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EP 054 | ACCESSING YOUR INNER HEALER WITH HEATHER SHELTON, CANNABIS NURSE HERBALIST
Today on The Psychedelic Integration Podcast, Sinclair interviews Heather Shelton, RN, BSA founder of Herbsong Farm, and a registered nurse herbalist who has worked with botanical medicine for over two decades. She came to plant medicine in desperation to save her life, having tried everything Western medicine had to offer. She suffered from significant depression for several years, with persistent anxiety on the side to boot. What she found was way more than treatment – it was a path back to herself, and an open door to all she could ever have hoped life could be.
Heather blends her intuitive plant wisdom and traditional nursing experience to offer a unique holistic approach to care. She supports people on their health journeys using herbs, cannabis, nutrition, and lifestyle changes. Heather also offers an online herbal apprenticeship, and has spoken about cannabis and psychedelics at many conferences around the country. She is currently an instructor for psilocybin facilitators in Oregon, a member of United Plant Savers, the International Association of Psychedelic Nurses, the Cannabis Nurses Network, and the American Cannabis Nurse Association, where she serves on multiple committees.
Heather has a deep commitment to the Earth and serves as a board member of two non-profits, the Northwest Land Conservation Trust and Fox Hollow Forestland where she stewards land and leads workshops on herbal medicine, self-sufficiency and Earth based traditions.
In this episode, Sinclair and Heather talk about:
- Moving to Oregon at 21 and realizing she was done doing what she was “supposed” to
- Finding her way to plants, herbalism, self-sufficiency, gardening, and connecting with nature through midwifery and learning about natural birth and naturopathy
- Her first LSD experience at a concert and experiencing God
- Spiritual seeking and finding the vibe at a Grateful Dead show
- Parenting, farming, and becoming a nurse meant a 20 year hiatus from psychedelics
- True integration doesn’t end, it’s a constant unfolding of new awareness in every moment
- Plants as catalysts for us to be present for our lives
- Taking time to understand what our wise plant teachers are trying to teach us
- Being prepared for her father’s death over a year of integrating a big ceremony
- The longevity of the psychedelic experience
- Your consciousness is receiving and recording everything, and it will appear to you when you are ready to understand it
- Why plants are her best friends and why she works with them
- The pervasive disconnection from nature, not knowing where your food comes from, not understanding the natural cycle
- The best way to support and heal the planet is to heal yourself and connect with the Earth
- We are Earth. We are Nature. We are God’s expression, and it’s a way out of suffering
- Eat a variety of mushrooms for prevention at least 3x a week
- The best ways to eat psychoactive mushrooms
- What’s going on with plant medicine in Oregon
- The requirements and difficulties of training psilocybin facilitators through this new official program
- When medicine becomes profit driven, the pioneers and the patients get left behind
- Social equity as a driver of the movement – you don’t need a medical license to facilitate in Oregon
- Specializing in cannabis and psilocybin as a legal and licensed nurse
- How she became a cannabis nurse working with cancer patients
- Treating her father’s cancer with high THC cannabis oil, extending his remaining 1 year to 6 years
- Food as medicine, how creating relationships with spices, herbs, and plants can help create health and wellness
- Home birth and home death as the ideal places to transition into and out of life
- Blending the medical system and traditional care with herbalism and natural prevention
- First line of defense: energy medicine and plant medicine
- How we become ill through repressing our emotions, unresolved trauma, and eating crap food
- Reframing diagnosis — it just gives you a place to start to look for the root cause
- What healing could look like if we combined Western medicine with holistic health and nature
- How one plant can heal us physically, and energetically
- Why coaching and private holistic care is more expensive
- Social media and the illusion of “FREE”
- Expecting endless free content, and why everyone deserves to get paid for their labor, creativity, and contributions
- How comparison disempowers us and reinforces imposter syndrome
- Cleansing your social media of triggers and anything that makes you feel bad
- The validity of spiritual and energetic tools in healing work
- Spiritual growth requires that you stop trying to tell other people how to live, and start focusing on yourself
- The word “should” and why it sucks
- Parenting and psychedelics
- You know better about yourself than anyone else
- Plant medicine accesses your inner healer
- Spend more time outside!
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Connect with Heather Shelton, RN, BSA
Heather’s website: Herbsong Farm
Follow Heather on Instagram: @herbsongfarm
Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin
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