This is a LIVE replay (edits made due to technical difficulties) of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Tuesday, June 13th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today’s guest is https://www.holisticresistance.com/about, Co-Founder of https://www.holisticresistance.com/ and https://www.grieftoaction.com/ and Creator of https://www.cutproject.org/. ------------------------------ https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:00:43  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat, where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I'm Lorilee Binstock, your host. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting to hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box. I will try to get to everybody, but I do ask that everyone be respectful. Today's guest is Aaron Johnson, creator of the chronically under touched project and cofounder of the holistic resistance and grief to action. Aaron, thank you so much for joining me today. Can you hear me okay? https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:01:50  It's good to https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:01:52  Hello, Aaron? https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:01:52  it's little soft, but I can hear you better now. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:01:54  Oh, you can hear let me make sure you can hear me just fine. Is https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:01:59  I'll get you now. Yeah. That's great. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:02:00  Oh, good. Good. Good. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:02:06  No. It's good to be here. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:02:07  I I know it's it's you typically, we have our shows on Wednesdays, but, you know, it's one of those weeks where if my kids lost last day last day of school tomorrow, and I didn't realize they'll be getting out extra early because they typically get out early on Wednesdays. I am very excited to have you on, and I wanna talk a little bit about the chronically under touch project. Could you talk a little bit about that? https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:02:32  Yeah. It's probably one of the most ambitious projects I have entered into over the last seven years, and it's a project that's really tracking. Right now, I'm focusing on African heritage men because of their how they're targeted, but we've expanded and worked with a lot of folks, but it's really about tracking the magnitude, the impact of being chronically under touched. And how it bleeds into mental health. It bleeds into complication on the cassette and relationship spaces. It it it impacts folks in that are incarcerated, folks that can be arrested because of their chronic index trauma stories and how it manifest in their lives. And then how oppression kinda doubles down on that. And so the Crokonetouch project is me slowing down in community. What it means to build a comprehensive touch plan for a body in this context in this moment. I'm working heavily with this young black man, how we build a photonic comprehensive touch plan for them, and where where do they go? How do we build it? How do we get ahead of it? How do we even introduce the idea? So it's a it's a big project, but it's it's really profoundly impacting my life and the folks I'm able to work with. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:03:44  Amazing. Well, can you talk what do you mean when you when you say chronically undertouched? https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:03:51  Yeah. So there's a couple ways we track it. I would say a big portion of population is chronic and in touch, but we with the spectrum that was all extreme, my first kind of birth the phrase and kind of really understood the magnitude of what happens to a body and to individual that is crunching a touch. It was a young man I was working with seven years ago, and he Me and him were in this, like, mentorship. I was mentoring him, and I was trying to bring him to a space of balance. And we were in arguments almost daily. I remember sitting down with him one day trying to find a groundings base. And I said, you know, when was the last time you had thoughtful platonic touch over the last twelve months for three minutes? Hey, Seth there. Now maybe I'm sitting there and going, I can't think of three minutes in the last twelve months that I've received thoughtful, photonic touch. And as extreme as that might actually feel, that was actually pretty normal. For a lot of folks I met thereafter. Is that being under touch on that extreme level? You can't even think of three minutes of thoughtful platonic continuous touch, that would be that would be a pretty heavy level. And I would say, you know, average person would need for just nervous and balance fifteen minutes of thoughtful but tonic touch, and many folks qualify there of not getting that. So there's a way of just tracking the the impact of on different bodies, different demographics, the economic levels, the impact. But the for him, I would say, anyone that's in that level of three minutes a year or less, that's extreme, but that's that's chronic, and that's serious. And we need to get to get ahead of that and build some thinking around it. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:05:33  And do you mean hugging, hand holding? Is it consecutive? https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:05:39  Yeah. We want I mean, ideally, is consecutive. Right? Ideally, we are dealing with folks that it's it's it's continuous for three minutes. I mean, most hugs are five to eight seconds, and so it would take a lot of hugs to get to the three minute mark. So I think for me being able to realize hand holding is one of our common entry points for a lot of the people I work with, we just practice https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:05:49  Mhmm. https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:06:01  simple hand holding and and holding attention to our bodies in that process. So handhold is a common way. We often have a sit and hold hands because the trauma story of walking and holding hands is black sis, and and the chronic ways is really complicated. My culture is still sitting and dropping to our bodies in more meditative space is the most common way we have been able to build thoughtful touch plan for folks, but it also goes shoulder to shoulder back to back, cuddling all those are advanced, but we we start with the handholding typically in our in our program. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:06:29  I wonder, like, as as an adult, I'm thinking. Am I am I am I touched for three minutes at a time? And and it's interesting when you you talk about touch and how important it is because, you know you know, when your your child is born or when a child is born, they, you know, most I mean, not necessarily hospitals, but, you know, let's say, for me, I worked with Adula, and the first thing they they talk about is putting the child on your body. How important it is to https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:06:56  Yep. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:06:59  to have that release of oxytocin. And and I guess that's that's the same way as adults, but we don't really think about it that way. https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:07:07  No. Unfortunately, and and working full time and having bigger trans players can push us out of even though it's in the magnitude of what happens over time. https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:07:16  Wow. Well, I wanna get back to that a little bit more, but you are also the cofounder of the holistic resistance and grief to action. https://firesidechat.com/aaronjohnsoncutproject  00:07:25  Yes.

