Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyés Discusses Healing Ways of Natural Medicine

Curious about Colorado's new psychedelics rules? Tonight, April 11, at the Mercury Cafe, Westword News, Cannabis & Psychedelics Editor Thomas Mitchell will host a panel of experts who will discuss what we can expect as the Colorado Legislature and state agencies grapple with the ramifications of Proposition 122, passed by voters in November 2022.

But first, a very special guest will offer an introduction to the topic: Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyés.

A member of Governor Jared Polis's Natural Medicine Advisory Board, Dr. Estés is a psychoanalyst and post-trauma recovery specialist with over five decades of experience, and has been a first responder in post-trauma at many disaster sites during that time.

As a young healer/helper and student of curanderismo, she learned from her immersion in twelve different Indigenous groups in Mezo and South America about the power of natural medicine. She successfully helped to petition the Library of Congress and the International Psychoanalytical Association to begin to categorize "healing ways belonging to the people" in respectful terms, and begin calling them "medicine" and other respectful and accurate designations.

Before being appointed to the Natural Medicine Advisory Board, she was appointed by two Colorado governors to what was then called the Colorado State Grievance Board for Mental Health Professions, where she handled grievances for thirteen years, including as chair.

Her first book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, was written over a span of twenty years while Dr. Estés was raising children and going to school. The manuscript was rejected 42 times before it was finally published and became an international sensation, battling for first place on the New York Times bestseller list with another well-known author, Rush Limbaugh, before finally knocking him out of the top spot for sixteen weeks. As a result, she may have been the first person Limbaugh called a "feminazi."

But that wasn't her first writing triumph: Westword first became acquainted with Dr. Estés when she won a fiction-writing contest that was hosted four decades ago! 

We look forward to continuing our conversation with her tonight.

The event will run from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street, and attendance is limited to Westword members. But it's not too late to join! Become a member to join us. Already a member? Keep an eye on your inbox for the RSVP.