The Diamonds Are in the Darkness

Episode 22 of Wellness Me Up — Wellness Me Up Diary Entry
with Plant Medicine & Healing Guide Danae Jensen

Written and hosted by Amanda Reece, founder of Wellness Me Up.

Danae Jensen is a plant medicine and healing guide based on Quadra Island BC. She has watched people crawl into ceremony at their lowest and walk out realizing their life is actually pretty amazing. Plant is going to show you what it needs to show you. And the diamonds are always in the darkness.

A quick note before we dive in. This episode was recorded from my car — digital nomad life in full effect — and my video wasn't catching up with my audio. Danae came through beautifully and clearly. I did not. I added a disclaimer on the episode itself so you know what you're getting into. I also want to point out that Danae is a plant medicine guide and healer. And my technology went sideways. You truly cannot predict what is going to happen. The synchronicities write themselves.

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Who Is Danae Jensen?

Danae Jensen is a plant medicine and healing guide, hypnotherapist, and psychedelic assisted therapy facilitator based on Quadra Island off the coast of Campbell River on northern Vancouver Island BC. She works with people from all over the world — three weeks of preparation virtually, then they come to her on the island for three nights to journey, then integration work continues after they go home.

She suffered from depression for about twenty years of her life. She knows what the pit of despair feels like from the inside. And she has dedicated her work to helping people rise out of it — and then keep going higher.

I felt calmer the moment I heard her voice. Which tells you everything.

Falling Apart Is Actually a Wonderful Sign

This was the first thing Danae said that lit my brain up.

Most people who find their way to her door show up saying the same thing. I don't know what's wrong. I don't know what I need. Something has to change. I can't take this anymore.

And Danae says... wonderful.

Because healing happens right now. In this moment. Not after you've figured everything out or found the right words or gotten your shit together. Right here. Right now. Whatever is falling apart is falling apart for a reason. And leaning into that — following the thread instead of pulling away from it — is exactly where the work begins.

I get excited when things fall apart for people too. Not because I want them to suffer but because I can see what's on the other side of it. I refer to it as the demolition before the rebuild. Something has to come down before something better can go up. And that excitement is not insensitivity. It's just someone who has seen enough rebuilds to know what's coming.

You Can't Beat Plant. It's Going to Show You What It Needs to Show You.

This is the thing I want anyone curious about plant medicine to really hear.

You cannot control a journey. You cannot predict it. You cannot script it or plan your way through it or decide in advance what you're going to learn. Plant is going to show you what it needs to show you whether you think you're ready or not.

I did one journey with psilocybin a few years ago at a guided retreat. And I learned more about myself in that one experience than I had in almost my entire life. I am still doing integration work from that journey. Things come up in conversations — like they did in the podcast I recorded just hours before this one — and I trace them straight back to what I saw and felt that day.

It was magical. It was messy. It was heartbreaking and hilarious and overwhelming and clarifying all at once. I saw versions of myself I didn't want to see. I saw the ways I was perpetuating the same darkness I was judging other people for. I saw how much I was trying to fix and glue and control.

And then I found my lit up room inside the dark house. And my friend showed up with the water bottle I was looking for. And we got shushed by the facilitators for laughing too loud while other people were crying.

You genuinely cannot make this stuff up.

The Diamonds Are in the Darkness

This is the line from this episode that I keep coming back to.

Danae shared a story about a client who went immediately into darkness when her journey began. Like immediately. Scared. Facing what felt like a Christian hell. Terrified of what might be down there.

And Danae held her hand. Literally. And said I can see in the dark. I move like water in the dark. You're safe.

And they went in together. And what they found in the darkness was a child part of this woman that had been banished down there — scared and alone — for a very long time. And they brought her back up. Reintegrated her. Made her whole again.

That's what's in the darkness. Not just the scary stuff. The lost parts of you. The answers. The treasure.

The diamonds are always in the darkness. You just need someone who can see down there to help you find them.

Laughter Is the Real Turning Point

Something Danae said that I want to make sure lands.

