Wendi Rees: From Trauma to Triumph Through Faith

From Victim to Victor: Wendi Rees on Faith, Trauma, and Unexpected Paths to Healing

What if the tools for healing were already placed within God’s creation? And what if the journey toward restoration could be both deeply spiritual and profoundly transformative?
This week’s Team Never Quit Podcast guest, Wendi Rees, is an author, speaker, and podcast host who brings a powerful testimony of faith, resilience, and healing. In her new book, The Christian’s Guide to Psychedelics: Finding Hope and Healing Through God’s Creation, Wendi explores a thoughtful and faith-centered perspective on the role certain substances—such as Ibogaine, Psilocybin, MDMA, and Ketamine—may play in addressing trauma, addiction, and depression.
But at the heart of Wendi’s story is not a substance—it’s Jesus Christ.
A survivor of childhood sexual abuse beginning at age 11, Wendi spent decades wrestling with the lasting effects of trauma, shame, and identity. Through faith, prayer, and a long journey of surrender, she discovered a powerful truth: the Bible does not define believers as victims, but as victors through Christ.
In this deeply honest conversation, Wendi shares how learning to see herself through God’s eyes rather than the lens of trauma became a turning point in her life. She opens up about the difficulty of trusting others after abuse, the challenge of releasing burdens to God, and the transformative power of understanding the unconditional love of the Father.
Wendi explains that her work and writing are not about promoting psychedelics—but about exploring whether some of God’s creations, when approached prayerfully and responsibly, might serve as tools that point people back to the ultimate source of healing: Jesus.
Today, she helps individuals and groups walk through journeys of resilience, faith, and holistic wellness—encouraging people to move from pain toward restoration and from victimhood to victory.

In this episode you will hear:
• I grew up believing: drinking, drugs, and anything sexual was a one-way ticket to hell. (9:25) 
• When we moved to Texas, I was shocked to find out that not only were my parents getting divorced, but this other couple from our church was also getting divorced, and my dad was marrying her, and my mom was marrying him. So, they just swapped partners. (9:55)
• Being the oldest kid, I provided the most sermon examples. (13:45)
• Our corporal punishment, today would be [considered] child abuse. (14:01)
• This was all going on while he was molesting me. (15:48)
• I had five abusers. I did not have relationships with these other people like I did with my dad. (19:31)
• I ended up in a topless bar almost over 2 years, trying to get back control over my body & my sexuality that had been stolen from me. (23:22)
• When your dancing, you’re not praying. (25:20)
• I saw God through the eyes of my father, very scary and ready to smite me at any time. (25:51)
• A lot of people don’t talk about it. It’s like a taboo thing. They feel the shame of it as if somehow, it’s a reflection of them. (29:41)
• I needed a lot of healing. I had a TBI, complex PTSD, nothing was working. (35:41)
• When I decided to try Ibogaine as a last resort, it was so profoundly God’s presence. He literally came and rescued me. (36:06)
• God met me and gave me what I needed in that moment. (46:12)
• We make it so hard as Christians to even communicate with God. (52:01)
• Jesus is the only answer. Iboga is the tool that He used in my life. (57:18)
• There’s nothing wrong with needing help. (84:37)