Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
From Army PT to Psycho‑Spiritual Guide: Mary Richardson on Authentic Self and Modern Mystics
Suffering doesn’t have to be the story. Mary Richardson, founder of Evolve Healing Therapies, joins us to explore psycho-spiritual healing that blends compassionate inner work, integration, and a surprisingly practical path back to the authentic self. From her early career as an Army physical therapist to a life-changing motorcycle accident and a years-long recovery from TBI, Mary shares what happens when identity cracks—and how healing begins when we examine the beliefs we were taught to carry.
We dig into the nuts and bolts of metaphysical healing without the buzzwords: how childhood domestication seeds false narratives, why theta states create room for self-compassion, and how integration transforms insights into new habits, thoughts, and emotional patterns. Mary speaks candidly about legal, clinical experiences with ketamine, personal journeys with psilocybin and ayahuasca, and the misconceptions around “placebo.” Her take is both grounded and liberating: belief is a biological lever, safety is the catalyst, and clear practitioners help clients connect with their higher self—the loving witness that makes real change stick.
You’ll also hear about the people who benefit most from this work, how Mary reaches them online, and why she believes healing can be useful and even fun. We preview Acuity Collective, the group-learning venture she co-founded, with online classes and workshops designed to make integration a daily practice. If you’ve felt stuck in old patterns, curious about plant medicine, or tired of choosing between science and spirit, this conversation offers a balanced, compassionate way forward.
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This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of psycho-spiritual healing and therapy? One place might be closer than you think. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Mary Richardson, with Evolve Healing Therapies. Mary, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01:It's going great, Nick. Thank you. How about yourself?
SPEAKER_02:Did I say that right? Psycho-spiritual. Okay. Just I thought I screwed up at the last second. I'm doing great, actually. Um, this is this is always the highlight of my day. Uh tell us all about your your practice.
SPEAKER_01:So my practice, Evolve Healing Therapies. I'm the owner and sole practitioner. Um the I guess the objective of the practice is to help people to reconnect with their authentic self. Um when we're when we're kids and we and we're brought up and we're um what's the word? Well, when we're brought up. Sometimes sometimes we get faced with um beliefs about ourselves that aren't true. Um you know, we pick up things as we're going along, as we're being domesticated. There's the word I was looking for. So what I do is I is I try to help people find some of those beliefs, some of those things they're carrying around about themselves that aren't true, bring light of awareness to those things and um and and healing. And then I go a step further into the integration as well, because those things show up in our daily lives as habits, thoughts, emotions, whatever. And so I help them to identify those things and work through those as well.
SPEAKER_02:And how did you get into this line of work? Go back as far as you want.
SPEAKER_01:It's a it's it was it's been a twisty, windy road. Um so my professional life started out in the army. I was an active duty physical therapist, and of course, in that adventure, um watching how the body will actually heal itself if you give it the right set of circumstances. Um my my army career was was brought abruptly to a to a halt with a motorcycle accident. So I got to live through a lot of what I saw my patients live through, um, and realizing how physical injury really can affect you on so many different levels. And that that really spurred um my interest in in looking at how we engage with our world with our emotions and our thoughts. And through a few more twists and turns that led me to an interest in metaphysical things. And I ended up getting a second doctorate then in metaphysical um healing. And in the process of doing that, seeing that really where effective healing happens is when you get in and um and really look at the stuff that's driving you, you know, that that's driving the person. Um, and so that's where my my practice even has evolved. That's kind of how why I named it that. Um, so it evolves the person and it's allowed to evolve itself as well. So um, yeah, does that basically answer your question?
SPEAKER_02:I think so. Um I'm I'm actually really into this newly emerging, very ancient um uh practice of medicine that you're you're into. Um a lot of people don't realize this is not new age, it's it's older than than old. Um, it's just been suppressed and it's coming back out. Um, but that's just my my my opinion. And uh I are you mess are you messing around with the psilocybin then um in your therapy?
SPEAKER_01:Um messing around with I have experienced it. Um I mean um I do not sit as a facilitator. Um actually I live in Wyoming, so it's not legal here anyway. Um but I have gone out of state and and experienced it, um, which is which is actually a big part of my path. Um as I was healing from all the ciclele from the motorcycle thing, um, I did find psilocybin and um whew, talk about opening up one's consciousness, right? And um and yeah, so that was that was one of the one of the plant medicines that I've become acquainted with and um and has helped me a great deal on my personal journey.
SPEAKER_02:So what's one that we may not know about that um since psilocybin is kind of old hat now? Um, is there you know, I just interviewed somebody that was using ket ketamine.
SPEAKER_01:Ketamine is widely accepted now um in psych circles. So there's formal, you know, ketamine therapy in the clinic, uh, which is really interesting stuff. I have had the opportunity to experience that as well. Um I have I have been on several ayahuasca journeys, um, which is amazing, very different. Um, so yeah, it's it's um it's interesting how each of the medicines kind of helps you to look at yourself in a different way.
SPEAKER_02:Um I'm I'm gonna load up this next question because uh because like I said, I have a little bit of knowledge of of some of this stuff and I and I've got uh my own personal interests and questions. Um what what what are some myths or misconceptions in metaphysical healing? And and one that that I found was uh the the research into the the the pre-divinity of the soul and how um people that that that that get their um their certification in in hypnosis, they seem to all know about this textbook scientific methodology that seems to yield itself whenever any practitioner takes somebody to the theta state of consciousness and on any uh patient, uh they always seem to get this information that's otherworldly about the the pre-defined divine nature of the soul. So a lot of people think that that metaphysical healing is kind of like um placebo effect, it's not rooted in science. And can you talk to some of that?
