Healing Trauma with MDMA | A Breakthrough for PTSD or A Risky Choice

Could MDMA be the most powerful tool ever discovered for helping heal mental health crises and helping rewire the nervous system for peak performance? Today I'm going to break down the neuroscience, the uses, the challenges, and the opportunities for you if you are interested in this. Now, full disclaimer, in most states in the U.S. it is still illegal, so proceed with caution. And this is not a blanket endorsement for using MDMA. But I'm a huge fan and I'll explain why. First of all, if we go through the biggest challenges in helping someone heal from trauma, and my wife, for example, is a 3-time suicide survivor. I saw firsthand how the use of psychedelics coupled with other modalities like somatic experiencing, IFS, and more help bring about rapid healing in basically incurable diseases or incurable mental health challenges like complex PTSD, which she definitely had from so much, from so many layers of trauma and childhood abuse. Secondly, I've seen it rapidly heal relationship patterns. And third, I've also seen it help anchor high performers into their next level of potential. Basically help rewire and help access their most powerful self, like get rid of the money blocks, the patterns, the limiting beliefs, the stories, and the trapped emotional energy that has been holding them back for years. So today I'm going to break down the neuroscience. Let's go into that right now. So in August 2023, there was a big research report, um, Nardot et al. You can look it up, and it broke down these two major windows. And you'll see the graph here, but what happened in these two major windows is you have first acute subjective experience, and secondly, you had the critical period reopening. Now, two different windows, two different effects. Obviously, on the critical period reopening, they're testing on rats. On the first period, first grouping, they're testing on humans. And what they're seeing, basically, let's, let's break down the acute subjective effects first. In ketamine, it's a 30-minute to 2-hour window. So not very long, it's in and out pretty quick. MDMA and psilocybin, they pretty much run hand in hand. It's 3 to 6 hours. Nice, very nice window. You can do a lot of deep work in that window. Third, LSD is 8 to 10, and then ibogaine is like 36 to 72 hours. It's— ibogaine, by the way, is highly, highly effective for treating opioid and alcohol addiction and really a lot of deep-rooted addictions, but we're not going to ibogaine today. So this acute subjective window, so think of it like this, this is my layman's terms or layman's interpretation, okay? But I've also, I've got two psychedelic neuroscientists as friends. They've helped me understand this and verify that I'm essentially in the ballpark of being, being correct. It's essentially correct is what I'm saying. So the first window, the acute subjective effect, it's basically where your nervous system is wide open. Think of like, um, a toddler. Their nervous system isn't even as open as this because it's not fully formed. They don't have their prefrontal cortex developed. I have a 3-year-old, so I understand their rational ability is limited. Well, now with your full functioning, now you have a nervous system opening unlike any other nervous system opening you've ever had in your life. Now, if you just do the medicine, you go up, you feel really great, you You come back down, but you didn't change anything while you were on the high or on the medicine. Guess what? You're basically the same person who just had a nice, beautiful experience. So one of the biggest things that I, questions I get with people is like, well, if I just, I've done MDMA, nothing really changed. I was basically the same person. And sometimes I do hear cases of people that do experience change and their anxiety subsides and they get recalibrated just from doing MDMA. But the vast majority of people, especially for the most complex mental health challenges, and if you look at the research, the MAPS protocol, others, it's at least some light guidance. I've found personally that it's deep guidance that creates rapid change and almost a guaranteed outcome, as close as you can possibly say to a guaranteed outcome for helping heal depression, complex PTSD, PTSD. Now, some, some cases, disclaimer, some people need more than one session and some people have more complex scenarios where they're, they have to recalibrate their environment, their neurotransmitters, they have to recalibrate their gut. A lot of things can be a lot of factors. Okay. But MDMA can play an absolutely critical component. MDMA guided sessions. Reason I say guided, A, these medicines, as I mentioned, I think of them as medicines, not drugs. They are still illegal. Most cases. But secondly, because it's an altered state, you're not used to doing these medicines, okay? You're not used to the experience that they take you on. And if you are not with a trusted guide, uh, or a psychedelic therapist, or someone like myself that guides people through these experiences and knows what they're doing, is very comfortable, familiar with the medicine and the journeys and the peaks and valleys and the moments and the experiences that can come as a result of the