So, You’re Thinking About Psychedelic Therapy

I was sitting across the conference room table and interviewing Al Guido , the President of the San Francisco 49ers and I thought to myself, “WOW, Is this really my life?!” 

I was stoked beyond belief, the 49ers have always been my team and here I was interviewing the President of the team! That was November of 2017 and in January of that year my good friend, Sergio Oliveri , and I launched our first podcast called “WhatUp! Silicon Valley”. 

The podcast took off like wildfire and soon we were partnered with the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the Silicon Valley Capital Club. We found ourselves interviewing the electric personality of world famous comedian Anjelah Johnson backstage before she was to perform at the San Jose Improv. Another time we sat down with legendary hot dog eating champ, Joey Chestnut; and I’ll never forget being stuck in an elevator and whipping out our mobile podcast set-up to interview the Mayor of the 10th largest city in America, Sam Liccardo .

Getting into content creation and the birth of WhatUp! Silicon Valley catapulted my career in ways I never could have imagined. By 2019 (within just two years of launching the pod), I hit a million dollars in sales through my company SwagWorx.com and was named to Silicon Valley’s 40 Under 40 list … I was just 31 years old.

I had it all … 

Well, on the surface it looked that way, but it’s not always that simple. 

Numb & Depressed

The truth is I was beyond burnt out. I was depressed, I didn’t know why, and I knew something had to change because I had sleepless nights for a month and was numb in the waking hours.

I got really good at putting on the face of success so I could continue to distract myself through building my business and I learned quickly how to have a radio voice so that when I was podcasting you couldn’t hear the despair deep within. 

Then a plant medicine called Ayahuasca came into my awareness.

I heard about Ayahuasca previously and I always thought to myself, “Well, if sh*t ever hits the fan, there’s always that”. The metaphorical sh*t hit the fan alright and I was drowning in a sea of monotony without a life vest to help guide me to safety. Sidenote: luckily this is just a metaphor and there was no feces actually involved, that would have been a whole other story, anyway …

I was called to Ayahuasca, the medicine found its way to me in undeniable ways.

Now, there’s something I want to address before we continue because in spiritual communities there’s a lot of lingo and jargon that was really new to me back then and I understand that this may be new to you as well and it’s for that reason, it’s important we identify some terms.

PLANT MEDICINE: One of my mentors says that drugs leave you feeling worse while medicine leaves you feeling clear. When I use the words “psychedelic therapy” I am referring to plant and earth medicines such as Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, and Bufo / Toad Medicine (5-MeO-DMT) to name a few. These are not drugs, despite what the propaganda has programmed us to believe, they are medicines that have been used, in some cases, for thousands of years ceremonially and for healing purposes.

CALLED: Earlier I said I was “called” to Ayahuasca … I didn’t have the language back then to use this type of term although now 5 years later I’m so entrenched in the medicine community that sometimes I forget the terms that used to be new to me. Being called to the medicine can be undeniable … It's almost like there’s a force beyond words that is guiding you to the medicine. It’s not like planning a vacation, doing some searches online and planning a trip. When you’re ready for the psychedelic therapy, the medicine comes to you in undeniable ways. It’s very much akin to the quote, “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”. 

Rebirth

What happens next in my story has been well documented in my podcast, Soul Seekr along with the book I published in 2022 called SOUL/Life Balance: A Guide to Igniting & Integrating Awakenings. The cliffnotes are that I completely transformed my life … I moved to Santa Cruz from Silicon Valley, I got out of the toxic relationship I was in, I prioritized my mental and emotional well-being, I immersed myself in spiritual and healing communities and I slowly started exploring new career paths.

Eventually, I became a certified Yoga Instructor & Breathwork Facilitator. These days, I spend my time building my Keynote Speaking business while prioritizing my own mental health through breathwork, writing, ocean plunges and yoga. 

I’m thrilled to share with you that my life has changed for the better in the past 5 years and I could not be happier about working with psychedelics as a means of healing. That said, this path is a challenging one to navigate and in the past few years I’ve guided nearly a thousand people in their healing journey with psychedelic medicine through coaching them on how best to integrate their new found wisdom and sense of being into everyday life.

What's Next

If you're wanting to go deeper on if psychedelic therapy may be a fit for you, you may enjoy one of the resources I've linked below ...

WORKBOOK: I wrote a workbook entitled "Psychedelic Compass" over a weekend in the summer of 2023. Sometimes things just come through and this was one of those times. Click the link here to snag your copy - this book is for you if you're on the fence of psychedelic therapy and want to discern if it may make sense for you.

PODCAST EPISODE: Here's a recent episode from my podcast, SOUL SEEKR, I recorded that is all centered around bufo specifically.

VIDEO: This is a 9 minute video that speaks to why psychedelic therapy may not be a good fit for someone.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or support - the best way to get ahold of me is by email (Sam@SamKabert.com).

Just Breathe,

Sam