Developing Meaning

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Deb Dana is a master healer, teacher,  author, and the creator of a unique polyvagal-informed approach to therapy that is based on The Polyvagal Theory of Dr. Stephen Porges.

In this episode you will learn about the neuroscience of human connection, and how our autonomic nervous system is composed of three distinct internal states that determine how we feel and how we create meaning.

Learn more about Deb Dana's work and workshops at www.rhythmofregulation.com

Timestamps:
00:00:18 Understanding Polyvagal Theory and Nervous System
00:18:07 Early Influences and Therapy Modalities
00:34:15 The Power of Polyvagal Theory
00:50:16 Healing Trauma Through Nervous System
00:56:00 Exploring Mental Health Paradigm Shifts
01:05:38 The Meaning of Life and Connection
01:14:13 Exploring Healing and Connection With Experts

Theme music by The Thrashing Skumz

Produced by Dr. Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Developing Meaning is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY INSTITUTIONS.  Learn more at DevelopingMeaning.com.

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Dr. April Minjarez is the only therapist I know who is both experienced at healing infant trauma and an end of life doula.  She is also an expert in multiple trauma healing modalities including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and an amazing mentor, teacher, and healer.

In this episode you will hear how a terrifying experience with gangs in middle school inspired April to become a therapist.  You will also learn how EMDR therapy stimulates healing by reprocessing components of traumatic memories, and how this modality can integrate ketamine journeys.  Also, you will learn April's compelling one word answer to my question about the meaning of life.

Theme music by The Thrashing Skumz

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Developing Meaning is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY INSTITUTIONS

Timestamps
0:19 - Finding Meaning in Therapeutic Modalities
11:31 - Middle School Gang Story
19:20 - Evolution of Therapeutic Modalities
23:32 - EMDR Therapy for Trauma Processing
40:00 - Integrating EMDR and Ketamine
48:51 - Working with Grief and Loss
58:00 - The Meaning of Life According to April
1:02:02 - Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
1:06:00 - Wrap Up and Look Ahead

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When Richard Brockman was seven years old his mother died by suicide.  He went on to become an expert in trauma and suicide, and is now a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia, Psychoanalyst, Playwright, Author and my mentor and friend.   He recently published his memoir, Life After Death: Surviving Suicide, which tells his story of loss and healing from both a first person and a neuroscience perspective.  

In this conversation you will learn much about how to heal trauma from perspectives of story, neuroscience, and meaning.

Theme music by The Thrashing Skumz

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Timestamps
0:17 - Healing Trauma and Surviving Suicide

10:43 - Personal Connection's Impact in Psychiatry

25:29 - Questioning Freud's Theories in Therapy

30:15 - Understanding Meaning and Story in Psychology

42:04 - Trauma, Story, and Healing

50:31 - Healing Trauma Through Love and Storytelling

1:04:03 - Healing Trauma and Finding Gratitude

1:10:45 - Taking Steps Towards Healing and Recovery

1:17:38 - Healing and the Meaning of Life

1:26:28 - Appreciation, Friendship, and Future Plans

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In this episode I discuss how a year end review can help us prioritize and plan for the year ahead.  I review what I have learned from this podcast so far and look ahead toward upcoming episodes and topics in 2024.

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Theme Music by The Thrashing Skumz

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"The more efficient a force is, the more silent and the more subtle it is. Love is the subtlest force in the world." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
(quote lifted from Bruce's bio page)

How can you know what type of therapy is most likely to be helpful when the number of psychotherapies is vast and growing ?  

One way is to learn from Bruce Hersey, who has 30 + years of clinical experience and a wide range of expertise, including Ericksonian Hypnosis, Psychodrama, EMDR, IFS, and Coherence Therapy.
In this episode Bruce describes his evolution as a therapist,  and how he found convergent principles between 3 treatment modalities: EMDR, IFS, and Coherence Therapy.  Bruce describes his integrated approach for healing trauma, and how he created the Syzygy Institute, which teaches these methods to therapists.
You will also hear about Bruce’s take on Meaning, and how music and the song Titanium helped him during a challenging time.

