Mental Health is Horrifying

This special Halloween episode explores the absolute classic Halloween (1978) and its portrayal of Laurie Strode’s over-functioning anxiety in her pursuit to uphold the mantle of the perfect final girl. 

As a psychotherapist for final girls, this episode is a love letter to all of you.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

Instagram: @mentalhealthishorrifying

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Show Notes:

Want to work together? I offer 1:1 psychotherapy (Ontario), along with tarot, horror, and dreamwork services, but individually and through my group program, the Final Girls Club. This month's feature is Your Hallowed Halloween Kit.

Send me some Ghoul Mail!

I love hearing from you spooky ghouls! Want a chance to have your story read on a future episode of Mental Health is Horrifying? If you’d like to share what horror movies mean to you, how they have helped you with your mental health, or about a particular horror movie that you have thoughts and feelings about, send me some Ghoul Mail.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Women by Heather B. Howell, Olga Brawman-Mintzer, Jeannine Monnier, Kimberly A. Yonkers, Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Volume 24, Issue 1, 2001

I don’t know what the deal is with all of you who didn’t find Longlegs scary, because this movie straight up gave me intrusive thoughts! This episode talks about those thoughts, how I learned to challenge my Nicolas Cage-related intrusive thoughts, and how you can challenge yours too through cognitive strategies and (seemingly paradoxically) through horror. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Show Notes:

Want to work together? I offer 1:1 psychotherapy (Ontario), along with tarot, horror, and dreamwork services, but individually and through my group program, the Final Girls Club. 

Send me some Ghoul Mail!

I love hearing from you spooky ghouls! Want a chance to have your story read on a future episode of Mental Health is Horrifying? If you’d like to share what horror movies mean to you, how they have helped you with your mental health, or about a particular horror movie that you have thoughts and feelings about, send me some Ghoul Mail.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Neuroanatomy, Parasympathetic Nervous System by Jacob Tindle and Prasanna Tadi in National Library of Medicine

Let’s talk about Trap (2024) and about how teen heartthrobs, fantasy, and nostalgia are actually beneficial to our mental health by exploring self-psychology concepts of selfobject needs and reparative relationships. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Show Notes:

Want to work together? I offer 1:1 psychotherapy (Ontario), along with tarot, horror, and dreamwork services, both individually and through my group program, the Final Girls Club. Visit my website to learn more.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship by Michael Kahn

Nostalgia as a Resource for Psychological Health and Well-Being by Clay Routledge, Tim Wildschut , Constantine Sedikides, and Jacob Juhl in Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7/11 (2013): 808–818, 10.1111/spc3.12070

​​‘It Was Never My Intention to Be a Heartthrob’: Josh Hartnett on Finding His Focus, Shedding the Darkness of ‘Black Mirror’ and That ‘Bats— Crazy’ ‘Trap’ Script by Emily Longeretta

This episode talks about 2024 gothic romance horror comedy delight Lisa Frankenstien and its portrayal of the grieving process through the eyes of Lisa in all her sensitive, emo, goth teen glory. This movie is quirky, and silly, and romantic, and touching and I’m so glad that it exists and that it pays a beautiful tribute to its godmother, Mary Shelley. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

Whether you have lost a beloved person or pet, Love Letters For The Dead offers you a space to process, feel, and be with your experience of grief for your dearly departed. Over a two week period, you will receive writing prompts, audio recordings, tarot exercises, and dreamwork rituals delivered to your inbox, along with a place to share memories of and feelings about your dearly departed.

All you need is your heart, a journal, and a tarot or oracle deck.

We begin on the dark moon of August 3.

Early bird pricing is available until July 26. Visit manymoonstherapy.com/finalgirlsclub to learn more and to register.

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Undergoing the situation: Emotional dwelling is more than empathic understanding by Robert D. Storlow

Mary Shelley’s Haunted Life by Caroline Macon Fleischer

Mental Health Resources:

Assaulted Women’s Help Line

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Distress Centres of Toronto

Gerstein Crisis Centre

Toronto Rape Crisis Centre / Multicultural Women Against Rape

Victim Services Toronto

If you were staying at a spooky old mansion for the weekend and you found a condemned tarot deck in the basement that definitely looked haunted… would you read from the deck? Or would you run?

