When the world shut down in March 2020, many of us—especially women—were left alone with our fear, our patterns, and our pasts. In this episode, April Pride explores how the collective trauma of the pandemic resurfaced old wounds, especially for those with a history of trauma. Through candid stories and expert insights, this conversation highlights how psychedelic integration can help us understand and release the trauma our bodies still carry. Listeners will walk away with grounded tools, emotional validation, and a sense that they’re not alone. If you're ready to reconnect with your body, reframe your story, and finally face those “fucked years,” this episode is for you.
🔵 Key Takeaways
Pandemic trauma triggered PTSD symptoms for many—especially women with past trauma.
Psychedelics like psilocybin can help access and release repressed memories in a safe, supported way.
Integration practices like tapping, sensory grounding, and adult reparenting can neutralize old triggers.
Women are more likely to use psychedelics to address trauma, especially birth-related and sexual trauma.
Lower-dose cannabis and psychedelics can reduce nightmares, reframe trauma, and foster deep emotional healing.
🔵 Timestamps
[00:01] April introduces pandemic trauma and the role of psychedelics in recovery
[03:30] How integration work prepped guests to handle the pandemic with grace
[04:23] Emily McCarter on accessing long-held grief through psilocybin
[05:26] Natasha Lannerd shares adult reparenting tools for trauma healing
[07:02] PTSD is more common in women—especially after sexual trauma
[07:57] Nurse Sandra Gwines uses cannabis to ease PTSD from a traumatic birth
[08:44] Cannabis can reduce REM sleep to ease nightmares in PTSD recovery
[09:22] Assigning new bodily sensations to old memories via psychedelic states
[10:03] Natasha Lannerd on universal trauma and the post-integration love glow
[10:52] Dr. Jennifer Tates' NYT advice for post-COVID mental health
[12:25] Listener Tim Held rediscovers low-dose THC as a calming ally
🔵 Featured Guests
Emily McCarter | @mccartergetshigh
Sandra Guynes | @thekushnurse
Natasha Lannerd | @breathe_with_natasha
Tim Held | @tim_held_
🔵 Additional Resources
SetSet Blog: “Psychedelic Integration for Women”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 71 “Healing Trauma with Psychedelics”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 47 “Psychedelic Integration Therapy”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 46 “Psychedelic Healing by Cultivating the Witness”
Substack: “How to Choose a Psychedelic for Therapy”
How has the pandemic reshaped your relationship with discomfort, memory, or healing?👇 Let’s talk about it in the comments after the transcript below.
🔵 Transcript
[00:01] April Pride:
Hey, this is April, and this show, Set Set Show, discusses cannabis, [psychedelics], and altered states of consciousness generally. It's intended for audiences 21 and over. Also, I am not a medical expert. If you are looking to engage with [psychedelic integration], please consult your physician before doing so. This is April Pride, your host here at The High Guide. This episode is going to be a little shorter, yet chock full of ways to approach overcoming our collective trauma related to the pandemic. Whether, if you can remember back March 2020, you had the same routine for a decade plus and it was completely taken off course, or if you're more like me and choose to live every day as if it's a fresh adventure and found yourself living out a very grounded and consistent day-to-day, our lives changed dramatically overnight, as did the lives of the people we love, friends and family. And how each of us chose to weather this nearly two-year period is as different as we are. What I learned during this time is that my friends who've experienced past trauma were experiencing symptoms related to PTSD because the fear of uncertainty we faced from COVID-19 was a trigger for any horrifying event that felt unpredictable and uncontrollable. I watched friends become lost in a loop of OCD planning, adopt a victim mindset and start questioning everyone else's life choices in order to ignore their own. And now we're talking about it. So let's also do something about it. If it takes the promise of consuming [psychedelic-assisted therapy] to force you to face the irreversible ways the pandemic has evolved our inner and outer worlds then do yourself a favor and give yourself permission to get high to get comfortable with discomfort because we're going to be here a while, especially now that we know we were here all along, but with smoke and mirrors, of course. We created entrenched thinking and behavior to live comfortably amidst the chaos of our modern world. Can't change the story if your body is still holding its trauma. To create a new story, you literally need to embody a new reality. Or so I heard while listening to podcast host Ezra Klein interview the author of The Body Keeps the Score. And I'm quoting author Bessel A. Vander Kolk. He says, So this got me thinking that if we want to move past this place where we are and create life and our new reality, we got to face these fucked years. This information in this episode is for you to take in and use to create an intention for yourself. The next time you find yourself under the influence of [plant medicine for emotional healing] and want to poke the tiger a bit. Revisit this episode following your trip to compare insights shared here with your [psychedelic integration] insights to start to make sense of how you feel in your mind and body today.
