Why We Began with Facilitators: Introducing the Psychedelic Facilitator Loan Program
Every organization has a beginning point.
Ours did not start with capital. It started with proximity.
Before Inner Guru existed, I was appointed by Governor Jared Polis to serve at the inception of Colorado’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board, the body responsible for shaping what is now the second regulated psychedelic facilitation ecosystem in the United States. I was invited into that role not as a financier, but as a licensed professional counselor (LPC) with deep experience in mental health equity, community care, and the ethical realities of working at the margins of formal systems.
I joined the board because collaboration with Indigenous elders and legacy practitioners was at the heart of the work. From the beginning, the mandate was clear: this industry could not be built solely through Western clinical models or capital-driven frameworks. Psychedelic facilitation carries histories, lineages, and responsibilities that require coordination, listening, and shared stewardship.
That belief shaped my contributions to the board, and ultimately shaped Inner Guru.
Cost Is the First Barrier
One truth surfaced again and again in our research, testimony, and public input: cost is the number one barrier to access for clients seeking psychedelic care.
But what was discussed far less often, despite being just as true, is that cost is also the number one barrier for facilitators themselves.
Training is expensive. Licensing pathways require time away from paid work. Regulatory compliance carries prohibitive annual fees. Many facilitators are self-employed, underinsured, or supporting families and communities alongside their practice. When facilitators cannot afford to enter or sustain this work, access collapses upstream, long before a client ever has a choice.
You cannot build an equitable system if the people holding care are financially fragile.
Expanding Who Is Allowed to Participate
One of the contributions I am most proud of during my time on the board was inventing the single-licensed facilitator pathway. This model intentionally opened the field beyond traditional Western clinical credentials, creating space for legacy healers and Indigenous practitioners trained in ancient psychedelic lineages to participate without being forced into unrelated medical or psychological licensure.
This was not a symbolic move. It was an ethical one.
If the future of psychedelic care only recognizes Western credentials, it erases the very knowledge systems that made this work possible in the first place. Expanding participation required more than regulatory language, it required economic reality to follow.
But that’s where the system stalled.
Advocating for Financial Solutions, and Watching None Emerge
From my first month on the board in April 2023, and throughout my full two-year term as chairperson (November 2024 - January 2026), I raised the same concern repeatedly: facilitators needed access to fair, creative, non-extractive financial support.
Not grants designed for institutions.
Not venture capital chasing scale.
But practical, dignified financial tools that recognized facilitators as stewards of care, not high-risk borrowers.
Despite broad agreement on the problem, no solutions formed.
The regulatory system moved forward. Training programs expanded. Public interest grew. And yet facilitators were still expected to shoulder the financial burden alone — often through personal high-interest debt, unpaid labor, or burnout.
That gap was not theoretical. It was lived.
Why Inner Guru Exists
Inner Guru was created because waiting was no longer ethical.
The Psychedelic Facilitator Loan Program is our primary loan offering because it addresses the most immediate structural failure I witnessed firsthand: the absence of financial infrastructure designed for the people actually doing the work.
This program is not about accelerating growth or monetizing care. It is about continuity.
It exists to:
Reduce financial barriers to training and practice
Support facilitators during natural fluctuations in income
Offer transparent, values-aligned capital where traditional lenders refuse to engage
We designed this program because facilitators cannot hold safe, ethical, long-term care if they are financially destabilized at the foundation.
From Governance to Action
My time on the advisory board taught me what regulation can do, and what it cannot. Policy can create permission. It cannot create support. That requires new structures built outside the state, accountable to values rather than speed.
Inner Guru is one of those structures.
The Psychedelic Facilitator Loan Program is not a complete solution. It is a beginning: one rooted in lived experience, collaboration with Indigenous elders, and a clear understanding that access to care depends on access for those who provide it.
When facilitators are supported, care becomes possible.
When care becomes possible, equity has a chance.
That is why this loan program exists.
— Lundi Ramos
Founder & CEO, Inner Guru
