In this interview I am joined by Dr Caroline Van Damme, an adult psychiatrist and family and systemic psychotherapist specialising in chronic psychotic disorders, and co-teacher of Buddhist guru and Sowa Rigpa doctor Nida Chenagtsang. 

Caroline discusses the cultural complexity of being raised in Belgium, how an early interest in the mind saw her train as a psychiatrist, and the reasons for her specialising in chronic psychosis.

Caroline also recounts her first encounters with Buddhism, including a meeting with a mysterious Lama, and the story of her collaboration with Dr Nida Chenagstang to train counsellors informed by both Western psychology and traditional Tibetan medicine.

Caroline draws on her professional experience to reveal rapport building skills for clinicians, as well as discussing religious experience as a form of psychosis, and the the pros and cons of the religious mind.

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Video version: www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep143-dr-caroline-van-damme-psychiatry-religious-experience

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics include:

00:00 - Intro

01:01 - Upbringing in Catholic Belgium

05:25 - Interest in Buddhism & neuroscience and studying in America

09:51 - Training to become a psychiatrist

14:17 - Specialising in chronic psychosis

16:39 - Brussels Night Hospital

18:54 - Cultural complexity of Belgium

23:45 - Choosing clinical practice over a research career

30:11 - Discovering Buddhism and co-teaching with Dr Nida Chenagtsang

34:55 - An encounter with a Tibetan guru

40:01 - Meeting Dr Nida

44:32 - What so impressed Dr Caroline about Dr Nida?

50:13 - The healing relationship

53:22 - Attachment theory

58:54 - How to build trust with a patient

01:03:57 - How to cut through evasive small talk

01:07:33 - The #1 reason patients lose trust

01:12:56 - Insights into parenting and setting boundaries

01:20:38 - Transference and keeping your centre as a therapist

01:30:35 - Is religious experience a kind of psychosis?

01:44:56 - Religiosity as pathology

01:47:50 - Scientism as over-reach

01:50:55 - Religious abuses

02:06:09 - Personality disorders and meditation gone wrong

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To find out more about Dr Van Damme, visit:

- https://www.sowarigpainstitute.org/dr-caroline-van-damme

Interviews with Dr Nida Chenagtsang:

- https://www.guruviking.com/ep49-dr-nida-chenagtsang-heart-of-a-nomad/ 
https://www.guruviking.com/ep71-dr-nida-chenagtsang-karmamudra/

- https://www.guruviking.com/ep41-dr-nida-chenagtsang-pandemic-edition-guru-viking-podcast/

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:

- https://www.guruviking.com/

Music 'Deva Dasi' by Steve James