The Good Mood Podcast

On the latest episode of the Good Mood Podcast I talk to naturopathic doctor Rae St. Arnault about ketamine-assisted therapy. We talk the legality of psychedelic medicines, using psychedelics for depression, how a ketamine-assisted therapy session works, who it might be beneficial for, and Dr. Rae's more recent work on bringing psychedelic therapy to First Nations communities in Canada.



Dr. Rae St. Arnault is a Naturopathic Physician practicing in Vancouver, BC, and is the co-founder of Empower Health Clinic, a multidisciplinary health clinic that started the first legal, interdisciplinary ketamine-assisted therapy programs in Canada. Her approach to health has also been based on team-based, integrative care designed to elicit change on the personal, business and community levels.



Dr. Rae is also a co-founder of the Psychedelic Development Corporation (a strategic consulting agency supporting the development, growth, and maturation of psychedelic-assisted therapy), the Ketamine Assisted Therapy Association of BC (a non-profit with focus on policy change and accessibility), was a co-founder of the Canadian Psychedelic Association, a former program and clinic manager at Numinus Wellness, and a founder of a former community-based psychedelic integration network called the Jubilant People.



A recognized psychedelic industry expert, Dr. St. Arnault has consulted both clinics and professionals on psychedelic protocols, governance and regulations, and has worked with teams and professionals in the design and implementation of research and clinical protocols with the intention of bringing psychedelic medicine into the mainstream.

Instagram: @empowerhealthca

Empowerhealth.ca

Episode 67 of the Good Mood Podcast is all about Burnout and the Stress Cycle. 

Drawing from the book Burnout: The secret to unlocking the stress cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, Polyvagal Theory, General Adaptation Theory, and other stress-response models we talk about burnout, rest, replenishment, dopamine/serotonin, motivation, protein, and how to heal your body, mind and emotions from chronic physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.  

check out the Cortisol Care Challenge for $5 https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/the-cortisol-care-challenge 

Learn more about naturopathic medicine, from 1:1 visits and other educational resources: taliand.com and learn.goodmoodproject.ca 

I review the book Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Dr. Catherine M. Pittman, PhD where she talks about the two types of anxiety, amygdala and cortex-based anxiety, or body-based and worry-based anxiety. 

We talk about how to recognize the features of these two types of anxiety, what is going on in the brain with both and how to nutritionally, behaviourally and cognitively rewire your brain to reduce your symptoms.   

Learn more: 

taliand.com   

learn.goodmoodproject.ca 

I talk about the benefits of eating meat: for mental health, hormones, mood from a nutrient perspective, and how eating meat can heal the environment through regenerative agriculture.   

Resources: The Carnivore Code, Paul Saladino, MD 

The $100 Billion Ingredient Making Your Food Toxic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmqVVmMB3k

Courses: Learn.goodmoodproject.ca

Booking and appointments: taliand.com 

In this solo episode Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND talks about OCD: the biological and neurological underpinnings, the symptoms, behaviour therapy, and nutritional support. It is possible to overcome OCD symptoms--the key is to learn where the symptoms arise in the brain and how to combat them to break the obsession-anxiety-compulsion-relief cycle.   I discuss Jeffrey Schwartz's book Brain Lock and naturopathic nutritional and supplemental support including Dr. James Greenblatt's ZEEBRA method.

Learn more about nutrition for mental health: https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/feed-your-head

Jeffrey Schwarz's Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Brain-Lock-Twentieth-Anniversary-Obsessive-Compulsive/dp/006256143X/ref=asc_df_006256143X/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309344616184&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15892440765679245724&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000770&hvtargid=pla-327875600354&psc=1

The parts of the brain affected by OCD:

Caudate nucleus (the gear shift, located in the striatum/basal ganglia)

Orbital Cortex (the error detection system)

The thalamus (relay centre for senses)

The cingulate gyrus ("something is off, something bad will happen, if I don't---"

Neurotransmitters associated: serotonin and glutamate 

The 4 Steps in Brain Lock

Relabel 

Reattribute 

Refocus 

Revalue 

for appointment booking: taliand.com 

Depression is not a neurotransmitter disorder--it is an inflammatory condition. In this solo episode, I talk about chronic low-grade inflammation and how it contributes to virtually every chronic health condition, including mental health conditions and how to construct an anti-inflammatory lifestyle to start feeling like yourself again.   