Timestamps:
00:00:23 - Intro
00:05:00 - Concilience and EO Wilson
00:15:00 - Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP
00:17:19 - Psychodrama
00:28:00 - EMDR, bringing adaptive and dysfunctional memory networks together
00:34:12 - Power and Challenges of EMDR
00:40:17 - Ego States and IFS in EMDR
00:44:00 - Understanding IFS and EMDR Connection
00:50:52 - Comparing Dual Attention in EMDR and IFS
01:02:00 - Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories
01:14:20 - Caution and Meaning in Healing Therapies
01:19:00 - The Meaning of Life According to Bruce

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff
Theme Music by The Thrashing Skumz

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Join me as I share an audio diary of my first encounter with Ketamine, which is a legal psychedelic medication  that can treat depression, trauma and more. 

Set  in the serene Menla retreat center of the Catskill Mountains, this episode describes my participation in a week-long  training program designed to teach mental health clinicians how to utilize the healing power of Ketamine. 

During this immersive experiential training, I become increasingly connected with a team of peers, as we guide each other's Ketamine journeys and learn from a team of expert clinicians led by Dr. Phil Wolfson, Bessel Van der Kolk, Gita Vaid, Licia Sky and Peter Corbett.   This episode may be especially interesting to mental health clinicians who are curious about what it is like to participate in an immersive experiential Ketamine training program.

Timestamps

0:16 - Psychedelic Journey: Welcome to my Audio Diary
11:56 - Tuesday: My First Morning at Menla KAP training, History of Menla
15:00 - Wednesday: Pearls From Our First Full Day
21:39 - Power of Ketamine and Group Dynamics
24:47 - Thursday: My First Ketamine Journey, Bessel's Teaching About Trauma and DMN
36:00 - Friday: Sitting for Others
43:08 - Saturday: My 2nd Journey - IM this time, Combining Breath, Movement and Ketamine
52:00 - Sunday: Sitting a 2nd Time, A Swim with Naga Spirit
55:21 - Meaning and Connection Through Ketamine Journeys

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Music by The Thrashing Skumz

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What would make a successful Columbia Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst fly across the country to write a story about a one-legged wrestling superstar?  What does it mean to be Neurotic, and how can we recognize and change repetitive self-defeating patterns?
 
In this episode we explore unconscious motivations with my friend, colleague and former supervisor, Dr. David Merrill.  Dr. Merrill  describes how he made important life decisions that led him to become a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.  We seek to understand and explain the process of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and how lying on the couch can facilitate introspection.  We also discuss what type of problems psychoanalytic therapy is particularly helpful for, and the importance of honesty, kindness, and courage in psychotherapy. 

As our world becomes increasingly divided and distracting, we reflect on the need for kindness, self-reflection, and listening, as well as the importance of creativity and connection with Nature in finding balance. Buckle up for a captivating discussion that navigates the complexities of the mind, illuminating how psychoanalysis, literature, and introspective journeys shape our understanding of life's meaning.

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Are you curious about psychedelic retreats? Join us for an insider’s perspective with Justin Townsend, CEO of MycoMeditations, the oldest and largest psilocybin mushroom therapeutic retreat center in Jamaica. We discuss the process of safety screening, and the potential of using psychedelics to overcome trauma, ease depression, and reconnect with our authentic selves.
  
Justin shares his personal journey, from tech startups, to the European psychedelic underground, to learning and teaching breathwork and meditation, and then joining MycoMeditations in Jamaica.  Having facilitated thousands of healing journeys, he shares how these retreats can provide unique insights into our individual and collective human condition. We probe the metaphysics of consciousness and healing and examine how psychedelics can influence belief and faith, which can alter our physiology and bring greater understanding and meaning to our lives.
  
 As we conclude our conversation, we reflect on Carl Jung’s concept of Individuation and Integration, and the transformative stories of guests at MycoMeditations. We discuss life and work in Jamaica, and highlight the importance of surrender and authenticity. We invite you to immerse yourself in this captivating world of psychedelic therapy – a world that promises to challenge, inspire, and transform.

