Mushrooms & Entheogenic Medicine: A Journey Into Trauma Healing

Psychedelic medicine has been part of my life since my teenage years. Like a lot of people, I started exploring in recreational settings—just chasing experiences, not fully understanding what I was stepping into. At that point, I didn’t have the language for what was happening, but I could feel it—something was stirring beneath the surface.

Even in the early days, it felt different than how my friends described it. For a lot of people, psychedelics were just a way to trip out—to melt the edges of reality, to laugh, to lose themselves for a little while. And sometimes, sure, it was that for me too. But underneath it, there was something else. A hum. A pull. Like I was brushing up against something sacred and ancient... even if I didn’t have the language yet to name it.

I didn’t have a guide. There were no carefully prepared ceremonies. No facilitator, no set and setting. Just a heart cracked open wider than I knew what to do with...walking into these spaces, wide-eyed and curious. But even in that uncertainty, I sensed I was being shown something I desperately needed to see.

The first time I felt it clearly, I was alone. I had taken mushrooms with friends earlier that day, but when the energy started to shift and the layers of reality began to open, I pulled away. I walked off alone, wandering deeper into the trees. I remember feeling like I had stepped outside of time... like I was no longer just “me,” but part of something vast and ancient. The wind moving through the branches, the way the light scattered through the leaves... all of it felt alive. It felt as though the Earth itself was whispering, calling me to remember something I’d forgotten.

I didn’t understand it then, but looking back, I know that was one of my first true spiritual experiences... a moment where I felt, not just thought, that I was part of something infinitely greater than myself.

I kept following that feeling.

The Road, The Medicine, and the Long Journey Home

My relationship with psychedelics deepened as I traveled. I spent years moving across the country, hitchhiking, sleeping wherever I could, following instinct rather than plans. The road became my teacher, and in a way, psychedelics were my compass.

Sometimes the lessons were beautiful... moments of connection, where strangers became family and I felt truly seen. Other times, the medicine dragged me into places I didn’t want to go. Old wounds I thought I had forgotten were suddenly wide open. Grief I hadn’t realized I was carrying spilled to the surface.

The road strips you down. There’s no comfort zone when you’re constantly moving, meeting new people, navigating uncertainty, and surrendering to the unknown. For me, psychedelics became a way to process what I couldn’t put into words.

I remember one particular night vividly. I had taken mushrooms alone. The experience started light, playful even, but soon it took a turn. I found myself revisiting memories I had long buried... moments of fear, abandonment, and grief that I had never truly allowed myself to feel. The weight of it pressed down on me, and for a moment, I panicked.

But something else happened too. The medicine seemed to guide me... not away from the pain, but into it. I saw the memory from a different perspective. I wasn’t trapped inside it anymore; I was observing it. And instead of judging myself for what I felt, I started to soften. I felt compassion for myself ...for the younger version of me who didn’t know how to cope, who did her best to survive. That night, something shifted forever. I realized mushrooms weren’t about escaping... they were about returning. About holding myself with the kind of tenderness I never knew I needed.

Northern California & The Grateful Dead’s Influence

When I eventually landed in Northern California, something shifted. The energy of the place was palpable... like the land itself was still vibrating with the echoes of something ancient and powerful.

I found myself immersed in a culture that had been shaped by the psychedelic revolution, the movement that had cracked open so many minds and hearts in the ‘60s and beyond. The Grateful Dead’s influence was everywhere... not just in the music, but in the way people lived, connected, and created community.

The Grateful Dead scene wasn’t just concerts and tie dye... it was a psychedelic space in itself. The music wasn’t simply heard; it was felt, weaving people together in a way that seemed to dissolve the boundaries between them. At their shows, you could feel it. This collective heartbeat, this pulse of connection where ego fell away and something larger emerged. It wasn’t always pretty; there were chaotic moments too, but underneath it all, there was something real—a reminder that we are all woven together in ways far deeper than we often realize.

The Dead’s music carried the same message that mushrooms had been whispering to me all along—let go, surrender, and trust the unfolding. Living in that culture showed me how powerful psychedelics could be when approached with intention. I met people who had been walking this path for decades, people who understood that these medicines weren’t just about exploring consciousness, they were about healing the fractures within ourselves.

Northern California, the road, the Dead... they stitched something back together in me that I didn’t even know was broken. They showed me that healing isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence. It’s about community. It’s about remembering that we were never meant to do any of this alone.

