How do you make a mushroom trip easier on your body—and more meaningful for your mind? In this episode, host April Pride is joined by trauma-informed facilitator Liv Vasquez and tripper Meryl Montgomery for a deep dive into therapeutic psilocybin use. You’ll learn how to prep your body, set your mindset, and choose an ingestion method that supports your intention—from lemon tek to tea to easing into a macrodose. This is a masterclass in the power of plant medicine to unlock healing, gently. Whether you're exploring psychedelics for emotional release, spiritual insight, or as an alternative to antidepressants, this episode guides you with clarity, care, and lived experience.
🔵 Key Takeaways
Lemon juice can accelerate and intensify your trip—learn how to lemon tek safely
Therapeutic macrodosing isn’t just about visuals—it’s about clarity and emotional closure
Psilocybin tea is gentler on the gut and offers ceremonial grounding
The right facilitator offers guidance, not control—your intuition still leads
“Marie Kondo of the mind”: how psilocybin helps clear old trauma with gentleness
🔵 Timestamps
[02:26] How to make lemon tek
[03:14] Understanding the Hillbilly strain
[03:42] How to make psilocybin tea
[04:55] Breaking down the 5-gram macrodose in stages
[05:32] Intentional vs recreational macrodosing
[06:30] Managing fear and the unknown in therapeutic sessions
[08:03] Setting the intention: “How do I give myself my best self?”
[09:34] Crossfading with weed—what to expect
[09:51] The psychedelic insight: microscopic vs big-picture thinking
[13:02] Fear of losing momentum vs permission to rest
[16:39] Using full moon rituals to clear blocks
[18:19] Maternal estrangement and finding peace
[19:52] Oceanic calm, musical medicine, and the end of the trip
[21:43] Final reflection: safety and a roadmap forward
🔵 Featured Guests
Meryl Montgomery | @meristotle_
Liv Vasquez | @livviesmalls
🔵 Additional Resources
SetSet Blog: “Psychedelic Integration for Women”
SetSet Blog: “Hillbilly Mushrooms: A Complete Guide”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 71 “Healing Trauma with Psychedelics”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 47 “Psychedelic Integration Therapy”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 45 “Psychedelic Trip Setting Tips”
🎙️SetSet Podcast: Ep. 23 “Prepare for a Psychedelic Journey (Part 2)”
Substack: “How to Choose a Psychedelic for Therapy”
Have you tried psilocybin therapeutically? What did you learn about your healing process—or yourself? 👇 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 substances, please consult your physician before doing so. Hello and welcome to The High Guide. I'm your host, April Pride. In this episode, the final episode of 2021, you'll learn a couple of DIY ways to consume [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] that are gentler on the stomach and offer intensified effects. But first, let's learn a little bit about our facilitator or high guide, as well as our psychonaut or sister tripper. Your high guide today is Liv Vasquez, who is a trauma-informed, intuitive healer, chef, and activist located in Portland, Oregon. She studied [plant medicine journey] cultivation, science, absorption, and effect, and Liv believes in their life-changing and life-saving effects. Check out the show notes for today's episode for more information on Liv. We've discussed set and setting on prior episodes. Part of set or mindset is preparing for your trip. What's on your mind leading up to your journey, right? And definitely what is your intention? Also, what's in your stomach? How you prepare your overall self in the 24 to 48 hours prior to your [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] experience will have a significant impact on your mindset once you're squarely tripping. For instance, did you know citric acid can amplify the experience, making the effects come on faster and stronger, but lasting for a shorter period of time? Our high guide today, Liv, headed off our sister tripper, Mary Montgomery.
[02:01] Liv Vasquez:
I texted you in the morning to say, you know, make sure that you don't have any citrus for the day because citrus can facilitate, um, [psilocybin for depression] a little bit quicker. It really is just about wanting to have more control over the dose and the timing.
[02:26] April Pride:
Maybe a faster onset and shorter duration sounds perfect to you. If so, you'll want to prepare your mushrooms in a [lemon tek mushrooms]. This is how you do it. Grind the mushrooms and add them to a short glass. Add lemon juice, mix thoroughly, and let sit for 15 minutes. Add water and drink it down in one shot. A more surefire way to trip than shooting tequila and swallowing the worm, for sure. How you plan to consume mushrooms is second only to what you choose to consume.
