Yes I believe also that much of the traumas are from our childhood and we can need some “parent figure” to heal. I had a pretty safe childhood myself but had an operation at age 4, had to stay in hospital alone, and it’s interesting how my worst traumas in later life are connected to hospital stays also.
Jules and JanCarol, thank you so much for sharing your experiences. And Jules I like it that you do not sound like you “know it all” ☺. Is that pseudo..? Ok (I didn’t know what that meant). I understand that you are looking for “hard evidence”, despodent, and questioning is good. If something is valid, it will withsrand the questioning.
Myself I don’t believe so much in any absolute truths. We people just have very different ways to view reality, through our own individual lenses. But each to their own. If we can share our views without too bad arguements I am happy. ☺
Thanks guys, Jules, despodent, JanCarol, Sean, this was very good conversation. So good to share views, and I think critizism and questions are good too, it helps us to think further.
And I’m just glad if you all speak “nice” to each other, despite differentiating views. In Finland we say “things argue, not people”. So thanks.
I called the article “healing from schizophrenia” because that’s the label I would get by psychiatry.
Open Dialogue was developed here in Finland yeah, and I actually met Jaakko Seikkula, we arranged a seminaar in my home town a few years ago, to promote it. Open dialogue was not used where I live, but I hope they would start use it more widespread, in other parts of Finland too.
I am myself from a doctor-family and believed in mainstream psychiatrys explanations and definitions for a long time. When I started to read into psychosis and healing, I learned about shamanistic and other alternative views. I think there is a lot of experience-based wisdom in them.
I have seen so many people get very brutally treated within psychiatry, especially in closed ward hospital care. I was pretty badly treated myself.
It still can fill me with rage sometimes, like wanting to just scream out: this has to stop! you’re ruining peoples lives! But, not many doctors listen… they believe in their own paradigm.
I feel very lucky that I got away from the grip of psychiatric care. The “care”, in the years after my son waas born, did some harm, it made me feel like I am not a normal human being, it knocked my confidence kind of, and it took some time to heal from that as well.
I hope it gets better for you too.. Stay strong.
rasselas.redux I appreciate your views and information, and understand you have your concerns regarding this therapy. It is a new approach, and very different and alternative.
It is always scary to embark on the journey to “meeting your inner monsters”. Clearly Seans therapy is not your option. I hope you find the help and therapies that can best help you on your journey to finding your inner balance and strength. It is possible for all of us to find these things, but there are many routes to take. It is good if we listen to our inner wisdom when deciding which help and assistance we chose for this journey. I wish you all the best.
Hi Jules, what you said about “most people do not want to become full-time psychics”, that was funny ☺. It’s true, this work can “open you up” to psychicness, and many people maybe do not want that. Me personally, I have loved that part of it. In my experience, you can chose to “close psychic channels” if you want, it is a personal choice. I have done that too, in periods, just focused on “everyday normal life”. But I quite enjoy the enhanced sensing and “psychicness”. It has become a good tool in my work with children, and with other people.
My first psychotic episode, at age 17, actually started with me getting a feeling that I am a healer woman. I started sensing energies, and feeling I have an ability to see “deeper” into people and into what was causing their life and health problems. But I had no previous knowledge or experience about these things and no mentoring, and the process eventually became very anxietyfilled. When I was taken to the psychiatric hospital, I was told that my experiences were nonsense and I was told to shut up, when I talked about feeling “channels” opening up within my mind. So with a sense of shame I closed down.
The process that started after my son was born, of clearing the trauma from my first hospitalization, helped me to reopen these abilities of deeper sensing, that I had closed down. So it didn’t catapult me into such new scary territory, but was more of a process of reopening my sensitivity and returning to the person that I am.
rasselas.redux, from what I understood, you are worried that during breathwork, the therapist might “infiltrate” the mind of the client? Or you are concerned that the client is in a very vulnerable state during breathwork and that the therapist will act inappropriately?
It sounds to me that you have some personal grudge towards Sean… but could I ask you to please not use the comments on my article for personal attacks on anyone…
Sean does sincere work and is careful about the work ethics and guidelines, I have seen this for myself. It would be career suicide to fail to meet high ethical standards, and, well, Sean just genuinely cares about people. When doing groundbreaking work, and having success at it, it will normally always include getting pretty hefty critizism, sometimes from many directions. Maybe you have your doubts and fears about Seans work, and that’s ok… But it takes a lot of guts for a person to go into the hazardous area of even attempting to develop an alternative cure for schizophrenia, it involves taking a lot of risks and being prepared to get a lot of sh*t thrown at you as well. I am glad that Sean has been prepared to do that. His work saves lives.
