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2025 was a challenging year for me. Balancing motherhood, my career, taking care of myself, and my relationship felt like A LOT.    While also watching and feeling into the suffering and pain of all that is unraveling in the world…felt debilitating at times.    I decided to close out the year with a plant medicine journey, with a very specific intention to take ownership of my shadow, and things that felt out of alignment in my life.    The Universe (AKA Spirit) served me up quite a challenging ceremony, that I was unbelievably grateful for.

Fenix is Gina's ceremonial guide with plant medicine, an artist, energy healer, and dear friend.  They discuss Fenix's personal healing journey including her battle with breast cancer, the search for her birth family, and her deep work with plant medicine, particularly Ayahuasca.  Fenix shares her experiences of moving from victimhood to a state of awe and curiosity, emphasizing the importance of feeling, intuition, and being present. They explore the themes of perfectionism, self-love, compassion, and forgiveness.  Rebirth through lived experience, not theory or surface-level healing. Remembering one's true nature after profound loss, rupture, or abandonment. Healing is non-linear and often initiated through crisis rather than choice. Listening to the body as an intelligence, not something to override or fix. Grief is a teacher and initiator, not something to "get over." Spiritual bypassing and performative wellness culture. Healing requires slowing down, presence, and deep honesty. Healing happens in relationship — with self, with others, our ancestors, and with the Earth. The importance of creating safe containers for transformation. Healing emerges from integration, not perfection. The feminine as embodied wisdom, not gender. Trauma is acknowledged as stored in the nervous system, not just memory. True restoration involves grief, anger, love, and joy — all welcomed. This conversation is less about becoming "better" and more about coming   home to yourself.

The Deepest healing of the Mother Line I've ever experienced. I reconnected with my mother, who passed away when I was 17 yrs old. Connecting to my ancestral line and all of the women who felt disrespected, under supported, and under-resourced as mothers and women. Feeling in my body the great disrespect to the Earth.  We are not separate from the earth. We deeply need to come back to our hearts and souls. What one does to another is not separate, we ALL feel it, and she feels it (The Great Mother).  The Climate crisis is also collective trauma, violence, and divisiveness. Looking at thought patterns and the relationship with my mind. The Divine Timing of Things. The ineffable experience of working with this medicine. Bliss and loving dance with the divine. All of the information that came through – this life, past lives, and future. I felt home – it was a deep REMEMBRANCE OF COMING HOME. All of the love I felt and received. Receiving and experiencing love at such a depth and allowing it in.  Feeling deeply into self-love. We are all so loved by the divine and we are all inherently worthy beings.   Breathing, Trusting, and Surrendering to life and the overwhelming moments in ceremony. Merging with the matrix of the universe, no time and no space, I died, the Eternal Space Between (no birth and no death).  The terror and beauty in that. Wild to experience while being alive in a body. Grandmother Ayahuasca spoke to me in moments of overwhelm.  "Come back to your breath. Come back to your heart." The power of remembering who you REALLY ARE. It is a miracle to be alive. To be human is to learn and relearn the lesson of letting go, forgiveness, and love. We co-create with the universe. Don't forget the power of your breath.

Bestselling author and spiritual teacher Rebecca Campbell and I sit down to explore the themes of her latest book, Your Soul Had a Dream – Your Life is It. Together, we dive into the sacred journey of healing the mother line, the experience of awakening, and the profound initiations of motherhood. We reflect on how grief, rage, and joy are all part of life's initiatory process, and how avoiding pain also numbs us to life's ecstasy. Rebecca shares how we are collectively being called by the Great Mother Earth to wake up, heal ancestral trauma, and attune our nervous systems to the rhythm of the Earth. Amid what she calls "rebirthing times," we discuss how embracing the sacred in everything — even in the descent — can guide us through personal and collective transformation. This is a conversation about deep feeling, sacred reconnection, and navigating the birth of a new humanity.

