Healing What the System Couldn’t: PTSD and Plant Medicine w/ Dr Charlie Powell

In this week’s episode of In Search of More, I sit down with Dr. Charlie Powell — and this one really stayed with me.Charlie’s lived a life most people couldn’t make up. He started in biomedical engineering, then became a combat medic in the Gulf War, a trauma ER doctor, cosmetic surgeon, patent holder, successful businessman. From the outside, it looks like strength and success. But underneath it all, he was holding a lot — PTSD, exhaustion, and the emotional weight of everything he witnessed on the front lines.What I love about Charlie is that he didn’t just accept the system. He called bullshit. He saw how broken traditional medicine was — especially when it came to trauma and mental health — and went looking for more. He ended up diving into plant medicine, psychedelics, and all kinds of alternative healing. Not because it was trendy. Because nothing else worked.We talked about forgiveness, about parenting, about how even addiction and pain can become teachers if you’re willing to stop running and actually feel. This episode is a reminder that healing isn’t about fixing what’s broken — it’s about facing what hurts, and letting it teach you who you really are.Later in the episode, Charlie opens up about a documentary he’s working on called Healing Heroes: No Mind Left Behind. It started small — just him trying to connect with a few vets — but it’s grown into this beautiful, raw look at what it really means to carry trauma and still choose life. The film is all about veterans and first responders finding healing through connection, conversation, and yes, psychedelics. But most of all, it’s about not doing it alone.If you’ve ever felt like your pain isolates you, like no one could understand — this one’s for you. It’s a call to stop hiding and start healing.See you on the other side,Eli