I guess your answer depends on the power you believe that a deck of cards can have. Because even the non-believers — even those who think that tarot cards are fake and just a bunch of hocus pocus — even they seem scared to sit down and watch their fate unfold in front of them. If it’s not real, what are you so afraid of?

On today's episode, we're going to talk about Tarot (2024) and its portrayal of the cards as a mirror into the deepest, darkest places of our psyches.

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Sources:

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols

‘Tarot’ Movie Co-Director Details How New Horror Thriller Deals Fresh Hand To Audiences by Tim Lammers

Jungian Perspective on the Tarot by Ken James

Modalities of Psychotherapy, CRPO 

Have you ever been in the middle of experiencing something so strange, or so cruel or surreal that you think to yourself – I have to be in some kind of nightmare? Well, what if you were? What if it was “all one great big movie”... uhh I mean nightmare?

What if Scream is actually Sidney Prescott’s trauma nightmare? Let’s explore that theory and look at how Scream (1996) portrays the formation of trauma and how it can manifest into nightmares.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

Hey final girls — we all have psychic capabilities. And learning how to tap into those innate capabilities can unlock a doorway to a world rich with meaning beyond what we can perceive with our conscious, waking minds. I invite you to join Through the Dream Veil, my 5-week email course where you will learn how to heighten your psychic capabilities by learning how to develop your own personal dreamwork practice, nurture a relationship with the dream realm, and embody the magic of your dreams to unveil a deeper understanding of both your personal and the collective unconscious. 

Beginning and the May 6 dark moon, you will receive psychoeducaiton about dreams, a framework for developing your own personal dreamwork practice, and an audio guided journey into your unconscious where you will be guided to discover what a dream of your choosing means to you. 

Sign up HERE.

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung 

Dreams: (From Volumes 4, 8, 12, and 16 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) (New in Paper) by C.G. Jung


The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz and Kendra Crossen

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté


The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch

The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula by Alexandra West

Does spending a weekend in a haunted house conducting paranormal investigations with a bunch of other spooky weirdos sound preferable to spending it with your codependent family members? Yes? Then pack your bags, sister.

We’re heading to Hill House to talk about The Haunting (1968) and its portrayal of caregiver burnout.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Hey final girls — I’d like to take you on a transcendent journey into your psyche through — you guessed — horror movies! More specifically, horror movie monsters and villains. Join me on a very special dark moon/solar eclipse this April 8 for the Final Girls Club where we’ll be exploring How Monsters Show Us Our Guts. Informed by Jungian exploration of myths and fairy tales as portraits of psychic terrain, in this workshop, we will explore how we project our unconscious shadows onto our favourite horror monsters and villains, and imagine the creation of our own monsters as an act of emotional catharsis and reclamation of self. Register HERE.

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

West ML, Keller AE. Parentification of the child: a case study of Bowlby's compulsive care-giving attachment pattern. Am J Psychother. 1991 Jul;45(3):425-31. doi: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1991.45.3.425. PMID: 1951790.

The Haunted Mind of Shirley Jackson by Zoë Heller

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski 

How would you feel if one day you tried to login to your online social media accounts, only to discover that they were locked and your online persona had taken on a life of its own? Pretty scary stuff, eh?

Cam is an obvious commentary on the nature of camming and is based on writer Isa Mazzei’s own experiences as a cam girl, but what I’m most interested in is how this movie reflects the increasingly ego-focused nature of our society, and what happens when the ego is not in balance with the rest of the archetypal self. (spoiler alert: it’s bad.)