SPEAKER_01:Sure, absolutely. Um, for first off, though, to address placebo effect, um even that has gotten a bad rap. Um you could take someone who has has never had a cold in their life and suggest to them that going to visit wherever they're going, they'll probably get a cold and they'll likely get a cold, just just because our mind is such a powerful thing and our belief is such a powerful thing. So so even with the even if you know if it even if something was rooted in placebo, it's not a bad thing. That being said, um metaphysical healing is psycho-spiritual in that there's a connection to spirit as it's happening with both the practitioner and the client. Um so with that connection to spirit, there really is a lot of available energy, um, and not not the little e energy, the big e stuff, um that you know can be brought to the client to to help to balance and to heal and and things like that. Um so for a for a practitioner, see to me this this work is just as important for practitioners as it is for you know somebody off the street doing some other job. Um because my my personal philosophy is the cleaner the vessel, the clearer the channel. So, you know, the more that we can work through our own things and come at it from an objective perspective and have that clear connection with spirit, the more that we can help out other people. And you're absolutely right. When I guide someone into that theta state, just amazing things happen. Um, one of the things that I always do is to help the client connect with their own loving self, and which connects to spirit. Um, and from that place, they're able to look at their junk, their muddy, icky yucky stuff from a loving perspective with grace and with compassion, instead of just going, oh man, I really that up, you know, and and judging themselves. And so from that place of grace and compassion, which happens when you're connected to your loving self or your higher self, um, you know, that's where that's where really true healing can happen, and and really seeing yourself for who you authentically are. Because we are in my belief structure, and part of the cornerstone of my work is that we are spiritual creatures having a having a physical experience, you know. So that's where I come from anyway.
SPEAKER_02:That's been my discovery as well in my 50 years of of digging deep. Um, so I appreciate that. How do you we know that marketing is the heart of every business, Mary? How do you digitally reach out to people to let them know what you do now? Who is your target market? Um you know, we all know the the people that the the average person that the the the the that that knows this kind of stuff, or we we picture in their in our mind who the average person that is always teaching us about these radical new forms of healing is in our lives or in our social structure. Um, but there's probably the everyday person that doesn't know about this that could greatly benefit from it. Who who are you, who's your demographic, and how are you reaching out to them now digitally?
SPEAKER_01:Typically, my my avatar, if you will, um is is someone who is at least interested in spiritually minded things, if not someone who's been you know on on some sort of spiritually opening path to begin with, because it does make it a little easier. Um most of my most of my marketing is actually through my website and some with social media as well.
SPEAKER_02:So nice. Have you ever thought about doing your own podcasts?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's been tickling around in my mind for a while.
SPEAKER_02:Did you know I was asked that question?
SPEAKER_01:I I I actually have listened to a couple of your uh previous recordings, so I was kind of anticipating it, but um, but yeah, it it's it's crossed my mind. I just haven't done anything about it yet.
SPEAKER_02:What do you do for fun when you're not um healing people?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I love the great outdoors. I I love being in the elements, feeling and and just interacting with all of them. I have I also have three dogs and a cat who take a lot of my time and attention and love them. And uh let's see, I love gardening. I actually really do enjoy playing Zelda games from time to time as well. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Interesting. Um, so you you kind of told us earlier about a hardship that you ran into with the motorcycle accident. Sounds like that. That was the big the big um um hurdle that you've had to overcome in in in this this quarter of your life, right?
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, oh yeah, it was huge. It ended my career, you know, it was it was devastating.
SPEAKER_02:Can you expand on that a little bit and tell us how it made you stronger? What what happened?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it made me stronger in every way possible. Um, it wrecked me. Um I had I had the the plan, as many military members do, of doing the full 20 years plus, you know, and retiring at a certain rank and all the stuff, right? And um, and yeah, so that that one moment really brought that abruptly to a halt. Um I I shattered one foot, which made running pretty much impossible for quite some time. Um but along with that, you know, because there was there was so much, I was so invested in my career path, you know, it really affected me on every level. Um and it wasn't until a few years later that I realized I'd been living in this, oh, woe is me victim mode, you know, for years. And um, and that's when I, you know, when I was introduced to psilocybin um as a medicine and um really had a had a huge shift from there. But but yeah, going through those few years, I I also had a traumatic brain injury with that. Uh wasn't severe, but it was enough that I could not connect to my own analytical ability, which is kind of essential for a physical therapist. Um, so I you know that took about three years to recover that. So, you know, it was it was it was huge and affected me on so many levels.
SPEAKER_02:Mary, what's one takeaway that people should should remember about this interview uh regarding evolve healing therapies?
SPEAKER_01:Hmm. That it's fun and it's useful, and there's absolutely no reason to live in suffering. There's there's ways out, and this is one of those ways. Um if if I can take a second to also plug my other business.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:I I am co-owner uh with two other psycho-spiritual therapists um of a company called Acuity Collective. Um, and we do similar work, um, not one-on-one though. We do it with groups. So we have some online classes and um live or online workshops that we're that we're putting together. So um yeah, big stuff, big stuff coming.
SPEAKER_02:Um is there a way for people to find those things now or is that coming later?
SPEAKER_01:Our our website is in the process of being developed. It's acuitycollective.net. Um, and our our first online class actually will launch in January. So I will I will definitely have information on that on my website as well.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, talk to us about your website and social media addresses and a phone number, if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_01:So website is www.evolve-heal h dot com. And that's also the email, Mary, at evolve-heal.com. And social, I'm on Facebook and Instagram, and it's at evolve.healing.therapies. Phone number, I'm up in Laramie. Um, so area code 307-369-6017.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome. Well, Mary, we really appreciate you being on the show, and we definitely wish you and Evolve Healing Therapies the very best moving forward.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Very happy to be here, and thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollins.com. That's gmpfortcollins.com or call 970 438 0825.