medicine, Well, now you can get triggered in anxiety and you can actually create some trauma, some little t trauma, or even more trauma, especially with psilocybin or other higher, high-powered true psychedelics. Because MDMA is technically an empathogen, does not create this, this dynamic altered state of like seeing things and hallucinating, hallucinating like LSD or psilocybin or ayahuasca, for example. So it's a very gentle and very pleasant medicine. That's why its street name is ecstasy. It's beautiful. It's amazing. Okay? But in this 3 to 6 hour window, what I see over and over and over and over and over, I can't emphasize this enough. If you use that window right, meaning having the right guidance, a safe, trusted source that is going to ethically and emotionally hold the space for you and help you process those overwhelming memories, someone that is almost like, think of a cancer surgeon, right? They're going in, they're rooting out the cancer and they're gonna clean it out of your psyche. You want to have a great guide that knows what they're doing if you're dealing with real trauma and PTSD and all that. Okay, so what happens in my sessions when I'm guiding leaders is I'll literally guide them through, get them connected with their body, do some breathwork, do some meditation, et cetera. We'll get them grounded, maybe a little bit of somatic experiencing so they're present to their body, because MDMA naturally connects you to your heart and body. So if you think of your human experience and the 4 channels of data that you're receiving, you got heart, body, mind, and spirit. So MDMA primarily opens up heart and body, and it's amazing for getting men unstuck too, because I was one of those guys that was very deeply stuck in terms of emotionally disconnected. Well, MDMA helped me create that emotional connection that is really beautiful and powerful, and my wife and my daughter are very, very grateful for that. Um, because her number one complaint for years was like, I was kind, good human, but not emotionally connected and not emotionally available. And I was like, I don't know how to get there. So detour on that, but pay attention to that. It is amazing for helping process and open up and create connection from your heart. And mind, so you feel a more integrated, powerful human being, and you're getting more data sources, more intuition, right? But in this acute subjective experience, what I want to do is I want to go in and do that parts work. You know, if you think of parts of your psyche, like a little 3-year-old version of you had a favorite pet die, and there was an overwhelming emotion and pain and suffering that was still stuck in your nervous system. Well, because we are on MDMA and you're feeling safe, and, and love, feeling full of safety and love. In the right container, the medicine helps you feel, uh, get flooded with safety and love because MDMA releases serotonin and dopamine, especially in a little bit of norepinephrine, a few other neurotransmitters that make you feel really good. Okay, so now you're able to go in, and with the right prompting, like literally I'll ask people after they're deeply connected to their body in a light hypnotic state, I'll say, hey, So let's imagine that you walk over to a big blank wall, kind of like the one behind me, and let's imagine there's a YouTube thumbnail that pops up. And on this YouTube thumbnail, it's a memory from the past, a moment in time where your body has a memory or emotion or painful moment that it would like to release today. And every time, pretty much every time, and we might have to do a little digging sometimes, but I will get to it. A memory, a moment in time that has been stuck, almost frozen in your emotion, in your nervous system. And I like to think of trauma as frozen emotion. Basically, your body got overwhelmed, it was too intense, too much, and it just froze and it stuck it and said, whoop, I'm gonna put that in closet, get rid of that, can't handle that right now. And instead of letting that emotion freeze, now you basically start building an emotional dam. You start stacking those And it's almost like you're emotionally constipated. And it's going to handcuff you in your marriage, your business, your intuition, your joy, your ability to even experience joy. So, but then we'll go in, let's say I'm guiding you, 3 years old, and this memory of a pet dying. Well, then I'm going to help you hold that little version of you, get curious about what he or she is feeling, and let them express, let them pour out. Process the emotions so that then the emotion is out of that version of you and literally out of your nervous system. And then we do, you know, it's IFS, Internal Family Systems, protective. We're looking at protector, manager, exiled parts, all that jazz. And we're bringing that part of you back into your nervous system so it feels integrated. And then that version of you will literally, I'll help you imagine holding that version of you giving them a hug until they basically go back to breathing normal and they feel complete. And I'll ask, is there any other fears, any other concerns, any other doubts, anything else they want to say? And once it feels complete, they'll ask, cool, that version of you be willing to let go of