To learn more about courses, check out learn.goodmoodproject.ca (my Food Sensitivities Course, You Weight Less on the Moon, and Feed Your Head).   

To book an appointment visit taliand.com

In this solo episode I review the book "90 Seconds to a Life You Love" by Joan Rosenberg, PhD, who teaches us how to develop more mental and emotional resilience if we are willing to stay open to our experience and ride the 90-second waves of eight unpleasant emotions to their completion. 

We talk purging, grief, trauma, and describe the unpleasant emotions. We unpack anxiety as a coping mechanism that helps us avoid the discomfort of these emotions, and the importance of heading into them willingly. 

We are not afraid of certain outcomes, we're afraid of the emotions they might bring us. 

Learn more 

taliand.com 

learn.goodmoodproject.ca 

What do your cravings mean? Are they pesky sensations in the body that compel us to binge eat junk food and struggle with our weight? Or, do they contain inherent wisdom that can guide us to the right food choices for supporting our health and wellness?

I talk about a landmark study from the 1930s in which researchers allowed babies to choose their own diets---the results are pretty remarkable. I also discuss how sugar cravings can be an important signal that tell us how well we're managing our blood sugar, nourishing with protein, and eating enough. 

This is a really exciting episode because cravings come up in virtually every consult I have with patients and we haven't been trained to understand exactly how they serve us or what they mean--unfortunately the "gunk" of Big Food have polluted our ability to truly observe, understand and respond to the Wisdom of our Cravings. 

Listen to learn more!

Check out the course You Weigh Less on the Moon here: https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/you-weigh-less-on-the-moon

In this solo episode, Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND outlines the principles of Informed Consent and medical decision-making from a place of personal empowerment, bodily autonomy, dignity and choice. 

To learn more about Good Mood Project Courses visit: https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/

In this podcast Nic and I discuss healing philosophy, mental health and the brain, nutrition and how to raise a healthy family. I have so many patients who come in for help, and are set on transformation only to succumb to the overwhelm of making 3 separate meals: one for their kids, one for their partner and one for themselves. It's a losing battle. Often our families don't get what or why we're trying to do with our health. 

And this is unfortunate, because good health starts from childhood, and we have a unique opportunity to set kids up for healthy lives as adults by teaching them about nutrition, honing their palates, and helping them learn about their bodies and minds, and what they can start doing to keep them healthy. 

Working with families sets individuals up for better success, because when our whole community is on board with health transformation it makes it so much easier to find success on our journey. 

Nic and I talk about how he coaches families to improve their nutritional habits. He has 4 kids of his own and didn't want to see them succumb to his own "genetic" health issues. Giving your family the gift of good health is one of the best things that you can bestow them with and Nic was determined to do this with his family. 

We talk about how we can convince kids to eat better, what to do about picky eaters, and how to support families in making these tweaks to their diet and lifestyle and how to encourage everyone to get on board. 

You can find Nic at:

Nic is a nutritionist and biochemist, working towards a degree as a nurse practitioner. He is a mental health practitioner and runs the website Mind Whale mindwhale.com. You can find him at nicholashundley.com and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholas.j.hundley/

Nicholas Hundley, MS, CNS, is a father, nutritionist, biochemist, and wellness teacher who is deeply committed to improving lives through optimizing brain, metabolic, and immunologic health. He is expecially committed to helping children and families transition to a long-term, health-supportive lifestyle.

After obtaining his graduate degree in biochemistry, he obtained his Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) credential and focused his learning on understanding how nutrition impacts illness. Nicholas has received advanced training in functional medicine, integrative medicine, nutrition, nutrigenomics, mental health (including autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, bipolar, eating disorders, and more), functional immunology (autoimmunity and allergies), environmental medicine (including environmental toxins), and neurology.

Nicholas is trained in the application of dietary interventions to support the nutritional needs found in physical and mental health conditions. Working with your licensed healthcare professional, he can help identify areas of focus and guide a plan of nutritional care to support the body's natural healing and detoxification processes for improved functioning. He guides families through lifestyle change with his Illumination Program that includes education and coaching to achieve lasting habit change.

Nicholas' friendly manner, dedicated concern, wide knowledge base, and detailed insight are motivating and make healing a pleasant process.

To learn about nutrition for mental health check out my 4-week course, Feed Your Head: 

https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/feed-your-head