Psychedelic experiences are notoriously hard to render in words; to try is necessarily to do violence to what has been seen and felt, which is in some fundamental way pre- or post-linguistic or, as students of mysticism say, ineffable. Emotions arrive in all their newborn nakedness, unprotected from the harsh light of scrutiny and, especially, the pitiless glare of irony. Platitudes that wouldn't seem out of place on a Hallmark card flow with the force of revealed truth.   -Michael Pollan   Themes in this personal episode: The importance of set, setting, and safe facilitators. Individual and Collective healing in a group setting. Noticing my analytical mind before and during ceremony. Healing the feminine wound - the resonant emotional waves we would go through. Boundaries of not caretaking other women (for all of us). Up front and personal with my shadow material. Whoa! The presence of a Benevolent spirit (AKA God, the Universe, Spirit). Feeling my emotions on the deepest level. The power and impact of sound (moaning, grunting, humming, and releasing). We were held in the feminine (The divine mother, the facilitators, nature). Mirrors (Everyone is a mirror). We are here to grow, learn, and open our hearts. The beauty of being alive is magical and mysterious. ginaminardi.com ginaminardi.substack.com

In this conversation, I sit down with my friend Jenna K., to discuss her ceremonies with MDMA and psilocybin.   We discussed her "Why?" and this space of pain and trauma living in her body - that she couldn't quite access for over a decade with other modalities. It led Jenna to want to explore on a deeper level with plant medicine, to heal what was held in her body for so many years.    Themes within the discussion: Feeling the "call" to sit with the plant medicine.  The deep surrender to letting go of control. Feeling safe enough in the life that she had created, to feel like she would be held through these experiences. How her life made sense to her after the initial MDMA journey. Her body purging out the trauma during the ceremony. The shame and feeling of brokenness when the childhood trauma was revealed. That her childhood abuse was not her fault. Stepping into her Knowing - that her body and these memories were the truth. The deep healing, illuminations, and heart opening within herself. The continual and necessary work between ceremonies. How to resource oneself after uncovering traumatic material. How anger and rage have protected her. The need for continual softening. That plant medicine is not a "cure all" but dives deeply into traumatic material that needs to be seen and held. The connection to spirit in these experiences.  @jennakristina ginaminardi.com ginaminardi.substack.com

After being a therapist for over a decade and being committed to my personal therapy for years... I decided it was time for me to heal on a deeper level.  Every bit of my intuitive being knew that  I needed to heal trauma and imprints from life on a cellular level. To show up as a better partner and mother, but most importantly... healing the relationship with myself.  What I learned is that talking through our problems only goes so far and we must tap into the body to truly heal trauma. Themes in this episode: Trusting myself and trusting life A complete surrender to the unknown We know the way back home to ourselves Individual and Collective projected pain - the pain body We all have things to heal (Look at the state of our world) We are all temperature dials in a room (What energy are you bringing?) How do we come back to the heart and heal from the heart...not the mind Old spaces of trauma held in my body The release through movement and sound Release control and allow The non-negotiable of set and setting and safe facilitators

I've been thinking a lot about individual and collective shadow. How do we keep our hearts open during dark times? We all must become closely acquainted with our shadow or dark side.  Each of us has a dual nature: we are light (conscious) and dark (unconscious). The dark side of our personality—the "other," the shadow side—is made up of what we think is our primitive, primal, negative impulses—our "existential kink." Our existential kink also drives the dark or negative repeating patterns in our life: always choosing the abusive partner or boss, settling for less, thinking that we're undeserving, not worthy. But it also is the source of our greatest power. I do a deep dive into Carolyn Elliot's book, Existential Kink, which offers a truth-telling guide for bringing our shadow into the light. Inviting us to make conscious the unconscious, Elliott asks us to own the subconscious pleasure we get from the stuck, painful patterns of our existence.

The predominant theme for me in 2023 was transitioning to becoming a mother and how that impacted all areas of my life. The most profound initiation, unraveling of my old self, and opening to the fiercest love that I've ever experienced. The deep vulnerability in that. The expansion and contraction of my heart from current world affairs and the climate crisis. To a deep commitment to keeping my heart open to all of it.

"Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn."  The salvation of man is through love and in love." -Viktor E. Frankl   Humanity feels like it is on a precipice and that we are in the eye of the storm collectively.  I understand that humanity has experienced 200,000+ years of war, but these times feel particularly charged right now.  In this episode I talk about: Whether or not humanity can ever live in a peaceful way, or if it is naive to even ask that question? Is part of being human, being violent on some level?  Whether that means violence with our thoughts, speech, energy, and behaviors? My thoughts on "evil" and I discuss my feelings on darkness in the individual and collective.   The need for each of us to heal our own inner wars which become outer wars. How can we all soften and live more from our hearts versus ego righteousness, pain, and reactivity Love is the answer to our evolution I believe the alternative is going to be catastrophic globally

I sit down with Psychotherapist and Journey Clinical KAP provider, Holly Forman. We discuss Holly's decision to have a home birth, the balance of preparation and surrender, and ultimately birthing a new version of yourself.    We discuss:    The similarities of psychedelic journeys and birth Women advocating for themselves, gaining knowledge about the birthing process, and not feeling like you have to give your power away The balance of preparation and complete surrender to the unknown Humans fear what they don't know Birthing yourself How as humans we often want to avoid the wild, raw, messy, and painful sides of life How important integration is after birth and a psychedelic journey Ketamine therapy Internal Family Systems

