Ceara is a 37-year-old psychologist living with terminal illness. On this episode, Ceara speaks about facing her death, how she finds hope in uncertainty, and why she supports voluntary assisted dying.

*Ceara is our first returning guest, and spoke to us back in July 2020.

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

Twitter: @msoc_pod

Contact Ceara:

Twitter: @CearaRickard

Instagram: @ceararickard

https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-cearas-cancer-journey

Dr Lars Madsen is a forensic psychologist with 20+ years experience in the treatment of sexual and violent offending.

On this episode, Lars shares anecdotes and insights from experiences across his career. He also discusses a case where he provided psychological assessment & treatment to a child sex murderer, using Forensic Schema Therapy. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos 

Twitter: msoc_pod 

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode describes heavy content. 

Supports: 

Lifeline - 13 11 14

1800 Respect - 1800 737 732

Work by Lars: 

Article - Forensic Schema Therapy: The Joker 

Upcoming Talk: Therapy in Confined Spaces: Schema Therapy 

Lars’ Forensic Schema Therapy Course (6-week interactive self-paced online course that introduces therapists to Forensic Schema Therapy (ST-F))

Website

James Harding had his own experiences in the criminal justice system. Now he’s a counsellor, and uses his experience to help criminals change their story. 

[Episode hosted by Maddie].

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

Twitter: @msoc_pod

SUPPORTS

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

Mensline - 1300 78 99 78

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Hard Cuddles:

An innovative mental health service that specialises in counselling, forensic counselling, mentoring and peer support facilitated in an outdoor environment.

In this episode we talk to Dr Ray Middleton on the consequences of medicalising psychological suffering into “mental disorders”.

Ray is an independent trainer, speaker and writer, and a long-standing critic of the western diagnostic model of psychiatry.

He is a lead trainer in the Power Threat Meaning Framework - a radically different approach to psychological suffering, which abandons diagnoses altogether, and offers an alternative to seeing oneself as "disordered" or "mentally ill". 

In this episode, Ray shares how his own experiences as a psychiatric patient in the 1990s led to his current work. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

Twitter: @msoc_pod

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode describes heavy content. 

SUPPORTS

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

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About Dr Ray Middleton: 

Dr Ray Middleton is an independent trainer in strengths based non-diagnostic approaches to distress, including Trauma Informed Practice and the Power Threat Meaning Framework approach. Ray has a PhD on dialogical/narrative approaches to complex trauma and recently authored a book chapter on innovative trauma informed approaches to people who are homeless. 

Previously, Ray has set up and managed personality disorder services, been a senior care co-coordinator in an early intervention in psychosis service and systemic practitioner within systemic family therapy. 

For training enquiries: 

- Contact Ray at [email protected] or via his website; www.ladder4life.com

*Apologies for the audio quality in this episode - we appreciate your understanding as we work to improve for future episodes :)

Jess has a background in psychology and criminology, and works in the reintegration space with long term & serious offenders. Jess chats with Jason about the different perspectives of grief, and why we are who we are.

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

In this episode, hosts Jason & Maddie reflect on Brock's episode, sharing their personal reflections on suicide, loneliness and fear.

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

WARNING: This episode does contain heavy & potentially triggering content. 

SUPPORTS

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

Griefline - 1300 845 745

8 years on from his footy career, Brock McLean opens up about his battles off the field - bulimia, depression, anxiety and attempts at ending his life. 

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode describes heavy content. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

SUPPORTS

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

Griefline - 1300 845 745

Mensline - 1300 78 99 78

Emmy van Deurzen is one of the world’s most respected existential psychologists. This is a raw and intimate episode, where Emmy talks about death, love and how she makes meaning of life. Also discussed is society’s obsession with ‘being happy’, the medicalisation of human misery and the need to get to know our darker sides. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

William Wainwright is a forensic psychologist with over 20 years experience in various settings, with a particular focus on sexual and violent offending. 

In this episode, we discuss the psychology behind sexually abusing a child, how offenders justify breaking moral standards, and the cycle of shame involved in repeat offending. 

We also discuss the trauma carried by emergency service workers, and how this is identified and treated within Vic Police. Jason shares some of his personal experiences of trauma working as a police officer, and later as a correctional officer in Parkville Youth Justice Centre. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos 

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About William: 

William has acted as a court expert on numerous occasions and consulted and trained many audiences, including the police, judges, lawyers, DHHS workers, child protection workers, correction officers and prison officers. 

In recent years, William has worked as the Senior Psychologist for the Police Psychology Unit and Family Violence Command, and was the key investigator of the 2016 Mental Health Reviews for the wellbeing of Victoria Police officers. William also trained officers in investigating and interviewing people accused of sexual offences. 

William was also the president of ANZATSA, a not-for-profit organization designed to support practitioners working with sexually harmful behaviours both in the mainstream populations and disability. He has organized multiple local and international conferences as well as presenting regularly.

Currently, William is the Manager of Evidence Based Programs for OzChild, a not for profit organisation that works with best practice programs to strengthen and reunify families. These programs are designed to maintain family networks to offer children safety and security.

William is a registered supervisor and has supervised forensic and non-forensic psychologists. He currently runs a peer supervision program for provisional and registered psychologist to develop their practices and skills.

Part 2: We discuss with Noah Rasheta the notion of impermanence; that uncertainty is the only constant in life. We also discuss suicide, interdependence, doubt and the nature of introspection. 

Noah Rasheta is a Buddhist teacher, lay minister, and author, as well as the host of the podcast Secular Buddhism. 

Instagram: @makingsenseofchaos

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode describes heavy content.

SUPPORTS

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636

Griefline - 1300 845 745