We were lucky to catch up with Angela Amirault recently and have shared our conversation below.
Angela, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I found my purpose through grief.
When I was 19 years old my father died suddenly of a heart attack. Prior to his death, I would not have believed that losing him was survivable.
I finished my degree, unaware that it can take at least two years to fully grieve big losses. I didn’t give myself compassion or the grace I deserved and believed that after a few months I should have felt better. Spoiler, I did not feel better.
After university I decided I wanted an adventure (to run away). A friend and I decided to move to Ireland. I remember arriving in Galway and walking down the cobblestone main street, feeling like I could breathe for the first time in years.
While living in Ireland I started training as a psychotherapist which involved diving into my own personal therapy. At this point it had been six years since years since my Dad had died. I was working through that grief, really for the first time, and it felt like I had lost him all over again. Processing grief is the worst way to time travel.
After working as a therapist for years and starting a family we decided to shift our life and move to Boulder, Colorado. At that time I came across a psychedelic therapy training and I felt something light up inside me. I had been following the MAPS research with MDMA for years and I had experienced my own healing with these types of medicines. I was excited but was dubious, the training worked with cannabis. I knew cannabis (or thought I did), I was unsure how it could support me in a psychedelic experience but I was open.
I began my first journey feeling a little nervous, reminding myself to breathe. I heard Daniel, who was facilitating the training repeat, ‘You’re so safe. You’re so held.’ In an instant I felt like my heart got a kick and an understanding swept over me. It’s like a voice said ‘You haven’t felt fully safe or held since your Dad died’. Immediately I was engulfed in grief, I sobbed and was able to let go of feelings that had been calcified to me for over 15 years. That experience had unlocked something in minutes that years of therapy couldn’t touch.
It was then that I realized how much healing could be accessed so quickly. I wanted to support others in shedding these old parts, I wanted to be the one that helped them feel safe and held.
Once again the experience of grief was changing the trajectory of my life, but instead of running away from something, I was running towards it. I was going to fully step into work as a psychedelic therapist.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I have recently launched Altered Healing, Nova Scotia’s first cannabis-assisted psychedelic therapy practice. I am so passionate about the healing that’s available using cannabis. It has a level of agency in the experience that allows us to feel safe enough that our defense mechanisms and nervous system can take a break. Many people feel exhausted in body, mind and soul and sleep does nothing to ease that. That’s often because our nervous system is in fight/flight/freeze or fawn, this experience allows for a reset where we can move though the past and feel more grounded in the present.
I’m so excited to bring this work here. For years I was reluctant to return, it was too painful due to my own grief. To be able to move back, feeling more healed in myself and sharing that healing with others. It really is a gift.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three qualities that have have the most impact for me would be my ability to be nonjudgmental, belief in change and the ability to trust my intuition
I am regularly checking in with my internal voice. Asking, how am I speaking to myself and how am I speaking about others? I truly believe in the saying ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.’ Being cruel or judging others is of no benefit. This is not the same as speaking up when others have harmed us. Just more so assuming that the person who cut you off in traffic is a d*ck. It may be true but getting angry impacts our nervous system and is unhelpful.
To be a little less judgmental just simply notice your inner dialogue. When you make a mistake, what do you say? When you see someone else making a mistake, what do you say? We should speak to ourselves like a friend, and assume best intentions in others. In general if we all went through life assuming everyone is doing the best they can, with what they can the Earth would be a more forgiving place.
I fully believe that under the right circumstances and if they want to, people can change. I wouldn’t be doing this work if I didn’t. From the day I decided I wanted to be a psychotherapist it was because I truly believed I could help change the world, one person at a time.
In order to change we have to be ready. Change is scary and change is hard. So let’s not judge ourselves and others when trying something new.
I trust my gut/intuition/inner knowing. It has never led me astray. I can feel it tingle when I’m meeting someone who I know will positively impact my life. I can hear it when a word floats into my mind just before someone says it. I can see it when I ask for something and, like magic, there is it. For me, my intuition is the part of my higher self that is aligned. Some might call it guides or angles or even God, it could be all those things. For me it’s a grounded part of self that knows what’s right.
Trusting our intuition can take work. Our fears, anxieties and doubts can convince us that all the bad things we’re worried about, that’s our intuitive nature. But what I’m speaking about is the part that is the opposite of fear. It feels like possibility and hope.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I have been asked this many times and I have to say I don’t have in mind one type of ideal client. But I have a few things in people that I am most drawn to. For starters if I’m going to work with someone I need to know that they are ready for a change. Maybe right now they are feeling stuck or numb but they also have a sense that there can be more to life. A little internal voice telling them to keep hoping that things can get better. I believe it can get better and want to help them on that path.
I am also drawn to folks who struggle to have compassion for themselves, I struggled with this for a long time. I know how beneficial it can be to have someone to remind us to be kinder to ourselves. Being a human is so difficult and it would be made a whole lot easier if we were just a little bit nicer to ourselves.
Finally, since becoming a parent I noticed how overwhelming it can be to try to parent a child while also trying to parent myself. So many of us had traumatic childhoods and sometimes it’s only when watching our own children do we realize what we were lacking.
Helping parents to better parent themselves, so they can better parent their children feels very meaningful to me. I believe we all want a better future for our children. To make that happen we need to heal ourselves. I feel honored to get to be part of that journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alteredhealing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alteredhealing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Alteredhealing/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-amirault/