In this episode back, after an almost 9 month hiatus from podcasting, I explore my experience birthing a human. The big tears of overwhelm and joy shed in the postpartum period, as well as my feelings around the often b******t narratives around motherhood.   In this episode I explore: The humility and surrender that I experienced both with birth and new motherhood Embracing the total unknown and liminal spaces between Women stepping fully into their power and not overriding their deep intuitive knowing The deep feminine wounding that still continues to play out amongst mothers (Insert judgment and shaming) Gifting yourself compassion and forgiveness as a new mom The death of self and your old identity and how it's not linear My big feelings on privilege and resources in this country for new parents The desperate need for more postpartum care for families The overwhelming amount of opinions when you become pregnant and then have the child The impact of having a baby on your relationship A deep and wild connection to the life cycle

I decided to write this episode on the very last leg of my third trimester in pregnancy . I have had the most illuminating experience of what living in the "Spaces Between" in life really means. It is a potent energetic space which is both awe inspiring and completely overwhelming. To fully surrender to the unknown or attempt to control how you think life is going to unfold. The only life experience that I can compare it to - is the passing of my mother at 17 years old. It is impossible to know or intellectually understand the full magnitude of a major life transition. All of us humans have gone through them in birth, death, marriage, divorce, illness, etc. It is my intention in this episode to open up a conversation of how to approach these life situations with more presence, mindfulness, and ability to feel into these spaces. Versus our society which tends to shy away and avoid the large tidal waves of emotions that come with them.

In this episode I sit down and have a conversation with my personal couples therapist, Christine Mourad, who is one of the most skilled and brilliant therapists I have worked with. It's been some time since my last episode, "I See You In Me", but I have not stopped pondering the necessity of creating safety, empathy, and compassion in our personal relationships which extends outward in society.     We cover: Giving yourself a big fat spoonful of grace, realizing you are a work in progress, and not a fully realized being. The importance of self compassion. Sensing into the body and letting go in the body.   The balance of "not always excavating the root causes" of our reactions but being mindful to not bypass difficult feelings. The sacred ground of holding space for ourselves and another in a relationship to be fully alive. Establishing safety in relationships and what that really means. The evolution in "moving forward" and growth in a relationship - both as individuals and as a couple. There needs to be space for anger and conflict. What's getting in the way in your relationships? Family of origin issues?  Trauma?  Not accessing the wise adult but living in a state of the adaptive child? We are born attached, we are born to attach, part of being in our full selves is to be connected and belong.  In our true selves - that doesn't mean we will get everyone's approval - but we need to feel connected and belong to feel whole. Psychedelic Therapy Our feelings as therapists about the fast food approach of coaching and therapy on social media.  How trauma can stop life from unfolding and flowing.

Recently I have been thinking about the deep divide in the U.S. After my last interview with Dr. You and our discussion of feeling rage, sadness, and hopelessness during these times... I decided I needed to look at how I contribute to the divide.  In my interview with Dr. You, I brought up how I believe that self compassion, and compassion in general, are the missing links to the evolution of this country.  In this talk, I reference three brilliant female psychologists, who have done their own research on the benefits of engaging in self compassion to create a more compassionate world.     In this talk I explore: The intergenerational trauma, oppression, and patriarchy that needs to be looked at and deeply felt. One of the only ways to heal is to feel our rage, fear, and anxiety...but to hold it compassionately and with presence.   Most of us operate from the limbic part of the brain, which is a bottom up response of survival and reactivity. We need to learn how to have a top down response of self regulation, soothing, and pause from the frontal cortex. When we don't learn to sit with our feelings of vulnerability, we "bad other" other human beings.   Becoming more compassionate to oneself and others is not about being weaker, passive, or complacent.  As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, "It's about engaging the soul force." We forget the amazing resilience of our ancestors and of life. Whenever the dominant strata of society feels threatened, which is predominantly white Christian male, they become more threatened, that dominant strata becomes more cruel, more hateful, and more violent, more punishing, and more oppressive. It's contagious. We get angry and hateful towards those. We then react in aggressiveness. It perpetuates suffering and then we fall deeper and deeper into the dark ages. When others are caught in the shadow and unprocessed feelings their violence brings up our shadow. That hatred never ceases by hatred. But by love alone is healed. Practical tools and applications for self-compassion practices in your life.