Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Blackburn.
Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2005, I started working for Jeffco Public Schools as a science teacher and eventually transitioned to school counseling in 2014. Along the way, I discovered yoga as a way to manage the stress of working in public eucation. This also opened up a different way of understanding mental health and the mind-body connection. I got my intital yoga teaching certification in 2007, and eventually became a 500-hour certified yoga teacher and begin leading healing retreats.
My own experiences with psilocybin combined with the research I had read about how psychedelics could support mental health ultimately inspired me to pursue training and licensure as a natural medicine facilitator in both Oregon and Colorado. It felt like a natural extension of everything I’d been doing for years, bringing together my background in mental health, my understanding of how trauma is processed in the body, and my belief in continuous personal growth.
Today, I continue to work part-time in public education while growing Inner MAP Project, where I offer natural medicine facilitation, yoga, retreats, and opportunities for people to reconnect with themselves, nature, and one another.
At the heart of everything I do is a belief that healing isn’t about fixing something that’s broken. It’s about creating the conditions for people to reconnect with their own inner wisdom, and for them to be open and vulnerable in a safe community. I see my own journey as an ongoing process of learning and finding new ways to bring all of different parts of myself to my work.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Starting a business has definitely had ups and downs. One of the biggest challenges for me has been realizing that while I absolutely love the work I do, I don’t necessarily love the “business part” of running a business. I love connecting with people, creating meaningful experiences, and holding space for others, but marketing and self-promotion don’t come naturally to me.
I’ve particularly struggled with the expectation that being an entrepreneur means having a constant presence on social media. I find that social media can pull me into a cycle of comparison and feeling like I should always be doing more, which is pretty much the opposite of what I’m trying to cultivate in my own life and through my work. So I’ve made a conscious decision to step away from social media as much as possible and focus more on authentic connections and building community in real life.
Luckily, my business is a side project since I still work in public education part time. This allows me to keep my business small and not stress too much if things are quiet for a while. As you might imagine, things are never quiet in public schools! So this balance is working well for me at the moment.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Right now, I am primarily specializing in natural medicine retreats in Colorado and Oregon. I love bringing people together in community to support each other through the healing process. As my dear friend and co-facilitator Sarah says “The circle is the medicine.” So often, we are wounded in relationships so what better way to heal than by coming together in a supportive community? Working in education has given me the skills to help facilitate groups for adults, and this is something I am really proud of and that I think sets me apart from other facilitators who focus on working with people individually. A group journey is not for everyone, but when it is the right fit, it can be a truly transformative experience.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think working in the Natural Medicine space is a risk. This is a new field that is still emerging and changing. We are building the plane as we are flying it, so to speak! For so long, using Natural Medicine for healing was seen as taboo. With the research in recent years coming out of Johns Hopkins and the release of Michael Pollan’s book “How to Change Your Mind”, people have started to recognize the validity of natural medicine as a way to heal. I find it exciting to be a small part of this paradigm shift and hope that the work we are doing in Colorado will eventually lead to more people having access to these medicines.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.innermapproject.com
- Instagram: @innermapproject
