Pathways to Freedom

Carley, my name, means Free Woman, which is fitting because my goal in this lifetime is to liberate myself and be completely free. However, I do not want to do this alone. My work involves helping others liberate themselves through sharing my own experiences. I am very passionate about creating spaces and communities where people can come together and heal through connection, storytelling, and mutual support. I currently do this through Instagram, but I would love to have a larger community and a wider audience. My goal is to write books, have a podcast, publish a newsletter, and create a forum where people can connect consciously.

I am currently writing a book about my journey to liberation that involves my struggle with depression and suicidal ideation, coping through drugs, alcohol, and sex, and healing through a wide variety of modalities. In my writing, I am ruthlessly honest about myself, my past. I have spent years getting to know my shadow, my dark side, and I can now be my whole self with others. This ability to tell the truth about my life and my experiences allows others to connect with me. I also care deeply about other people, and that is very evident in my online presence. My goal is to be my most authentic self, which is very liberating. However, I also want to inspire others to be their most authentic selves, pursue their passions, and love themselves.

I plan to do this by sharing stories about my struggles in relationships and with mental illness. I also plan to share my experiences with different healing modalities from traditional talk therapy to psychedelics. I think the most important things we can do to free ourselves involve healing from trauma, breaking down conditioning, and finding communities where we can heal with others. There are so many systematic issues that are slowly changing, but what do I have the ability to transform right now? That’s where my power lies, in the things that I can change. That is where I do my work in healing and transformation. From this prompt, this space, I feel that I can truly heal and free myself.

As Nina Simone puts it, “Freedom is no fear.” My process of breaking down my fear has included diving deep into meditation and spiritual growth, through ten-day silent retreats and finding my own version of a higher power, writing about my sexual and romantic experiences as honestly as possible so that I can see the areas in which I still need to grow, and doing the work to educate myself, from reading self-help books and studying Psychology to listening to the lived experiences of others. I have also spent time as a guide in a treatment center for young men struggling with substance abuse and mental illness, and I have been involved in research that studies the impact of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My array of personal and professional experience has given me a wider view of healing that encompasses ways that we can heal mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

I want to know what freedom means to others. I want to know how they can achieve that freedom. I want to be someone who supports them in this process and heals alongside them. I feel very strongly that we need more spaces to be our true selves and support one another. I am doing this in my own community, but I also have a vision of having a much larger community. Having support to pursue my passions and sharing my voice would allow me to do this. It would also allow me to be even freer.