Episode 104

Written By Michaela Carlin
 
 
 
 

What happens when life’s toughest moments force you to question the life you’ve created and even who you thought you were?

This week on The Psychedelic Mom, Anne Kiehl Friedman joins MIchaela Carlin to share her personal journey of awakening to her own self-worth. Central to Anne’s story is the concept of "blender moments"—periods of intense upheaval, such as her struggle with Lyme disease and a painful breakup, that forced her to reexamine her life and break free from societal conditioning and expectations.

For Anne, these challenges led to profound personal growth, ultimately inspiring her to tell her story in her memoir, Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing. Her book and advocacy work invite others, especially women, to question the cultural pressures placed upon them and explore the healing potential of psychedelics in an intentional way as a path to deeper authenticity and personal liberation.

Anne Kiehl Friedman is an award-winning author, founder, and communications expert based in Washington, DC. She recently published Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing, which debuted as a #1 New Release on Amazon in Medicine & Psychology. Called “a memoir that’ll have you traveling, tripping, and seeing yourself in the passenger seat of a meaningful story of discovery,” by the Independent Book Review, it is changing the conversation on women and psychedelics.

Anne began her career in communications as a speechwriter/ghostwriter for prominent names in politics and Hollywood before starting Bold Ink, a strategic communications consultancy for non-profits. She graduated from Stanford University with honors and obtained her MBA from ESADE University in Spain. Anne is a passionate advocate for holistic well-being and spiritual growth and was ordained as an Interfaith Minister and Reverend after attending seminary at the Berkeley Chaplaincy Institute.

In 2023, identifying an unfilled need for better mainstream understanding of psychedelics and their healing potential, Anne co-founded The Psychedelic Communications Hub, a non-profit public engagement organization focused on public education and advocacy.

Episode Highlights

  • Life’s “blender moments”: how illness and breakups forced deep self-reflection and transformation

  • Vulnerability in writing: Anne reflects on societal expectations and internalized self-worth struggles

  • Identifying healthy love versus control 

  • How maternal messages about self-image are passed down across generations

  • Choosing self-love and autonomy rather than relying on romantic validation

  • Reconnecting with the body and releasing stored trauma 

  • Living “in the middle”: balancing intellect with openness to the body’s wisdom

  • Advocating for psychedelics to address mental health and systemic issues of loneliness and disconnection

  • How Anne’s first psychedelic experience with her Dad brought moments of unfiltered joy and healing

  • Embracing laughter as healing—why joy is inherently therapeutic

  • Understanding shame’s place in relationship

  • Recognizing signs of relational safety and respect through emotional responses and repair

  • The Psychedelic Communications Hub’s mission to support safe, responsible psychedelic practices

  • Ego dissolution and identity challenges in psychedelic experiences

  • Western framing of psychedelics as solely medical, and the risk of joyless healing

Anne Kiehl Friedman’s Links 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Anne Kiehl Friedman’s Gift to You

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Special thanks to Jeremy Colbert (Taragápe) for the original podcast theme music.

You can find out more about Jeremey’s work here:
taragape.com and @taragape

Michaela Carlin
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Episode 103