Daniela Tilbrook on Ayahuasca & Remembering Who You AreDaniela Tilbrook on Ayahuasca & Remembering Who You Are
Naturally High
Jeanne Foot and author Daniela Tilbrook talk through Daniela’s experiences with ayahuasca, trauma healing and forgiveness, with a strong focus on sober, intentional use of plant medicine. Their conversation also looks at integration, daily practices and how post-traumatic wisdom shapes relationships, work and inner peace.
53:07•27 May 2026
Ayahuasca, Forgiveness and Sobriety: Daniela Tilbrook Remembers Who She Is
Episode Overview
- Ayahuasca can be approached as medicine with a clear healing intention rather than as an escape or way to get high.
- Deep healing may involve a process of layered forgiveness, including compassion for those who caused harm, without excusing their actions.
- Integration is crucial and happens through daily habits like meditation, sleep, movement, and community support, not just during the ceremony itself.
- Emotional sobriety grows from practising a pause between stimulus and response and learning not to take everything personally.
- Creating space in life—dropping misaligned work, setting deadlines, and building routine—can support both recovery and meaningful projects like writing a book.
“It showed me all the people I had to forgive... that real message of like, you must let this go for your own sake, because you’re holding on to this so tightly.”
Curious about how a completely sober, trauma-informed woman comes to sit in an ayahuasca ceremony and call it medicine rather than escape? This conversation between host Jeanne Foot and returning guest, author and coach Daniela Tilbrook, has plenty for anyone questioning their relationship with trauma, healing and altered states. Daniela, author of *Not My Shame* and now writing *Post-Traumatic Wisdom: From Disorder to Inner Peace*, talks through why she chose ayahuasca after years of therapy, EMDR and sobriety.
She explains the shift from seeing psychedelics as “getting off your head” to viewing them as medicine with a clear healing intention. Twice travelling to the Netherlands for ceremonies, Daniela describes being shown that “you have to forgive, like you have to let this go, because you’re holding on to this kind of so tightly,” starting with her stepfather and rippling through a “ladder of forgiveness” to other figures in her life.
The chat digs into what happens after the ceremony too: integration circles, daily habits and the “mundane” work of staying well. Daniela links ayahuasca to real-world changes like installing disciplined writing habits, dropping low-paid “endurance work” to create space for her second book, and even choosing to reconnect with her mother while letting go of expectations of apologies or dramatic remorse.
Jeanne brings in themes of emotional sobriety, attachment wounds and that crucial pause between stimulus and response, while both women laugh about coffee addiction, free buffets and the myth that one experience means you’ve finally ‘arrived’. The tone stays grounded, practical and stigma-busting, especially around plant medicine, trauma, addiction and what holistic recovery can look like in everyday life.
If you’ve ever wondered whether deeper healing is about blasting off or gently remembering who you are, this conversation might get you asking new questions about your own path. Could this kind of intentional healing be a step on your journey back to yourself?
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