In everyday life, we might label irrational, illogical, or absurd beliefs as ‘delusional’, and dismiss the person who expresses them on these grounds. This tendency is common when it comes to conspiracy beliefs or beliefs held by individuals labeled with psychosis, where such views are frequently pathologized. But can beliefs themselves really be pathological? What if they can also be meaningful, informative, and important? We all hold some beliefs that, to others, might appear “delusional.”...

“It is valuable for our culture and our society to work towards disability rights, disability justice, and a disability inclusive lens, because it's going to benefit all of us.”- Sarah Napoli Each of us, at some point in life, will have some type of disabling experience whether that’s from natural aging, illness, burnout, trauma, accidents or structural factors. Building communities of care and mentorship, and undoing ablism is integral to our collective sustainability and wellbeing. In...

“As long as we insist that we absolutely don't want dark, freaky, unpleasant things, a major part of our full spectrum human curiosity gets cut off, repressed, denied, and made unconscious.”- Carolyn Lovewell, Existential Kink With the rise in popularity of shadow work, inner child work, and healing unconscious pain and trauma, many are eager to explore the depths of our wholeness. However, a willingness to do this work requires an acceptance of the dark, “yucky”, and uncomfortable things...

Commercialized psychiatric and psychological knowledge encourages us to think of ourselves primarily as consumers and promotes a set of values that suggest some of us have minds or brains that should be ‘fixed’ with particular products or services. These neoliberal values have led to a great deal of institutional corruption and also has been exported beyond the western world across the globe. Many researchers, clinicians and activists have rallied together to fight against medicalized global...

The language we have for describing mental health challenges and suffering can constrict or expand the realm of possibilities for how we define ourselves. Sascha Altman DuBrul has spent his life challenging mainstream assumptions about mental health, what’s normal and abnormal, and built a community around shifting the narrative. Drawing from his personal experiences of getting locked up in a psych ward, he co-founded a radical mental health support group and media project (The Icarus...

Are most mental health concerns a result of issues with cellular metabolism? In this episode, I discuss Dr. Chris Palmer’s 'brain energy theory,' which draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research, positing that metabolic dysfunctions throughout the body may underlie various mental health conditions. I explore how mental health, chronic illness, stress, modern lifestyle, and cellular metabolism are all related in an ongoing feedback loop. I review a landmark pilot study from Stanford on...

“Our mental health is a cumulative product of the story of the body.” Why do mental and physical health concerns seem to go hand in hand? At which levels can and should we intervene and develop more agency in our whole health trajectory? Too many people are getting more sick with traditional interventions, but many are taking their power back and finding ways that basic and sustainable changes can change our outcomes. In this episode, I share personal and professional lessons in healing from...

“A new order will emerge from within the chaos” - Sara Avant Stover Being human means experiencing loss. If we let it, these moments can propel us towards a deeper, richer inner journey. In this episode of the Depth Work podcast, Sarah Avant Stover shares her profound experiences through many circumstances of grief and heartbreak, detailing the events that led her to write her latest book. She discusses the unique nature of betrayal trauma, the transformative power of grief, and the...

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Its becoming more well known that gut health impacts mental health, but with the rise of ‘wellness culture’ how do we separate fact from fiction? Dr. Supriya Rao of Gutsy Girl MD bridges the gap between medicine and lifestyle to give patients simple and effective support for gut health, motility, and nutrition. We talk about the topics patients are often too embarrassed to discuss (elimination!), what trauma has to do with the gut, and the things we can do each day to support ourselves. In...

Millions of people are put on psychiatric drugs each year. For some, these drugs are desired and effective, but for many, whether taken willingly or by force, they create multiple harmful side effects, long-term health complications, and are incredibly challenging to taper off of. Users of psychiatric drugs also rarely find professional or even peer support for tapering off due to the stigma and discrimination and a false narrative that implies users must remain on them for life. Chaya...

