#61 - Lorna Sturchio: Serving Women Who Served#61 - Lorna Sturchio: Serving Women Who Served
Root Medicine
Navy veteran Lorna Sturchio shares how military sexual trauma, addiction, and failed systems led her to ibogaine and other plant medicines. She reflects on reclaiming safety in her body, healing from TBI, and helping build women‑only veteran cohorts so others do not have to suffer alone.
37:26•24 Apr 2026
From Invisible War to Inner Healing: Lorna Sturchio on Ibogaine and Women Veterans
Episode Overview
- Women in the military often face an 'invisible war' of harassment, assault, and toxic leadership that is rarely acknowledged or safely reported.
- Overprescribed painkillers, sudden cut‑offs, and inadequate mental health care can push veterans toward illicit drugs and deepen despair.
- Standard medications and therapies sometimes keep people barely afloat without addressing the root causes of trauma and moral injury.
- Ibogaine, combined with careful preparation and integration, helped Lorna process buried sexual trauma, improve TBI symptoms, and feel safe in her body again.
- Women‑only veteran cohorts and trauma‑aware support offer vital spaces where female veterans can finally feel safe, heard, and validated.
“If I'm willing to die, why not be willing to die to try to live?”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation follows U.S. Navy veteran Lorna Sturchio through military service, trauma, addiction, and her eventual turn toward plant medicine and ibogaine. Lorna talks candidly about joining the Navy after 9/11, excelling in a riverine unit, and then being crushed by a culture where, as she puts it, women face an “invisible war” of sexual harassment, assault, and toxic leadership.
A so‑called celebratory promotion was tainted by vulgar graffiti from her own comrades, and repeated assaults – including one by someone in her chain of command – left her feeling unsafe, unheard, and silenced. After a serious boating accident, she was prescribed heavy painkillers “like Skittles”, cut off abruptly, and eventually pushed toward illicit drug use, culminating in a discharge that stripped her of benefits and support.
Lorna explains years of debilitating depression, panic, and a “smorgasbord of pills” from the VA, alongside every therapy acronym going, yet still feeling “hopeless” enough to attempt suicide. Her turning point came with alternative treatments: ketamine, underground ayahuasca, psilocybin and MDMA – all helpful to a point, but not quite reaching the deepest layers. Ibogaine was different.
Lorna describes it as a gentle but uncompromising root that took her “down and in”, helping her feel safe in her body again, process long‑buried military sexual trauma, and even ease symptoms from a traumatic brain injury. Now a coach with Beond, she helps shape women‑only veteran cohorts where participants can finally feel safe, seen, and believed. She stresses how crucial preparation, intention, and integration are, and shares stories of women who reclaimed their voices through this work.
If you’ve ever wondered whether healing is still possible after moral injury, addiction, and years of feeling broken, this conversation might spark the question: what do you have to gain by trying something different?
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