Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Psychedelics

Doug Friedman, the co-host and producer of the podcast Your Mental Breakdown, contacted Craig last spring and said that he was ready and wanting to tell his abyss story-- that of his wife’s death and his journey of recovery thereafter. Doug has mentioned a number of times on his podcast that his wife passed away the same week in 2018 that he was diagnosed with MS… but the details of his loss are actually much more profound and heartbreaking.  That’s because Doug’s beloved wife Kim, who was also a psychotherapist, died by suicide when her bipolar disorder overtook her.  

After Kim’s death, Doug plunged into a process of painful reckoning that finally culminated in a move to the Colorado mountains to plumb his emotional depths through songwriting and music. The result of his inner process, of his working through the paralyzing grief and the overwhelming emotions… is the music you will hear throughout this story.

Doug Friedman
https://www.clearmindfullheart.com

Your Mental Breakdown podcast
https://www.yourmentalbreakdown.com

BFTA on Instagram
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BFTA/ Dr. H
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Here Craig sits down with Jeff Pincus, a nationally recognized couples therapist and trainer from Boulder, they explore why it’s so challenging to be an effective marriage therapist, why we are all destined to marry the wrong person (hint….our partners eventually become a mirror for us and our issues),  and how marriage can be the most nourishing yet also the most difficult and painful relationship of our lives.

Jeff's work is informed by cognitive neuroscience, somatic psychotherapy, systems thinking, and Tibetan Buddhism. He is an expert in PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy) and was one of the original core faculty for the PACT  Institute. He currently offers transformational three-day intensives for couples interested in healing, growing and loving.
https://jeffpincus.com

BFTA is now on Instagram
@backfromtheabysspodcast
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BFTA on Facebook
@Back From The Abyss Podcast

BFTA/Dr. H
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When psychiatric meds work well, it can be nothing short of miraculous. Yet so often, patients accumulate a long list of med failures, leading to a sense of deep frustration and even hopelessness.

Here Dr. H explores five central reasons why psych meds fail:

1. Misdiagnosis, largely due to  overlapping and confusing diagnostic categories and the general lack of a coherent nosology in psychiatry
2. The role of trauma as the great imitator
3. Sleep issues
4. Hormonal status
5. Confused and/or unreasonable expectations

BFTA/Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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An amazing healing journey deserves a detailed post-game analysis and deconstruction.   Here Elizabeth,  a participant in the MAPS MDMA study, sits down with Craig and co-therapist Karen Cooper to look back at what were the crux moves and essential ingredients that shifted Elizabeth's PTSD into remission.


BFTA/Dr. H
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Craig sits down with LA-based Cuban American storyteller, author, BFTA super-advisor, and longtime dear friend Antonio Sacre to explore the art and power of storytelling, their personal abyss moments, friendship and vulnerability, and their shared love of air conditioning.

Antonio Sacre
https://www.antoniosacre.com

BFTA
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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Life would be so much easier if we each came with an individual instruction manual, to both guide us and also warn us of how our inherited temperament and predilections might cause us great suffering.

The first page of Emily's manual would have started with a capitalized bold face warning:
"You are a highly sensitive soul, you will feel others' hurt and anger and sadness as if it were your own....you will experience the world as if you had no protective skin, no shield....you will need to find people who see you and understand who you are, who can help nurture the beautiful flower that you can and will become."

Emily eventually found her healthy place in the world, but in the process the darkness almost took her.


BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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Just after starting his career, Dr. H met Matthew, a middle school student in the midst of a horrifying psychotic break.   Here Dr. H sits down with Meg and Phil, Matthew's parents, to explore their 15 year journey of grief, acceptance, recovery, and eventually becoming a source of support, connection, and wisdom for other families on this brutal and often deeply isolating journey.

NAMI Family to Family classes
https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Family-to-Family

NAMI support groups
https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Support-Groups

BFTA/Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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12 step programs have helped millions of people, but they can't address everything. Randy got clean and sober and found a supportive community in AA....yet something was missing. He couldn't find peace, he couldn't connect in intimate relationships, he felt deeply broken and spiritually empty.  It turns out that when Randy's little brother drowned when Randy was just 4 years old, his family became a numbed archipelago of grief, leaving him to grow up without the mirroring and attachments that he desperately needed. Enter ayahuasca, followed by psilocybin....Randy was finally able to reach the parts of his unconscious where his childhood trauma was blocking his attachment and safety circuitry.

BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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We're back!!

Sometimes it's irresistible, necessary even, to lose ourselves into the greater collective, to become a honeybee buzzing with the ecstatic singular purpose of the hive.

In this season 3 opener, Jamie tells Dr. H her story of trying to save herself by losing herself, then finally coming to face the fact that she had to plumb the depths of her trauma alone, culminating in a high dose DIY psilocybin session and the rediscovery of herself.

A heads up-- this episode contains a description of a sexual assault.


BFTA/Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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In this final episode of season 2,  Chris and Craig explore the highs and lows of the last year and plans for season 3.

Craig discussing the psychedelic revolution in psychiatry on the Modern Therapist Survival Guide podcast
https://therapyreimagined.com/modern-therapist-podcast/psychedelic-assisted-therapy/


BFTA
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