[03:30] Speaker 1:
I feel like my [psychedelic integration] before the pandemic were almost like a training for handling something like a pandemic with grace, if that makes any sense.
[03:44] April Pride:
That makes total sense. What other bootcamp can match keeping your head game strong while uncontrollable external stressors are trying to fuck your shit up? Tripping, period. Throughout these [psychedelic integration] episodes, you're going to hear time and again, great pride in conquering the invisible emotional and psychic forces brought on by particularly challenging [psychedelic-assisted therapy] experiences. Like Natasha Lannard, who facilitated our last [psychedelic integration] episode, faced when she consumed [psilocybin for PTSD]. She's in conversation here with Emily McCarter on her podcast, High Minded with McCarter.
[04:23] Emily McCarter:
My mom died when I was a child of a brain tumor when I was six years old. And there was just a lot of other stuff that happened. When I was 18, I had a really big experience. And I never really cried from the time I realized after the fact I had a huge cathartic moment. And I realized I hadn't really cried for the majority of my life from the time I was six years old until I was 18. And then I really realized in that experience that—the [psilocybin for PTSD] and the mushrooms were an ally in accessing trauma that I think that pretty much everyone has something. And to get at that in a way and to move that more than even getting at it, right? It's not good enough to get at it.
[05:05] April Pride:
In the following tape from Natasha's [psychedelic integration] with Colton Winger's [plant medicine for emotional healing] experience for journey number three...She offers a way for us to move past just getting at it passively, like we would have as a scared child, and rather go after it like a supported adult who can now intellectualize their experience.
[05:26] Natasha Lannerd:
When you find yourself feeling separate, or you find yourself, your cup being empty or whatever it is, just sit and just ask yourself, how old is this person who's talking? Because we have all of this experience in our lives, especially as just two humans coming from a very similar situation that is rife with trauma. That core wound of separation, for me, comes from a very young place. A very young place. And when I really hold into it. It's around five or six. And when I realized that that version of myself, that young version of myself is the one doing the talking, I, as an adult, as a 36-year-old adult, and sometimes, you know, my teacher has taught us to do it on one hand. On one hand, it's the voice that's talking that young side. And then I'm able to say, like, what do you need? What do you need that me as an adult can give to you? Because there's no changing it. But what I can do is show this version of myself as an adult what self-love is. This is the difference between self-care and self-love. And one of the things that makes this very definitive is the control piece, the way to balance that out or an exercise in balancing out and kind of teasing through is what safety means to you.
[07:02] April Pride:
Early data suggests that women are more likely to turn to [psychedelic-assisted therapy] to address trauma. Given that women are twice as likely to develop PTSD than men, because women are more likely to experience sexual assault, which in turn is more likely to cause PTSD than many other events. So let's start with our collective trauma, knowing that we live among women who've survived far worse for far longer.
[07:29] Sandra Gwines:
I recalled a lot of things from my birth with my daughter. I always felt like I'm dying because in that moment I was dying and I never got rid of that emotion. So whenever things stressed me, I went back to that stressful emotion. I'm dying. And it just always would take over me. I would tell people it was like a wave and I would be sitting there gently playing in the water. And then all of a sudden it's like, you know, I can't get out from under this tide.
[07:57] April Pride:
You just heard from Sandra Gwines, aka The Kush Nurse, speaking to Kia Baker, the host of the Female Veterans Podcast. Sandra is a nurse with over 15 years of experience. Her story of finding [cannabis and trauma recovery] to help the PTSD she experienced after a traumatic birth inspired her to help others find the right [plant medicine for emotional healing]. Kia and Sandra have graciously shared audio from a recent episode, and you can hear more of their story on the Female Veterans Podcast. Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. The medications prescribed are intended for short-term use, but women find themselves suffering side effects for decades rather than manage life without meds. Sandra continues talking about how [cannabis and trauma recovery] for sleep helps her process the PTSD in her dreams.
