Todd Youngs has been in continuous recovery from severe addiction and alcoholism since 2009. His personal path to recovery involved a combination of 12 step work, and his work with Ayahuasca. Todd now works intensively with others to help them achieve a life of satisfying and meaningful sobriety. His approach is eclectic and holistic drawing on the 12 Steps, CBT, MEI, and Mindfulness practice in order to deeply address the bio/psycho/social/spiritual aspects of addictive disorders.

Todd has worked extensively with Ayahuasca for over 14 years within a variety of communal and personalized settings. He is focussed on building bridges between the older treatment paradigm and newly emerging modalities that utilize Ayahuasca. He is the co-founder of Natura Care Programs.

Todd is often heard fondly referring to his own personal path of recovery as AAA+, or “Ayahuasca Assisted Alcoholics Anonymous:  A Roadside Service for broken-down, drug-addicted hippies”.

In this episode we dive into:

• How humans explore drugs to satisfy creative and spiritual yearnings. 


• The dark and light sides of psychedelics. 


• Todd’s wild addiction recovery story.


• Using pharmaceuticals to manage side effects of drug and alcohol use.


• Connecting to something bigger than yourself through ayahuasca.


• Todd’s journey of brewing his own ayahuasca in his mother’s basement.


• How ayahuasca helped Todd through 12-step recovery.


• The necessity of connection and accountability during recovery. 


• Family members seeing a change in Todd & Ben after ayahuasca journeys. 


• Healthy ways to incorporate the use of an altered state to transform your life.


• Therapeutic opportunities when taking psychedelics.


• Psychedelics vs therapy. 


• Are psychedelics the right path for you?


• Breaking down what the 12-week Natura Care Program looks like and why the 12 week model is advantageous.


• True recovery: Healing the root causes of addiction.


• Finding centeredness, calmness, joyfulness.


• Can you actually trust plant medicines?


• Ultra-conservatism vs. open-mindedness in recovery circles.


• Psychedelics in Recovery.

Links from this episode

• Natura Care Programs


• Psychedelics in Recovery


• Todd’s Website


• Ben’s Freedom from Addiction Circle


• Evolving Man Brotherhood Free-Trial on Circle

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