MUM

“As someone even on the journey, and I know there are many people who may hear this transmission who really feel like this aligns with them, but there's a piece that I have around knowing Jaxon. His essence, his frequency, and his beautiful soul are always present there, no matter what his physical experience is going to be. And that I know, whatever direction we go, whatever decision my sister and my brother-in-law make about what's best for their families is the right path. And we're on Jaxon's path.”

Samantha Williams (she/her) is a Reiki Master and Certified Channel with a profound calling to provide companionship and advocacy to both special needs children and their families, inspired by her personal journey with her nephew. As a compassionate witness and guide, she integrates energy healing and spiritual mentorship–supported by rituals for physical, emotional, and spiritual self-care–to nurture both the individuals and the family unit and foster compassionate communication through a network of support that creates space to celebrate each child’s unique gifts and journey.

In this podcast episode, Sam shares about her family’s grief surrounding her three-year-old nephew Jaxon’s impending hemispherectomy and the journey she has been on while supporting her sister Morgan and brother-in-law Ben through Jaxon’s developmental challenges.

This was a heartfelt and timely conversation centered around compassionate support while navigating complex emotions and decisions as a family. And Sam shares an important key piece – that it truly takes a constellation of care to be able to support everyone involved and to honor the needs and the breaking points of each individual.

Learn more about Samantha Williams at Involutionhealing.com

Follow her on IG @involutionhealing

Your support means so much!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans are available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

“Grief can come in all forms of different emotions and expressions. And so we express it in the community, right? You can do it by yourself, but I think it's cool to do it with a friend or in the community because then you witness each other. And that's the ancestral way we're supposed to grieve together and not get freaked out about me screaming and losing my… if you're weeping and screaming, people are coming like, oh, get your s**t together.”

Gris Alves is a Mindfulness Teacher, Thanatologist, Integrated Recovery and Healing Guide, Earth Based Ceremonialist and Trauma-Informed 500HR RYT Yoga Teacher; Host of The Tales of Recovery bi-lingual podcast, and currently training in Gabor Mate's Compassionate Inquiry Therapy Process. She has been leading humans in spiritual, health, and addiction recovery programs for over 27 years. Helping others process trauma, embody and ritualize grief, deconstruct and release limiting beliefs that stem from the social conditioning and programming that hinder our integrated well-being.

In this episode, Gris shares her personal journey in walking with her mother through the end of her life. Even as someone who had formally studied death and grief, she shares that the experience of companioning her mother through this portal was still challenging and also heartbreakingly beautiful.

Learn more about Gris Alves at grisalves.com.

Follow them on IG @grisalves and @talesofrecovery

Your support matters!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review it.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

"I think it's important as an elder queer person and I wear that very proudly, that I do think our stories are important because I didn't come from a place that where we had these tools. So as an elder queer person, it's also not too f*****g late for me to honor it now, right? And to go living this next however long on this plane as my authentic self, including name. And to just do that because I understand the healing frequencies that it sends back. That sends healing back to those that couldn't. And it models for generations to come."

TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) is a two spirit, nonbinary, queer, native indigenous person of color and has been in recovery since 1989. They are the founder of Vamonos, a care and harm reduction practice that specializes in working with and supporting: people at the margin, 2SLGBTQ+, substance overuse/misuse, facilitator abuse, psychedelics in recovery, integration support + safety, and breathwork + movement.

TanyaMarck shares their journey of self-discovery and acceptance as a two-spirit individual. They reflect on their childhood experiences, including a summer romance at the age of ten, and how it shaped their understanding of love and identity.

They also explore the significance of an intimate ceremony and the merging of their two spirits, ultimately embracing their whole self and sharing their story to inspire compassion and understanding.

Learn more about TanyaMarck at tanyamarck.com.

Follow them on IG @tanyamarck.

Email at [email protected].

Your support matters!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

"What does it mean to live uninhibited, especially knowing that your time is coming to an end? I held space for people who are my own age. I held space for people who were older than me. Numerous diagnosis also like Alzheimer's and dementia. And it really made me slow down and learn to be present. I would show up in these spaces. I'd be going into people's homes, I'd be going into skilled nursing facilities. And each experience was like its own container. And again, death is part of that container."

Stacey Schultz (they/she) is a board certified massage therapist and Rosen Method Bodyworker who has had experiences working with people at their end of life in hospice. And through her life journey, she has come to be an outspoken advocate for those who have experienced religious/spiritual harm.

In this conversation, we discuss the challenges of having religious upbringings, the process of questioning our beliefs, and healing from religious trauma. Stacey shares about her journey in leaving the religious community and discovering who she really is, and how that journey is now woven into her healing practice.

Learn more about Stacey at staceylschultz.com.

Follow Stacey on Instagram @stacey.l.schultz.

Your support means so much!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

In this first ever episode of Mum, host Ellen Wong shares her journey in befriending Grief, supported by the sacred mushroom, after decades of escaping and resisting.

She breaks her silence through the inception of Mum and invites you along on this journey in meeting the many deaths of our lives through stories, liberating ourselves to live LOUD and preparing ourselves to meet the end of life with openness, peace and permission.

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram @mumthepod.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

"We hear celebration of life in reference to funerals when it comes to people's death. And I don't think we should wait until someone dies to celebrate their life. We should learn to celebrate now ourselves, the people we love. Also, why do I have to wait to die to rest in peace?"