[08:44] Sandra Gwines:
One of the things about [cannabis and trauma recovery] is with PTSD, it's really helpful because it decreases your REM sleep cycle. So it decreases the ability for you to have nightmares. So with a lot of PTSD sufferers, that's one of the biggest triggers is the nightmares and night terrors. Not the first time, but a few times after that, you'll start to have some more psych effects where you can like, you know, maybe recall memories and things like that, which is really good for PTSD sometimes because you're recalling these memories, but the memories can be recalled in a way where your body is not in that fight or flight, you know, reaction.
[09:22] April Pride:
Her logic also applies to recalling memories while under the influence of [psychedelic-assisted therapy]. Assigning new bodily sensations to the memory can neutralize our physical reactions. It's up to us to manage our irrational outward emotional reactions. Remember one of the behaviors I mentioned witnessing at the top of the show, watching my friends with past trauma become super critical of others. And remember what I also added that usually it's to distract themselves from facing their own discomfort. Doing so only prolongs our feelings of isolation. No matter how good it may feel to play the hater, studies show that dropping judgment can significantly reduce loneliness.
[10:03] Natasha Lannerd:
Everyone has trauma. And you can't compare trauma either. And frankly, when people... I see that still. People are always, you know, well, I had a worse growing up situation than them. I just, I know it. So they can't, you know...It's just like, damn, we need to just all come together and help each other with [plant medicine for emotional healing]. I don't know about you, but I feel like after my [psychedelic integration], I love people more. I feel way more tolerant. I have more empathy. And I am more kind to myself. And what comes out of these experiences is so rich, frankly. The [psychedelic integration], especially if they're really deep and impactful, take time.
[10:52] April Pride:
A New York Times article written by Dr. Jennifer Tates, an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at UCLA, titled How to Reduce Your Risk of PTSD in a Post-COVID-19 World. I'll link to it in the show notes. Dr. Tates says, and I quote, “I can't emphasize enough that it's normal to feel anxious now.” Yay, we're all finally normal. To process thoughts about the pandemic that replay in your mind, she offers some techniques for when your thoughts aren't useful. Engage in mentally absorbing activities like working on a crossword puzzle or just working, or grounding yourself by noticing three sights, three sounds, and three sensations in your environment again and again. When ruminating starts, catch it and exchange it for gratitude. This advice also holds true when you're tripping. If you're prone to an OCD loop when not under the influence of [psychedelic-assisted therapy], then you may be in a loop far longer than you realize before it dawns on you. Or if you like me were once prone to looping, but thanks to insert successful cocktail of tools to manage, then if you get stuck in a thought while tripping, start to listen and look more intently. Another thing I do to come back into my body when I'm too in my head is alternating tapping my thumb to my pointer and middle finger. I can do it on one hand, sometimes I do it on two hands. And according to Tim Held, who composed journey number two and number four, there is certainly useful advice to be found on this show.
[12:25] Time Held:
Because of this podcast that you're currently listening to, I decided that I would dabble again with edibles, with THC, because I just have kind of a bad relationship with THC. It gives me anxiety and just kind of just doesn't make me feel great. And I realized that was just a dosage issue, really. So I just decided to take a quarter of what everybody else takes, and I started realizing that, oh, I really enjoy this and it really relaxes me. But it's as long as I don't cross that certain threshold. So yeah, thank you, April, for that.
[13:04] April Pride:
No problem, Tim. I'm always here to help you and all you listeners find yourself high. Thanks for listening to this episode of The High Guide. And a big thanks to Patchworks, The High Guide's partner in presenting this audio series, Psyched Audio, to you. Patchworks is where electronic music makers of all levels go shopping. Patchworks has a simple mission to connect people with joy through electronic music. And The High Guide aims to do the same with [psychedelic-assisted therapy]. Put them together. And what have you got? Psyched audio. Tune in here next Friday for a new episode. It's our final journey of 2021. And we will continue into January with this alternating guided [psychedelic integration] and a follow-up [psychedelic integration]. But come season three at the beginning of February, every week is an [psychedelic integration]. Subscribe and follow wherever you listen to podcasts. And we don't just give good ear here at The High Guide. Find us on Instagram at thehigh.guide. Find more advice from our high guides online at our website, thehigh.guide. And make sure to sign up for our newsletter to learn about our favorite products to find yourself high.