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, June 7th, 2023 at 11:30am ET on Fireside Chat. Today’s guest is Jessica Depatie, Executive Producer of Dark Night of Our Soul. For more information about Jessica Depatie's work, visit https://www.shadowmedia.group/links. Lorilee Binstock  00:00:35  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside chat where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I am your host. Flor then stock. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting to hop on stage, but I do ask that everybody be respect Today's guest is Jessica Defeats executive producer of dark of our soul. She's also the host of shadow work library podcast. And she's is actually a shadow work educator, Jessica, thank you so much. For joining me today. Oh, I think I actually pop you off stage. Are you there? Jessica Depatie  00:01:39  Hi. Can you hear me? Lorilee Binstock  00:01:40  Hi. Yeah I could hear you. How are you? Thank you so much for joining me today. Jessica Depatie  00:01:46  Thank you so much for having me and what's cool off where I'm all about this. Lorilee Binstock  00:01:50  I know it it's actually really, really cool. You people can pop in and pop out and and listen to replay and join in on the conversation, which I really love because I I feel like a lot of people are interested in and taught and talking to a lot of my guests about you know, things that are this that they're doing how people are healing. And you you are a shadow work educator, which I think is really cool. And so I wanna learn more about that, but I also wanna know a little bit about your story and what got you into this work. Jessica Depatie  00:02:19  Okay. Great. So wow where do we start? You know, it's interesting that we're having this conversation on your show, the trauma survivor podcast because my story isn't that remarkable, but I think it's a common I I think that's why it's worth sharing. The lack of Lorilee Binstock  00:02:38  Absolutely. Jessica Depatie  00:02:40  extravagant around it, and more the the universal story that Lorilee Binstock  00:02:47  Yep. Jessica Depatie  00:02:47  everybody has trauma, you know, and the documentary that we're working on right now, one of the experts, Anderson Todd, who is the assistant director of wisdom and consciousness studies out of you know, received Toronto. He says nobody gets out of the parking lot without putting dungeon in the car. Right? Lorilee Binstock  00:03:02  I saw. Jessica Depatie  00:03:04  And so... That is that is my story. Lorilee Binstock  00:03:05  That was I was like that's so accurate. Jessica Depatie  00:03:07  Yeah. And so my story. Is basically growing up I felt like there was a purpose to the trials that I would put myself in, You know? A lot of the traumatic experiences that when my experience happen to us. And it's kind of a fabric the fabric of our human experience. You know, challenges happen. And some are very remarkable in some, like mine are just like, you know, my mom was she's Korean, and she felt strange in a new country, And I adopted that feeling strange but in my own country, you know? And so the traumatic experience that I had was having a really strong platform that I'm Lorilee Binstock  00:04:00  Mhmm Jessica Depatie  00:03:58  not accepted that I am rejected and I would put myself in a lot of situations where I would reject people before it they rejected me, and that was a coping mechanism that I learned later on, by Yeah. For me, was some pretty severe bullying and like, isolation from about the fourth grade, the eighth grade and crystal it myself that I'm weird. I'm unwanted And so Yeah. I just realized in that experience now looking in hindsight and having that really affect me as an adult. I needed to look at what is this? You know? There aren't... There weren't a ton of resources. I Didn't even think I needed a resource. To resolve that. And so that's how I started getting into shadow work. Because as I grew up, got in high school god university. I then realized that I am intentionally putting myself into these situations are harmful for myself. Why am I doing that? Because I'm definitely learning from all these experiences of and is this the way to learn is obstacle really the way? Is there a silver lining to of this? So that's what I've been exploring. Basically, as my life's work since Lorilee Binstock  00:05:09  that's fascinating. You know, that's really interesting. You say, you no, it's not that extravagant, you know, your life story, but your story is Jessica Depatie  00:05:16  Right. Lorilee Binstock  00:05:16  so many other people's stories. I feel like a lot of people you know, where I And in tell many different ways, feel isolated. They feel like an outsider. And they feel different, and that makes them feel weird. And, you know, I've I felt like that as well. I'm a I'm a child of imagery immigrant parent. And it did it did feel. You know, I I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. And I at that time, there there want a lot of other Filipino in where I live I live by the beach. And so I didn't realize that I would Jessica Depatie  00:05:51  Well Lorilee Binstock  00:05:53  I was different until, you know, Jessica Depatie  00:05:59  eva. Lorilee Binstock  00:05:56  it was pointed out to me and then I was like, oh, I I'm different. I didn't realize that. So I feel like there are people, especially, you know, in fourth grade. That, you know, that feel different, but they don't know why. And I I've I I'm so fascinated. When did you feel? When you were an adult, when you needed to explore this, And how did you decide, like, okay, I'm gonna do shadow work is there someone that you met or you talk to? Who introduce you to this. Jessica Depatie  00:06:27  So I would say when I was younger, I went in a really locked into an observer period. Lorilee Binstock  00:06:36  Mhmm. Jessica Depatie  00:06:35  When might call that dis, but it was very top down experience of my own life. And constantly thinking, like, what is wrong with me that people don't wanna talk to me? At this point right now, I know that it was my own platform, and that I like, created that existence for myself. As a kid, you know, I'm just, like, why am I so weird? Like, what is up with this? And having every lunch but I was just, like, tread research Lorilee Binstock  00:07:00  Mm-mm. Jessica Depatie  00:06:59  adding lunch because I'd have to sit by myself and all of that. And just constantly thinking, like, there's something wrong with me. I have to figure this out. I have to figure this out. So when I went to a different school, in high school. Like, I'm going to be different. I know I'm an extra extroverted person. I know that I can have conversations with people. I know that I'm another version of myself i

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today’s guest is Reverend Kenneth Nixon Jr., Author of the book Born Into Crisis: A Memoir. For more information about Rev. Kenneth Nixon Jr.'s work, visit Author Rev. Kenneth Nixon. Lorilee Binstock  00:03:22  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat, where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I'm Lorilee Binstock, your host. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting to hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box. I will try to get you, but I do ask that everyone be respectful. Our guest today is reverend, Kenneth,Nixon junior. He is the author of Born into Crisis, a memoir about his experience growing up with a mentally ill mother. Kenneth, thank you so much for joining me today. Kenneth Nixon  00:04:27  Thank you for having me. How are you doing today? Lorilee Binstock  00:04:30  I'm doing great. Thank you. How about yourself? Kenneth Nixon  00:04:33  Pretty good. Pretty good. You know, you you challenged me because I don't have an Apple device, so I had to go out and buy one for the first time. Lorilee Binstock  00:04:41  Stop. Did you really oh my goodness. What do you think of it? Kenneth Nixon  00:04:44  Yes. I have a lot of learning to do. Lorilee Binstock  00:04:51  Oh my goodness. Well, I'm so grateful for you. I mean, maybe you could return I don't know if if you're like, oh, this is you know, you get so used to one thing after a while, but I do appreciate your your willingness to come on the show because you have a lot to say, and I wanna hear all about it. Your book brought into crisis, wow. Incredibly. So I I want you to be able to, you know, for our guests who haven't read the book, can you talk a little bit about your childhood? Kenneth Nixon  00:05:26  Yes. So my childhood, if we start right at the title of the book, right, born into crisis, It when I was born, my mother who suffered from severe mental illness, all of her her life, I was literally born into crisis from the standpoint. She was in the middle of Psychosis at the moment of my birth, in which while I was lying on the floor, I was suffering from withdrawals from a medication called thorazine, which is anti psychotic medication that she used to treat those who then suffer from paranoid schizophrenia or other manic depressive disorders. The stuff of that nature. And it was only by grace that my father who was getting off of work, out there in time to get me in the hospital. So I quite literally was born into crisis. But that is the beginning stage of a life and a childhood in which I had to deal with trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and various things of growing up with a mother with severe mental illness. Lorilee Binstock  00:06:44  You know, that's really tough. You know, you you talk about, you know, postpartum psychosis. I mean, I I it sounds like she she's dealt with these issues. But, you know, after, you know, childbirth, post farm psychosis is very real. And and it's it's so such a you know, it's such an issue that people are like, yeah. It doesn't really affect that many people. It affects enough people. I feel like for for someone to raise awareness about it. You know? It's it it is very much a problem. You hear all these stories about these mothers. Kenneth Nixon  00:07:02  Yes. Lorilee Binstock  00:07:15  Who murdered their children or who've attempted to murder their children. Kenneth Nixon  00:07:17  Mhmm. Lorilee Binstock  00:07:19  And, you know, this is this is a problem. Right? So I'm curious for you, you know, for someone who's dealt with so much trauma, especially at an early age, how were you able to get out of that? How are you able to break these generational cycles of of trauma? Kenneth Nixon  00:07:42  Yeah. So what