People come into ceremony crying. And that's healing. Absolutely.

But when the laughter comes? That's when the real change happens.

Because laughter is reframing. It's rewiring. It's the moment someone says something terrible about themselves — I'm such a bad person, I'm so broken, I'll never change — and Danae gets to say... but is that actually true? And they look at it from the outside for the first time and they start laughing because it sounds so ridiculous. And in that moment the limiting belief just... dissolves.

You can laugh it away. You can actually just laugh it away.

I have experienced this too. The moment you hear your own programming out loud and think oh my god is that actually what's been running in the background this whole time? And it's so absurd that all you can do is laugh. And then it's gone.

Three Weeks Before. Three Nights on the Island. Integration After.

For anyone wondering how working with Danae actually works — here's the process.

She created a hypnosis journey called the True Reflections Hypnosis Journey. For three weeks before coming to the island you listen to recorded hypnosis tracks of her voice preparing you for ceremony. You learn to relax deeply. You learn to trust your body. You begin excavating things and bringing them to the surface.

By the time you arrive you already know her voice. You already trust it. You've already begun to access your inner light so that when the darkness comes up — and it will — you have something to meet it with.

Then three nights on Quadra Island for the ceremony itself. Then you go home and integration continues virtually.

The preparation matters. The journey matters. And the integration after matters just as much as both of them combined.

What I Shared — And Why I'm Still Unpacking It

I opened up in this conversation about my own journey with plant a few years ago. And about the fact that I'm sober now and genuinely curious about doing another journey but not sure how that intersects with sobriety.

I don't have a clean answer for that yet. But I shared it because I know other people are sitting with the same question. And because plant showed me so much the first time — about the addictive behaviors I was perpetuating, about the fixing and the controlling and the gluing — that I want to keep learning from it.

I also talked about Vancouver Island and what it does to people. The magic of it. The otters in a circle just living their best lives on a boat tour near Tofino. And there are definitely unicorns. Don't believe me? Listen to this pod for the proof lol. But basically I decided I am going to get my ass back out there as soon as possible.

Danae is on Quadra Island. I told her I'm coming. I meant it.

The WTF Wheel Question: What's the Dumbest Thing That Made You Cry Recently?

Danae cried to a song. Every single morning.

It's called Golden Child by Jennifer Pereira — who also happened to be Danae's own psychedelic guide. She listens to it every morning as part of her routine. And yesterday morning she cried because it reminded her that she was designed for this work since birth. That it's hard. And that she shows up for it anyway because she is devoted to the unfolding of this life.

That is not a dumb reason to cry. That is actually a beautiful reason to cry.

I told her I have got to find this song. I meant that too.

What Wellness Me Up Means to Danae

Rising out of the pit. And then going further.

She said she spent twenty years in depression. She knows what the pit of despair feels like from the inside. And Wellness Me Up to her is that journey from the depths of that pit up to level ground and then higher and higher and higher into joy and fulfillment and even bliss.

How high can we go. How bright can we be.

Let's take each other's hands and rise.

I will absolutely cry about this at some point today. I am such a crybaby and I am not even a little sorry about it.

Want to work with Danae?
Danae Jensen is a plant medicine and healing guide and hypnotherapist based on Quadra Island BC offering psychedelic assisted therapy, preparation support, and integration work for people stepping into deep healing. She works with people from all over the world.

👉 ecosophywellness.com
🎧 Free training: The Preparation Gap — Seven Myths That Undermine Your Psychedelic Healing
📅 Coming soon: Before the Medicine — a preparation program for anyone stepping into deep healing

And if you want her tea she was sipping on?? Her tea biz is Soulful Sips: www.soulsips.ca. She’s in 3 shops in Ontario!

If this one made something stir in you... that's the thread. Follow it. And subscribe to Wellness Me Up wherever you listen.

🎧 Listen to the episode here:

▶️ Watch on YouTube
🎵 Listen on Spotify
🌍 Listen on Your Favourite App