About
How I got here
I was born and raised in Pheonix Arizona. I have three amazing boys and a wife that I love dearly. In 2004, I began a 20-year career with the Glendale Fire Department. That in itself was a journey. While I had a career that was riddled with traumatic calls, I seemed to be very good at disconnecting from the emotion and getting the work done that needed to be done. I really did not think that the calls I was going on were making an impact on me. In 2020 something changed. My family started going through a traumatic event. Suddenly the weight of the gravity of the situation seemed too heavy. Unsure of what to do, I opened up to my wife about how I was feeling, and she suggested I find a professional to talk to. After asking a couple trusted friends of the fire department I found a counselor. She helped me to discover the mental and emotional health world and its importance throughout my life.
Mark Herrmann
Psychedelic Journey Coach
Integrative & Life Coach
With my curiosity peaked I decided to do some research. I stumbled upon some articles about psychedelics and some possible mental health benefits. I dove deeper into research and documentaries to try to widen my knowledge on the subject. After careful consideration I decided that I wanted to try psilocybin. I started with a couple small doses. They did not result in much other than a pleasant fun time with mild hallucinogenic effects, but I wanted the big experience that I had read about. That lead me to Sedona in 2022. I had an experience in Sedona that was simply life changing.
I have had the privilege to look at life differently since then. I have been able to invite emotions and deeper self and social connection back into my life. But it also opened my eyes to how much all the trauma that I had been exposed to has affected me, not just mentally but physically too. I wanted to dive into all the past emotions that had been waiting for me, but unfortunately a new family trauma transpired. My newfound sense of "peace" began fading. Meanwhile I had been trying my best to use integrative practices in my daily life to help me cope. As I started to get to know people in this wellbeing space, I met someone that owner a ketamine clinic. After learning about the benefits of that psychedelic, I decided to give it a try.
As the weeks progressed with treatment and integrative work, I noticed my life was changing. I was becoming more aware of my actions and reactions. I began forming more healthy habits in my everyday life as well as healthier reactions and emotions. My relationship with my wife became closer and more understanding with one another. My children and I communicated better, and our bond strengthened. I started to look at my life differently. My "dream" job as a firefighter started to lose the lure of excitement it once gave me and became a viewpoint into people's lives and society. I was allowing myself to be a part of my community and their pain and struggle had become something I was all too familiar with. My 20-year anniversary with the fire department was approaching and I was not just thinking about retirement, I started to plan for it.
While my first experience with Ketamine was not as impactful as my second, I still had a couple journeys that spawned profound thought and one with a specific vision. Not knowing what the image in my vision was, I decided to research it on the internet. The vision was of Mother Aya, the goddess associated with the psychedelic ayahuasca. When I looked up what this could mean I found it may be that she is calling you to experience the medicine ayahuasca. I was intrigued but had no idea how to go about finding a trusted retreat center or guide for ayahuasca. I decided that if it was something that needed to be in my path, the opportunities would present themselves. As fate would have it, or perhaps manifestation, about a month later a friend told me that he heard of an organization that offers scholarships for fire fighters to attend mental health psychedelic retreats. That lead me to Peru in 2024.
My experience in Peru was nothing short of amazing. I had the privilege of working with highly experienced local plant medicine guides. I spent 10 days with nine strangers sharing life's challenges and traumas. Being a part of that helped me to better understand the importance of community healing. Together we would harvest ingredients for the plant medicine ceremony from the land, and then most evenings a plant medicine ceremony took place and the other nights allowed us to rest and recover.
As my retirement date loomed closer, I began to really question what I saw myself doing outside of the fire department. I looked into teaching and training future firefighters. I looked into working for an ambulance company and even back to what I did before the fire department, construction. The thought of doing something on a daily basis that did not create a true passion within me felt mundane and unfulfilling. As I kept these thoughts in my head, I started getting people around me exited and curious about their own mental health. I found it fun and exciting to help others find more balance, understanding, and happiness in their life. I was honored when those I had helped let me know that what I did made a big difference in their lives. It all came together. This was my new passion.
Again, as fate would have it, but let's face it I was definitely manifesting some life synchronicities at this point, a friend introduced me to a doctor that owned a Ketamine assisted clinic in Scottsdale, Sandy Inderule with inLIGHTen Wellness. Sandy and I instantly felt called to work with one another. Since working more with Ketamine, my knowledge and respect for its ability to create powerful and positive changes to the brain has grown immensely. However, I am always learning and growing and trying to expand in my growth to the best of my abilities.
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