Meet Jo Young | Mental health therapist & psychedelic integration coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jo Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jo, why did you pursue a creative career?
I have been a therapist for over five years now. I’ve worked in a primary care clinic, wilderness therapy and in a group practice before starting my own private practice, Jo’s Journey Work. I chose to work in the psychedelic space because I was seeing how much traditional therapy methods were not working and overall mental health was suffering from the society we live in. During graduate school in 2018 I wrote a thesis paper on the benefits of psychedelics as I was experimenting with mushrooms and my own trauma. I noticed profound benefits from this experience and wondered why there was not more research being done in this space. The more I learn and navigate being a therapist and my own mental health, I notice there are many emotions that cannot be expressed by just taking. We can explore things that happen to us in a new way whether that is through psychedelics, creativity, or movement. Once we are able to name an emotion, feel the emotion, and move through an emotion the clearer our values, boundaries, wants and needs as a human are. As we develop deeper into the people we want to be this positively impacts our relationships, family and communities. I believe in a creative carrer around psychedelics because they have been utlizied for over 7,000 years. This ancient wisdom has been demonized from the war on drugs and is only starting to see new growth in the benefits for us humans, especially in the western world.
I believe that I shouldn’t have to force anything in my life, and being in the psychedelic and integration space is something that has come more natural to me because of my light, playful and grounded self.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am about a year into my private practice work. I am always learning and always being a connector in my field through hosting free integration circles in my city of Durango, CO as well as networking which is fun a natural to me. I give 20% of my profits back to the ancestor project who has a scholarship fund for BIPOC to attend psychedelic ceremonies where it is legal around the world. I work with intention setting and integration for people who have independant psychedelic journeys on their own or in a country where it is legal. I work with EMDR (eye movement desetization reprocessing), mindfulness, and somatic experiencing for a person to get the most out of a psychedelic experience.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I find the best juiciest part of living in Durango is the community. I was welcomed into the city by starting to work for a wilderness therapy company, which drew equally as rad people from all around the US who love the outdoors and support mental health. This means haling DJ equipment into a cannon, a hot spring or to the mountains to party. So I would definitely love my best friend to experience that. I would take them to the river for a tube float, to a natural hot spring and my favorite yoga classes. So basically I get to live in a reatreat full time while living here in Durango, so thats pretty cool. I would love to walk down main street and have them meet my favorite local business owners and go to turtle lake cafe for a brunch.

Side note that I mention wilderness therapy a couple times in this article and want to be clear I do not support this industry. They do help people and I did not align with their values as a company so I left.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
So greatful to shoutout my supporters in life! Growing up I think of my fifth grade teacher, Mike Fillman, who taught me to work for something you are passionate about and have fun doing it! Specifically in the therapeutic space one of the people who has taught me the most, especially in the beginning of my career, is Norman Elizondo who worked with me in wilderness therapy. He taught me about mindfulness, meditation, and bringing intention into each day. I am currently in a psychedelic integration program through TAM integration, so I would like to shoutout Daniel and all of my cohort members who teach me so much. Lastly, all the women in my life who have taught me to live boldly with compassion and have my values be at the center of everything.

Website: josjourneywork.com

Instagram: josjourneywork

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josjourneywork/