Consider expanding your definition of what a "therapist" could be and what a "clinical setting" could look like. Michael Pollan's interactions with the therapists (they're called "guides") in "How to Change Your Mind" are not clinical at all in the sense of sterility, beige-walled offices etc.

Pollan actually does go on the black market (still probably $200/hour though). You can't legally get a psychedelic trip guide in the US right now.

The point is that the exact people who are well-known and respected as black-market guides would become therapists in a world where such a profession were legal!

> You can't legally get a psychedelic trip guide in the US right now.

Not entirely true, although only a few, there have been and continue to be legal studies involving psilocybin (also MDMA) in addition to the one in the OP.

Here is a smoking cessation study in Baltimore, involving a psilocybin psychedelic trip. https://www.quitsmokingbaltimore.org/

Here's an article about the findings of the 2014 pilot study on the same thing which describes the methodology to some extent. https://hub.jhu.edu/2014/09/11/magic-mushrooms-smoking/

Seriously, read the book. You're grossly misjudging what the book discusses.

In running there is an expression, "you have to run your own race". The same is true here.

But specifically in this context psychedelics are generally introduced to individuals who haven't had prior experience with them, and may need additional support that therapists can help with (e.g. survivors of sexual assault, deep depression, anxiety regarding terminal diagnosis, PTSD, etc) and the therapist have been trained specifically in guiding these individuals in psychedelic trips. So they are like the best trip sitters you can have if you are trying to get out of rut.