We recently connected with Jill Sitnick and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jill thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When my therapist suggested MDMA therapy for my talk therapy-resistant PTSD, I was absolutely sure it wouldn’t work. Now, I’m happy that I took the risk and tried the therapy because, after a year that held three therapeutic journeys along with intense psychotherapy, I no longer carry a PTSD diagnosis.

I came to MDMA therapy for PTSD after my long-term partner passed away, and I had started to recover from the grief. I now understand that the strong, loving relationship calmed my nervous system and I had over 25 years to not think about my childhood.

But the panic attack from a silly work email 18 months after his passing wouldn’t end and was debilitating. My therapist figured out my message when I said, “I’m done. If the universe craps all over me again, I’ll take the hint. I’m done.” I was borderline suicidal and didn’t see any real point of living if I was never going to feel safe again.

I’ve learned that being marinated in a childhood full of beatings, drugs, suicides, and neglect left my nervous system in a constant state of fear. I was exhausted from the terror that my life was going to implode again without any warning, just as it had with my partner’s passing.

MDMA therapy allowed me to reframe my traumatizing childhood moments by calming my body enough so I could look at those memories with my adult eyes. It became clear that “the universe” wasn’t out to get me as I felt after my partner’s passing. Instead, I simply had two parents who weren’t equipped to parent as they carried their own traumas.

On the other side of that year of healing, I’ve made huge life changes. I founded The Journey Sage to explain MDMA therapy for PTSD to reduce the stigma that surrounds psychedelics. The FDA is scheduled to approve this therapy in 2024, and I felt a responsibility to explain my healing process as a patient so others can understand how the medicine, MDMA, in this case, works for patients with trauma and PTSD.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my business after getting incredible feedback from my writing hobby. I wrote “Rescuing Jill: How MDMA with a Dash of Mushrooms Healed My Childhood Trauma-Induced PTSD” and thought that I had the book-writing bug out of my system.

But then I participated in a lovely psychedelic retreat experience during a vacation. I realized that some people searching for healing with psychedelics may not know how to start. I got the book writing bug again, and that’s how my companion workbook about intention setting came to be.

Founding The Journey Sage, creating my educational YouTube channel about MDMA therapy for PTSD, and jumping into the deep end of social media has been full of some ridiculous learning curves. But I enjoy new challenges, and at my core, I am most happy as an educator. In this way, I am happy to explain my patient experience because the FDA is anticipated to approve MDMA therapy for PTSD in 2024.

I work hard on my YouTube channel to dive deep into the different parts of this therapy, and I share my life experiences to explain the healing process. Life is ironic in that I spent most of my adulthood feeling so much shame about my childhood that I rarely spoke about it. And now, I am broadcasting it with the goal of helping others.

I started my career as an educator who found joy when the light bulbs of understanding came on in my classroom. Now, I find joy when people tell me they are steps closer to their own healing after reading my story or seeing my videos.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a patient who suffered from childhood trauma-induced PTSD, I rarely spoke about my childhood through most of my adulthood. My stories of beatings, neglect, and suicides weren’t polite conversations, so I learned early in my professional career to stay quiet about my background.

After healing my PTSD with MDMA therapy in mid-life, I felt compelled to tell the story of the therapy – because it worked! After seeing my depressed mother try various therapists and antidepressants, I had little faith in the mental health field. Yet, here I was, someone who had healed the worst symptoms of her own PTSD. After a year of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, I was no longer suicidal, and I felt a sense of control over my life for the first time.

I focused solely on the therapy when I wrote my first few drafts. My early readers kindly told me that nothing really made sense without any real context. I learned I needed to share many of my childhood stories to show people the progression from my hypervigilance created by abuse and neglect to my calmness and trust in the flow of life.

That shift was very challenging for me. My childhood had been a source of shame my entire life, and I understood that a symptom of childhood trauma-induced PTSD was a reluctance to talk about beatings and housing insecurity.

Ultimately, my early readers helped me get over that hurdle. I learned that people understood the healing potential of this therapy when I talked about specific memories turning from emotionally terrifying to emotionally ordinary.

If I hadn’t faced my shame and stopped writing, my advocacy would have come to a screeching halt before it even got started. Even now, I sometimes cringe when people reference a story from my memoir, but I am glad the story is out there. I know that others with challenging childhoods find my story comforting in a “she gets it” kind of way.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

What’s interesting is that while my field is technically health care because I advocate for MDMA Therapy for PTSD, my daily job is content creation. No one is more surprised by that career choice than I am!

While the job of content creation usually hinges on views and brand partnerships, my content is designed to assist people in understanding a healing modality that hasn’t existed in the clinical space. I’m not trying to “go viral” to grab the attention of brands. I’m creating the kind of educational content I wish had been available when I was going through this therapy.

My audience profile ranges from individuals suffering from PTSD to practitioners wanting to understand how psychedelics can be used to heal. I keep both populations in my head as I film YouTube videos that dive into aspects of my healing journey. Additionally, I create TikTok and YouTube shorts to increase awareness of this therapy, which will probably be FDA-approved in August of 2024.

When I think about the knowledge I’ve needed to become a content creator, I am very thankful for my instructional technology background because there were several big learning curves that got me where I am today. I often attended “YouTube University” along with LinkedIn Learning for everything from basic marketing to video editing.

Ultimately, I’ve learned that some knowledge is foundational, like my ability to teach, but other knowledge is fluid, and the most successful people have an “I’ll figure that out” attitude. Not one single piece of knowledge has allowed me to share my voice. Instead, it has been my willingness to dive into learning new technologies and strategies that have allowed for content that could help PTSD sufferers understand there are healing options with psychedelics.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thejourneysage.com/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thejourneysage
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jillsitnick/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@thejourneysage