A a reflection from my California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals alcohol and drug counseling training.
I cannot remember a time in my life where I had the thought to become a counselor. I now realize, especially in writing this expression, that with such tender work, staying in the profession simply because of momentum or financial investment in education, presents an ethical concern. So visiting this query, ‘why do I want to be a counselor’, as I sit here working as a counselor, feels extremely grounding as a reminder of my values. My original catalyst to study psychology as a continuation of my environmental biology degree still remains front and center to my personal motivations in this field and of course, my life experiences over the last 13 years have continued to shape my focus. After all, the environment is everything and I believe our primary primal attachment figure is the Earth itself. To cultivate a deep awareness and compassion around a striving energy to fix things, overly caretaking tendencies to accommodate a nurturing space, my fight response to injustices are all resurfacing as I introduce drug counseling into my wheelhouse. If you would like to join me in this cultivation, you are invited to the film screening of The Wisdom of Trauma (click here for 15% off tickets, prices tiered for accessibility and NOTAFLOF) in Santa Cruz the first Thursday of September. Local organizations, such as the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County & others, will be participating in the Q&A community discussion following the documentary and we’d love to have you join or come to listen.
Care for the non-human world as my foundation allows me a strong anchor in ‘not knowing’
with my participants.
Before I even graduated with my environmental biology technology and policy degree with a focus on education, I knew I was burned out on analyzing the destruction of the natural environment. There is nothing wrong with the environment, only our relationship with her, at least as the source of the issue. That has been a truth I’ve held close to my heart since my college years. Thanks to my educational focus, I became intrigued by this concept of being a bridge between science and the layperson’s world. Being very curious about emotional intelligence and communication skills was an inherent piece of this intrigue. Emotions do not fall into the realm of true or false, they just ‘are’. I love this quote by Dr. Joe Tafur, a leader at the intersection of the western medical field and psychedelic healing modalities, “The bridge-point between science or biology and spirituality is emotional health”. If the spirituality lens does not work for you, consider the human rights to fulfillment, safety, connection and worth. Once again, I expand beyond the human species to all organisms alive and the deserving of the right to fight for their existence and life. Overall, I have a deeply unwavering desire to fight, and not from a trauma response but to passionately fight from a connection to truth, for a life affirming human culture. I also believe that most people also have this desire. May we all support each other in remembering these skills we have evolved with to fight for life affirming societies. Since the industrial revolution and the current technological advances & distractions exponentially speed things up, I do believe this requires us in caregiver roles to update our systems of care ethics and tools. If you are a healthcare worker integrating psychedelics or altered spaces into your practice, feel free to reach out at bohelerlovage@gmail.com for one on one mentorship or guiding support.
Those in certain roles often do not choose these professions, the roles emerge from our life experiences and personality characteristics. After loosing an uncle as well as a friend, a community member, to suicide in my twenties, my survival and grief response deepened this intimate communication and empathy building pathway. Every being deserves to know that they can access safety and or pleasure just within their own bodily experience and in connection if they are social beings, such as we. One might philosophically argue that this is a personification of biology or a projection of humanitarian values onto others. In other words, that statement is assuming my personal belief system ought to apply to all of us humans; If so, I would counter that with the perspective that human beings’ role is as caretakers, of course for each other but also of our home, the Earth. This is our role that we may be evolving into, spiritual activism or actionable empathy, if we choose to adapt socially to technological globalization. To honor this sentiment with action, please join me in viewing the brand new documentary The Eternal Song, in Santa Cruz followed up by a Q&A and community conversation with the producers. Indigenous wisdom, reciprocity and a compassionate reminder that we ARE nature. Many hands make light work and when we gather we fortify our abilities to sit with all human emotions and metabolize them into loving action.
Somatics is another layer or tool within the emotional tool box that can be practiced to support us being mindful, present, and to cultivate space for fulfillment. The practice of somatics on an individual level is the creation of space for our authentic expression. The integration of somatics on a collective level is a pillar for creating a values and life-based society. I never decided to be a somatics counselor. I have organically been attracted to experiential based education over academia. Because practicing permaculture gave me a direct experience of caring for the environment more than sitting in a biology lab ever did. I have been devoted to my own wellness after surviving spinal fractures and living with serious chronic back pain since I was a teenager. I have been inspired to relieve pain in others by living with the grief of violent loss. After integrating psychedelics from my personal work into my professional work, I am committed to ethics in working with substances across a broad spectrum and making space for those with chemical dependency challenges. I am enraged at social ignorance around the harms of pharmaceuticals and negligence of the medical community in advocating for decriminalization of drugs. I am hopeful that in healing from the catastrophic harms caused by the war on drugs, we can all emerge on the other side in a world far more connected than we ever could have imagined before.
I never thought to be a counselor, my lived experiences organically brought me to these
moments of human connection.
Starting my counseling career, officially, via the Somatica® Institute, honing in on cutting edge relational and pleasure positive coaching, I am now exposing myself to education on the opposite side of the spectrum, chemical dependency counseling. This work is foundationally and largely less relational and requires care and boundaries in ways that honestly represent the gravity of the work. People’s lives are at stake and working in this field has already exposed me to loss of life and vicarious trauma in profound ways. As the spiral of time continues to unravel, and I see where I am at with my own personal development, I hope to articulate something very specific. Our primal responses around violence, whether turned inward as self-harm or outward such as intimate partner violence or harm to the Earth, are collectively screaming for attention and adaptation. If and when we might be experiencing overwhelm from information overload or pressures of modernity, may we fall back on this knowing that in the end, most problems have a common solution and that is Love. Love not as a feel good theoretical amorphous energy but, love as an action, love as a communication skill, love as boundaries and Love as a resource to tap into when we are tired. Slow down with me and let us cultivate this new love affirming culture one moment at a time.
In loving memory to those lost in our community and family in 2025. Thank you for blessing us with your love and care, may we continue on in peace, honoring your wisdoms. Wise elders, wisdom keepers, medicine maker, friend, and Mother.
Judah
Mercado
Patricia
Phantom