[03:02] Meryl Montgomery:
I took the hillbilly because I was looking for a spiritual, enlightening quest.
[03:14] April Pride:
Hillbilly is a Cubanist strain originating from Arkansas and grown across the southern U.S. It is physically large and characterized as a loud and in-your-face type of American [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use]. If you're curious about how to secure safe and reliably consistent [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] like Hillbilly, check out our show notes and email Iris for a menu of whole fruit body [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] and [microdosing psilocybin] capsules.
[03:42] Liv Vasquez:
We started with an eighth, 3.5 grams in a [psilocybin tea].
[03:48] April Pride:
To make a tea, chop or crush the mushrooms. Place them into a teapot and pour boiling water over the mushrooms in the teapot. Steep for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain and serve. You can incorporate other teas, lemon, ginger, honey, to enhance taste and effects. The eighth of mushrooms consumed by way of a [psilocybin tea] was just the beginning of Meryl's journey.
[04:16] Meryl Montgomery:
For me, it was a very quick come up, like extremely quick. Like I think I went to the bathroom maybe like 15 minutes after I dosed. And like, that's when I started noticing like the floor mats, you know, wiggling.
[04:34] Liv Vasquez:
You took another gram of fruit, which is the actual dried mushroom. And then you did another gram after that as well. So it was all in all around five grams that you took.
[04:55] April Pride:
Because Meryl eased into her total dose rather than consuming all five grams at once, getting hit with a [macrodosing mushrooms] out of the gate, she was always in the high dose range, which is by weight, three and a half to five grams of [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] and which elicits intense effects with major changes to your thoughts, cognition, perception, and mood. Strong hallucinations take over. A psychedelic flood of shapes, contours, and colors will blend together. There will be some moments when you lose touch with reality, which is exactly what Meryl was aiming for.
[05:32] Meryl Montgomery:
I've been thinking about doing like a [macrodosing mushrooms] to really start exploring reality—what could be really the root of what I'm feeling right now. And, um, I've never done [macrodosing mushrooms] therapeutically. I've done [microdosing psilocybin] therapeutically, like very regularly, but, and then I've done [macrodosing mushrooms] like recreationally. Um, but I've never really intentionally sat down and used [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] for a like deep therapeutic session. This was definitely the highest grams I've ever had, but this was not the highest trip I've ever had. Those times when I have way bigger trips, I'm usually not planning on it. I remember in college, someone offered me a mushroom and I just took it at a party. And then an hour later, everybody's face was melting off at the bar.
[06:30] Liv Vasquez:
I think it can be pretty scary for anyone starting something new in the [macrodosing mushrooms] because it's the unknown. You don't know how your body will react. You don't know...if the [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] will react a certain way. So I'm glad that I could help to facilitate that. I'm like the training wheels. I will be there on call for you. I will talk you through some things as they come up. But ideally, I would like you to feel comfortable enough to do this on your own and then just reach out to me as needed. That was the intention that was really set with it to be...to be gentle on you, being scared of it or having a scary experience wouldn't have benefited you at all. And I always say the [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] gives you what you need. If you are needing to have something that is a little bit more jarring or maybe even visually stimulating, I think that's what you get. You didn't really ask for you know, a visually stimulating, almost jarring experience. You really said, you know, I want to touch base, talk about some of these things and shine some light in some areas that I think I need to heal. I do think that it's beneficial to when you're going in with intent like that to just be like, I want to address these things and move forward.
[08:03] Meryl Montgomery:
Yeah. I asked, how do I get slash give myself my best self? That was what my [psychedelic therapy] of the night was. I really felt the calmness of it all. And I, I believed probably I'm guessing if I know my own subconscious, uh, is that it's been a really stressful couple months and, um, I have been at my highest stress levels and, um, having a calm night, a calm experience this way, I think is exactly what I needed. So I don't want this to come off as an antidepressant statement. But for me personally, I wanted to find a [plant medicine journey] before going to an antidepressant. So I've been [microdosing psilocybin] for...gosh, I don't know, maybe two or three years now, like off and on, like whenever I need it most is when I'll take it. And so I've been doing it pretty regularly now for the last few months because I've been pretty stressed and stress is a common, is a trigger for my [psilocybin for depression]. What was so interesting is like, I really felt chill the whole time. Like really...really chill. Maybe it was like the weed that we were smoking too was a chill kind of weed.
