The Evolving Man Podcast #85 - Ayahuasca Assisted Addiction Recovery - with Todd Youngs
Todd Youngs has been in continuous recovery from severe addiction and alcoholism since 2009. His personal path to recovery involved a combination of 12 step work, and his work with Ayahuasca. Todd now works intensively with others to help them achieve a life of satisfying and meaningful sobriety. His approach is eclectic and holistic drawing on the 12 Steps, CBT, MEI, and Mindfulness practice in order to deeply address the bio/psycho/social/spiritual aspects of addictive disorders.
Todd has worked extensively with Ayahuasca for over 14 years within a variety of communal and personalized settings. He is focussed on building bridges between the older treatment paradigm and newly emerging modalities that utilize Ayahuasca. He is the co-founder of Natura Care Programs.
Todd is often heard fondly referring to his own personal path of recovery as AAA+, or “Ayahuasca Assisted Alcoholics Anonymous: A Roadside Service for broken-down, drug-addicted hippies”.
In this episode we dive into:
- How humans explore drugs to satisfy creative and spiritual yearnings.
- The dark and light sides of psychedelics.
- Todd’s wild addiction recovery story.
- Using pharmaceuticals to manage side effects of drug and alcohol use.
- Connecting to something bigger than yourself through ayahuasca.
- Todd’s journey of brewing his own ayahuasca in his mother’s basement.
- How ayahuasca helped Todd through 12-step recovery.
- The necessity of connection and accountability during recovery.
- Family members seeing a change in Todd & Ben after ayahuasca journeys.
- Healthy ways to incorporate the use of an altered state to transform your life.
- Therapeutic opportunities when taking psychedelics.
- Psychedelics vs therapy.
- Are psychedelics the right path for you?
- Breaking down what the 12-week Natura Care Program looks like and why the 12 week model is advantageous.
- True recovery: Healing the root causes of addiction.
- Finding centeredness, calmness, joyfulness.
- Can you actually trust plant medicines?
- Ultra-conservatism vs. open-mindedness in recovery circles.
- Psychedelics in Recovery.
Links from this episode
- Natura Care Programs
- Psychedelics in Recovery
- Todd’s Website
- Ben’s Freedom from Addiction Circle
- Evolving Man Brotherhood Free-Trial on Circle
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