After a decade working at Google, Meta and Pinterest, I left Silicon Valley to pursue a life-long dream to become a trauma therapist. I was on a mission to understand human suffering and how best to heal it, starting with myself. I enthusiastically signed up for therapy. I devoured all the latest literature across the fields of Psychology, Biology and Spirituality. I trained in every evidence-based modality that I could get my hands on.

As I began to practice, my experience corroborated what spiritual traditions have taught, biologists have measured and quantum physicists are beginning to discover: The human mind, body and spirit are an integrated system that cannot be separated from the community, environment, universe and universal consciousness from which it emerges and to which it will return. Said another way: We are all God/Source/The divine.

While I was deeply inspired by what I was learning and observing through my work with clients, I had come to a standstill on my own healing path. I couldn't connect deeply to my own humanity, much less my divinity. At the same time, my proficiency in Spanish and my passion for Community Mental Health led me to work with children and families from Central and South America that were somatically gifted, eco-spiritually connected and deeply brave. How could I guide them down a healing path I couldn't even access?

It was the Spring of 2018 and Michael Pollan had just released 'How to Change Your Mind.' I found myself wondering if plant medicine could help me get past my defenses. I dropped in to my first MDMA journey with no idea what to expect. Over the next four hours, I traveled through punctuation points of trauma on each side of my lineage. From watching my ancient, Celtic village burn, to awaiting my impending hanging at the Salem witch trials, to reliving the trauma of my birth.

As I walked back into my daily life, situations that would have garnered a great deal of anxiety were not eliciting the same reaction in my body. I was also markedly more present with but less reactive to the pain and suffering of my clients. Because the central nervous system is interwoven with the immune system, I was shocked but not surprised to find that my life-long asthma and allergies had vanished.

While I was still digesting the power of my own experiences, my thoughts immediately turned to the countless clients who's human trauma, and/or spiritual disconnection was too severe to treat with the mainstream interventions at my disposal. I spent the next seven years healing, training in and integrating consciousness expanding modalities into my practice, collaborating with naturopaths, energy workers, akashic records readers and western medical professionals to better support my client's holistic healing and evolution.

While I loved working with individuals, a nagging pull to help on a systemic level began to grow within me. Fast forward to Winter Solstice, 2022: I was preparing for bed when I sensed a powerful energy wanting to express through me. Curious, I invited it in. What followed was a high-pitched scream that lasted for several minutes. While I did not know how my body could produce a sound of that power for that long without requiring a single breath, I was certain that I had just channeled a message: The old paradigm was crumbling to make way for the new.

As I pondered my experience, I remembered a powerful moment in a mushroom ceremony three years prior. Guadalupe appeared on a massive thunderbolt of energy that pierced through the spirit realm, straight into my guide's office. Her message was concise and clear: My experience building and monetizing social networks would someday prove helpful to support human healing and awakening. While I had no idea what that meant at the time, it was all starting to make sense. I opened my laptop and began to type. As Crazy Horse's vision poured through my fingers, a bolt of lightning pierced my Crown Chakra and exploded through my right palm. My computer screen went blank. If this is what happens when you work directly with Spirit on a business plan, I had a sneaking suspicion that bringing Lichen to life was going to be an adventure.

Over the two years that followed, I channeled the blueprint for a global, functional medicine network that can be funded ethically and scaled sustainably, while simultaneously navigating a personal, kundalini awakening and spiritual emergence that could have been disastrous but proved transformational, thanks to the land, plants, animals, elements and functional medicine team that guided me through it. I emerged from the experience humbled, grateful and inspired to do what I could to ensure that everyone has access to the wisdom and care that I received.

As the cultural, political and economic systems that have perpetuated human suffering crumble, a time of great individual, social and ecological transformation has begun. Humanity has the opportunity to build new systems, including a healthcare system that honors the spiritual, biological and mathematical truth of the interconnection of all things. Where attention goes, energy flows. If your soul's purpose is to prepare humanity for what's next, we'd love for you to join us.

Sincerely,

Lichen