The Ancient Wisdom of Mushrooms & Initiatory Rites

Long before Western medicine began studying mushrooms, they were revered as sacred teachers and powerful allies. In cultures across the world, psychedelic experiences weren’t seen as recreational—they were seen as initiations.

In Mesoamerican cultures, psilocybin mushrooms were called teonanácatl, meaning “flesh of the gods.” The Aztec people believed these mushrooms allowed them to commune with divine forces, gaining insight, guidance, and wisdom from realms beyond the physical.

In Siberia, indigenous shamans used Amanita muscaria mushrooms to enter trance states, travel between worlds, and retrieve lost souls. The shaman’s journey was often grueling—a death and rebirth that stripped away false identities and revealed the shaman’s true power.

In Ancient Greece, the Eleusinian Mysteries were among the most profound spiritual experiences in the ancient world. Participants consumed an entheogenic brew believed to induce deep, mystical encounters with death, rebirth, and the soul’s eternal nature.

What these traditions understood is that these medicines don’t just expand your mind—they take you into the deepest corners of yourself. They show you what’s hidden, what’s buried, and what’s waiting to be healed.

Mushrooms, when approached with intention, have a way of unearthing the truth—not the story we tell ourselves, but the truth that lives in our bones, our breath, and our heart.

Why Mushrooms Are So Effective for Trauma Healing

Trauma doesn’t just exist as a memory—it’s something that embeds itself in the body, the nervous system, and the subconscious mind. It’s stored in the way we breathe, in the tension we hold in our muscles, in the way we react to stress. Trauma has a way of reshaping the entire landscape of the nervous system, keeping us stuck in patterns of hypervigilance, dissociation, or emotional numbness.

Many people who have experienced trauma describe feeling disconnected—not only from other people but from themselves. Sometimes this disconnection feels like living in a constant state of anxiety or overwhelm. Other times, it feels like being numb—like you’re walking through life in a fog, unable to fully engage with the world around you.

Even when we believe we’ve “moved on,” our bodies still carry the imprint of those experiences. This is why trauma responses often feel so involuntary—as if something deeper than our conscious mind is calling the shots.

The challenge with trauma healing is that these patterns aren’t always accessible through logic or conversation alone. Traditional talk therapy can be incredibly helpful, but it doesn’t always reach the parts of us that are still holding on—the places where trauma has taken root.

This is where mushrooms can be incredibly powerful.

Mushrooms Work Beyond the Mind

Mushrooms bypass the rational mind and bring us directly into the parts of ourselves that we’ve been avoiding. They soften the walls we’ve built to survive—not to break us down, but to help us feel safe enough to finally look at what’s been hidden.

When working with mushrooms intentionally, the experience often unfolds in layers.

At first, the medicine may feel expansive—like a window has opened, and you’re suddenly seeing yourself and the world with fresh eyes. The mind becomes more flexible, more willing to let go of the rigid beliefs and narratives that trauma has reinforced. But as the journey deepens, mushrooms have a way of leading you straight to the places you’ve been afraid to go—the wounds you’ve been avoiding, the grief you’ve been suppressing, the memories you’ve buried.

For many people, this part of the journey is deeply emotional. The medicine may bring up old memories—things you haven’t thought about in years—or it may stir emotions that feel overwhelming at first. But the beauty of mushrooms is that they don’t just show you the pain—they invite you to witness it with compassion.

Rather than feeling consumed by your trauma, mushrooms create a sense of spaciousness, a kind of buffer that allows you to sit with your pain without being overwhelmed by it.

That’s part of what makes this medicine so powerful—it holds up a mirror, but it doesn’t leave you alone to face what’s reflected. There’s a presence to it—an intelligence that seems to say: "Look at this. You’re ready now. And you’re not alone."

How Mushrooms Heal the Nervous System

One of the most powerful aspects of mushrooms is their ability to regulate the nervous system.

Trauma creates patterns of hyperarousal (fight-or-flight) or shutdown (freeze/dissociation), often leaving people feeling stuck in one extreme or the other.

Psilocybin has been shown to:

• Promote Neuroplasticity – This is the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways. Trauma can leave us stuck in loops—reliving the same thought patterns, behaviors, or emotional responses over and over again. Psilocybin helps the brain break out of those cycles, allowing us to create new pathways that support safety, connection, and peace.

• Reduce Activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN) – The DMN is the part of the brain responsible for self-referential thinking—the constant inner dialogue that reinforces negative beliefs like I’m not safe or I’m not enough. By quieting this part of the brain, mushrooms help create space for new perspectives and insights.

