Founder of Row and Release: Makenzie Darling
How Did I Get Here? Let’s Get Personal…
From a young age, I recognized the deep cycles of alcoholism, codependency, emotional neglect, and gaslighting that ran deep within my family. At just nine years old, I started walking dogs to pay for my own therapy. When asked why, I simply said, “Because it ends with me.” Even then, I understood that I was meant to be the light of my lineage…a cycle breaker, healing generational wounds and creating space for transformation.
As the emotional caretaker of my family, I spent my childhood trying to save my mother from addiction and mediate my parents’ dysfunction. Many called me an “old soul,” not realizing that I had been parentified, forced to navigate the chaos of emotionally absent adults at the cost of my own childhood.
My family’s wealth masked profound emotional neglect…ski condos, boats, and extravagant travel could never replace the love and support I desperately needed. When I asked for emotional connection, I was told I was “too sensitive” or to “just get over it.”The neglect ran so deep that I went to bed twice with broken bones, my pain dismissed and unseen.
When my parents lost everything in the real estate crash of 2008, their sense of self crumbled with it. They poured their remaining hope into a pyramid scheme, convinced that Iraqi dinars would soon make them rich. Every weekend, they toured mansions they planned to buy with their imaginary fortune. When I tried to ground them in reality, they accused me of “crushing their hope.” The weight of their delusion became unbearable.
At the same time, my father—25 years my mother’s senior—was rapidly declining from Alzheimer’s, while my mother’s alcoholism left her in a dementia-like state. The two were incapable of caring for one another, and the fear of them burning the house down became a real concern.
Amidst this chaos, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. I spent five years, exhausting every resource I had, searching for a cure. That journey opened my eyes to how deeply broken our modern healthcare system is, a system that profits off suffering rather than healing.
A former “just say no to drugs” advocate, I never imagined my path would lead me to psychedelic medicine. But after exhausting all conventional options, I traveled to the Amazon jungle to work with indigenous healers and plant medicine, seeking a cure for my mysterious illness. There, I began unraveling the ancestral traumas and burdens that had drained me for years.
Meanwhile, my family’s story continued to unravel. Social services intervened, removing my father due to elder abuse. My mother was left homeless, eventually checking herself into a halfway house. Four months later, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. During this profound time, I focused on two things: sitting with the medicine and writing a living eulogy to my mother—a testament to love beyond dysfunction. Within several months, she passed. Five months after her, my father transitioned as well.
Driven to process my grief and deepen my understanding, I embarked on a two-year seminary training program to become an Entheogenic Minister, immersing myself in the study of sacred medicine and spiritual leadership. My journey took me across the world, where I worked with indigenous tribes, learning their ancestral wisdom, healing practices, and diverse perspectives on family, belonging, and community. I also became a certified Enneagram facilitator, recognizing how profoundly this tool had guided my own spiritual transformation and how it could be used to help others break unconscious generational patterns.
In the wake of my parents’ passing, I began opening myself to the unseen world and found a support system that I had never before felt. This path allowed me to mend relationships once thought beyond repair, bridging the gap between past and present. I immersed myself deeply in ancestral healing and grief ritual, and soon after, I returned home to walk the sacred lands of my lineage…honoring the ancestors who had paved the way for me.
Through my work, I now guide others on their transformational journeys…helping them break free from generational trauma and reclaim their lineage. Today, I hold a deeper connection with my parents than ever before, not in the physical realm, but in the energetic space of healing and remembrance. I offer you this same possibility…the chance to heal, to reclaim your power, and to rediscover the love that has always been yours.
From my heart to yours…welcome.
Continuing Education
Integrative IEQ9 Enneagram Certification
Internal Family Systems informed through Self Capacities Training Program
Hakomi Principles Training
The Congregation for Sacred Practices (2 year seminary school)
Ancestors and Cultural Healing Training through Ancestral Medicine
Francis Weller’s - Entering the Healing Ground: Grief Ritual Leadership Training
Pilgrimage to the Amazon to work with Shipibo healers
Natured Based Expressive Arts Therapy through CIIS
Embody Lab Somatic Trauma Therapy Certification
Mexican pilgrimage to work with a Zapotec family hosting ninos ceremonies
Studied with Grace Alvarez Sesma around Día de los Muertos and Honoring Ancestors
Masterclass for Healers with Dr. Gabor Maté through wholehearted.org
Ancestral Lineage Healing Training through Ancestral Medicine
Thomas Hubl’s Five Month Ancestral Healing Code Intensive
