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.medina Visit our website: www.themakarandamethod.com About 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.
