The Plant Medicine For PTSD Podcast

What does it actually take to heal something you have carried for decades?  This week I sat down with Dr. Christopher Cortman, a psychologist with 40 years and more than 85,000 therapy hours behind him, to talk about guided imagery: a technique where you close your eyes and finish the conversation that trauma cut short. The goodbye you never said. The apology you never got. The brother, the mother...

What if the work you are doing on your trauma at 40 is the exact thing a good parent can teach a toddler at 2?  I sit down with Emily Roper, a neuro-developmental delay therapist and midwife's assistant who has attended more than 600 births.  We get into how pregnancy, birth, and the first year of life shape the brain and nervous system for decades, why so much of adult trauma traces back to...

We recently got invited onto The Collective for a two-hour panel on psychedelics and reality, and it turned into one of the best conversations we have been part of. We sat down with other men who have each come at this work from a different direction: Gordo Hurley, a fifteen-year special operator now building suicide-prevention infrastructure for veterans in Canada; Josh Tyler, a former pro MMA fi...

In 2017, Peter looked his therapist in the eye and told her joy doesn't exist. "You can be happy," he said, "but joy isn't a thing." Two days into his first retreat with us in Mexico, our 18-month-old daughter laughed at a breakfast table, and he nearly lost it. He came back from journaling a couple of hours later and said: "That was joy. I almost didn't kno...

Toby Miller is back, and we have a lot to catch up on.  We start with something a lot of people understand but don’t always talk about honestly: losing a dog that felt like family. Toby talks about Lucy, Titan, grief, spirituality, and the weird truth that love and pain can sit in the same room at the same time. We talk about combat trauma, forgiveness and the stuff that most people would rather b...

In this episode, I sit down with Bruno, a Marine veteran, social worker, jiu-jitsu guy, and family constellation facilitator who works with veterans, first responders, athletes, healthcare workers, and trauma survivors. This one goes a lot of places. We talk about plant medicine, family constellation work, ancestral patterns, growing up in Mexico, combat, fatherhood, marriage, initiation, and why...

Adult ADHD and procrastination can look a lot like laziness from the outside. But for a lot of high-achievers, entrepreneurs, parents, veterans, and first responders, it’s usually more complicated than that. In this episode, I sit down with my friend and former mentor Clayton Law to talk through his recent ADHD journey, and why so much of it hit uncomfortably close to home for me. We get into the...

This episode is about parenting, affirmations, the stories we tell ourselves, and how the messages we hear over and over become the water we’re swimming in.  Most of us have beliefs we never chose.  We just absorbed them from our parents, our jobs, our relationships, or whatever environment shaped us. You see, I made my daughter cry the other day. Not in some dramatic, horrible way.  But in a way...

In this episode I sit down with Zappy Zapolin for a conversation on psychedelic integration, ayahuasca, ketamine, surrender, ego, and what happens when someone builds the career, makes the money, checks all the boxes, and still ends up feeling empty. Zappy is one of the bigger names in this space, and honestly, we went into this one a little skeptical. That didn’t last long. We talk about his path...

First responder PTSD doesn’t always look dramatic. Very often it's bad sleep, isolation, snapping at the people you love, and the feeling that something is wrong even when you can’t explain it. In this episode, I sit down with former RCMP officer and founder of Project Life Spark Jeremy Hudec. We talk about what years of frontline policing really did to his mind, body, family, and sense of id...

I am joined by Kat Courtney, founder of "Plant Medicine People" and this is a special one. Not just because Kat is one of the few people we follow in the Plant Medicine space and have a huge amount of respect and admiration for, but also because this conversation took us deep.  Kat is a true modern Plant Medicine pioneer with over 2 decades of indigenous training and ceremony experience....

A lot of people think PTSD looks like bar fights, back-against-the-wall paranoia, punching holes in drywall. Sometimes it does. But a lot of the time it’s quieter and sneakier; like walking your kids downtown and realizing your body is still in Afghanistan.  In this episode I sit down with Major Scott Oikle, a Canadian Armed Forces officer who deployed to Kandahar Airfield during Afghanistan.  Sco...

You don’t need another therapist who nods, takes notes, and sends you home with “coping skills” while your nervous system is still on fire.  You don’t need another corporate “healing experience” that treats you like a chart number.  What most people with PTSD/CPTSD actually need first?  Someone who genuinely gives a shit ... and a community that proves it. In this episode, I tell the story of a re...

