How Did We Get Here?: Brooke & Michael's Story

Brooke's Story:

I began recreationally experimenting with psychedelics when I was 16 years old, and I immediately noticed that the medicine space felt like home for me.

I continued to experiment with psychedelics throughout my teenage years and into my early 20's. I had been suffering with bulimia and social anxiety for nearly a decade, and even though the recreational medicine use somewhat supported me in the short-term, overall not much was healing, and my symptoms were only growing worse.

At 26, I began working with sacred earth medicine in an intentional, thoughtful, and respectful way, and two months later, I changed my entire life. I was now finally able to walk through the severe shame, denial, and fear that had prevented me from asking for the help I so badly needed. I let my entire family know I was struggling with an eating disorder, told my boss at work what was going on and asked for time off to heal, and checked myself into an eating disorder treatment center where I stayed for a few months.

So you see, ten years of recreational psychedelic use didn't change much for me, but two months of intentional medicine work helped me change my entire life.

As a therapist, I became passionate about learning how I could support others in accessing intentional work with psychedelics in a safe, healing, and sacred way. I saw that medicine work was often challenging to access due to finances, location, or not knowing where to find it. After witnessing the extreme benefit of this work in my own life, and the lives of countless others, I became determined to make intentional work with psychedelics accessible to those who felt called to it. These medicines can help heal the world, and they do so by supporting us in healing at the individual level.

Psychedelics are by no means a magic cure, but they can greatly support us in seeing ourselves in truth, honesty, and love. This allows us to become more motivated and willing to make the necessary changes we need to make in our daily lives, in order to live a life in true alignment with our soul. These sacred medicines do not want us to become dependent on them, they only want to guide us back to how powerful and beautiful we already are.

Intentional work with sacred medicine saved my life and supported me in transforming my entire reality. It is my great honor to support others on their holy journey home to love.

Michael's Story:

Like Brooke, I also had my first psychedelic experience at the age of 16. The experience was like no other I had ever encountered, and I became endlessly fascinated by the profound effects of the medicine.

Looking back at this time, I can now see that I was destined to, one day, guide others through their own psychedelic journeys. As the first voyager in my peer group, I shared my experience with the medicine, and eventually lead a group of six friends on their first journey. I felt a tremendous sense of joy, excitement, and purpose, introducing others to the mystical, spiritual, and otherworldly realms of consciousness that I had encountered.

Psychedelics remained a recreational experience for me until the age of 32. A few years prior, I had reached a crossroads in my life, struggling with a crisis of identity. Unsure of where my life was taking me, I underwent a dark night of the soul. For months, I remained in a state of depression and anxiety, feeling completely disconnected from myself and my truth, unable to find my place in the world.

Having hit rock bottom, I decided I was going to find truth within myself. Nothing outside of me made sense, and so I committed to an inward path of meditation, contemplation, and self-healing.

A few months later, I met Brooke, who changed my life forever. A series of synchronicities brought us together, and for the first time in my life, I met someone who saw the world in the same way that I did. For the first time, someone understood me and my life experiences, having had similar experiences herself.

At that point, Brooke had been doing intentional work with psychedelics for years, and while I had a great amount of experience, I had never once “gone inward” and worked with psychedelics intentionally. As fate would have it, Brooke invited me to my first ceremony and my life was forever transformed.

While the recreational psychedelic experience can be profound, it is a completely different experience when the medicine is worked with intentionally. In just one evening going inward with the medicine, my truth was revealed to me on full display. I received information about myself, my path, and my destiny that no teacher, mentor, therapist, or friend could ever come close to showing me. Overnight, I found myself on path towards a life of true personal freedom, healing, love, and connection. For the first time, I understood the meaning and purpose behind all of my experiences in life thus far, and found the direction to move forward towards my highest calling.

The medicine does not do the work for you, but it can show you the way. The medicine removes the barriers of the mind that stand in the way of who you truly are, allowing you to access a deeper understanding of yourself and your life.

It is my honor to guide others on their journey of healing and growth, as they explore working with psychedelics intentionally. Having walked this path myself, I can now see that many of the mental, emotional and physical symptoms of pain that we experience, are a result of living a life outside of alignment with the truth of who we are. It is my hope that together with the medicine, I can help to support humanity on its path towards self-realization, wholeness and healing.