[09:34] April Pride:
FYI, the weed they were smoking was Nana's fix, which I've linked to in the show notes. And just how does weed smoking while shrooming affect your high? Check out episode 23 of this podcast to learn more about getting crossfaded.
[09:51] Meryl Montgomery:
During the session, like during...what I discovered and it is reflective of my mood and mindset over the last few months is I've been seeing things very microscopically. Like I journaled, like I wrote down, seeing things through a tiny hole. It's really what has been my perspective. I think I've had a very like focused and small view on every body and everything in all my current situations of just seeing sort of like the immediate and very narrow focus. Um, and so that has been my mindset. And I think during our session, that became very clear about how small I'm looking for things. Or how small I'm really seeing everything right now. And I think during our tarot read, that really came up.
[10:51] Liv Vasquez:
The tarot poll felt like a confirmation of...everything that we discussed.
[10:59] Meryl Montgomery:
Yeah. Especially the world card. I think there were two cards that really stuck out for me, the world card and the 10 of cups.
[11:09] Liv Vasquez:
Well, the 10 of cups was about, um, really about emotion and like achieving your goals and, um, the world was more about looking at the bigger picture of everything. And it was really confirming. What you were saying is, I'm looking at everything on the microscopic level, but I need to be able to stand back and see the bigger picture. And I think in that we kind of discussed, you know, gratitude, how expressing gratitude can make you really see how far you've come. Like saying, I am really grateful for, you know, landing this deal and making this progress and, you know, surviving a move and all these things that, you when you're in the motion of doing them, you're just doing them. You're not actually taking the time to say thank you to myself, my spirit team, my community for helping me take this next step and actually achieve these things. So I think there was just a lot of confirmation there of like, of course, you're going to see things on the smaller scale. It's like a painter working on a large scale picture. You're up close painting in just the blue, but when you stand back, you see a beautiful sunset in the ocean. And I think there was a lot of confirmation that this is the time to stand back and look at your accomplishments and things you have done instead of worrying about the next step and the next step and the next step, because you've already taken so many steps and blazed a trail with those steps. And it's time to acknowledge how much you can do and how much you have done.
[13:02] Meryl Montgomery:
I think what was scary to me was taking my eye off the ball, so to speak, or taking my eye off that next thing in fear of losing momentum, getting too comfortable, letting something slip. But I think what this showed me was...actually taking stock and appreciating the work that we've done so far is like that energy power up to like keep to keep going to do those next things yeah I think it was what I needed because as soon as the song and like as soon as the music ended I think my trip was over like I felt pretty sober the rest of the night I mean not I felt a little um I definitely felt like I was on [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] for sure. I felt light and I could feel it in my body, but I wasn't...quote unquote, tripping. Like I wasn't having a very strong visuals. The visuals that I were having, I haven't had before. I didn't tell you this when we were together, but because I don't think I really realized it until today. But when I was looking at you almost the whole night, except for the first few hours, Liv, I was seeing like all of you. I was seeing like child Liv. I was seeing older Liv. I was seeing like you through your high school years. I was seeing you as like...in other lives, like as a fucking witch, I, the whole night I was like, Liv is a real fucking witch. And I was seeing you as this. And like, and like, whenever you were talking about your life through any phases, like I was seeing you like really seeing you in your face, like in your face, your face was shifting, but not, it was, I've never had that before.