Most people don’t have a “drinking problem” or an “anger problem.”  They’ve got a coping solution … and it’s the only one they’ve got.  And when you rip that away without building anything better? Then you just made life harder and called it “healing.” In this episode, I sit down with my friend Ryan Carey; former pro football player (CFL), Canadian military veteran, and a guy who’s been deep in th...

“Hey honey… I met a stranger online and I’m gonna pay them lots of money to help me learn about drugs.” If that’s how you’re planning to tell your spouse you’re exploring plant medicine for PTSD/CPTSD, please don’t. In this episode, I talk about the real make-or-break factor in healing while you’re in a relationship: your partner doesn’t have to do psychedelics… but they DO need to be aware, suppo...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Eugene Lipov (the doc who pioneered using Stellate Ganglion Block for trauma) to talk about a wildly practical idea: what if we can turn the alarm system down so healing actually becomes possible? We get into the science without pretending the human part isn’t real: amygdala overload, norepinephrine, why “placebo” is a messy word for procedures like SGB, and wh...

In this episode of the Plant Medicine for PTSD podcast, I’m explaining what I mean when I say integration ... because I talk about integration basically every single time I talk, and it’s worth taking a minute to define it in plain language.  Integration is gonna be a bit anticlimactic because it looks different for each person, but the core idea is simple: clean your fish tank. I use the sick gol...

What if your anxiety isn’t just you … it’s your environment?  In this episode of “The Plant Medicine For PTSD Podcast”, I sat down with John Davis; an army combat veteran, Harvard graduate and writer who has lived across Thailand and Latin America.  We talk about expat life as a mental health intervention. About the freedom of being outside the U.S. stress machine, the cost-of-living pressure that...

Using plant medicine, using psychedelics, makes you a better parent. In this episode of the Plant Medicine for PTSD podcast, I walk through six reasons why I truly believe psychedelics (and especially a Mindful Microdosing process) can make you a better dad or mom.  We talk about the sacred pause—that space between stimulus and response—so you’re not just stumbling from one knee-jerk reaction to t...

In this episode, I’m joined by David Romero — retired U.S. Air Force Captain, lifelong musician, yoga philosophy nerd (the real kind, not the “mediocre calisthenics” kind), and a psychedelic integration + health & wellness coach.  We go deep on sound healing (voice, breath, vibration, instruments, and why your nervous system responds), yoga beyond the stretches (Ahimsa, Satya, the eight limbs)...

“I finally found my husband again… after seven years.”  That’s what the wife of an RCMP officer told him after just four days of microdosing. And if you know PTSD, you know how insane that is to hear.  In this episode, I’m fresh off our Monday night men’s rectangle (because most men’s groups are fucking lame). One of our guys, a Canadian police officer off work with severe PTSD, finally started wo...

Retreats are sexy. Integration is not.  And that’s exactly why most people keep chasing ceremonies, five-gram mushroom trips, and “one more breakthrough”… while their real life stays the same (or gets worse).  Psychedelics can show you what’s out of alignment, but they don’t magically bring it into alignment.  If you don’t change your day-to-day, the medicine just hands you a bigger gap between wh...

In this episode, I break down the four biggest myths that keep people stuck, especially folks dealing with PTSD, CPTSD, anxiety, depression, and the heavy “I’ve tried everything” fatigue. We’re talking straight: plant medicine isn’t just for Navy SEALs, you’re not “too fucked up” for healing, a big trip isn’t a magical reset button, and you don’t have to run off to Peru or blow up your life to get...

In this episode, I break down what we mean when we say medicine (not just “drugs”), who this work is for, and why jumping straight into a massive dose or booking an ayahuasca/ibogaine retreat with zero preparation can be a terrible idea for most people.  If you’ve had a bad trip, if you’re sober and conflicted, if you’re a veteran or first responder carrying PTSD, or if you’re just a normal human...

Psychedelic integration raises a bigger question than most people are ready to ask: what if substance abuse isn’t the real problem? There’s plenty of research around neuroplasticity, brain chemistry, and “resetting” systems - and that stuff matters. But it never tells the full story. Because most people don’t actually have an “alcohol problem” or a “drug problem.” They have a substance-based solut...