Microdosing for Kids + Fur-Babies?

“I have a confession to make,” she said, leaning into the computer screen. Sheepishly, she went on: “I’m actually here for my son. He’s 16 and really struggling, and I thought microdosing might help.”

I’ve had so many initial sessions like this - particularly over the last two years - and today I wanted to take a moment to share my experience around microdosing for kids & pets. While clients often seem reluctant to admit they’re coming to practice on behalf of their child, I love to begin these experiences by reassuring, recognizing - even celebrating - the fact they are attuned so well to their child to recognize they are struggling. It’s wonderful they are stepping beyond their own experience or comfort zone to explore, inspiring that they care so much in this hectic world to center the needs of their child and learn all they can about options.

My approach when it comes to microdosing and children under 18 is to first invite the parents into a microdosing experience primarily and initially for themselves; many of the participants in my microdosing immersions were there for themselves, but also partly there to learn if this might be supportive for their kids. In my witnessing, cultivating a strong personal relationship and experience with sacred earth medicines is the very best way for parents to learn about microdosing and enable them to support their children in practice if it feels aligned.

I also love to share with parents that - as soon as YOU begin microdosing - your family (pets, included!) is already participating in the practice, simply by being in relationship with you and living under the same roof. As soon as you begin working with earth medicines, your energy begins to change… and as your energy and frequency change, your health, perspective, mood, emotions and relationships shift as well. Just simply by being in your presence, your children and pets are ‘microdosing by proxy’ and benefiting from the practice as well.

Remember the dangers of second-hand smoking?? Think of this as second-hand magic!

We powerfully underestimate the role of energy and frequency in our health and healing, and the role environment - the energy of our partners and the people around us - positively influences (or detracts from) our ability to heal and grow. As a parent, your personal energy deeply influences the energy of your children — this is why it’s so important to honor the role your own vibrant health, mindset, regulated nervous system, and happiness influence and guide your entire family constellation.

Once a parent has a solid, trusted and embodied relationship with the medicine, I support them in deciding - in collaboration with their child - when to introduce microdosing, always allowing the parent and child to lead in their decision-making around practice. Dosing is almost always at a significantly lower amount than an adult dose, and also less frequently. In my witnessing, lower dosing is almost always successful I believe, in part, because children are naturally so spiritually and cognitively open and “bendy.” Children hold less conditioning, carry less density, are naturally connected to their bodies, and - especially for the children raised in safe & loving environments - possess less layers of resistance, connecting gracefully with the medicine at very tiny amounts.

How many of us as children could spend literally hours upon hours happily immersed in nature?? Happily exploring, ever curious, discovering an entire world in a vegetable patch or open field??

Children are still so close to nature, close to themselves, close to their souls… For children, reconnecting with nature seems to come so much more readily, easefully and naturally than adults.

The other element I love to share with parents is that your kids and pets will often respond and notice the effects of your microdosing ritual even before you do. Why? Because they are so much more sensitive than us! Children - especially neurodivergent, sensitive and/or autistic children - babies and pets have clearer instincts, truer reflexes, and greater attunement to energy than the majority of adults. I’ve had so many cases where the adult reported “not much happening” with microdosing until their kids one day out of the blue ask them: “Dad, has something changed? You seem happier,” or “Mom, thank you for listening to me, you’ve been really listening to me a lot more lately.”

Pets. too, often respond to your shift in resonance once you begin microdosing — animals are so incredibly gifted when it comes to energy - they can feel us so much more than we realize! Many clients report remarkable shifts in their relationship and connection to their pets once they start practice. Their animals become more affectionate and closer, suddenly wanting to be beside you, or starting to take their naps in your favorite spots in the house. As we shed and release dense frequencies of fear, animals notice and respond - they have evolved to notice - and their incredible innate instincts register more safety, more coherence, more love.

My writing this week was inspired by one of my favorite new clients, Teddy. Teddy is a Havanese, and last fall his human mom came to microdosing - in part - to explore if it might help his frequent and worrisome seizures. Here is her report, five months later:

"Teddy is doing WONDERFUL!!!! His last seizure was October 7th!!!! He has had a couple of spatial episodes that have not developed further. Before he started microdosing he was having seizures a few times a week, and in clusters before he started. And he would go about 2-3 weeks between another episode. So this is HUGE!!!!

I am so grateful for you and what you teach, and that you came into my life with this information.  He's playful and acting as he did before any of this started."

Go Teddy, go! Just as with children, I think animals have such a capacity to heal and connect with earth medicine so rapidly, and a little bit is all it takes…

How do we determine dosing, you may wonder?? To borrow Jim Fadiman’s guidance, we’re always seeking to find the ‘lowest effective dose.’ So we may begin with as little as 5mg or 10mg just once or twice a week, and see how it goes for a few weeks. Especially when working with beings so close to their spirits, so close to the earth and other realms, shifts and healing really can happen quite fast with remarkably small doses.

And remember, microdosing is very different than pharmaceutical medications in that the child or pet will not need to continue microdosing on a regular basis to maintain the healing they experience. Because the young and animals are so open, it’s reasonable to conclude their healing may happen even faster than adults will… and they may only need to microdose a very short time to receive incredible benefits and lasting healing.

Is microdosing safe for children and animals??

I get this question far more often when people are thinking about microdosing with their kids or pets than I do with adults practicing for themselves - LOL. It makes sense! The more we love someone or something, the more we want to take care and protect them with guarantees and certainty. First of all, psilocybin is one of the SAFEST substances you will find in nature, and definitely safer than most of the substances you will find in any medicine cabinet. Psilocybin is non-addictive, non-habit forming, there is no uncomfortable ramp-up or withdrawal off period, has little-to-no adverse side-effects, and is entirely natural. Knowing your source is important - with any client of any age, knowing your medicine was grown & sourced in love and integrity is a vital part of the experience.

As someone who healed her own grand mal seizure disorder with microdosing, I can totally relate to parent’s concerns when starting out, as I had the same concerns, too! By nature I’m a very cautious person, and I hesitated ‘altering’ my already highly sensitive, unpredictable mind with psychedelics — I, too started very slow and very low with my dose. Today, many years later, I hold such a respect and unwavering trust in the medicine - earned over many minutes, hours, days and years - that, held respectfully, I personally trust nature far more than I trust most humans. I have come to believe, and continue to believe, nature’s medicines bless us with healing, wisdom, intelligence and codes to assist in our evolution.

When working with the parents of kids and fur-babies, I honor their own cadence, path & pace and support their readiness to explore, mindfully, in their own timing. I encourage them to connect with other people practicing, as in my experience hearing and witnessing the experience of others is often a powerful way to ignite your own inner knowing. Practicing with mushrooms is less a ‘medical intervention’ and more of a gentle ally for one’s spirit — the more close to the surface, the more connected one already is to their soul, to themselves and the earth, the more readily natural medicines can clear incoherence, heal and accompany us back into wholeness.

Have you practiced microdosing with your children or pets?? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out hello@microdosingforhealing.com to share your experience.