Like I said before somewhere, this therapy is not for everyone, because opening up psychosis-level hidden traumas is extremely painful and frightening, and sometimes maybe too painful and frightening. If you feel that this therapy would be harmful for you, then follow your gut, don’t do it.
The safety aspect is, in my experience, that someone is present 24/7, to keep you safe, kind of hold your hand, when going through anxiety, fears and other difficult emotions that surface during the therapy. Creating safe and trusting connection is an important part of it. It is easier to face difficult things, when you feel that you are not alone but that someone is with you, seeing what you see, being a safe presence, helping you through it.
I am familiar with kundalini. I actually have a friend who is a kundalini yoga teacher, and I have been to her classes. I think it is true that for some, this awakening of energy can cause psychosislike symptoms. It depends on the amount of trauma and “rubble” that needs to be cleared, for the energy to run freely, maybe.
This kind of “enlightment”, of better stress resilience and better work of our brain, that you said, I liked that thought.
Thank you so much for this.
Seeing the past, if only to the shadows lingering in the present – yes that’s it! to become aware of our past traumatic experiences, to heal them. I hope it gets easier for you… it sounds like you’ve had it hard. Orthomolecular, I haven’t heard of that, what is it?
About 6 months before my first retreat with Sean, I had a 4 hour healing session with a guy who I connected with through my Finnish meditation teacher. It did open up some hidden layers in me, and about a week later I was psychotic and hospitalized. This guy did use a breathwork technique on me also. So yes there are certain risks involved, with opening up traumatic memories. Sean also certainly took a big risk in a way, when he agreed to work with me, but I am eternally grateful that he did ☺.
Sean is not actually doing holotrophic breathwork, and from what I have understood, people with mental disorders are not accepted or recommended to try the holotriphic breathwork techniques. Sean has developed his own technique, specially designed for people with psychotic problems.
In the end people have to decide for themselves whether they think it is a good therapy for them. It is not for everyone, of course.
“..dangerous layer of existance best permanently avoided.” That sounded interesting. Do you have any views on that?
Nice interview, thanks, it covers it quite well. Moni was my support person in the second retreat I did with Sean btw. We had a good time and fun, despite the work we did.
Thank you so much for your words. Oh it must be hard, seeing your child in pain… It sounds like she might have been pretty traumatized by the “care”, also. It can be difficult for the close family to deal with the “psychoticness”, there is a lot of projecting going on, maybe mistrust and blaming also. I know it was very difficult for my family. But the support we get from our families means so so much though.
Thanks Amy. Yes meditation helped me to find inner stability and to connect with my body, and spirituality offered explanations to my “otherworldly” experiences during the psychoses. I hope it goes well for you, the tapering off! Have you heard of the Inner Compass initiative, by Laura Delano? She has great insights on how to quit psychiatric medication.
I kind of accidentally quit cold turkey, but yeah I wouldn’t recommend that, it can really be disastrous. It’s good to do it over a long time, rather too long than too short.
Thanks for the tips, I hadn’t heard of those before. I have told my friends that I feel that I have passed the best before date regarding new pregnancies lol (I am 46). I loved the pregnancy and motherhood experience though, I am glad for having that.
Whats apollonians? And Hades reality? I think it is true that mental health care is “ruled” by thinking that doesn’t have deep understanding of the human psyche. Some psychiatrists see all human reactions and behaviours, and problems, as just brain chemistry.
Great article Rufus, thanks. I agree that one big societal problem is the “dominator”-culture, which is very prevalent within psychiatry also. It seems to really be changing though, thank goodness.
I have also found that it is easier to deal with people if you come from a place where you try to understand the reasons behind their behaviour, instead of just judging that behaviour. Understanding what is behind someones unpleasantness or bullying comments doesn’t mean that you don’t stand your ground or that you try to sweet-talk someone, rather it means that you are not being so triggered by other peoples e.g. oppressive behaviour. So many things would really be much better if we people would make an effort to empathetically understand each other.
I am glad if this article can be of use. I have noticed that many people, even mental health professionals, fear psychotic experiences themselves, and see that the best treatment is to just make a psychosis go away as quickly as possible, regardless of how traumatising the methods are. They lack understanding of the psychotic process. Also, these people are uncapable of opening up to different perspectives. They stick to their own beliefs due to fear.