I wanna do first, you hit a good point that I wanted to emphasize about not only prenatal care, but postnatal care. Lorilee Binstock  00:07:55  Mhmm. Kenneth Nixon  00:07:55  My mother because I have older siblings, she suffered a severe bout of postpartum depression with my oldest brother, Kevin, in the seventies. And that was not she did not have effective prenatal care and postnatal care, and that can lead to devastating consequences as well in terms of impacts to mental health if there's not effective care for from others, both pre and post. And particularly in the sixties and seventies, it it was really lacking for women of color. It's improved, but there's still gaps in it. But prenatal and postnatal care is critical too for for mothers to have, but breaking generational cycles. I think it's it's always a work in progress. For me, it began with this deep sense of curiosity as I was growing up to try to understand how my life could turn out in such a way. Right? Is those stages of emotions that you go through from anger to to grief, to resentment, to bitterness, to sadness, and really understanding not only the systems and the environment that that I grew up in, but understanding what was within my control to begin to shift the paradigm, not only in my life, but to also make sure that I don't carry some of those things into my household as I'm raising my children. And I took that personally because I had a a deep sense that I wanted to do things differently from my children so they can have a healthier path to to life than I did. Lorilee Binstock  00:09:57  Yes. At you know, for me, you know, I'm a childhood sexual abuse survivor. You know, I realized my my father was also sexually abused as a child. I didn't know that until I was much older. For me, it was really hard. Even though I it's like, I knew You know, I they also had very erratic behaviors, very just very difficult to be around. And, you know, the yay, yelling, a lot of just erratic behavior behaviors. And, you know, even though I'm like, I don't wanna be I don't wanna be anything like my parents. You know, there are times where I'd get overwhelmed, and I'd get you know, there's just moments with my kids that I was just yelling. And this was before I I got went to residential treatment. I and I was very fortunate that I was able to do that. But before that, you know, I didn't realize. Like, I'm like, oh my god. My children are just behaving this way because And it it it took a long time for me to say, oh my goodness. I'm I'm behaving the way my parents were behaving. And now my children are going to pick up on this. What was it for you where you were like, things need to change, or was this before children? And did you have a support system? Because I feel like that's extremely important too. Kenneth Nixon  00:11:21  Mhmm. So I I would say it's some of both. In terms of a support system, I I would say I didn't have a big, strong support system. But what I did have was my my grandmother, She passed away in two thousand and six, and my father But central to for me was my faith. Lorilee Binstock  00:11:50  Mhmm. Kenneth Nixon  00:11:52  And I'm only speaking for myself, but it was one of those things that I can fully lean on and trust to help me not only center myself, find the sense of peace, but it was something that was dependable and that was consistent in my life. That allow me to have a sense of fulfillment. But as I got older and, particularly, into adulthood, I began focusing on how do I help others not deal with the same situations that I was doing, but also how do I do the things in terms of self care therapy? That I don't carry some of my traumas or inherited traumas into a household where I'm raising my sons. And I will give a good example in terms of that. L

This is a LIVE replay (edits made due to technical difficulties) of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, May 10th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today’s guest is Reverend Rex ShadesEagle, Author of the book Know LOVE: A Memoir. Click here for more information on Rex’s Ride4Life and his book, Know LOVE.

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Lorilee Binstock  00:00:18  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is A Trauma Survivor Thrivers Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I am your host, Lorilee Binstock. Everyone has an opportunity to hop on stage. And, actually, I'm hoping people like to would like to hop on stage and and ask any questions or just chat with me today, but I do ask that everybody be respectful. I am your host, Lorilee Binstock. So please, some you know, I would love for people to share in this conversation. I know while this is an interview format show, I did have a guest. However, I did receive a lot of backlash. From so many people about this I will not name this guest, but I did confirm that she was dealing with some legal issues for alleged fraud and scamming people out of a lot of money. But with that, and trying to respond to everyone who commented on my Facebook page, I felt there really needed to be a conversation around mental health and the realization that you know, hurt people hurt people. And I know I also received backlash. Like, why are you canceling this person? And and I'll get to all of that. But I do ask that, you know, people join me. It looks like I actually have hold on. Let me see if I can get Kelly up on the stage. In it to invite them to speak. Cali is actually my I don't know if you know how to get on stage, but I think there's a button or something that can actually allow you to come on stage. No. I think I have you on stage. Cali, do I have you? So if if Cali is able to speak, she is actually my creative director for the magazine for so for anybody who checks out Authentic Insider Magazine and who's commented how beautiful how beautifully curated the pages are. It's actually all Kelly Benstock. I really, really everything is is really from the contributors, all the beautiful words and pages, the contributors and Kelly. So I do wanna say that. Kelly is done a lot to really beautify the magazine and and make it look legit. So So, Kelly, thank you for that. Can I get you on? Oh, I see that you should you be hearing something? Am I muted? That's my next question. It should be. Let me double check. So I do wanna talk about mental health because, like I said, I've had a lot of people come on and comment about why this person should not come. And I was actually thinking, okay. I'm gonna actually invite this person to come on the show and have her you know, and in question her a little bit about this, not not to be mean, but this is what I've been hearing. What will can you you wanna explain yourself or you want to share your story, your side of the story. The thing is she is I I there was an warrant out for her arrest last Tuesday. So I don't think she could have joined anyways, but I've decided that there were so many people who were really upset about having this guest on I felt that it just didn't fit the show. Right? This the show was called a trauma survivor, Thrivers Podcast. And So most of my guests are people who are trauma survivors who are thriving. And who are inspiring. And it just seemed like there was just a lot of animosity, a lot of anger that was surrounding this guest. And and so I just didn't feel like having this person on would be helpful, but it did make me think, okay. We need to talk about mental health. And there were a lot of people who were commenting that they felt this person was such a compulsive liar that they didn't believe that their trauma even existed. While I'm I'm not I'm not the person to make that decision, or to judge that, there is a I I truly believe she's experienced some sort of trauma. Whether it's a trauma that she says she experience. I'm I'm not sure. I can't that's not my I'm not in that position to make that call. I don't know her personally. But I feel that it's this this idea. Her people, her people, people who've been traumatized, oftentimes traumatize other people. That's why there's a generational trauma. You know, my parents who you know, I was traumatized by my parents. I'm in childhood sexual abuse survivor. You know, my my father sexually abused me as a child, my mother. Well, she's wonderful, and we have a good relationship now. You know, she she even admitted. I think I she told me when I was in college, I think I dealt with postpartum depression. And, you know, back then, nobody really knew much about if any anything about postpartum depression. And so I forgave her that for that. I think she kind of there was this realization our our relationship changed from there. But she still treated me pretty badly growing up. I felt neglected by her. And like I said, while that's not the case now, I did feel neglected by her for the longest time. And that has that caused me some issues. And and there was a point probably when I was in middle school, I didn't know I was dealing with trauma, but I realized that I I I needed a community. I needed friends, and I didn't really have friends. I was often isolated as a child. But when I got into middle school, I knew that I wanted friends. And I felt like the only people who were kind of talking to me were the popular the popular girls And I really, really enjoyed, like, being around them, but they were kind of mean. They were mean to other people, and I felt to be accepted within this group of people, I also needed to be mean or I needed to be like them. And I was I I I'm so ashamed to say. I was a little bit of a bully. Once I got into high school, I was bullied. Then I'm like, oh, it flipped the script. I'm this is this is happening to me, and this is this is pretty terrible. So now I know what it feels like. Right? You just I had things changed for me at that point. However, I was still healing from my trauma. Actually, I wasn't healing it off. High school, I wasn't healing from my trauma. I didn't even know I had trauma. I do wanna check-in. Do I have Kelly? Kelly, are you there? Are you available to chat? I don't know. I'm still, like I feel like there were some new features added on with Fireside. And I'm hoping people can actually hear me right now. Can people hear me? I might be muted, actually. No. I'm not. Well, you know, if we can get Kelly on oh, I see speaker request. Accept request. Kelly, can you hear me?   Cali Binstock  00:08:36  Yes.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:37  Oh my goodness.   Cali Binstock  00:08:38  Wait.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:39 

