The Makaranda Podcast

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Brendan Caldwell, a Licensed Professional Counselor, Natural Medicine Clinical Facilitator, psychedelic guide, and educator who has spent years working with psychedelic care, altered states, and trauma-informed practice.I first came to know Brendan through the Medicinal Mindfulness Academy, where he taught in a way that helped me understand what is actually happening in the brain when we take psilocybin mushrooms.We talk about psilocybin, psilocin, serotonin, the 5-HT2A receptor, and what may be changing in the brain during a psychedelic experience. Brendan also has a background in neuroscience research and I love the way he can explain complicated ideas in a way that still feels relatively easy to follow.You can find Brendan's website here : www.astertherapy.meEmail: [email protected] published research papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rHbd-eUAAAAJHappy listening!Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

What can it look like to heal anxiety and OCD? In this episode, Eleanor sits down with Amelie Rey, a natural medicine facilitator, to talk about what healing can look like when you go beyond talk therapy and work with natural medicines.Amelie shares her story openly, including where she started, what wasn't working, and how intentional work with psychedelic-assisted therapy, somatic practices, meditation and our method changed the trajectory of her life and her work. She and Eleanor are building a practice rooted in the Colorado Natural Medicine Health Act that brings together natural medicine facilitation, somatic and nature-based healing.If you or someone you love has been living with anxiety or OCD and wondering whether there's something more than what conventional therapy has offered you, this episode is for you.In this episode:Amelie talks about her personal experience with anxiety and what led her to psychedelic-assisted therapy. She walks through what somatic work is and why the body matters so much in mental health healing. She explains briefly what natural medicine facilitation can looks like in practice under Colorado's Natural Medicine Health Act, and how the four pillars in The Makaranda Method supports lasting change. She and Eleanor also touch on what they're building together and why they believe this approach offers real hope for people who feel stuck.You can contact Amelie at [email protected] for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

In this episode I sit down with my friend and lawyer Josh Kappel, one of the co-authors of the Natural Medicine Health Act, for an honest conversation about psychedelic therapy and the law around psychedelic therapy in Colorado.We talk about what the Natural Medicine Health Act is, the difference between staying in personal use and becoming a licensed facilitator, where Spirit and Earth can sit inside a clinical frame, and what the latest psychedelic studies and federal developments mean for practitioners on the ground. About my guestJosh Kappel is a founding partner of Vicente LLP law firm and one of the co-authors of Colorado's Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act, the first state law in the country to create a regulated access model for psychedelic therapy alongside decriminalized personal use. He chaired the Natural Medicine Colorado campaign, was named a 2025 Lawyer of the Year by Law Week Colorado, and continues to shape psychedelic and cannabis policy, including recent work on safe ibogaine access in Colorado.Resources and linksJosh Kappel and Vicente LLP: https://vicentellp.comReach Josh by email: [email protected] Makaranda Method: https://themakarandamethod.comWork with me: https://themakarandamethod.clientsecure.meFree meditations on Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/eleanorevansmedinaChacruna Institute and the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative: https://chacruna.netIf this conversation spoke to you, I would love to hear from you. You can find me and the rest of my work at www.themakarandamethod.comIf you found this podcast supportive in any way, please share it with one person who needs to hear it.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

This meditation was made a friend who was recently diagnosed cancer. This is for anyone moving through a disease, before a surgery, before a scan, before the unknown. It is about ten minutes long and invites you to arrive exactly as you are, afraid or exhausted or grateful or all of it at once.It moves through grounding, a gentle invitation back to yourself, learning to receive the love that is already moving toward you, and holding a prayer for your own body and the people caring for you too.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

I am honored to share this conversation with E. She is a labor and delivery nurse who spends her days at the threshold where life begins, holding families through one of the most raw and uncharted territories of human existence.She came into my world looking to buy my Sprinter van. What unfolded from that party, that snack table, that first conversation, became one of the most meaningful relationships of my life.In this episode, E shares how she found her way into psychedelic-assisted work and expanded states of consciousness. We talk about what it took to step into a group ceremony when that felt scary, and how that experience shifted her relationship with her body, her mother, her patients, and herself. We also get into the difference between thinking your way through life and actually feeling it, and what it means to keep showing up as a student, even when you're also the one holding the room.E is now part of the Makaranda Lineage. She is also the nurse I want by my side when I bring my own children into the world. I hope this conversation finds you at exactly the right moment.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

I made this meditation for one of my best friends, T, who is pregnant. May it find every mother moving through a moment of fear or contraction and help her open, call in light, and trust the profound mystery already unfolding within her.Sometimes we receive news that pulls us out of our bodies, out of the joy and the knowing, and into our heads. This meditation is an invitation back. Back into the body, back into the breath, back into the deep trust that life knows what it is doing.In ten minutes, we ground into the Earth, draw white light in through the crown of the head, and let it travel all the way into the womb, circulating around your baby, tending what needs tending, restoring what needs restoring.If you know a mother who needs this, please share it.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