[15:11] Liv Vasquez:
I mean, and I think that every varietal is different. Every [absorption method] is different, right? So it's very similar with cannabis where it's like you have different effects, you have different methods of ingestion. And I do think that there is something very ceremonious about [psilocybin tea]. And we weren't taking it without [psychedelic therapy]. There was an [psychedelic therapy] there. And regardless of maybe not feeling as visually stimulated as you might have expected, I do feel like there was an emotional component and a kind of cleaning house. With a lot of my clients, I tell them it's like a Marie Kondo of the mind because we're going to shine some light on some dark corners of the attic and see what's up there that needs to get cleared out or addressed. And there's sometimes you find things that you're like, I didn't even know this was up here. So I do feel like a lot of that stuff came out and came to the surface and it was...not in a jarring manner it felt like it was in a very gentle way of just saying like hi I'm up here this memory or maybe this trauma that you've been responding to as an adult you can acknowledge like I'm here
[16:39] Meryl Montgomery:
You know, what I thought was interesting is like when we were going through the list of what we're like cleansing like getting rid of now and I think it might be worth talking about the like full moon eve. Because I felt like when we were doing this list of what to get rid of for the next year ahead, over six months or however it may be, I kept instantly being like, well, what do I want? And then I appreciated how you kept challenging me of like, okay, well, what is blocking you from getting what you want, like getting that? And thinking about the way of cleaning house, I guess, if we're sticking with that metaphor of, okay, if you want something, then clearly there's something like blocking you from getting that, that you feel. So what is that? That exercise, I think really, I have never, I've never been approached with that. And I was really appreciative of that, Liv.
[17:44] Liv Vasquez:
That's great. And I think sometimes it does take, you know, someone else's just pointing it out. You are absolutely capable. You have very attainable goals. They aren't things that are outlandish. They were things that are very attainable, but there was something barricading you from that. So I think we did acknowledge some things that could have been inhibiting you from reaching those goals.
[18:19] Meryl Montgomery:
I'm comfortable talking about this here because I feel like when other people have shared their own mama drama, it makes me feel less alone and crazy and selfish in mine. But the fact that we have been estranged for so long...has given me such an amount of guilt of hurting her, like putting her in an enough pain to want to start a support group. I, you know, like that, I don't want someone to be in that much pain and being able to have the understanding of why the big, like why I have chosen to do that. And like the need to protect myself, the child self that she put in danger, that really crystallized just everything for me. And it gave me so much peace. It really gave me so much peace. We were talking about that through the music, and I think it created this space of...being able, like when I was listening to the music and given like we were, we were talking through stuff and, and having this moment. So like listening or absorbing rather, I think is a better word.
[19:52] Meryl Montgomery:
I felt like I was like in an ocean the whole time, like the whole time I just kept getting very like oceanic, feelings. And as soon as it ended and our conversation ended and like we had that clarity, I was set. I was out. I was like, okay, did what I came to do. One thing that I also learned through this experience, because it was my first time [macrodosing mushrooms] with such [psychedelic therapy] as like a person with [psilocybin for depression], like like suicidal ideology is not, or like fascination is not unknown to me. Like, and doing [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] by myself, like I needed to have that like first time, um, just to know that I would be safe. Like if I was do that, like I, that was really important to me and having this experience, like I was given a sort of like a roadmap, like things that I really want to be focusing on over the next few months to like, I feel like I'm more a path back to positive mental health. I have more of a clearer path forward of how to get myself out of this bunk than I did before this trip. I'm looking forward to doing this on my own and sort of exploring things exploring myself on my own through [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use]. Yeah, I'm actually pretty excited about it. I'm really excited to get back to my apartment in New York and sit in my office and listen to some records and look at my cool new wallpaper.
[21:43] April Pride:
While Meryl is staring at her ever-changing wallpaper, The High Guide is ringing in the new year, creating lots more episodes just like this. And if you are having suicidal ideation, please do not consume [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use] and contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Thanks for listening to this episode of The High Guide. A big thanks to our sister tripper in today's episode, Meryl Montgomery, and our High Guide today, Liv Vasquez, who is starting her healers program 2022. So if you're an intuitive or empath looking to integrate [plant medicine journey] into your healing practice, check out this episode's show notes to find out how to DM Liv and learn more. Also a huge 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 of experience 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 [Therapeutic Psilocybin Use]. Put them together and what have you got? Psyched Audio. Tune in every Friday for a new episode. So please drop us a line, DM us, however you want to be in touch and let us know what you think. Also, if you haven't already, please subscribe to The High Guide wherever you listen to podcasts because it really does help more people find the show. Alternating between a guided psychedelic audio journey and its follow-up 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 IG at thehigh.guide and 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 your right high. For a menu of trusted [plant medicine journey], send an email to Iris. You can find her email in the show notes. Super thanks to the High Guide team, Bianca Kratke, Molly Longest, Alexa Jesse, and our audio team, Nick Patri and Josh Brown at Cloud Studios. I'm your host, April Pride, encouraging you to find yourself high.
Share this post