1. K. K. I can hear you.

  Cali Binstock  00:08:39  You can hear me. Wow. Okay. Great.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:42  Yes. So, yes, this is this is Kelly. She like I said earlier, she is the creative director for Authentic Insider Magazine. Reason why the pages are so beautifully curated.   Cali Binstock  00:08:49  Hi.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:55  That and, again, the create contributors   Cali Binstock  00:08:58  Hello?   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:58  are the ones who really bring the magazine to life. So, Kelly, you know, we've talked about this, and so I'm talking about mental health, and I'm talking about bullying. And I talked about how I was   Cali Binstock  00:09:05  Hi.   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:13  embarrassed to say I was a bully when I was in middle school.   Cali Binstock  00:09:16  Mhmm.   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:18  Yada yada yada. I got into high school. I was bullied, and then and then I realized, like, oh, okay. This is this is this this is what it feels like, and it feels pretty terrible. But I was a bully because I I I struggled. I I there's something that I needed.   Cali Binstock  00:09:30  No.   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:35  And it was I needed   Cali Binstock  00:09:35  Mhmm.   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:37  people to like me because nobody really liked me at home.   Cali Binstock  00:09:42  Look at that.   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:43  And, y

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today’s guest is Jamie Mustard, Co-Author of the book the Invisible Machine: The Startling Truth About Trauma and the Scientific Breakthrough That Can Transform Your Life. For more information about the Dual Sympathetic Reset Procedure, visit The Stella Center. Lorilee Binstock  00:16:58  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat, where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I am your host, Lorriely Benstock, Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions on this show by requesting a hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box. I will try to get to you, but I do ask that everybody be respectful. Today's guest is Jamie mustard, co author of the book, The Invisible Machine, The startling truth about trauma and the scientific breakthrough that can transform your life. Jamie, thank you so much for joining me today. Jamie Mustard  00:17:55  Thank you for having me. I'm sorry. I've not used this platform before, so I'm just having technical difficulties. Lorilee Binstock  00:18:02  Oh, you are not the first one, and you will be the last So there's no worry there. I'm just glad we were able to get you on because I really am so fascinated by this because I've actually never heard about this. You co authored this book, the invisible machine, the startling truth about trauma, and the scientific breakthrough. Jamie Mustard  00:18:05  Perfect. I Lorilee Binstock  00:18:19  And this you did this with doctor Eugene Lipov. An anesthesiologists who developed this treatment. Could you actually describe it? Because you actually underwent this treatment. Correct? Jamie Mustard  00:18:30  I did. And one of the reasons, you know, a lot of people would ask kind of why would an artist coauthor look with, you know, Yuzhou Lab is more than a anesthesiologist. He's a you could say he's the Einstein of modern anesthesiology and a a scientist. So the question is, you know, why would write her all go author a book with that guy? And and the answer is kind of your your the way you kinda said at the top that you'd never heard of it. And the reason you've never heard of it is because it's been around for twenty years, and the military is using it. Yeah. And the military is used doing fifteen to twenty thousand of these a year. The second largest cohort getting it is sexual assault victims. Lorilee Binstock  00:19:04  Stop, really. Jamie Mustard  00:19:12  When I saw this, I saw something that, you know, whenever you see it on it's been on sixty minutes. It's been on Joe Rogan. It's been on CBS this morning. But when if you ever see it in the media, it's always at the extremes. It's always a navy seal, a fur a nine eleven first responder, when I came across this, I didn't see this as something for people at the extreme. I saw this as something that maybe could be affecting forty to fifty percent of the US and global population. So my work was to go, hey. This is not for the extreme. This is for society and everyone that is experiencing the symptoms that are associated with fight or flight that may never have even associated themselves with trauma. Lorilee Binstock  00:20:03  I mean, to be honest, I never associated myself with trauma. I'm a childhood sexual abuse survivor, and I didn't realize I experienced trauma. I thought that was just something really bad that happened that I will never talk about, but you're right. I feel like that this is very fascinating, and it's a non invasive outpatient procedure? Jamie Mustard  00:20:23  Okay. So, yeah, you asked me what it is. I wouldn't use the word noninvasive. I would use the word safe. Lorilee Binstock  00:20:27  Okay. Jamie Mustard  00:20:29  And minimally invasive. It's basically, he uses a needle to do what we well, we know it's safe because the shot was originally developed retaining hands in nineteen twenty six. It's now evolved. The doctor kind of reconfigured it and evolved it. So you it's now we call it he's evolved into what we're calling what he calls the dual sympathetic reset. And, basically, what you're doing is you're doing a pain injection that's guided that's guided by an ultrasound. You get a local anesthetic first, so you don't even it feels like nothing. And he uses an ultrasound to guide a needle that has a tiny you know, so a small amount of anesthetic in it, the same anesthetic that goes into an epidural, same two dollar amount of anesthetic that goes into an epidural. And your sympathetic nervous system is basically located in the ganglion, which is a nerves a a a a a a a a string of nerves that run from your amygdala all the way down your but your sympathetic your fight or flight system is in your neck on both sides of your neck. And what he does is he in inject this. God, I think it's I'm gonna get the name of it wrong. But yeah. But it's the same it's the same, you know, Lorilee Binstock  00:21:45  Yeah. Jamie Mustard  00:21:47  stuff that goes into an epidural. And what it does is it turns off your sympathetic nervous system, and it comes online about ten minutes later at baseline to the pre trauma state. So you're basically resetting the sympathetic nervous system. And what we're fine with what what they found is, you know, the adult trauma or blunt force trauma is on the right side. You can only do one side per day. K? You do two injections on one side, and then you can get the next injection the next day. Anything before puberty or childhood trauma is on the left side. And then yeah. So they'll always do the right side first, and then people that will have have had trial to hood trauma Lorilee Binstock  00:22:27  Well, Jamie Mustard  00:22:30  may not experience the reset. So they're starting more and more to to to both on almost everybody. Lorilee Binstock  00:22:40  Wow. You know, I I and, you know, I know about fight or flight, and I didn't know it was about a cluster of nerves in your neck. I'm wondering, is this why I have neck pain? Jamie Mustard  00:22:49  It might be I mean, you have to think of it like this. Well, first of all, Laura Lee, let me say thank you so much for having me. It's, you know, just a real honor to be here. Lorilee Binstock  00:22:57  Oh, of course. Jamie Mustard  00:23:00  You know, you there's two things that causes. One is blunt force trauma. Like, you and I are very Well, we're similar in this regard. I experienced an extreme massive amount of trauma as a kid probably that most people would never not be able to survive in any sort of meaningful way and live my entire life up until, I don't know, five years ago, seven years ago. Where I was in total denial that I'd even been traumatized. You know, in my in my upbringing, you know, growing up how I grew up is where I grew up in the neighborhood I grew up in. You know, being a victim was the last thing you could ever be. So I never Lorilee Binstock  00:23:30  Mhmm. Jamie Mustard  00:23:39  the thought of thinking of myself as a victim was just not in my, you know, just in my in my thought profile. So I just didn't think I had trauma. I got therapy for the first time five or six years ago with your counseling. After about six weeks. This very lovely. I talked about this in the book. Therapists diagnosed me with, you know, acute post traumatic stress disorder. And it's not a di