In this episode, I'm sitting down with my dear friend, client, and student Kate Pauley, a licensed marriage and family therapist and ceremonialist who has been part of my world since the very beginning of my practice in 2018. We're talking about Kate's experience bringing psychedelics and ceremonial work into her experience of becoming and being a mother.Kate shares her story honestly, from the ceremonies we did together in Mexico before she got pregnant, to the vision she received of a spirit baby connected to the Tree of Life, to the very real challenges of identity loss, loneliness, mom guilt, and the hormone crash of early postpartum. We also get into the maiden-to-mother-to-crone transition, why mothers specifically need ceremony and community, and what it means to raise a child inside a life that is itself a ceremony.I also open up about my own path toward motherhood, including a miscarriage last year that has been one of the harder chapters of my life.What I love about this conversation is that it isn't about psychedelics as a magic fix. It's about what happens when you do the work, when you let ceremony give you space to see yourself clearly, stop the patterns that are hurting you, trust your own knowing, and come back to love, especially in the small, hard moments.If you're a mother, or becoming one, or love one, this one's for you.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

This short grounding practice helps you pause between moments and return to balance. Begin by finding a comfortable seat or standing tall, allowing your body to settle. With each breath, bring your awareness back to what you can feeling in the body and mind. You can always use the breath as your constant companion to help you reset anyplace, anytime.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

In this episode of The Makaranda Podcast, therapist Eleanor Evans Medina sits down with friend and apprentice Lindsay Lynch to reflect on their time at the 2025 Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver, hosted by MAPS, [the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.]Eleanor and Lindsay explore the intersection of science and spirit, and what it means to work with psychedelics with reverence and integrity. Through personal stories and thoughtful reflections, they offer an holistic take on the evolving world of psychedelics in the U.S., therapeutic healing, neuroscience and ancestral knowledge about how to work with non-ordinary states of consciousness.Tune in for a nourishing and honest dialogue about trauma-informed care, the future of healing, and the courage it takes to stay present in a chaotic world.Mentions & Gratitude:MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) and the 2025 Psychedelic Science ConferenceReflections on trauma-informed facilitation, regulation, and spiritual bypassingDeep gratitude to our teachers, mentors, and elders who walk this path with integrityHonoring the lineages and traditional knowledge that inform sacred plant medicine workDr. Manesh Girn – UCSF neuroscientist, known as @thepsychedelicscientist, specializing in psychedelic brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience.Dr. Lindsey Cameron – Neurobiologist at Stanford/UC Davis studying neuroplasticity through rodent models of psilocybin and DMT.Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris – Pioneer in psychedelic science; developed the REBUS model and Default Mode Network research; now at UCSF in Neurology & Psychiatry. He also led the groundbreaking research on music as a “hidden therapist” in psychedelic-assisted therapy.East Forest (Trevor Oswalt) – Musician and ceremony guide blending sound and mindfulness to support psychedelic and emotional healing.Paul Stamets – Mycologist and author known for mycelial intelligence research, including how thunder’s vibration (40–80 Hz) accelerates mushroom growth.Dr. Barry Walker – Expert on vagus nerve activation, trauma healing, and the co-regulating power of group singing and rhythm.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.

In this energizing episode of The Makaranda Podcast, we’re sharing a special teaching from the Entrepreneur Hive, a supportive space co-led by therapist Eleanor Evans Medina, marketing expert Kelsey Brown, and Eleanor's sister Kathleen Hooper who a vocal coach and one of the Hive Members. This session is all about breathwork as a tool for restoring balance between the fiery, action-oriented energy we often bring to our work and the cooling, receptive states that support our well-being. We need both.Kelsey guides you through two breath practices: Kapalabhati (Breath of Fire) to stoke inner energy and Sitali (Cooling Breath) to calm the nervous system. You’ll hear gentle reminders that the body is a wise partner in your business, your healing, and your life.This is then followed by reflections from Eleanor, Kathleen and Kelsey as they discuss the season of life they are in and how they take care of themselves in different times.Whether you're a healer, leader, or simply someone needing a moment of presence, this practice invites you to pause, reset, and come home to yourself with no mat required.Show Notes:• Kapalabhati (Breath of Fire)• Sitali (Cooling Breath)• Reflections on summer energy, the nervous system, and elemental balance• Join the conversations at the Entrepreneur HiveIf you want to join The Hive, here’s the link to join.Thanks for listening! To stay connected, follow us on Instagram @themakarandamethod and @eleanor.evans.medinaVisit our website: www.themakarandamethod.comAbout Eleanor Evans Medina:Eleanor Evans Medina is a nature-based therapist, death doula, and beekeeper who calls herself a daughter of the Earth. She started The Makaranda Method in 2018, and her work brings people back into relationship with the Earth and with themselves through somatics and earth-based ceremony. Whether she is with someone one-on-one, in a group, or on retreat, what she is really after is helping people feel free, settled, and at home in their own lives.