Caution: DON'T CONSUME PSYCHELICS WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR PERSONAL TRUSTED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.

Timestamps
0:17 Exploring Psychedelics

13:32 Psilocybin Retreats and Group Therapy

25:49 Background and Path to Psychedelics

40:59 Psychedelics, Mystical Experiences, and Therapeutic Potential

42:15 Roland Griffith's 3 Mediators of Psychedelic Experience

49:55 Bad Trips vs Healing Journeys

53:35 Therapeutic Healing and Transcending Rationality

1:02:16 Approaches to Trauma and Memory

1:05:26 Parental Fantasy Bond Trauma

1:13:49 Exploring Consciousness and Metaphysical Perspectives

1:21:55 Meaning of Life Questions

1:29:59 Carl Jung's Individuation and Integrating Your Shadow

1:32:33 Life In Jamaica

1:39:40 Legacy and Authenticity in Psychedelic Healing

1:45:19 The Concept of Letting Go

1:49:04 Next Episode: Psychoanalysis, Short Story Writing, and Meaning with Dr. David Merrill

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            Dr. Jean Marmoreo has been a family physician for upwards of forty years. For most of those years, she practiced mid-life medicine while breaking marathon records and hiking all around the world. Her speciality shifted in 2016, when MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) was legalized and she became one of Canada’s first MAiD practitioners. Having worked in the end-of-life medical spheres for the past seven years, Jean has witnessed numerous last days and multitudes of family goodbyes. 

            Many believe that denial of death is at the root of human anxiety, and that awareness of our mortality is central to creating meaning.  Join me for a conversation about meaning with one of the most experienced medical professionals in field of end of life medicine. In this episode, Jean and I discuss why people choose MAiD; how MAiD alters the pre-death experience; how MAiD has affected her faith and psyche; and how meaning factors into this complex medical practice.

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

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Many emerging therapies like EMDR, IFS, Somatic Experiencing, and Psychedelics target a client’s “Felt Sense” and “Embodied Knowing” rather than intellectual and cognitive insight.  The term “Felt Sense” was coined by philosopher Eugene Gendlin, who developed a peer to peer therapy process called Focusing in the 1950s.  

Here we present a conversation with Focusing expert Annette Dubreuil on the history, allure, and methodology of this internal psychotherapeutic process. Annette describes her personal connection to Focusing, her experiences as a long-time Focusing facilitator, and her specific teaching process, the Pupa process.  She also describes Gendlin’s Thinking at the Edge method for creativity, and how we can combine knowledge from different fields to enhance creativity and meaning.  Stick around till the end to learn the meaning of life according to Annette Dubreuil and consider whether Focusing may be right for you.

Timestamps

• 3:15 - Definition of the “felt sense”
• 9:30 - Annette introduces Focusing
• 14:00 - Annette’s discovery of Focusing
• 17:30 - Combining Polyvagal Theory and Focusing 
• 23:10 - Giving credit to Eugene Gendlin
•  24:32 - Crossing therapy processes and modalities (“Thinking at the Edge”)
• 26:59 - Combining the 8 C’s of IFS and Focusing 
• 30:10 - Focusing and Heart Energy 
• 32:07 - Annette’s transition from Focusing client to collaborator 
• 35:00 - How empathy factors into Focusing
• 38:00 - Tanya Singer’s meditative monks
• 42:00 - Catastrophic thinking
• 46:27 - Annette’s background 
• 49:20 - Victor Frankl’s 4 Components of Finding Meaning
• 54:36 - “Meaning issue” in Annette’s clients
• 56:40 - Conversation about Dirk and Annette’s shared experience 
• 59:30 - Psychedelics and Focusing 
• 1:01:30 - Annette’s personal focusing practice
• 1:05:00 - Focusing prompts
• 1:06:47 - Rapid Fire questions and wind down

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Theme music by The Thrashing Skumz