Dear Listeners,

Anyone who’s considered the territory of recovery from extreme mental states knows this to be a vast and subtle topic. And if this is a concern of yours, it’s also critical to reasonably understand—otherwise you may not recognize some of the key patterns as they’re occurring.

This podcast is the third in a four-part series. Senior Windhorse clinicians Gabrielle Bershen, Marta Aarli, and I (Jack Gipple)—along with our colleague and host, Chuck Knapp—take a deeper dive into the Windhorse assertion that “Recovery is the path of discovering and synchronizing with one’s own health and sanity.” The four of us have worked together over two decades on scores of Windhorse teams. This podcast reflects the depth of our shared experience as we discuss a number of interconnected topics: starting where you are, the individual genuine path of recovery, creating conditions of recovery but without a guarantee of recovery, finding confidence, cycles of recovery and regression, the long arc of recovery, and finally, the choice between the solitude of illness and the challenge (and courage it takes) to tolerate living in the world of consensus reality. These and more subtle aspects of recovery from extreme states of mind are the substance of this conversation among Windhorse clinicians and old friends.

We hope you find it engaging and enlightening.

Jack Gipple