Aging to Saging: Can Psychedelics Help Women Find Themselves Again

🎙️Carrie On!

What if the woman you’re trying so hard to become isn’t someone new at all?

What if she’s the woman who was there before the world told her to be quieter, nicer, smaller—and definitely not too much?

In this episode of Carrie On!, I sit down with Heather A. Lee, a licensed clinical social worker, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, and natural medicines facilitator who has spent more than 30 years working in women’s mental health.

And yes—we’re talking about mushrooms. 🍄

But this conversation is about so much more than psychedelics.

Heather and I dig into what happens when women reach midlife and start questioning the stories they’ve been carrying for decades: Don’t be bossy. Don’t be too loud. Be accommodating. Take care of everyone else first.

Heather calls these the messages women have been metaphorically “dosed” with our entire lives.

We talk about how psychedelic-assisted therapy may help some women quiet those old narratives, reconnect with their intuition, process grief and trauma, and rediscover the parts of themselves they may have tucked away while being mothers, partners, caregivers, professionals, and everything else the world needed them to be.

And Heather introduces one of my new favorite ideas:

We’re not just aging. We’re SAGING.

Because maybe getting older isn’t about becoming smaller.

Maybe this is the age when we finally become more ourselves.

✨ IN THIS EPISODE

We talk about:

• Why Heather believes our own inner wisdom can be one of our greatest resources
• Moving from “aging” to “saging”
• Why women are still apologizing for being loud, ambitious, bossy, selfish, or “too much”
• The identity shift that can happen after motherhood, divorce, loss, caregiving, or an empty nest
• What psychedelic-assisted therapy actually looks like
• How Heather went from traditional psychotherapy to working with psilocybin
• What the brain’s “default mode network” has to do with the stories we tell ourselves
• The messages women are metaphorically “dosed” with throughout their lives
• Why midlife can become a homecoming to your authentic self
• Psychedelic retreats, female community, and finding your “soul sisters”
• The importance of screening, preparation, integration, and qualified mental-health professionals
• A remarkable story about grief, a mother, and the word forgive
• Why Heather says psychedelic work should never be treated as a quick fix

💥 CARRIE ON TAKEAWAY

We spend so much of our lives becoming who everyone else needs us to be.

The good daughter. The good wife. The good mother. The caretaker. The agreeable woman. The woman who doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

But there comes a point when you get to ask:

Which parts of this are actually me—and which parts were handed to me?

Maybe reinvention isn’t about creating a brand-new woman.

Maybe it’s about finally giving the original one the microphone.

💜 CARRIE ON!

Carrie On! is the web series and podcast for women navigating reinvention, self-discovery, empowerment, and all the beautifully complicated stuff that happens before, during, and after midlife.

Because we’re not here to quietly disappear.

We refuse to be muted.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify ▶️ Watch and subscribe on YouTube

And as always…

Keep your head above the chaos and Carrie On!