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

Dr. H explores how to think about psychedelic assisted therapy with ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin in terms of patient selection, ideal indications, psychiatric diagnosis,  trauma history, medical comorbidities, medication interactions, cautions, and contraindications.

This episode comes from a recent interview that Dr. H did on the podcast The Testing Psychologist.


"The Unwell Doctor" episode on the podcast The Nocturnists
https://www.thenocturnists-shame.org/episodes/9-the-unwell-doctor

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

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

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Dr. H sits down with Dr. Will Van Derveer of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute and Higher Practice podcast in a wide-ranging exploration of what's good (and not so good) in current psychiatric practice.

They explore topics including:
 •Problems with diagnostic nosology
•Depression as a spiritual problem or a symptom of disconnection
•Integrative psychiatry and how this differs from standard psychiatry
•Getting at root causes of psychiatric illness
•The role of psychotherapy in good psychiatry practice
•Diagnosing and treating ADD
•Ketamine-- Dosing, route,  how and when to include adjunctive psychotherapy
•Ketamine via tele-health....Expanding access or increasing risk?
•What other psychiatric and non-psychiatric clinicians are missing
•Vicarious trauma and grief in psychiatry
•Hopes and concerns with recent psychedelic decriminalization

Psychedelic Practitioner Immersive
https://www.enduringlovetherapy.com/events-1/psychedelic-practitioner-immersive-psychedelic-space-holding-integration

Dr. Will Van Derveer and the Integrative Psychiatry Institute
https://psychiatrycenters.com/team-members/will-van-derveer-md/

Higher Practice podcast
https://psychiatryinstitute.com/podcast/

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

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

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The magic of psychotherapy is that it brings forth transference— the patient’s most important and formative relationships, typically with early caregivers, are unconsciously re-enacted in the therapy room. And this transference necessarily creates countertransference, the therapist’s unconscious reactions to the transference. 

Alexandria came to Dr. H originally due to her severe harm OCD. But over time, it became clear to him, and eventually to her, that she was increasingly, and unconsciously, trying to put him in the role of the abandoner, the critic, the emotional abuser. This process is called projective identification, and as you will hear, it played out very dramatically between them, and was a major factor in her plans to die.

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

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

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Thirty years ago, a 10 year old boy was found stabbed to death in a park…the same park where 18 year old Stephanie and three young men were seen riding bikes the night before. Stephanie and the others were repeatedly questioned, they became the prime suspects…..yet they, nor anyone, was ever charged for the murder. It remains unsolved to this day.

This is the story how how one event can alter the course of your life, how so many possibilities for the future can disappear overnight….this is a story of how after years of unhelpful psychotherapy and medications, Stephanie was finally able to uncover what lay beneath-- with the help of an unusually perceptive therapist, as well as ketamine and MDMA- assisted psychotherapy.

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

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

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After years of crippling anxiety, substance abuse, mood instability, and loss, Daniel had finally found the path to impending fame and success beyond his dreams. Then everything fell apart, and he was forced to face the fact that he lacked the skills to face life on life's terms. Enter DBT, and Daniel began to piece his life back together with increasing confidence and competence.

To contact Daniel about Peer-led DBT groups or Dual Diagnosis 12 step meetings:
[email protected]

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

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

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Here Dr. H sits down with Dr.  Kelly Sonnenfeld, a psychologist and DBT expert, in this first of a two part look at dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT.  This episode is a primer on DBT-- what DBT is,  how it works,  and how it fits into the landscape of therapy options. Part Two explores Daniel’s story of how DBT helped him recover from a terrible period of psychiatric suffering.

DBT is best known for successfully treating self-harm and suicidality, particularly in the context of complex PTSD and borderline personality disorders, primarily through building skills to cope with emotional dysregulation.

Psychedelic therapy training in CO with Dr. H
https://www.enduringlovetherapy.com/events-1/psychedelic-practitioner-immersives-psychedelic-space-holding-integration-2

Dr. Kelly Sonnenfeld
https://drkellysonnenfeld.com/

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

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

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Most medical illnesses appear later in life,  as organ systems fail and the decades of wear and tear eventually  erode the body's innate homeostatic mechanisms.  Psychiatric illness, however, is profoundly different. Here Dr. H explores six central reasons why serious psychiatric illness tends to appear in mid to late adolescence.

These factors include:
•Leaving the tribe
•Contagion and heightened peer influence
•Early existential life crises
•Developmental brain changes
•Sleep deprivation and sleep cycle derangement
•Cannabis and alcohol


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

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

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Last month marked a fairly momentous occasion in Colorado, the statewide passage of Proposition 122, the Natural Medicines Health Act. Coloradoans voted, by a tally of 53 to 47%, to approve both the decriminalization of psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline, along with the medicalization of psilocybin, with the possibility of a medicalization pathway for the others in 2026. 

This is a landmark, tipping point kind of social change, and one that triggers a huge number of hopes, concerns, and questions. Here Craig sits down with Shannon Hughes, a CSU Professor of Social Work who specializes in issues of drugs, meds and society; she is also a co-founder of the Nowak Society, Colorado’s preeminent force for psychedelic education and community.  Together Craig and Shannon explore the wide-ranging implications of decriminalization and medicalization of psilocybin and other psychedelics.

Chris Johnson/Whooz Larry--  "Have My Heart"
 https://open.spotify.com/track/7CoXPcTsQGjIU3mEbeTMQX?si=dc6f5f06a4394b2c

Dr. Shannon Hughes
https://www.drshannonhughes.com/

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

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Psychiatric meds so often get demonized in the media, including the podcast world, and while psych meds are far from perfect and often cause problematic side effects, they also literally save people’s lives every single day.

Steve grew up as the youngest of four, a happy boy in a happy family,   a “golden” childhood as he describes it….until everything fell apart. Within a period of just a few years, he lost his father and both his beloved older brothers, all while still a young teenager, leaving him with his Mom and an older sister. His family had been cut in half, yet his most frightening and overwhelming challenges were still to come.

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

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

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Three women. Three stories.
One must listen.

Act 1- Sarah
Music by Dori Lewis

Act 2- Karen
Music-- Karen and Craig,  "Waterfall of Wisdom" by Fia

Act 3- Elizabeth



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

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