In this episode of Rewiring the Game, host Jade connects with clinical social worker, professor, licensed natural medicine provider, and proudly, their wife, Dr. Amanda Baranski. As a co-owner of a micro-healing center in Denver, Amanda spends her life guiding grown adults back into the "squish" of life, teaching us how to get intentionally uncertain about the rigid stories we lock in too early.

From a chance meeting at a Queer Poetry Night to pioneering accessible space in the regulated psychedelic arena, Jade and Amanda look at what happens when we stop living in black and white. Together, they dive deep into the messy ethics of natural medicine, the operational hoops of building a compliance-heavy business, and why the "dual relationships" of community healing shouldn't be clinicalized out of existence. Amanda shares the raw reality of her own radical rewire: navigating severe postpartum depression, discovering the cognitive flexibility of ketamine, and shifting from a person who needed the medicine to a vessel who teaches it.

Whether you’re curious about how psilocybin disrupts the brain's default mode network to create a developmental "pause," looking for a blueprint on how to be a more active, clumsy but willing LGBTQ+ ally, or trying to understand how life informs learning and vice versa, this conversation is a masterclass in staying open to the spectrum.

Timestamps

• 00:07 Welcome to Rewiring the Game: Sitting in the Squish with Dr. Amanda Baranski

• 02:45 Queer Poetry Night: The Origin Story of How Jade and Amanda Met

• 04:03 The Ultimate Wrong Belief: Why Humans Invent Limits on Healing

• 05:21 The Alternative Doctorate: Giving Up an Early Dream to Build a Better Path

• 06:35 The Ethics of Psilocybin: Why the Regulation Line Should Stay Squishy

• 08:30 Deconstructing the Code of Ethics: Community Healing vs. Strict Clinical Boundaries

• 10:22 Becoming the Hub: How a Micro-Healing Center Empowers Solopreneur Therapists

• 13:44 Compliance and Capacity: The Hidden Overhead of Licensed Mushroom Spaces

• 14:55 7 Years of Therapy in 1 Day: Rewiring Synapses and Finding the "Pause"

• 16:49 What is Integration? Moving Vivid Medicine Journeys Out of the Bubble

• 19:11 Shifting Identities: Moving Past Medical Trauma and the Loop of Survival

• 20:51 Amanda’s Rewire: Surviving Postpartum Depression through Ivy Ketamine

• 23:15 150 Hours in Altered Consciousness: The Cyclical Journey of Learning and Leading

• 25:38 Soul Work and Intuition: Why You Need to Trust the Person Sitting Next to Your Ego Death

• 27:37 Staying in Your Lane: Gratefulness for Business Partners Who Handle the Admin

• 29:15 The Clumsy Ally: How to Navigate Queer Conversations and Accept Making Mistakes

• 31:26 Pronouns and the "Pause": Micro-Corrections and the Art of the Loving Repair

• 33:45 The Next Frontier: Why MDMA Deserves to be Rescheduled by Policy Makers

• 34:52 Jade's Final Take: Building Doors Out of the Things That Broke Us

  Episode Resources

• Micro Healing Center: Connect with Dr. Amanda Baranski and her network of licensed facilitators.

Don't forget: What is your aim, and how are you rewiring your game? If this episode landed for you, go to owntherally.com/rewiringthegame to share your rewire. Send this episode to someone who needs a reminder that the thing holding them back might just be the very thing prepping them to rise. See you in the next one!