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today's guest is https://clt1233497.benchmarkurl.com/c/l?u=F503550&e=16214B1&c=12D259&t=0&l=474F153A&email=YpmP8I8ybQQMvCltR%2BiQ0t%2Feq5uYXDKS&seq=1, a global leader in trauma healing.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:00:34  Welcome. I'm Loriee Binstock And this is a trauma survivor, thriver's podcast. Hello, everyone. My apologies Thank you, for so much for joining me today live on FireSide chat where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual on and time your home loyalty been stuck. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest question if By requesting to hop on stage, you're sending a message in the chat box, I will try to get to you but I do I ask everyone be respectful. Today's guest is Mandy rv she is a global leader in trauma healing. Maybe, thank you so much for joining me today.   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:03:20  You're welcome. Thank you for having me.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:03:23  Well, I do want to talk to... You know where I wanna talk to you about chronic illness and trauma in that connection. We've had folks talk a little bit about that. But you also have a program and a protocol to actually solve it all. So for for people who haven't heard anyway previous podcast. Could you imagine talk about the connection between chronic illness and trauma.   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:03:51  Yeah. Absolutely. Well, what's very interesting about chronic health issues as we become adults once we start to develop them, it's not in uncommon. I think we all know someone or more than one person who might suffer with some type of chronic health issue or autoimmune condition. It is a very common experience. But there is a correlation between developing that later in life and what we experience in our early childhood. And What's really interesting to mean is that our protocols currently to care for our chronic health issues to care for our our autoimmune condition are often focused on our diet, which is an important element. It's focus on our lifestyle, which is also important and perhaps some medication But the people that I work with off and don't resolve their health issues or don't feel a sense of relief with those three pillars. And in my own hinge of being a functional nutritional therapy practitioner. And someone who is also experiencing practice I started to really dive into the under eigenvalues of why would I like get... Why would someone struggle to improve their health when they're eating the right things. When they are moving their bodies in the right way, and they're feeling some relief, but they're really not able to get over the edge of feeling like they're able to thrive in their life. And as I started to, I need cover and discover kind of the correlation between our early childhood experiences in our house leader in life, that really showed to help me see this many piece that we often don't. We don't include in our protocols we're not told about it, and That was also the key for myself and it comes down to what I like to talk about in terms of emotions in our immune system. So emotions in general, they have one fundamental function. And that really our emotions that you think about them is to allow what is healthy, what is nourishing and what a supportive for us, allowing my into our life and Our emotions can also help us keep out what is toxic and dangerous. They can become this filter for us. They can be this kind of this roadmap map if you will to help and and know which what helpful for us and what isn't helpful. But that is also the role of our immune system. Our immune system does exactly the thing It's to keep out what's toxic and to let in what's nourishing lighting in the nutrients of vitamins, the healthy bacteria, and to keep out and destroy what isn't healthy and a port of? So the emotional in the immune system are exactly the same function. So when we experience something traumatic in childhood, or even if we well, meaning, parents, but they unfortunately just didn't meet our needs as a child, And we learn that we need to refresh our emotions or we learn to hold shame about who we are and how we're how how we're feeling or we are taught that we are you know, we believe are bad or wrong because of experiences we've had in childhood. We start to refresh ourselves physically, and that can have an impact on our immune system. So the more that we learn to sorry emotions and the more that we impress ourselves just in general, the more impact it has in our immune. So when we going a little bit deeper in the childhood when we have a traumatic experience in childhood or we have ongoing traumatic experiences like abuse or an neglect or emotionally unavailable. Caretaker or anything in the realm of that. We our bodies go through a process to activate our stress hormone. So say we experience them. Fall our body goes to the process of activating our adrenals and activating our hormones months that process is meant to help us ready our body to site a threat to run away from the threat or and you know, get ourselves to safety but as the child oftentimes, if we're experiencing abuse on a regular basis, we or any of these instructions circumstances would... I just shared. We're not able to   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:08:48  Mhmm.   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:08:47  run away or fight our abuse in most cases. And so the body cannot turn off those functions once it has started. And what happens is one that trauma as a child gets stuck in our body and in our psyche, but to that stress of that trauma. And the activation of our stress hormones. To ready our body to fight or flee that process start to impact our biology, and it essentially, makes us more susceptible to getting stressed. Faster. So if you think about we experience something like that in childhood, and as we become an adult. We may... If we have not, healed those experiences and we're we've learned to of physically that stress response becomes faster and found   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:09:41  Mm-mm   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:09:42  share and faster. We experience stress an adult And eventually, our bodies just get out. We can only handle so much. Before our bodies burn out, and then we start to develop these chronic health issues because of the impact, that that's stressed. Had had on our immune system and the be rep refreshing of those emotions and the energy of those emotions in our body starts to deteriorate our health, and then we start to develop these health issues.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:10:09  Wow, you know, I manic experiencing was so vital in my healing and understanding trauma when I was first seeking help in twenty twenty and residential treatment   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:10:30  Yeah.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:10:29  experiencing was a big part of it. And so I'm able to kind of understand that I obviously have my moments where I've I I can't really think logically and rash about what's actually happening in my brain, But you know, I I think you know this. I I actually tour my Acl recently. And I just got surgery a couple weeks ago. And my husband has got as in a way   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:10:56  Oh,   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:10:56  So I I feel like my stress level is so heightened, and I feel like I have been so just   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:11:02  Yeah.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:11:05  so completely reactive with my children, and I realized when I was... I just like, downstairs stairs, and we live in you know... It's like three stories and Capitol Hill very narrow and tall. And my children I heard them on the third floor, screaming. And, like, immediately, I just felt like everything just ten up because, typically, if they're screaming, I'm like, okay.   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:11:31  Yes.   https://firesidechat.com/lorileebinstock  00:11:30  I'll be there. But now, but I'm like, oh my gosh. It's gonna take me forever to get the stairs right now. Like, I don't know what's gonna happen. And I started getting stressed out and angry and upset. And I... You know, I just imagine a wounded animal in the forest and just like   https://firesidechat.com/mandyharvey  00:11:43  Yeah.

