The archive · Health & Care · Strategic decision · 2022–2025
Center Origin bets on Colorado's psilocybin licenses — and gets the first one
Founded in 2023 by a former psychotherapist, The Center Origin won Colorado's first healing-center license and then Denver's first city license.
The Center Origin
What the business is
A licensed psilocybin 'healing center' in Denver offering guided psychedelic-assisted sessions, preparation and integration work, plus facilitator training.
How it started
Colorado voters approved the Natural Medicine Health Act in 2022, decriminalizing psilocybin and directing the state to license healing centers. Elizabeth Cooke, a former psychotherapist and social worker, founded The Center Origin in 2023 with clinical director Mikki Vogt to be ready when the program opened. The state began accepting the first license applications on December 31, 2024.
What happened
State regulators issued the first facilitator and business licenses in February 2025, and on March 31, 2025 the Natural Medicine Division granted The Center Origin the state's first healing-center operational license. The center built a roughly $3,500 full program: safety screening, two preparation sessions, a guided five-to-eight-hour journey, and follow-up integration sessions, alongside group work and facilitator training.
How it ended up
Still live and defining a new industry: in July 2025 Denver issued the city's first natural-healing-center license to The Center Origin. Its early constraint was supply, not demand — Colorado had not yet licensed a testing facility when the center opened, so it had to wait on a licensed cultivation and testing chain before serving clients.
Background
The Center Origin is a bet that Colorado's newly legal psilocybin industry would become a real therapy market. Colorado voters approved the Natural Medicine Health Act in 2022, decriminalizing psilocybin and directing state agencies to license 'healing centers.' Elizabeth Cooke, a former psychotherapist and social worker, founded the center in 2023 with clinical director Mikki Vogt — a year before the state even published final rules.
The regulatory window opened on December 31, 2024, when the Department of Revenue began accepting applications. The Center Origin's timing paid off: after the first facilitator licenses went out in February 2025, the state granted it the first healing-center operational license on March 31, 2025. The company built a roughly $3,500 package — safety screening, two preparation sessions, a guided five-to-eight-hour journey, and integration sessions — betting that clients would pay for structure and clinical care, not just the drug.
By July 2025 Denver had issued the city's first natural-healing-center license to The Center Origin. Its biggest early constraint was the supply chain: Colorado's testing facilities and cultivators were still being licensed, so the center had to wait for regulated psilocybin before serving its first clients.
What has to be true
- Colorado's ballot measure created a wholly new licensed category, so first-mover position was winnable through preparation rather than existing market share.
- Cooke and Vogt started in 2023, before final rules existed, letting them build operations around the state's emerging safety framework.
- The center priced a full clinical package with screening, prep, journey, and integration, betting clients would pay for structure and safety rather than a raw experience.
What can be applied
A brand-new regulated industry rewards whoever is licensed first — but a pioneer's real risk is the rest of the supply chain licensing slower than demand.
Aftermath
As of July 2025, The Center Origin holds both the state's first healing-center license and Denver's first city license for a natural healing center. The surrounding industry was ramping around it: the Department of Regulatory Agencies had issued 124 facilitator licenses, while cultivators, manufacturers, and testing facilities were still coming online — meaning the center's growth was gated by the licensed supply chain rather than by customer demand.
Sources
- Denver psilocybin healing center becomes first licensed in Colorado
- Denver licenses first natural healing center in city history
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