PT544 – Psychedelics and Addiction Recovery: Microdosing and Redefining the Path to Sobriety, with Danielle Nova

In this episode, Joe interviews Danielle Nova: founder of Psychedelic Recovery, founding team member of Decriminalize Nature Oakland, and Executive Director of the San Francisco Psychedelic Society.

As a recovering addict, Nova discusses how working with psychedelics helped her find her way to recovery, and how she's spreading that knowledge to others through her Psychedelic Recovery program, which focuses more on 'targeted abstinence,' instead of the total abstinence model of Psychedelics In Recovery (which works alongside AA's 12-step program). She believes that it's extremely important to reframe addiction as a life process or temporary state of consciousness (rather than a life sentence you can't escape), and that beating addiction is not about constantly being afraid of a relapse, but about evolving to a state of empowerment: that you can overcome it, and that actually, a horrific addiction may have saved you and brought you to where you're supposed to be.

She discusses: 

• The complications of Western medicine and the impact of conflicting medications that are nearly impossible to stop taking
• How self-regulation of tough emotions with outside stimuli (be it drugs, pornography, or even video games) trains people to rely on external forces rather than themselves
• How addicts end up programing themselves with 'addict consciousness,' and the power of changing one's mind state to view suffering as the fuel for a new purpose
• How, over time, we will likely start viewing microdosing as a regular dose, and the large doses we're used to will be seen as overdosing
• How being part of her ayahuasca experience (and having one himself) completely changed her father's perspective on drugs and addiction

and more!

She has co-created Microdosing Facilitator Training with Adam Bramlage of Flow State Micro: a first-of-its-kind 4-month program teaching clinicians, facilitators, and coaches about microdosing and how to safely guide others through the practice. The next cohort launches in January 2025.

For links, head to the show notes page.