Plant Medicine Navigation & Integration

I’m fortunate that, to balance my struggles, I’ve had amazing mentors over the past few decades. Guides that helped me develop skills and understand parts of myself that perplexed me through my youth, leading me to a centered place where I am able to trust myself as my own best teacher.

At one point, though, that trust disappeared. And this happened well past a point where I thought hey I got this figured out. Doubt enveloped me. My ego felt shattered. To those looking in from the outside I had many wonderful aspects to my life, yet there was a giant part of me that was not only miserable but rejecting happiness. A large part of this was having spent so long with a ‘mask’ on in order to make a living that it seemed that I had nothing of value to offer without wearing that mask. My sense of self wasn’t guiding me, I believe there was part of me that was trying, but a blocked, conditioned part of me couldn’t listen and adapt as I once did.

Then, one day, a shift happened. I was walking to the gym. My misery was peaking in a business partnership and workouts would help momentarily take that down a notch or two. Still, I was covered in the combination of mad and melancholy that festers when we’re not balanced and fulfilled. I remember thinking, what happened? Where did I go? How do I find my way forward? Help! Help.

A word popped in my head: Mushrooms.

What the fuck did you say? I asked myself.

Mushrooms. Delivered with unqualified assertiveness.

For me?

For you to help others.

I got to the gym. As I worked out, I decided that this was silly. Mushrooms? I had taken mushrooms before. And I was well-trained and versed in all of the esoteric ways that mushrooms supposedly help people through. But, no, this was not it. I started my walk home.

I waited at a cross walk for a car to pass. As it passed I saw rows of mushroom stickers on its bumper. Eh, still no.

Within moments, a man I had never seen before and never seen since walked by and waved at me. I nodded back in my guarded city-boy way, then I looked at his sweatshirt emblazoned with a collage of brightly colored mushrooms. What the fuck?

Are you ready to get to work?

Ok, asshole, I’m listening.

Excitement welled through me, yet I remained reserved as is my wont. Over time, I learned everything I could about mushrooms and psychedelics that I didn’t already know. I absorbed traditional uses. I took courses designed for clinicians and therapists. I saw that my 20+ years of working with the intangible translated effortlessly to this new path and I found my pragmatism afforded me objectivity. I found my studies in herbalism and medicinal plants married well with this, my creative work and coaching practices even more so. My experience working as a trauma-informed facilitator and designing anti-racist programs enabled one of my core tenets: accessibility. And my years working at a high-level in the corporate world and all the blood, sweat, and tears put in as an artist and professional musician enabled me to meet a wide variety of people where they are. I worked with myself, then others, and finessed my processes, understanding, and knowledge.

I got my groove back, friends. I got to work, I put in the work. I can talk about how mushrooms helped me, sure. But the download I got was about helping others that are struggling, in a way that meets them - that meets you - as unique beings forging their own paths in this world.

Many roads lay ahead for you, and you deserve solid ground where your steps have been muddied.