by Will Hall, Monica Cassani, and Dina Tyler In the world of innovations in how we treat survivors of psychiatric crisis, Live and Learn Inc and Open Excellence/Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care do valuable work. Live And Learn is a research company owned by Laysha Ostrow that collects and analyzes data on the viability of alternative mental health treatments, and Open Excellence/FEMHC is a philanthropy started by patients' family members that channels funding into promising projects. They're colleagues with us in the broader "critical psychiatry" movement ((Will was one of the original founding board members of Open Excellence/FEMHC) and we've all known each other for many years. At the same time, after collaborating with Live and Learn and Open Excellence/FEMHC on a past project, we are left very concerned by apparent ethical irregularities, including possibly crossing the line into research misconduct and plagiarism.
Gluten, dairy etc: Adding food back after elimination diets
I was on elimination diets for a long time and needed to be in order to quiet down the chaos in my body. I now know more than when I started and hope that the general method of learning to listen is helpful to others since I know the details will be different for everyone. Recently I went through a stint of eating lots of gluten and cheese as I add many different foods I avoided for many years back into my diet. I jokingly call it "retoxification." ...
Waking After a Lifetime: Ingrid’s Voice
This bodymind named Ingrid has so much to say…and what seeks expression is not just for the sake of my own healing, but to serve as a beacon for anyone on a similar path, who needs to know they are not alone. Mine is a path of emerging from profound trauma, adversity, and lack, and of living in the world as highly sensitive, gifted, neurodiverse, and spiritually awakening. We are the people who so often find ourselves in the offices of professional helpers…and I will write for them, too, as it is imperative that those who would presume to walk with us, understand what actually helps…and be willing to challenge that which does not…even though this will take them straight into the heart of their own pain....
Understanding
"understanding" is a problem...if one *believes* they understand they're likely deluded...the mystery can only be understood by allowing that which cannot be understood to prevail in every moment. #noself *** evil? I understand evil. I've worked on the streets among the most vulnerable my entire career. Evil is neglect. That is all evil is.... Continue Reading →
Kundalini lowering (rooting)
Kundalini rising? Some of us open up to the all well before our bodies are fit to hold it. We need to, instead work on becoming grounded. Perhaps we can call it Kundalini Lowering. 😎 (edit and update: a reader suggested the term Kundalini Rooting rather than lowering. I think it's perfect...) It's taken me... Continue Reading →
lightworker? let’s be clear, the real work, is shadow work
The dark wants more than anything to be LIT. Let us light up the world. ...
All things: deep healing for trauma, body/mind and soul
As I continue to heal the wounding that brought me to my knees at this time last year, this poem arose to meet the anniversary of my near death. It is all a journey to heal the trauma held within the body that heals the mind and soul too. We are one holistic being and everything matters:
S.A.D? (Seasonal Affective Disorder, depression) or might we be fighting nature?
I don't use the term depression for my experience, but I do find that there is a big natural shift in winter that encourages going inward and slowing down. I have found for a long time now that moving away from the pathologizing of my experience has been a healthy move for me and many of the folks I advocate for. ...
The biggest issue we face: #WorldMentalHealthDay
The biggest problem in mental health treatment is the idea that anybody need be treated at all. What people really need is a safe space to be who and what they are. Once people are in a safe place they simply need to be supported in trusting their own process. ...
Trauma, injury, illness and waking up
It's strange how it works, or maybe it's not, but trauma, injury and illness can truly be passageways to waking up and it's not generally appreciated at all in western medicine which seeks to suppress everything and thus stop that process. Tragic really. Illness/trauma etc as initiation and/or passageway to waking up is also... Continue Reading →
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