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, April 12th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today's guest is Andrew Daniel, Author of "Awaken to Your True Self" and Director of the Center for Cinesomatic Development. -------------- Lorilee Binstock  00:00:50  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is a trauma survivor Thrivers Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat, where you can be a part of conversation as my virtual audience. I am your host, Lorilee Binstock. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box, I will try to get to you, but I do ask that everyone be respectful. Today's guest is Andrew Daniel, author of the bestselling book, awaken to your true self, the founder of Cinesomatics and director at the center for Cinesomatic Development. Daniel, thank you so much for joining me today. Andrew Daniel  00:01:48  Thank you for having me. Lorilee Binstock  00:01:50  Well, you know, I was really intrigued. I you know, I've heard of, you know, somatic experiencing, which actually I really just discovered that in twenty twenty when I went into residential treatment. But when I heard about you, I heard I I I learned this new thing, at least in my mind, synosomatic therapy. Could you actually tell me a little bit about that? Andrew Daniel  00:02:12  Yeah. It it is it is very cutting edge stuff. Basically, cinematics let's just start with the word. So it comes from two words, cinema and somatics. So cinema somatics. So the first part is Sinesh. So in this therapy, in this it's pretty much an entire transformational approach. We use video. And so we use video and movement, and then the somatic part, the body. So we use video and movement to watch the way people show up in their body. And then we play that video back of them moving in their body. And then myself or other people in the group will give feedback about all of the unconscious, the subconscious patterns, mythologies, archetypes that are symbolically coming through the body. And not only is it a feedback from the participants or myself, but they get to see it for themselves in their own body on the video replay. So it's a very potent feedback loop that helps people see all of the hidden traumas or stories or blocks and even shadow material that's holding them back in their life. Lorilee Binstock  00:03:36  That's really fascinating because, you know, we do these things. We we fiddle our hands when we we get nervous. We, you know, we even sweat. Andrew Daniel  00:03:43  Yes. Lorilee Binstock  00:03:46  We do so many different things based on the things we learn growing up that kind of make us feel safer, I guess, these coping mechanisms. And I I and I that that is that is really fascinating to me because I'm assuming most people don't know what, like, their trick ticks or whatever are. How did you actually discover this as a type of therapy? Andrew Daniel  00:04:15  So it's about twofold. One, I mean, on my journey of my own traumas and growing up and everything led me to actually a lot of alternative and holistic healing methods. We didn't have a lot of big medical insurance. We weren't into any of the pharmaceuticals, or my parents took me to, I think, a psychologist once But very gratefully, I ended up through my own self help, self improvement journey, came across all of these different methods. There was neuro linguistic programming. There was tapping EFT. There was acupuncture. There was hypnosis. There was all of these things that were actually pretty helpful for me. And I actually got certified in different immunotherapies and and different stuff. And for a while, it it worked very well, and it and exposed me to whole new world of well, a whole new world, really. Because because not only was it just therapy, everything in my life was changing, it was like, oh my gosh. It's not because I don't know the technique. It's because I got all this junk and stuff inside. I mean, that's getting in the way. Lorilee Binstock  00:05:32  Mhmm. Andrew Daniel  00:05:32  And so that set me on a healing journey for for the past fifteen years. And, eventually, I reached a a Plato. I I was homeless twice, even after being published. My software company did very well, and then it just stopped. And I was wondering how and why that after all these successes and learning all of these spiritual and even practical truths and wisdoms, I was still stuck. There were still many things in my life that weren't working. And so I came across work by a a late mentor of mine who was pioneering some of this video and movement work. And so I learned a lot through him, and that really exposed me to this world of symbolic somatic, all this un not not invisible, but invisible to many of us, Lorilee Binstock  00:06:35  Mhmm. Andrew Daniel  00:06:36  information about ourselves in our body. And then so I studied under him for a few years until he passed. And then I took everything that I learned and then started expanding upon it. So I took that movement and video process, and I added in the cinema aspects We use very high end cinema equipment to get a lot of data. And then through that practice, in my own practice, one of the things I discovered to solidify Sonosomatics as my own modality we're we're the discovery of archetypes in the body. And what I mean by this is when I would watch clients move, and I would say something like Alright. Okay. So you're struggling with making money in your life. Okay. Lorilee Binstock  00:07:24  I wanna know more. Andrew Daniel  00:07:25  Right? Is yeah. Yeah. Lorilee Binstock  00:07:27  This is me. Andrew Daniel  00:07:27  So Yeah. So you're struggling with money in your life. Okay. Well, show me through the body your relationship with money. What is making money look look like to you? Not don't tell me about it. Show me show me in the body. Alright. What is spending money look like? Oh, what does having money look like? Oh, okay. And then what I started to find is that what people said or thought or had an image of in their mind didn't always match the way that their body felt. So it's all about the feeling, what the body feels like as it's moving. It's not a mental, logical analysis. We're dealing with symbolism. We're dealing with the realm of the unconscious. It's not logical and linear. It is symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical. And so I started to see, oh, this person, I say, show me making money. And it takes them two minutes to start moving. When you're standing in front of somebody on camera for two minutes, That that for many people is like an eternity. Lorilee Binstock  00:08:39  Mhmm. Andrew Daniel  00:08:39  And, also, in our own life, If you scale that out, well, what does that mean about somebody? What does it mean about someone's relationship with making money? If it takes them two minutes to even start moving, where most people who are functional in it move immediately. They'll move it in in about one or two seconds. And so I started to notice that there were these correlations. And then I would watch some of these people, and I would say, alright, show me something like giving. And then they would do something where they they would take their hands and pull it into themselves. The the direction would be towards them, and I'm like, wait a minute. Giving giving objectively should go outwards. And so then I would say, alright. Well, what's your relationship with receiving and giving in your life? And they're like, oh, I struggle with this. And so I I started to very, very quickly notice the correlations between the way that somebody represented these archetypes in their body and the actual practical practical results they were getting in their life. And