Lily Truong is an existential Earthling existing as a first-generation Vietnamese-American queer femme, a squishy human with a squiggly brain psychotherapist, healing arts practitioner, coconut ninja, lover of life, companion of death, dot connector, community builder, rebel anarchist, cool rich auntie, and proud cat mum.

Lily's dad died when she was two. Her partner was murdered in 2020. And her mother died in 2021 on Mother's Day.

Lily has been walking with death her whole life. In this episode, Lily shares about her personal experience with grief while supporting her mother through her death journey, and how this experience has changed her perspective on life. She also talks about how her mother's unexpressed grief affected her understanding of death as a child.

Lily and Ellen discuss the importance of celebrating life now rather than waiting for death, as well as prioritizing rest and peace in everyday life. And they reflect on the transformative nature of grief and the need its expression.

About Lily Truong

Lily Truong is a pre-licensed therapist working in community mental health and private practice, whose ultimate intention is to share the transformative possibilities and benefits of counseling and communal care with those in search of healing. She operates through a social justice lens with the perspective of a first-generation Vietnamese-American queer femme weaving between the intersections of Eastern philosophies of mindfulness and contemporary depth-oriented theories in clinical practice. As a mental health counselor and healing arts practitioner, she is passionate about decolonizing and deconstructing oppressive ideologies; healing relational wounds and intergenerational trauma; reconnecting to ancestry to honor the lands and our lineages; merging inner worlds with outdoor environments by integrating nature’s healing into therapeutic practice; embracing life as an embodied experience; discharging shame for radical self-acceptance, bridging the interconnective synergy of mind/body/spirit through psychosomatic awareness and integration; and promoting diversity consciousness, community empowerment, and compassionate action.

Learn more about Lily's work at heavyhearts.club

Follow Lily on Instagram @cocolily.

Your support is greatly needed and appreciated!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

"If we can be with aging, we can also be with death. Right. Like, they go hand in hand. I feel like aging and death are sisters. They're sisters. One moves slow and one moves fast, but they walk on the same path."

In this episode, Xochitl Kusikuy Ashe – a 5th generation Peruvian medicine woman and Ellen's mentor – shares about her relationship with death and how it has been a teacher in her life.

Xochitl describes death as having sisters, which symbolize different aspects or ways in which death can occur. These sisters are metaphorical representations that help us understand death from various perspectives – the Sister of Aging, Sister of Illness, the Sister of Accidents, the Sister of Evil, the Sister of Suicide.

And just as there are sisters of Death, so are there sisters of Life. These sisters are associated with support and embrace for death. They may represent the transformative power of death and the growth that can arise from experiencing loss.

About Xochitl

Xochitl Kusikuy Ashe has been a teacher and guide in one-and-one mentorships, workshops, and ceremonies both in the U.S and internationally for the last 27 years. At 16 years old she became the first female of five generations of men to be initiated into the healing traditions of her Peruvian ancestral lineage. She is a Medicine Woman in the Peruvian Andean tradition and has worked with sacred plant medicines since the time of her initiation.  For the past 23 years she apprenticed under her Godfather, a Mazatec Medicine Man of the ancient tradition of healing with the "Nti-si tho" "Santitos" or Psilocybin mushrooms.

She is a professionally trained herbalist, IFS Therapy Practitioner (Internal Family Systems) and specializes in the ceremonial use of Cacao and Psilocybin Mushrooms. In her practice, Xochitl focuses on the healing of generational trauma and the ways in which that trauma impairs our ability to thrive, create wealth, and have a positive impact on the world.

Founder of Magical Medicine Journeys, an Indigenous women owned retreat company, that offers legal Mazatec Psilocybin Mushroom Retreats in Mexico. Xochitl’s mission is to honor the traditional indigenous knowledge and ceremony of sacred plant medicine and provide the most authentic and powerful life changing experiences.

She is faculty at Esalen Institute, The Microdosing Institute and the Shift Network.

Learn more about Xochitl at Xochitlashe.com.

Follow Xochitl on Instagram @xochitlashe.

We're grateful for your support!

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review.

Follow Mum on Instagram ⁠@mumthepod⁠.

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about Ellen's Death/Rebirth private mentorship and medicine journey programs. Listeners receive a 10% discount if they mention Mum during their discovery call. Scholarships are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. Payment plans available.

Join the Medicine Membership to join our monthly virtual medicine ceremony and integration circle. Access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by Ellen.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe

Death is a vital part of life. It marks the end of every day and season. It’s present in every exhale and goodbye. It guides you through all your life transitions.

Death initiates you into change – the only constant in life. Without it, there would be no growth, no new chapters, no expansion, no transformation.

Each of us are the heroes in our own journeys. We face our fears as we walk into these death portals, shedding old skins, and re-emerge anew. We do this many times in a lifetime. Our stories hold deep wisdom and offer healing.

I’m Ellen Wong – I’m a storyteller and entheogenic death companion. I walk daily with brave souls through death and rebirth.

I invite you to enter this portal of discovery with me. And together, let’s break our fearful silence and uplift our stories of death and grief , so that we can all be inspired to live our lives, LOUD.

Welcome to Mum.

Follow @mumthepod on Instagram

Visit TripwithEllen.com to learn more about private Death/Rebirth mentorship and medicine journey programs.

Join the Medicine Membership to attend a virutal medicine ceremony and integration circle each month, as well as access a growing library of journeys and meditations facilitated by host Ellen Wong.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tripwithellen.substack.com/subscribe