driving your life. You know, essentially always we'll get to that point, and I might have to do a few other questions, but we'll get to that point, and then that version of you is is no longer subconsciously or back in the recesses of your mind driving your life. Then we'll go to the next one. And in a typical session, I'll get to 3 to 5 major memories. Could be, I've dealt with rape, I've dealt with nearly dying in birth, I've dealt with so many other scenarios that are some of the darkest, deepest, scariest moments, being choked, right? I've dealt with some of these Overwhelming fear, loss of business, bankruptcy, whatever. Shame, massive shame, massive embarrassments, right? And then we'll move through those emotions all the way till it feels complete, and you'll literally see their body just kind of shift in this deeper state of relaxation, peace, and bliss. Now, something different that I do in my sessions is I then anchor them into a powerful state, a powerful memory from the future or the past where they showed up fully, is I want to create— because we have this beautiful 3 to 6 hour window, right? I want to anchor you into this magical, powerful version of you and then ask that version of you to lead, you know, the best version of you. Not magical, but it's just literally the best version of you. All right, so that 3 to 6 hour window, we can do a lot of deep work. It's, uh, one of my mentors, uh, he's done over 500 guided sessions on MDMA, and he's a renowned therapist. I won't share his name, but he said it's the equivalent of 2, 2+ years worth of therapy in one 4 to 5 hour session. I've seen that firsthand, and in many cases we're getting stuff that they never could even touch in the typical 1 hour a week therapy sessions. So, and it's just so fast, okay? And that's why with the MAPS protocol, and ultimately the FDA turned it down, that's political reason more than a scientific reason. Um, we won't go into that, but you can imagine that the drug companies are like, hey, we're— if, if you're getting people that were previously incurable, incurable veterans with PTSD that nothing's working, et cetera, and two-thirds of them are getting cured with very light guidance after 3 doses, 3 sessions, well, what's gonna happen to us? What's gonna happen to Big Pharma? Or what's going to happen to our, you know, lifetime subscription on an SSRI or whatever, right? You got to be aware of that and study the data, see what's really happening, see what's happening behind the scenes and the profit motives that are inherent within our healthcare system. Okay, so side note. All right, so then the next window, critical period reopening. Now this part on the NARTO at all is based on the rats. Now, part of the reason they test a lot on rats is because they have a fairly similar reaction to most drugs and most experiences. Okay, so in the— in this case with the psilocybin MDMA, it's 2.5 weeks, your critical period reopening. This is— this equivalent is almost like, um, like my toddler, where there's, there's some, uh, rapid change available. Their brain is almost in a hypnotic state. Okay, so you can anchor in the transformation in that next 2.5 weeks. So you want to be very intentional because your nervous system is more pliable and more open. You, you literally, especially with MDMA or psilocybin, you have a surge in neuroplasticity, okay? And, and if you take advantage of it, of like, if you're going from anxiety down to peace, you know, PTSD into calm, loving connection, right? Then if you take advantage of that What happens is you get on the other side and, and you're anchoring that in with meditation, breathwork, sound baths, therapy, especially somatic psychotherapy. I really am a huge fan of that for real trauma. CBT is good for a lot of uses, not as good according to Dr. Bessel van der Kolk for, um, for complex trauma. Okay, that's where Peter Levine's work, somatic experiencing, Dr. Gabor Mate talks a lot about it, IFS, Dr. Richard Schwartz, all those sorts of things are much better for real deep layers of trauma and PTSD than CBT. But in that 2.5-week window, that's where you get to solidify. You basically get to build the house, this new version of you. And so you want to be intentional about minimizing your exposure to stressful situations, to triggering people, things that are going to activate the trauma, really avoid those things and stay as much as possible and stay in this peaceful zen or loving type state. If you're healing relationships like marriages, I've seen this work really, really well where now you're connecting more deeply, you're in more heart-centered state. Doesn't mean you can't— you can and will still get in fights occasionally, but now you can recalibrate a lot faster. So that's why if you look at this One of the reasons MDMA is so freaking effective is because it doesn't take you in such an altered state. It actually makes you more present to this moment and allows you to process these deep things when you're properly guided. And, and it also fills you with, fills you with a state of bliss and state of loving connection instead of overwhelm. Like, if you try and process, for example, uh, let's say, you know, you were a war veteran and you saw some really horrific things. If you try and