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. ***Trigger Warning: This podcast contains discussions of sexual assault. Listen with care and if you are looking for resources, please visit, SASA28173.org ***  ​​Lorilee Binstock  00:02:16  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver’s Podcast.   Today's guest is Dayna Corcoran, founder of the Sisterhood Against Sexual Assault, a profit foundation supporting survivors, and families of sexual abuse. It was created to help victims of sexual violence by providing training learning and awareness of sexual assault. Dana, thank you so much. For joining me today. I really do appreciate it.   Dayna Corcoran  00:03:24  Yes. Thank you so much for having.   Lorilee Binstock  00:03:26  Of course. Well, first of all, could you share a little bit about your organization sister again, sexual assault?   Dayna Corcoran  00:03:34  Yeah. And we call South here in Black called, North Carolina, just the abbreviated version.   Lorilee Binstock  00:03:39  Mhmm.   Dayna Corcoran  00:03:40  It it's a newly formed five zero one non nonprofit organization. That has a community centric mission to provide a safe healing space for victims and survivors to the sexual assault. We carry out program to protect people from sexual assault remote awareness, as a well, as to provide education in the support, and we Just started the first week of January.   Lorilee Binstock  00:04:03  Oh, wow. So this is very soon. Can you tell me what what made you guys want to start this organization?   Dayna Corcoran  00:04:12  Yes. Prior to January, nobody knew about Salsa none of us ever anticipated be becoming a group of women or members of this group. It was the... Probably the fifth of January. It was a Friday afternoon noon at four Pm. I was getting ready to leave town, and I got this phone call, and everybody that knows me know I never answered the phone.   Lorilee Binstock  00:04:35  Yeah   Dayna Corcoran  00:04:36  But it was it was like, one of my girlfriends here in Miller Community and West. And it wasn't it was odd. She was calling me as opposed texting. So I am at the phone as I was running out the door, and she had said, Dana, I'm in the hospital. I'm in, Charlotte. I don't know. I'm new to the area. I don't... You know, I don't know where to turn. I just need somebody to talk to and I need somebody to pray for me. And from that, she told me her story that had happened to her the week prior. So it was just... Over the New Year eve holiday in the Dominican Republic.   Lorilee Binstock  00:05:13  Do, I I don't know she feels comfortable with you sharing a little bit about our story.   Dayna Corcoran  00:05:17  Yeah.   Lorilee Binstock  00:05:19  Would you be able to do that?   Dayna Corcoran  00:05:19  Yeah. Absolutely. I'm sharing an information with arabic victims approval. She's also written out her story and she in the process of going through therapy and the she's... More comfortable. I know that she's gonna be her own advocate, and she will show be the platform that we speak on to talk to other victims and survivors of the sexual assault. So she's on vacation with a friend in the Dominican Republic. Justice her and her friend at an all inclusive resort, So we you know, we travel. We think those are safer players to go to.   Lorilee Binstock  00:05:53  Mhmm.   Dayna Corcoran  00:05:55  She intends the nightly organized functions. You fifteen being night the fun night, and it's still broad daylight on the day of her herself. She's at the... At the restaurant the lounge bar area outside in I say that because in order her to piece her incident back together, she had remembered that it was daylight. The sun hasn't set yet, it was still early. She's enjoying a beverage,   Lorilee Binstock  00:06:18  Mhmm   Dayna Corcoran  00:06:24  and flash forward a few hours, she wakes up on the side of the road in the Dominican Republic. So on her story, video, Surveillance, and what she couldn't recall as time goes by, she was having a drink. So she is filmed being walked out of the all resort, put in a car And approximately four hours later, she was pushed from that moving car, landed on the sidewalk, which woke her up to trauma from the from falling out of the car kind of woke her up.   Lorilee Binstock  00:06:59  Mhmm   Dayna Corcoran  00:06:59  She realized she was laying in a pool of her own blood, the it was right back to front of the resort that she was taken from. The resort staff came out and took her to the local you know, makeshift hop, they're not, like, our hospitals that we go to, but it was more like gay, a makeshift, hospital urgent care in the Dominican Republic where she realized she had been drug kidnapped. Obviously, she was taken off the resort.   Lorilee Binstock  00:07:27  Mm-mm   Dayna Corcoran  00:07:29  And then really imaginative attacked with an object sexually attacked with an object. That created approximately a ten centimeter gas internally,   Lorilee Binstock  00:07:40  Oh   Dayna Corcoran  00:07:41  which led to the need for medical attention. So she's getting to the medical attention in a... In... Which is great. I mean, their job was to keep her alive. They did that, but it was in a non discreet room where the the... The... You the surgeons that were helping her were in t shirt because That were inside out. There was no glove, but there was no... It was stupid obvious that wasn't a professional hospital.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:06  Oh, goodness.   Dayna Corcoran  00:08:10  She immediately received live transfusion because of the... She had lost so many, so much of her own blood that she immediately received the blood... And she was allergic to it right away. Immediately got a rash.   Lorilee Binstock  00:08:22  Mhmm.   Dayna Corcoran  00:08:23  Something's wrong with is the the way it, you know, worked with her body or something was wrong with the blood to begin with, but she needed it. They su her her. They gave her the blood. They they... You know, they antibiotics the everything that she needed. But as she was going along, they kept saying, well, if you want this done, you have to pay a thousand dollars you want this and I need to pay a thousand dollars? And it they had... The... The the financial end of it was... This is why I'm saying all of this is because the only time they had brought an interpreter that she could understand what was happening to her. It was along with the police department there. It was to assigned to her that if she didn't pay this bill in debit or cash or Venmo or, you know, money in hand,   Lorilee Binstock  00:09:09  Mhmm.   Dayna Corcoran  00:09:09  she would be taken directly from the hospital to the police department and held, Meaning they wouldn't let her leave unless she had paid this money. So as an aftermath, you think, okay, The assault led to the need for medical attention. So this orchestrated event from the bartender at the of t

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, March 15th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. ***Trigger Warning: This podcast contains discussions of suicidal ideation and the use of psychedelics to heal postpartum psychosis. We are not doctors in the medical field and are only speaking in the nature of our own experiences. If you are experiencing postpartum depression or psychosis, please reach out to your physician. If you would like to support or donate to the movement for psychedelic advocacy, check out the psychedelic medicine coalition ***  Today’s guest is Melissa Lavasani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Washington, DC-based Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, the first and only member association focusing on advocating for psychedelics at the Federal, State, and local levels of government. Prior to founding Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, Melissa was Chairwoman of Decriminalize Nature DC and proposer of Washington DC’s successful 2020 ballot measure Initiative 81: the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act. Inspired by her own experience of using psychedelics to heal her severe postpartum depression, Melissa led the Decriminalize Nature DC campaign to the largest ballot initiative victory in the history of our nation’s capital.     Lorilee Binstock  00:00:32  Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver’s Podcast.. Thank you so much for joining me live On Fire side chat, where you can be a part of the conversation as my virtual audience. I'm your host, Lorilee Binstock. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guess questions by requesting to hop on stage. You're sending a message in the chat box. I will try to get to you, but I do ask that everybody be respectful. Today's guest is Melissa Lavasani, founder and chief executive officer of Washington Dc based psychedelic Medicine coalition. The first and only member association focusing on advocating for psychedelic psychedelics at the federal state and local levels of government. Prior to founding psychedelic medicine coalition Melissa was chair women of nature Dc and composer of Washington Dc successful twenty twenty ballot measure initiative eighty one then plant and fungus policy act, inspired by your own experience of using psychedelics to heal her severe post depression, Melissa led the criminal nature Dc campaign to the largest vaglio initiative victory in the history of our nation's capitals. Melissa, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me. You know, this is the first time I've actually ever had someone in my studio, which Now, you know, is a closet. I feel so on her. You you should be. I would not let a lot of people into my closet, but I do consider you a friend I met you through the whole movement, the psychedelic movement. And, actually, you have some news to share today.  Melissa Lavasani: Yeah. we are launching a pack a political action committee. It's called Psychedelic medicine talk, and is a way to engage with everyday noncitizens on this issue. You know, the coalition is really focused on specifically the ecosystem and bringing the industry that is coming out of that ecosystem to the capitol hill and getting them to advocate for changes in laws. But we found that it was it's really important to engage American people on this issue. There's regularly their stories in the media talking about and shaping up medicine, but, you know, getting people are interested in this issue and getting them involved in the political process. To put leaders in place that will, you know, get behind this issue and congress and then and in state legislatures, is really important. That's how, you know, elections is one way to exercise our voice in this country, and that is how we can really create change as if the current leadership is not supporting Psychedelic medicine, healing Americans, and just like have giving Americans a choice in the matter, you know, our with our mental health care system being so in in this this situation of it's end, you know, getting people involved in the political process is just really important, and I think it's gonna help us shift the stigma around he's medicine to his government. Lorilee Binstock Well, you yourself was not someone who was someone who did poking unquote drugs right. And so this is kind of a surprising term for you. This was what twenty twenty, twenty, Yeah. Twenty nineteen my, twenty nineteen is when I... Like, really found the solutions and, like, stepped into this political process. Prior to that I was a Dc government employee. I was working in policy and budget. And know, working at a a hyper local level was super gratifying. It's like the things that I was working on and I could and touch and feel in my everyday life being a Dc resident, And that was great. And I thought well, this is, you know, I got my master's degree and policy. A few years before that, I wanted to do something that made Americans lives better. I didn't know what it was specifically. I thought I would really go into foreign policy. And that's why my entire master's degree was about is foreign policy, but you know, I think she... There's a saying you plan in god, a master plan and to just be, like a really solid public servant her the city of Dc was it wasn't my destiny at all? Yeah. I got... I was pregnant with my second child working and our version of City Hall and Dc. It's called the Wilson building. Man having oversight of various distributions is I was pregnant with my second child. I was dealing with a really difficult pregnancy. I've been an athlete my whole life I've always been active my first pregnancy had no issues. But my second one I I felt it was like, my she was like, to sucking my soul in a way. It was like, I it was a very hard process. Like, my body was just not working the same way that it did. I was, of course, a little bit older too having children in my late thirties, and I had really terrible. So, you know, being active was kinda taken out of the equation completely. I wasn't working out regularly because that, I wasn't really engaged with my health in general. I wasn't eating properly. You know, I was just kind of there's franchise from the process and you're dealing with. And I had a little taste of what people who deal with chronic pain, know, you was on a daily basis and that I see like that has a direct result on your mental health. And I was... If it got so bad that I was like, crawling up the stairs at the end of the night, when I couldn't stand off properly, I just could've... I was not comfortable. And it I had what they call anti part of depression. And it's not a very well known term. I never even heard of it before this. Yeah. I've never heard of that. Yeah. There's time I'm hearing about it. Yeah. I was going in for a regular checkup And my regular physician was on vacation, so I was seeing somebody else. And she walked in the door and she just like, hey are you doing? I don't know what it was. Maybe it was, like a female voice that, you know, it was just comforting or something. But, like, I immediately started crying, And like I couldn't even articulate a word, and she immediately picked up her prescription time started writing me a prescription engine process. And she's, like, just take this. You'll feel better, immediately. You'll get off of this after you deliver the baby. Everything will be fine and they're so healthy soon. Process. Now I knew that that most likely, wasn't gonna be the case. I've had two friends now, take their own lives, while they were all depression. Yeah I've seen other friends who have been on depression of various kinds for twenty years. You know, I I've seen them a struggle with tapering off of one and trying another one and just the uncertainty that goes along with that. So And mind, I was getting prescribed this job, it supposed to help me, but I knew that it could have potentially harmed me even further. So, guys. So I just... I talked to the prescription and I went home, and I was just... It did it wow with me and I was talking to my husband Daniel about it, and he was like, well, if you're not comfortable taking it, like, don't take it, we'll just try and figure this out another way. But there's... Really... When depression, kinda takes over, it's there's you you lose the range of your ship and she... You know, something else takes you takes you over. And no matter what I did, nothing was fixing this and it was just getting worse and worse. But I made it through the pregnancy, delivered the baby. He's healthy, happy. That's I kid alive. But after, and I felt okay for, like, a week or two, and then after two weeks, my health just like, completely declined. I was in the most severe depression that I've ever been, and I've never had any mental health issues prior to this experience. I had a little bit of part with my first daughter, but that went away as soon as I could, you know, get my bearings and get in their routine again and I started going back to work and working out and to fixing a diet. So I had assumed that this would just naturally go away, like, my other experience did or how that other kids happen. But this just progressively got worse. I was also dealing with paralyzing anxiety. I was having panic attacks on a regular basis. I had extreme paranoia. I never, like, let my husband drive the kids around. Like, if the kids were in the car, I was driving I was convinced that, like, he was, you know, gonna bake a bad judgment call. Like, it was very strange, the places that my mind went. And then the at the very worst part of my depression I was hearing voices and it exper