024 incident of two middle school students overdosing on psilocybin mushrooms was cited in a city council work session.

The group One Chance to Grow Up also spoke in support of the functional ban. A 2025 flyer on their website expressed concern that psychedelics could be taken off-site, opening up the possibility that the items could get into the hands of children.

"Psilocybin is stored on site in a locked safe. There's no children allowed in here," DeWalt said, "there's a whole, a whole host of protections that have taken place. So that psilocybin is not spilling out into our streets or being used by people who shouldn't use it."

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