How Often Should You Take Psilocybin Mushrooms?

How Often Should You Dose Psychedelic Mushrooms?

With a clear, goal-oriented protocol that emphasizes pacing, integration, and safety, you’re setting yourself up for getting the most therapeutic benefits while minimizing risks and tolerance buildup. Let’s take a look at the optimal dosage protocols for both large therapeutic doses and microdosing protocols:

Mushroom Macrodosing Frequency

Though “large dose” can vary by individual sensitivity and strain potency, a therapeutic psilocybin dose generally falls in the 3–3.5 g range of dried mushrooms. At this level, users typically experience distorted visuals, mild synesthesia, and a warped sense of time—often accompanied by a profound disillusion of schemas that opens the door to lasting psychological insights.

The recommended interval to follow, according to the broad consensus of clinical studies and practitioners, is to space out your full-dose journeys by 3 to 4 weeks. Such a gap:

• Prevents tolerance (psilocybin builds tolerance quickly, requiring ever-larger doses to achieve the same effect).
• Allows for integration, giving you time to process insights through journaling, therapy, or contemplative practices.

Many of you probably want to know if you can take psilocybin daily. The answer is two-fold. Psychedelic mushrooms can technically be taken by a healthy individual on a daily basis, without causing any readily apparent hazards to their physical health. However, consuming large doses with too little time in between each session exposes you to the risk of an internal mental wellness imbalance.

Mushroom Microdosing Frequency

First off, what is microdosing? To clarify, it involves ingesting sub‑perceptual amounts, typically 0.05–0.25 g (about 1/30–1/60 of a full dose), to harvest subtle benefits like enhanced creativity, focus, and mood without any overt psychedelic effects.

So, how often should you microdose? Typically, a microdose is taken 3–5 days of any 7-day week, over a few months. Similar to how one would take a supplement of vitamins. It’s important to incorporate 2 “off” days each week to prevent tolerance buildup. Such breaks let your system reset so each dose remains effective.

After 1–2 months, take a 1–2 week break to assess your baseline, integrate insights, and recalibrate your plan. To that end, it’s recommended you keep a psychedelic journal detailing dates, exact doses, moods, energy levels, and anything that can help you contextualize your experience. This will grant you immensely valuable insights to reflect upon and see whether it might be worth it to adjust your dosage or schedule based on what’s working.

Remember, psilocybin mushrooms aren’t everyday medications like SSRIs. Their power lies in intermittent, intentional use and in the thoughtful integration of each experience. 

When to Expect Results From Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Psychedelic-assisted therapy combines guided psilocybin sessions with integration support, meaning you won’t be “tripping” every visit. That’s a pretty common misconception shared by many inexperienced individuals, similar to the idea that there is a single best magic mushroom strain out there (there isn’t). 

However, to get to the bottom of the issue, most clinical trial applications of psilocybin mushrooms for treating conditions like PTSD, depression, and general anxiety disorder typically include 3 to 6 psilocybin therapy sessions spaced 3–4 weeks apart. This allows for the built-in breaks that we’ve already talked about for integration and reflection.

That said, we’re not trying to dampen your expectations completely—just advising patience until you’ve gone through the full process.. There are a number of changes and effects, ranging from subtle to meaningful, that you can expect to notice:

• Immediate Shifts: Many clients notice meaningful perspective changes – even small “aha” moments – after their first session.
• Deeper Healing: For some, 3–5 sessions are needed to unearth and work through entrenched patterns.
• No Magic Number: Results vary based on individual goals, life context, and the quality of integration work.

Because psilocybin acts as a “non‑specific amplifier,” each session reveals new layers of insight. Spacing macrodosing sessions 3–4 weeks apart ensures you have time to process, adjust intentions, and gauge progress before your next therapeutic journey. This pacing helps you build sustainable change rather than chasing immediate fixes. Recommended Reading: How Long Do the Effects of Psychedelic Therapy Last?

Lessons From Rev & The Kayaker Analogy

Now that we’ve shared our technical knowledge on how often to take psilocybin mushrooms, we have one last story to share with you that hopefully is as meaningful to you as it was for us. 

Last year at the MAPS conference in Denver, our cofounder Jimmy Nguyen had a deep conversation with “Rev”, the person actually responsible for getting suicide support as a recognized crisis number, from 800-273-TALK to 988.

As Rev and Jimmy sat in Confluence Park on the Platte River, Rev began to share how an experienced kayaker would interact with the powerful ebb and flow of the river. 

Looking at the swells and eddies where the water pools, if you position your kayak in the balance point, you can sit at the crest of the swirl with very little effort at all. 

A good kayaker also knows when to make a decisive turn, when to use their oar to pivot, and will look ahead to the future conditions of the water and environment. 

A good kayaker doesn’t just know this in theory, they know how to operate within the confines of the river because of practice and building up their skills. 

Most importantly, a good kayaker knows when to get out of the river and walk. This is to say that the same process can be applied to the question, “When or how often should I take psilocybin mushrooms?”

Ask yourself from the perspective of a kayaker deciding whether to take on one of Mother Nature’s most powerful constituents. 

What’s the condition of the water of my life? What’s the condition of the weather in my life? How fatigued am I at this moment? What’s my equipment and tool set like? 

Do I have the right support? Do I have a spotter? How well do I know what’s under the current of the water for me to be able to read what the whirlpools and eddies are doing?

Only you know the honest answer to these questions—and remember, theoretical knowledge can only take an inexperienced person so far—but you are probably way more capable than you think!