process some of those things without the medicine, guess what? You're going to be re-triggered into those things. If you try— and your nervous system often won't even go there because it's like, nope, not touching that, that's way too much. Or if you've experienced sexual trauma, boom, that's too heavy, too intense, too painful without the medicine. Okay, but the medicine now blankets your nervous system with a sense of love and safety. And now you're able to process and navigate those things much more safely and effectively with, again, the safe container. Okay? Second, or last, or not lastly, but one of the other things I should mention is that you should keep your dosing, and this is the therapeutic side. Again, proceed with caution. Again, I'm not specifically endorsing, nor do I supply the medicine to my clients, but one thing you should do is stay stay under 200mg of MDMA per, uh, setting. Um, you know, if you're working with the underground guide, that type of deal. Um, then also make sure that you do not, um, exceed or do not do it frequently, meaning, uh, typically they recommend no more than once in 90 days. Obviously you can do it more often. I, I've seen people do it more often within 90 days, for short time periods where they're working through some intense trauma and they just want to move through it and then step back and not use it again, okay, or minimize the usage again for like 90 days, right? So because MDMA can over time, and if you take too much, you know, MDMA is one of those medicines that if you take too much, it can also create a serotonin cliff, okay? But that's when you're going above going above and beyond 200 milligrams and doing it frequently. Okay, now in preparation for an MDMA guided session, the things that I've seen that are most helpful and you see most commonly recommended: GABA, 5-HTP, ALA sometimes, vitamin B, magnesium, and— or niacin, I should say, which is vitamin B3. And then personally, I recommend a lot of my clients do NAD from a brand called Jinfinity. This NAD optimization formula really boosts up your NAD levels, which are basically your core cellular fuel. It also acts as a neurotransmitter. Also, we like creatine. Basically, you want to stack your— think of your preparation for an MDMA session, you're stacking, stacking your nervous system so that with neurotransmitters, because you're going to have a big withdrawal. So you want to put some, put some in the bank before you get this big withdrawal on a journey. Okay. Additionally, pay attention to research. There's a lot of great sources out there. You can see that guys like Andrew Huberman, Stanford neuroscientist Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, top trauma experts in the world like Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, who wrote Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Gabor Mate, who's that, Dr. Peter Levine, are all fans of MDMA when safely and properly used in combination with other modalities. I've found that MDMA, when properly used, creates such a beautiful opportunity for deep healing that most people would never get to the rest of their life, okay? Lastly, I'm gonna mention, this is not talked about enough, but I think MDMA could offer one of the most powerful opportunities for rewiring your nervous system for peak performance, meaning it's creating this nervous system opening. Well, what makes up our money beliefs, our playing small, our self-sabotage? Why do we self-sabotage in health, wealth, or relationships, right? It's all because of these deep-rooted subconscious beliefs, patterns, stories, emotions, or even ancestral stuff. Well, with MDMA guided sessions, I can actually go in and rewire and clean that out and get that out of, out of you. So now I can then help you anchor into a much more powerful state. So like one of my clients, for example, he's a day trader and we're actually working. We've been like navigating, creating a deeper connection in his marriage and with his kids and just clearing out any blockages. But one of the things we're actually anchoring in is, is as a day trader, he needs to take bigger and bigger leaps in investment and in strategy and risk. And now we're anchoring him into the possibility to make $100,000 in a day. And then eventually in 2026, he wants to make— have his first million-dollar profit day. Okay, so it can be used powerfully in peak performance. I think it should be heavily used for athletes that are stuck, or anyone stuck in a crisis, or if you've been through bankruptcy or your marriage crisis. I've seen it work miracles when properly used in a safe, supportive, loving context that honors the people and properly respects the medicine and creates the right environment for healing and growth. So, say all that, I think it's one of the biggest breakthroughs in our time when properly and safely used, and I hope you found this video useful. If you like it, subscribe, and give me a like and a comment. Let me know your questions. On one of my future videos, I'm going to break down the top questions about MDMA and why you should pay attention to these questions and how to navigate these FAQs, um, in terms of doing MDMA sessions, the safety, the legality, all that jazz. So pay attention for that video coming up soon.