Things are changing within psychiatry though, and fortunately there are many psychiatrist and other health care professionals out there who can see that the current practises do not work. It will just take a little while to introduce new, better practises. Sometimes I think that psychiatry will change at the rate that the older generation, with their older beliefs, retires, and the younger generation of doctors and nurses, who can think out of the old box, takes over the field. It might take some time, but it will happen.
Thank you for your comment. I have to say it still felt a bit difficult to write this article, it brings unpleasant memories back. I have had in mind to write something about my recovery journey, but will give it some time, before I do. Recovery stories have helped me a lot, so I would like to contribute with my own story. What I have learned is that recovery might take a long time, and you should just not give up, despite relapses and it seeming that things are not moving forward. Our minds and bodies have an amazing inbuilt capacity to selfheal, that we can trust.
Thank you so much for your supportive comments! One of my teachers and mentors once said that you can turn any experience in your life into something good… My experiences were hard to go through but they taught me a lot about how the human mind works, and I do want to use my experiences to help change psychiatry. I wish psychiatry would help people to tap into their own healing potential, instead of brainwashing people to think they are incurably ill. Our bodies and minds are programmed to strive towards balance, so it will happen, if given the right conditions.
With having had 9 psychosises, out of which one with 3 days of catatonia, I think that if healing is possible for me, it should be possible for anybody, with the right support and help. My healing process took 6 years of intensive work though, so sometimes it can take a lot of time and patience.
I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter. I believe though, that the opportunity to healing is never lost. I have to say I don’t know what would be the best to do here, but maybe bring the subject up gently. For my own healing I found it helpful to “build myself stronger” through things like meditation, yoga and positive visualisations. These helped me to face the pain of the trauma, once I started to deal with it.
Believeing in your daughters possibility to heal can greatly help her to believe in it herself. The support I got from my family was very important.
I wish I could help more.
Thank you. Sean actually lives in Brazil! I hope it gets better for you, wishing you all the best.
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Yes I believe also that much of the traumas are from our childhood and we can need some “parent figure” to heal. I had a pretty safe childhood myself but had an operation at age 4, had to stay in hospital alone, and it’s interesting how my worst traumas in later life are connected to hospital stays also.
Report comment
Jules and JanCarol, thank you so much for sharing your experiences. And Jules I like it that you do not sound like you “know it all” ☺. Is that pseudo..? Ok (I didn’t know what that meant). I understand that you are looking for “hard evidence”, despodent, and questioning is good. If something is valid, it will withsrand the questioning.
Myself I don’t believe so much in any absolute truths. We people just have very different ways to view reality, through our own individual lenses. But each to their own. If we can share our views without too bad arguements I am happy. ☺
Report comment
Thanks guys, Jules, despodent, JanCarol, Sean, this was very good conversation. So good to share views, and I think critizism and questions are good too, it helps us to think further.
And I’m just glad if you all speak “nice” to each other, despite differentiating views. In Finland we say “things argue, not people”. So thanks.
I called the article “healing from schizophrenia” because that’s the label I would get by psychiatry.
Open Dialogue was developed here in Finland yeah, and I actually met Jaakko Seikkula, we arranged a seminaar in my home town a few years ago, to promote it. Open dialogue was not used where I live, but I hope they would start use it more widespread, in other parts of Finland too.
I am myself from a doctor-family and believed in mainstream psychiatrys explanations and definitions for a long time. When I started to read into psychosis and healing, I learned about shamanistic and other alternative views. I think there is a lot of experience-based wisdom in them.
Report comment
I have seen so many people get very brutally treated within psychiatry, especially in closed ward hospital care. I was pretty badly treated myself.
It still can fill me with rage sometimes, like wanting to just scream out: this has to stop! you’re ruining peoples lives! But, not many doctors listen… they believe in their own paradigm.
I feel very lucky that I got away from the grip of psychiatric care. The “care”, in the years after my son waas born, did some harm, it made me feel like I am not a normal human being, it knocked my confidence kind of, and it took some time to heal from that as well.
I hope it gets better for you too.. Stay strong.
Report comment
rasselas.redux I appreciate your views and information, and understand you have your concerns regarding this therapy. It is a new approach, and very different and alternative.
It is always scary to embark on the journey to “meeting your inner monsters”. Clearly Seans therapy is not your option. I hope you find the help and therapies that can best help you on your journey to finding your inner balance and strength. It is possible for all of us to find these things, but there are many routes to take. It is good if we listen to our inner wisdom when deciding which help and assistance we chose for this journey. I wish you all the best.
