By Claudia Barfoot, MA, LPC, NMCF. Last updated October 2026.
Claudia Barfoot is a bilingual psychotherapist on our team who holds Colorado’s clinical facilitator license. Many of the people she works with come to Numia carrying anxiety. We asked her four questions: what those people bring into preparation, what the session day tends to be like and how she holds a hard moment, what integration focuses on afterward, and who she tells “not now.” Her answers are below, in her words. After them, a short note from us on what the research does and does not show.
Numia is a licensed psilocybin healing center in Denver, Colorado. Book a free 15-minute consultation. It is a conversation, and there is nothing to decide on the call.
What people with anxiety are looking for
People with anxiety want relief from their fears and worries, and the freedom to face life as it is without a nervous system stuck in overdrive. They want a life where fear is no longer at the center and joy, calm, and presence have room.
What preparation focuses on
Preparation can focus on somatic, mindfulness-based, and trauma-informed practices to help clients regulate their nervous systems and gain tools they can use during the journey session.
What the session day can be like
On the day of the session, emotional release and somatic awareness are central. The release of long-held fear may show up as physical responses as the body lets go. Some transient anxiety during the session is common.
What integration focuses on
In integration, the work tends to focus on the felt experience of the body and mind being capable of other emotions. Clients often come to see how anxiety has protected them from emotions they unconsciously believed they lacked the capacity to feel, hold, and process.
Who I tell “not now”
The clients I tell “not now” are those living in an unsafe environment. For those clients the work focuses first on trying to find a way to improve those conditions, so that the work we do with psilocybin-assisted therapy can be received, nurtured and held too.
What the research does and does not show
Two controlled trials, both in people with a cancer diagnosis, found that one psilocybin session with psychological support lowered anxiety scores more than the comparison condition. Griffiths and colleagues studied 51 people with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis and a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or both; five weeks after the first session, 76 percent of the group that received the high dose first met the anxiety response criterion on a clinician-rated scale, against 24 percent of the group that received the very low dose first (Griffiths et al., Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016). Ross and colleagues studied 29 people with cancer and an anxiety diagnosis tied to it; at seven weeks, 58 percent of the psilocybin-first group met the anxiety response criterion, against 14 percent of the placebo-first group (Ross et al., Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016).
Both trials were small, both enrolled people whose anxiety arrived with a serious illness, and neither studied panic disorder, social anxiety or generalized anxiety in people without cancer, so they cannot say what a session would do for the anxiety most people ask us about. A response means a lower score on a symptom scale at a checkpoint; some people did not respond. We make no prediction about your session.
Anxiety during a session itself is common, which is why preparation spends time on it. In the Johns Hopkins trial, an episode of anxiety was recorded in 26 percent of high-dose sessions (Griffiths et al. 2016). In a pooled analysis of 110 healthy volunteers across eight controlled studies, strong anxiety or panic occurred only at the two highest doses and in a small proportion of people, and every episode was managed with interpersonal support, none with medication (Studerus et al., Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2011). Our page on how we screen and how a hard moment is held describes what that looks like at Numia, how to prepare for a psilocybin session covers the grounding breath and phrase we teach for those moments, and the science behind psilocybin therapy covers how the medicine works.
Common questions
What if I get anxious during the session?
Some anxiety during a session is common, and your facilitator therapist stays with you through it. Preparation teaches a grounding breath and a phrase for those moments, and your facilitator therapist is beside you for the entire five to eight hours.
Do I need an anxiety diagnosis to come to Numia?
No. Colorado’s program requires that you are 21 or over and pass a safety screening. People come to us carrying anxiety, depression, grief, trauma or a long sense of being stuck, with or without a diagnosis.
Can I keep taking my medication?
That is a decision for you and your prescriber. Tell us about everything you take when you book, and please do not stop, reduce or change any medication on your own. Your facilitator therapist reviews the full list with you from the start, and some medications call for a conversation with your prescriber well before journey day.
How do I know if I am ready?
That is what the free consultation and the fit call with your facilitator therapist are for. Claudia asks people living in an unsafe situation to wait, and others may hear “not now” for reasons that come up in screening. Timing is individual, and we would rather say so than hurry anyone.
Sources
- Griffiths RR, et al. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2016;30(12):1181-1197. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909165/
- Ross S, et al. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2016;30(12):1165-1180. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909164/
- Studerus E, et al. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2011;25(11):1434-1452. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20855349/
- Trial registrations: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00465595 and https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00957359
Whenever you are ready
If anxiety is part of what brings you here and you are wondering whether a psilocybin session fits your life, we would be glad to talk. Book a free 15-minute consultation. It is a conversation, and there is nothing to decide on the call.
If you are not ready to talk, start with our free guide or our Learn library of articles on psilocybin-assisted therapy.
About the author
Claudia Barfoot, MA, LPC, NMCF, is a bilingual psychotherapist at Numia Healing Center and holds Colorado’s clinical facilitator license. She holds a doctorate in psychoanalytic clinical practice and a master’s in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from Eleia in Mexico City, a master’s in mental health counseling and wellness from New York University, and a certificate in psychedelic facilitation from InnerTrek. She works in English and Spanish.