Let’s talk about Cam (2018) and its portrayal of the ego run amok.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

Hey final girls — I’d like to take you on a transcendent journey into your psyche through — you guessed — horror movies! More specifically, horror movie monsters and villains. Join me on a very special dark moon/solar eclipse this April 8 for the Final Girls Club where we’ll be exploring How Monsters Show Us Our Guts. Informed by Jungian exploration of myths and fairy tales as portraits of psychic terrain, in this workshop, we will explore how we project our unconscious shadows onto our favourite horror monsters and villains, and imagine the creation of our own monsters as an act of emotional catharsis and reclamation of self. Early bird final girl rate is in effect until March 1. Register by visiting manymoonstherapy.com/finalgirlsclub.

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

This Horror Screenwriter Subverted Every Shitty Sex Work Trope by Frederick Blichert

Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East by C.G. Jung

The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz, Kendra Crossen 

Remember lockdown? I know I'm sorry — I know you don’t want to, but I think it’s worth considering for the sake of talking about Host (2020) and its genius encapsulation of the total anxiety of Covid lockdown.

We’re in the depths of winter anyway, so why not hunker down at home at relive the horrors of Zoom hangouts with friends? And you know what might make It a bit more fun — is if we throw a séance in there.

Let’s talk about Host (2020) and its portrayal of lockdown anxiety.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

Hey final girls — speaking of getting haunted during a virtual meeting, registration is now open for the February meeting of the Final Girls Club where you’ll get to experience Dream Walk With Me — a live, experiential dreamwork journey where we will uncover the hidden meanings behind the symbols, archetypes and messages held within your dreams. Early bird final girl rate is in effect until February 1. Register by visiting manymoonstherapy.com/finalgirlsclub.

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

'Host' Director Breaks Down The Mythology You May Have Missed & That Ending Shot By Perri Nemiroff

Hwang TJ, Rabheru K, Peisah C, Reichman W, Ikeda M. Loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int Psychogeriatr. 2020 Oct;32(10):1217-1220. doi: 10.1017/S1041610220000988. Epub 2020 May 26. PMID: 32450943; PMCID: PMC7306546. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306546/

How 'Host' director Rob Savage went from viral tweet to 3-movie deal By Sam Haysom
 
Has School Become Optional? By Alec MacGillis

The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use by Nirmita Panchal, Heather Saunders, Robin Rudowitz, and Cynthia Cox

Mental health and the pandemic: What U.S. surveys have found by John Gramlich

Pongou R, Ahinkorah BO, Maltais S, Mabeu MC, Agarwal A, Yaya S. Psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. PLoS One. 2022 Nov 17;17(11):e0277238. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277238. PMID: 36395148; PMCID: PMC9671380.

Eric B. Elbogen, Megan Lanier, Sarah C. Griffin, Shannon M. Blakey, Jeffrey A. Gluff, H. Ryan Wagner, and Jack Tsai. A National Study of Zoom Fatigue and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Future Remote Work. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.Jul 2022.409-415.

“Misinformation” vs. “Disinformation”: Get Informed On The Difference

Let’s talk about Krampus (2015) — everyone’s favourite half goat, half demon creature who has come to punish all the misbehaving children and dysfunctional families on Christmas — as a symbol for seasonal depression.

It’s no surprise that December is a month of peak seasonal depression despite being labelled as the most wonderful time of the year. People tend to be ultra stressed out during the holidays — in particular at the prospect of spending time with their families. Oh the cognitive dissonance! So who better to reflect the true horrors of the season than a terrifying goat demon who brings along with him killer gingerbread men, teddy bears, and a jack in the box from hell?

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

Order The Horror Concierge: A Mental Health and Horror Tarot Readings + Film Reco. Order yours HERE.

Hey final girls — I have an exciting group experience coming in the new year that will guide you through dreamwork exploration. Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when this launches in January.

Krampus by Amy Tikkanen in Encyclopedia Britannica

Behind the scenes of Christmas horror movie Krampus with Wellington's Weta Workshop by Collette Devlin

Seasonal Affective Disorder, John Hopkins Medicine

Krampus Origin Story | Krampus (2015)

The Simpsons - Krusty Doll Set To Evil

Christmas Shopping with Cousin Eddie

Champ Kind intro

A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger

Holiday joy despite narcissistic relationships by Doctor Ramani