Break Down. Wake Up. podcast – 006 – Creating the Context for Self Healing...
How a surprising solution to surgical complications helped a business director process her grief and embrace a new calling to help others heal themselves.
Psychiatry’s Cycle of Ignorance and Reinvention: An Interview with Owen Whooley
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews sociologist Owen Whooley about psychiatry's stubborn perseverance in the face of recent DSM embarrassments and the failures of the biomedical model.
Gogo Ekhaya Esima: Traditional South African Healing
How can seeing visions and hearing voices be transformed into a spiritual gift for healing? What does the initiation ordeal into becoming a shaman involve? Gogo Ekhaya Esima was diagnosed with psychosis and confined in psychiatric hospitals before she became an initiated Sangoma healer in the Zulu tradition of South Africa.
Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy: A Conversation with Stijn Vanheule
Vanheule urges clinicians to listen for the structure in psychotic thought. He offers clinical examples that reframe hallucinations as a form of creative response to unspeakable dilemmas.
John Read and Irving Kirsch – Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Does the Evidence From Clinical...
An interview with John Read and Irving Kirsch to discuss their paper which calls to prohibit ECT. This is because the negative effects of ECT are so strong, the evidence supporting it is so weak (especially in the long-term and beyond the improvement due to placebo) and there are other means of addressing the difficulties that the person is struggling with.
Gemma: Experiences with Antidepressants and Benzodiazepines
Gemma talks about her experiences with psychiatric drugs and the difficulties that parents of children with special needs encounter when they seek treatment for emotional or psychological distress
Jodi Aman – Anxiety, I’m So Done with You
An interview with Jodi Aman, LCSW, a psychotherapist and coach who has more than 20 years of experience working with children, their parents, and helpers. She is the author of the book Anxiety....I'm So Done With You: A Teen’s Guide to Ditching Toxic Stress & Hardwiring Your Brain For Happiness
Naas Siddiqui: Intergenerational Trauma
Naas Siddiqui, a psychiatric survivor and therapist in training who founded the Spiritual Emergence and other Unusual Experiences student group, descended into altered states after withdrawing from psychiatric medications.
Surviving Antidepressants: An Interview with Adele Framer
That is the truth about withdrawal syndrome: It’s like a 50-50 chance that you’re going to have a problem. If you’re in the unlucky half, you’re gonna be really unlucky.
Trans Lifeline: Naming Trans-Specific Harm in Mental Health
Interim Hotline Manager Jahmil Roberts and Advocacy Director Yana Calou from the Trans Lifeline work towards connecting trans people to the community support and resources they need to survive and thrive - free of prisons and police
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast – 010 – SOLO EPISODE! Sharing Insights from the...
I recap the major themes that arise in the guest interviews and share my perspective on how these themes can help us solve personal, professional, and broader collective challenges.
Art and Transformation: Creating Justice in Mental Health
An upcoming conference focuses on the perspective of artists and activists in answering what it means to have a just mental health care system: Who decides who is labelled as mad?
Family Panel Discussion – Supporting a Child, Teen, or Young Person in Crisis
Supporting a Child, Teen, or Young Person in Crisis - Our guest panel, Ciara Fanlo, Morna Murray and Sami Timimi join host Amy Biancolli to share stories of crisis but also stories of healing and of hope.
Healing Youth with Nature and Connection: An Interview with Peter Mayfield
An interview with Peter Mayfield, founder and Executive Director of the Gateway Mountain Center. Peter talks of his journey from mountaineering to his role as an educator and mentor, and how enabling children and adolescents to connect with nature has such a profound effect on their health and wellbeing.
We Should Listen to Our Emotional Pain: An interview with Paul Andrews
Dr. Paul Andrews is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University. His research focuses...
How Grief Became a Disorder and What This Means About Us: An Interview with...
MIA’s Zenobia Morrill interviews psychologist Kaori Wada about what the creation of Prolonged Grief Disorder reveals about our culture and the current status of psychology.
Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5: An Interview with Lisa Cosgrove and...
On the Mad in America podcast we talk with Lisa Cosgrove and Brian Piper about their BMJ paper entitled "Undisclosed Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5 TR: Cross-Sectional Analysis"
Addressing the Roots of Racial Trauma: An Interview with Psychologist Lillian Comas-Díaz
MIA’s Hannah Emerson interviews Comas-Díaz on the need for culturally competent care in a medicalized and individualistic society.
The Making of a ‘Madness’ That Hides Our Monsters: An Interview with Audrey Clare...
In this interview, Audrey Clare Farley reveals how our understanding of schizophrenia was built to avoid acknowledging sexual trauma, religious abuse, and racism.
Pharma Corruption, Dangers of Antidepressants, And More
Peter Simons covers news on mental health app Cerebral and pharma companies Biogen and Cassava; how social media influencers are the new pharma marketers; studies that found antidepressants don't improve quality of life and are harmful to the fetus when pregnant women take them; benzo withdrawal; and more!
Our Medical System Protects Wrongdoers and Punishes Whistleblowers: An Interview with Carl Elliott
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Carl Elliott about scandals in psychiatry and the challenges faced by whistleblowers.
Stuart Shipko – SSRI Withdrawal: Shooting the Odds
We interview Dr. Stuart Shipko, a psychiatrist and author who has a particular interest in the side effects and withdrawal effects of SSRI antidepressants and the need for informed consent when prescribing.
Mad Science, Psychiatric Coercion and the Therapeutic State: An Interview with Dr. David Cohen
MIA's Peter Simons interviews David Cohen, PhD, on his path to researching mental health, coercive practices, and discontinuation from psychiatric drugs.
Psychology is Not What You Think: An Interview with Critical Psychologist Ian Parker
MIA’s Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Ian Parker about critical psychology, discourse and political action, and whether psychology has anything left to offer.
Chris van Tulleken—Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food and...
We are joined by Dr. Chris van Tulleken who talks about the science, economics, history, and production of ultra-processed food. We discuss some of the effects of UPF on our brains and bodies and how the food industry positions UPF to dominate our diets.