Report comment
Hi Jules, what you said about “most people do not want to become full-time psychics”, that was funny ☺. It’s true, this work can “open you up” to psychicness, and many people maybe do not want that. Me personally, I have loved that part of it. In my experience, you can chose to “close psychic channels” if you want, it is a personal choice. I have done that too, in periods, just focused on “everyday normal life”. But I quite enjoy the enhanced sensing and “psychicness”. It has become a good tool in my work with children, and with other people.
My first psychotic episode, at age 17, actually started with me getting a feeling that I am a healer woman. I started sensing energies, and feeling I have an ability to see “deeper” into people and into what was causing their life and health problems. But I had no previous knowledge or experience about these things and no mentoring, and the process eventually became very anxietyfilled. When I was taken to the psychiatric hospital, I was told that my experiences were nonsense and I was told to shut up, when I talked about feeling “channels” opening up within my mind. So with a sense of shame I closed down.
The process that started after my son was born, of clearing the trauma from my first hospitalization, helped me to reopen these abilities of deeper sensing, that I had closed down. So it didn’t catapult me into such new scary territory, but was more of a process of reopening my sensitivity and returning to the person that I am.
Report comment
rasselas.redux, from what I understood, you are worried that during breathwork, the therapist might “infiltrate” the mind of the client? Or you are concerned that the client is in a very vulnerable state during breathwork and that the therapist will act inappropriately?
It sounds to me that you have some personal grudge towards Sean… but could I ask you to please not use the comments on my article for personal attacks on anyone…
Sean does sincere work and is careful about the work ethics and guidelines, I have seen this for myself. It would be career suicide to fail to meet high ethical standards, and, well, Sean just genuinely cares about people. When doing groundbreaking work, and having success at it, it will normally always include getting pretty hefty critizism, sometimes from many directions. Maybe you have your doubts and fears about Seans work, and that’s ok… But it takes a lot of guts for a person to go into the hazardous area of even attempting to develop an alternative cure for schizophrenia, it involves taking a lot of risks and being prepared to get a lot of sh*t thrown at you as well. I am glad that Sean has been prepared to do that. His work saves lives.
Like I said before somewhere, this therapy is not for everyone, because opening up psychosis-level hidden traumas is extremely painful and frightening, and sometimes maybe too painful and frightening. If you feel that this therapy would be harmful for you, then follow your gut, don’t do it.
The safety aspect is, in my experience, that someone is present 24/7, to keep you safe, kind of hold your hand, when going through anxiety, fears and other difficult emotions that surface during the therapy. Creating safe and trusting connection is an important part of it. It is easier to face difficult things, when you feel that you are not alone but that someone is with you, seeing what you see, being a safe presence, helping you through it.
Report comment
I am familiar with kundalini. I actually have a friend who is a kundalini yoga teacher, and I have been to her classes. I think it is true that for some, this awakening of energy can cause psychosislike symptoms. It depends on the amount of trauma and “rubble” that needs to be cleared, for the energy to run freely, maybe.
This kind of “enlightment”, of better stress resilience and better work of our brain, that you said, I liked that thought.
Thank you so much for this.
Report comment
Seeing the past, if only to the shadows lingering in the present – yes that’s it! to become aware of our past traumatic experiences, to heal them. I hope it gets easier for you… it sounds like you’ve had it hard. Orthomolecular, I haven’t heard of that, what is it?
Report comment
Yes I can email you, thanks. “There is great power in sharing out stories”.
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About 6 months before my first retreat with Sean, I had a 4 hour healing session with a guy who I connected with through my Finnish meditation teacher. It did open up some hidden layers in me, and about a week later I was psychotic and hospitalized. This guy did use a breathwork technique on me also. So yes there are certain risks involved, with opening up traumatic memories. Sean also certainly took a big risk in a way, when he agreed to work with me, but I am eternally grateful that he did ☺.
Sean is not actually doing holotrophic breathwork, and from what I have understood, people with mental disorders are not accepted or recommended to try the holotriphic breathwork techniques. Sean has developed his own technique, specially designed for people with psychotic problems.
In the end people have to decide for themselves whether they think it is a good therapy for them. It is not for everyone, of course.
“..dangerous layer of existance best permanently avoided.” That sounded interesting. Do you have any views on that?
Report comment
Nice interview, thanks, it covers it quite well. Moni was my support person in the second retreat I did with Sean btw. We had a good time and fun, despite the work we did.