• Facilitate Somatic Release – Because trauma is stored in the body, its release is often physical. During a mushroom journey, it’s common for people to experience spontaneous movement, trembling, deep breathing, or tears. These aren’t random reactions—they’re the body’s way of unwinding and releasing what’s been trapped inside for years.

  
  

Many people describe this process as if their body is “resetting”—as though the tension they’ve carried for years is finally letting go.

The Emotional Experience of Healing with Mushrooms

The emotional landscape of a mushroom journey can be intense.

For some, it’s gentle—a feeling of warmth, connection, and calm. For others, the experience can feel like a deep excavation—one that asks you to sit with emotions that have been locked away for years.

Grief often rises first—the sadness we’ve carried, the pain we’ve numbed, the memories we haven’t wanted to face. But as grief moves, something else often emerges—compassion.

The medicine seems to reveal that much of our suffering comes from the ways we’ve tried to protect ourselves. It shows us that the parts of us we once rejected—the anger, the fear, the pain—are actually parts that were just trying to keep us safe.

This shift—moving from self-judgment to self-compassion—is one of the most powerful gifts mushrooms can offer. For many, it’s the first time they’ve ever felt truly safe enough to face themselves.

Integration: The Key to Lasting Change

The real magic of mushroom healing isn’t just in the journey itself—it’s in what happens afterward. The insights, the breakthroughs, the emotional releases—none of it matters if those experiences aren’t integrated into your daily life. Integration is the process of anchoring what you’ve learned—turning insights into action, and revelations into real change.

This might look like:

• Creating new boundaries in relationships

• Learning to sit with your emotions instead of avoiding them

• Releasing old narratives about who you are and what you’re capable of

• Developing practices that support your nervous system, like breathwork, movement, or meditation

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Mushrooms can open the door, but the real work is in how you walk through it.

Exploring the World of Entheogens Beyond Mushrooms

Entheogenic medicine is not limited to psilocybin. Across the world, diverse cultures have preserved sacred relationships with a wide variety of plant teachers and natural spirit allies—each carrying its own frequency, wisdom, and purpose. These entheogens (many I have experience with) have been used for centuries in ceremonial, healing, and initiatory contexts, offering profound gateways to expanded consciousness, spiritual connection, and personal transformation.

While psilocybin has garnered significant attention in modern psychedelic conversations, it is only one voice in a much larger chorus. The following medicines, rooted in ancestral and indigenous traditions, invite us into deeper communion with ourselves, the Earth, and the unseen realms.

Other Entheogenic Medicines Beyond Mushrooms

• Ayahuasca - A sacred Amazonian brew made from Banisteriopsis caapi (a vine) and Psychotria viridis (a DMT-containing leaf), Ayahuasca is known for its powerful purgative and visionary properties. Often described as the “vine of the soul,” it is revered for its ability to cleanse emotional, physical, and spiritual blockages, connect individuals to ancestral lineages, and catalyze profound soul healing.

• San Pedro (Huachuma) - This Andean cactus, rich in mescaline, is deeply heart-opening and expansive. San Pedro ceremonies are often rooted in connection to Pachamama (Mother Earth), divine love, and clarity of purpose. The medicine is known to be gentle yet profound—enhancing intuition, compassion, and perception of the natural and spiritual worlds.

• Peyote - Also containing mescaline, Peyote has long been used in Native American and Indigenous Mexican traditions as a ceremonial sacrament. It facilitates prayer, healing, and deep communion with Spirit. Its medicine is potent, often involving long overnight ceremonies that blend song, vision, and spiritual cleansing.

• Iboga - Used traditionally by the Bwiti people of West Africa, Iboga is an intensely introspective root bark that brings the user face-to-face with subconscious programming, trauma, and life patterns. It’s most widely known in the West for interrupting addiction, but it is also a profound initiator into one’s inner truth and ancestral memory.

• Bufo Alvarius (5-MeO-DMT)Extracted from the secretion of the Sonoran Desert toad, this powerful entheogen induces rapid ego dissolution and non-dual states of consciousness. Often referred to as "The God Molecule," it offers a mystical experience of oneness, light, and the void. While short in duration, the effects can be life-altering.

• Calea Zacatechichi (Dream Herb ) - Used by the Chontal people of Oaxaca for dreamwork and divination, Calea is known to enhance vivid dreaming and lucidity. Usually smoked or taken as a bitter tea before bed, it facilitates access to the dream world and can be used as a tool for astral exploration and inner visioning.

• Yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina)A snuff derived from a DMT-containing seed, Yopo has been used ceremonially by various Indigenous South American groups. It induces powerful visual journeys and connections with ancestral spirits, often combined with other ritual practices such as Mapacho or Kambo.

• Salvia DivinorumA powerful visionary plant used by the Mazatec people for healing and divination. Salvia induces short but deeply immersive experiences that often bend time, identity, and spatial awareness. While often misunderstood or misused, it holds immense potential when approached with reverence and intention.

Gentle Allies: Heart-Centered and Subtle Entheogens

These plant allies work in more subtle, yet profound ways. They support emotional healing, heart expansion, nervous system regulation, and intuitive clarity. They’re especially powerful in ceremony, integration work, or for those newer to entheogenic medicine who are seeking a softer entry point.

• Cacao (Theobroma cacao) - Ceremonial cacao, long revered in Mayan and Aztec traditions, opens the heart and fosters deep presence, emotional connection, and authentic expression. Rich in theobromine and mood-enhancing compounds, cacao supports us in softening into our truth, releasing emotional blocks, and deepening connection with self and others. Used in ritual alongside music, meditation, movement, and prayer, cacao is a gentle guide toward love, clarity, and embodied devotion.

• Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) - This Egyptian flower is known for inducing gentle euphoria, emotional insight, and meditative awareness. Blue Lotus softens the nervous system, opens the crown and third eye, and invites sensuality and sacred rest. It is often steeped as tea, infused into wine, or smoked for a calming, dreamy effect—ideal for deepening spiritual practice or dreamwork.

• Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) - A South African succulent with mood-lifting and heart-centered effects, Kanna has traditionally been used for calming anxiety, enhancing connection, and softening grief. It works as a natural serotonin reuptake inhibitor, fostering presence and open-hearted communication. It pairs beautifully with breathwork, integration circles, or intimate relational practices.

• Mapacho (Sacred Tobacco) - Used extensively in Amazonian traditions, Mapacho is not psychedelic but is highly ceremonial. It grounds energy, protects sacred space, and helps carry prayer and intention. It is often used to cleanse a person or environment before entering deeper medicine work, or on its own as a powerful ally for centering and anchoring one’s energy.

• Rapé (Hapé) - A sacred tobacco-based snuff used to clear energy channels, sharpen mental focus, and reconnect with spirit. Though intense upon administration, it acts as a grounding medicine that helps silence mental chatter, return to the breath, and reestablish connection with the Earth. A powerful tool for integration or energetic reset.

A Note on Safety & Sacred Use

These medicines are not recreational experiences—they are initiations. Each one works with a distinct energetic intelligence and can stir deep layers of the psyche, body, and soul. To honor their full potential:

• Set a clear intention. Know why you are entering the space and what you are seeking.

• Choose your setting with care. Create or find a safe, supportive, and energetically held container.

• Respect dosage and preparation. Some medicines require dietary or spiritual preparation (dieta).

• Work with experienced guides or facilitators. Especially with powerful entheogens like Ayahuasca, Iboga, or Bufo.

• Allow time for integration. The journey continues after the experience—make space for rest, reflection, and support.

A Sacred Path of Courage and Trust

Healing trauma with mushrooms and enteogens is not a shortcut. It’s not about “getting fixed” or bypassing the hard stuff. It’s about learning to sit with yourself—even the parts that feel messy, raw, or broken—and finding that underneath it all, you are still whole.

Entheogens don’t erase your pain—they invite you to feel it fully, to grieve what’s been lost, and to reconnect with the parts of yourself you thought were gone forever. It’s hard work. But it’s also beautiful.

For those willing to surrender to the process, entheogens have a way of guiding you back home—to yourself, to your body, and to the quiet knowing that you’ve always carried within you. If you feel called to this work, know that you are stepping into something profound.

This is sacred medicine. It’s powerful, and it’s deeply personal.

But you don’t have to walk it alone. You’re invited to walk this path with a guide—someone who holds space for your transformation with presence, integrity, and compassion.

Through 1:1 ceremony, integrative support, intuitive guidance, and ceremonial work, I’m here to walk beside you as you remember your truth, reclaim your power, and embody your soul’s medicine.

If you're feeling the pull of this work—if something inside you knows it’s time to go deeper—you don’t have to navigate it alone. I offer one-on-one entheogenic ceremony work, integration support, and spiritual guidance for those walking the path of deep healing and soul remembrance. Together, we create a container rooted in safety, reverence, and truth—honoring your unique journey every step of the way.

When you’re ready to step into this next chapter of your healing, I’m here.

Your soul already knows the way.Let’s walk it... together.