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

Very few people are willing and/or able to share and describe their descent into psychosis— in part because memory formation and consolidation are so impaired during episodes of psychosis…..and also because there is often so much fear and shame tied up in the experience of losing one’s mind. 

Here Dr. H's  patient Corben describes his very early onset illness, how it started with years of depression,  then shifted into profound alienation and increasingly frightening psychosis, and finally into stability and recovery.

Video made by Corben to accompany his story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIJcriJjggA

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The prevailing model of psychiatric care in the US is called "med management"-- this typically means a 10-15min appointment to review symptoms and choose medications.  Here Dr. Will Van Derveer of the Integrative Psychiatric Institute sits down with Dr. H to deconstruct this deeply flawed model and posit a more holistic and hopeful way of thinking about psychiatric care.

 Dr. Van Derveer and the Integrative Psychiatric Institute
https://psychiatryinstitute.com/


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In this season 6 opener Dr. H sits down with Dr. Erin Jacklin of the Catalyst Center in Denver to explore how we learn to the deeply complex and consistently challenging work of doing good therapy.

"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?"  An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBride, Feb 4th-6th 2026 in Joshua Tree, CA https://www.craigheacockmd.com/i-love-you-i-hate-you-are-you-my-mom/

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Craig sits down with Dori Lewis of Elemental Psychedelics to explore the myths and realities of working with psilocybin mushrooms, including:

•What do people not understand about psilocybin mushrooms?
•Can mushrooms treat depression? If so, which types?
•How should we think about the specific roles of mushrooms and ketamine in psychiatric and psychological treatment?
•What kinds of problems are most amenable to psilocybin?
•Why do some people have no psychedelic experience on apparently therapeutic doses of psilocybin?
•Individual vs group work with mushrooms

Elemental Psychedelics-- Ketamine and Psilocybin therapist/facilitator trainings
https://www.elementalpsychedelics.com/

Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive psychotherapy workshop with Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/

Beyond Psilocybin-- Embracing the Power of Ketamine
https://www.reflectivehealing.com/blog/fortcollins/therapy/reflectivehealing/beyond-psilocybin-embracing-the-power-of-ketamine-in-mental-health-healing

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Chris and Craig go meta to deconstruct season 5, explore the art of storytelling and music selection, and answer listener questions.

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Christina grew up with a tumultuous and mentally ill mother, an older brother who decompensated into psychosis and frightening aggression, and just one healthy family member, her father.   Dr. H and Christina explore both the wounding of having a desperately ill parent, as well as the profound gift of having another parent able to provide love and support. Christina suffered terribly from these maternal wounds, but she was also able to finally emerge as a healthy, grateful, wise, and deeply caring adult….initially drawn to nursing, she eventually transitioned into working as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

This story is in two parts— first Christina shares her moving story, then she and Dr. H go meta and explore the behind the scenes preparation for this episode. Two of the themes that emerge in this latter part are storytelling as integration, and vulnerability as part of healing. Christina beautifully describes how the process of pulling her story together and unearthing these often brutal memories allowed her to find a deeper sense of peace, acceptance, and self-affirmation.

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Dr. Russell Carr was a career Navy psychiatrist for 20 years and served in Iraq, where today’s story begins.  This is a story of a healer, then a terrible wounding, then the healer trying to find his way amidst the chaos of war. This story is about a rite of passage, one that not every psychiatrist faces, but most do at some point-- that of losing the first patient to suicide, then trying to find the strength to move forward.

Dr. Russell Carr
A Psychiatrist Returns from War-- on Substack
https://russellcarr.substack.com/

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A huge problem with current psychiatric diagnosis is that it often lumps completely unrelated things under the same vast and vague tent, such as with the diagnosis of "Major Depressive Disorder".   Here Craig sits down with his patient Rebecca to try to make sense of her complex early onset depression and how it played out via addiction, anorexia, and pathological caretaking and how she was finally able find the grace and compassion to prioritize care for herself.

Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive psychotherapy training in Colorado with Dr.  H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/

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BFTA/ Dr. H
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Here Dr. H sites down with Jenny, a psychoanalyst who shares her moving, then horrifying, then eventually cathartic tale of plumbing the depths of her traumatized psyche, first with years of psychoanalysis, then with five MDMA-assisted therapy sessions. This is a story of numbing and forgetting, then re-opening and remembering...of finding a way to make sense of a life of protective dissociation.

Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive psychotherapy training in Colorado with Dr.  H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/

BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
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BFTA/ Dr. H
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In this solo episode Craig shares his current thoughts on MDMA medicalization, sleep meds, ADD, motivation vs self-discipline, benzos, how long to stay on psych meds, a change and a proposed addition to his top 10 med list, borderline vs bipolar, and marriage.

Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive training with Dr.  H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/

BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/

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

Support the show