Report comment
Thank you so much for your words. Oh it must be hard, seeing your child in pain… It sounds like she might have been pretty traumatized by the “care”, also. It can be difficult for the close family to deal with the “psychoticness”, there is a lot of projecting going on, maybe mistrust and blaming also. I know it was very difficult for my family. But the support we get from our families means so so much though.
Report comment
Thanks Amy. Yes meditation helped me to find inner stability and to connect with my body, and spirituality offered explanations to my “otherworldly” experiences during the psychoses. I hope it goes well for you, the tapering off! Have you heard of the Inner Compass initiative, by Laura Delano? She has great insights on how to quit psychiatric medication.
I kind of accidentally quit cold turkey, but yeah I wouldn’t recommend that, it can really be disastrous. It’s good to do it over a long time, rather too long than too short.
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Yes, me too…
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thank you ☺
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Glad you found your route out Fiachra, “sitting with it” can be extremely hard, although that is what heals, the facing of the emotions. Thanks ☺
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Thanks for the tips, I hadn’t heard of those before. I have told my friends that I feel that I have passed the best before date regarding new pregnancies lol (I am 46). I loved the pregnancy and motherhood experience though, I am glad for having that.
Report comment
Whats apollonians? And Hades reality? I think it is true that mental health care is “ruled” by thinking that doesn’t have deep understanding of the human psyche. Some psychiatrists see all human reactions and behaviours, and problems, as just brain chemistry.
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Thanks shaun, I believe yes that the capacity to heal is in everyone.
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Thank you ☺
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Great article Rufus, thanks. I agree that one big societal problem is the “dominator”-culture, which is very prevalent within psychiatry also. It seems to really be changing though, thank goodness.
I have also found that it is easier to deal with people if you come from a place where you try to understand the reasons behind their behaviour, instead of just judging that behaviour. Understanding what is behind someones unpleasantness or bullying comments doesn’t mean that you don’t stand your ground or that you try to sweet-talk someone, rather it means that you are not being so triggered by other peoples e.g. oppressive behaviour. So many things would really be much better if we people would make an effort to empathetically understand each other.
Report comment
Thanks for your comment! Together we are strong, and can bring about a change. All the best to you!
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I am glad if this article can be of use. I have noticed that many people, even mental health professionals, fear psychotic experiences themselves, and see that the best treatment is to just make a psychosis go away as quickly as possible, regardless of how traumatising the methods are. They lack understanding of the psychotic process. Also, these people are uncapable of opening up to different perspectives. They stick to their own beliefs due to fear.
Things are changing within psychiatry though, and fortunately there are many psychiatrist and other health care professionals out there who can see that the current practises do not work. It will just take a little while to introduce new, better practises. Sometimes I think that psychiatry will change at the rate that the older generation, with their older beliefs, retires, and the younger generation of doctors and nurses, who can think out of the old box, takes over the field. It might take some time, but it will happen.
Report comment
Thank you for your comment. I have to say it still felt a bit difficult to write this article, it brings unpleasant memories back. I have had in mind to write something about my recovery journey, but will give it some time, before I do. Recovery stories have helped me a lot, so I would like to contribute with my own story. What I have learned is that recovery might take a long time, and you should just not give up, despite relapses and it seeming that things are not moving forward. Our minds and bodies have an amazing inbuilt capacity to selfheal, that we can trust.
Report comment
Thank you so much for your supportive comments! One of my teachers and mentors once said that you can turn any experience in your life into something good… My experiences were hard to go through but they taught me a lot about how the human mind works, and I do want to use my experiences to help change psychiatry. I wish psychiatry would help people to tap into their own healing potential, instead of brainwashing people to think they are incurably ill. Our bodies and minds are programmed to strive towards balance, so it will happen, if given the right conditions.
With having had 9 psychosises, out of which one with 3 days of catatonia, I think that if healing is possible for me, it should be possible for anybody, with the right support and help. My healing process took 6 years of intensive work though, so sometimes it can take a lot of time and patience.
Report comment
I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter. I believe though, that the opportunity to healing is never lost. I have to say I don’t know what would be the best to do here, but maybe bring the subject up gently. For my own healing I found it helpful to “build myself stronger” through things like meditation, yoga and positive visualisations. These helped me to face the pain of the trauma, once I started to deal with it.
Believeing in your daughters possibility to heal can greatly help her to believe in it herself. The support I got from my family was very important.
I wish I could help more.
Report comment