"When someone says that they want to end their life, it just means that they don't want to be living the life that they're living" (Icarus Project). It’s overwhelmingly common for people to experience a suicidal ideation at some point in their life. As a society, we have to find better ways of preventing or approaching these experiences. Currently, our traditional psychiatric approaches seem to often do more harm than good for folks in vulnerable states. In this episode, I review some of the...

“When medical doctors or psychiatrists entertain incoherent ideas about the mind and body, they make bad decisions about how to assist us in being well.” - Diane O’Leary. Understanding how the mind and body are connected in mental health and medicine is critical, especially considering that when we fail to do so, many are harmed. Despite drawing on the Biopsychosocial model for the last few decades, psychiatry hasn’t gotten much closer to elucidating the connections between the mind, body,...

Sometimes it takes a healing crisis to get to the roots of chronic illness and transform our life into something more sustainable and purposeful. For Fern Olivia, this crisis manifested as an autoimmune thyroid problem - Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis - that forced her to quit her corporate job and led her down a healing path. Since then, she has developed Thyroid Yoga, along with other breath, movement, and vocal practices to support people who desire a more holistic way of dealing with whole-body...

Ever have an existential crisis that made you upend all your beliefs about who you thought you were in life? Abby has, and today she speaks to the power of unlearning oppressive ideologies that we all have inherited, and how patriarchy can seep into all notions of what’s healthy, normal, and how we should live. Abby’s work centers on cultivating shame resilience through allowing ourselves to engage in “belief grief” - giving up toxic beliefs about our roles and identities so we can foster...

They say many therapists get into this work for deeply personal reasons, but not many have held so many roles the way today’s guest, Denise Ranaghan, has. Denise gets real about what it was like being forcibly locked up in a psychiatric institute while in the military, working her way through school to become a therapist, directing community mental health services while being open about her mental health ‘status’ as a peer professional, and then having the courage to leave the system and go...

Some of the most egregious harms have been done in the name of “help,” and this is especially true when it comes to forced psychiatric interventions. Investigative journalist, Rob Wipond illuminates the systemic harms of the psychiatric system after experiencing his father attempt to get help and instead of care, be met with coercion and force. As many find out, this is an all too common story. The evidence that psychiatric detention is beneficial to people is lacking, yet rates continue to...

In popular culture, we tend to think of eating disorders as a reaction to toxic societal messages about our bodies. While this may in part be true, for many people complex trauma is often at the root. Our guest today, Katie Kilbourn, co-founder of a dance company helping people heal through expressive arts, courageously shares about many aspects of eating disorders that are silenced, including the links between addiction, trauma, and eating disorders. We discuss the adaptive coping strategies...

One of the most overlooked experiences is menopause and perimenopause and impact on mental health. Societally we treat it like a disease or an ‘untapped market’ to sell more products. Many people feel isolated and alone in their mind-life experiences, and for some this can have extreme consequences. Today we have three experts by experience and training talking about how the system fails menopausal people and sharing their lived experiences in approaching this time of life as an incredibly...

“If I don't feel like I fit in to these linear and binary systems, it's because I don't. It's because they're not actually reflective of my true nature.” In our lives, each of us will have experienced some challenges within our bodies, whether related to injury, stress, the pressure of expected ‘norms’, disability, illness, pain, or simply aging. Our relationships to our bodies often reflect internalized oppressive systems that keep us disconnected. Abigail Rose Clarke, a somatic facilitator,...

“Cycle-breakers see the pain that flows through their families and say: this pain ends with me.” - Dr. Mariel Buqué Through family narratives, structural oppression, and inside our bodies, trauma can be passed down through generations. When we are willing to be with the shame, anger, fear, and grief, we may come to recognize that we are carrying the pain of our ancestors. Being willing to face intergenerational pain and trauma can also make us confront present realities of injustice, and in...

Ever been in a relationship or went through a breakup that had you feeling completely confused, disoriented, made you lose trust in yourself and impacted your sense of worthiness? Chandni and I have, and today in a very intimate episode, we discuss what it’s like to get out of emotionally abusive relationships and come out the other side with a whole heck of a lot of clarity, centeredness, and joy. We both agree that while no one is ever to blame for another person’s harmful behavior, yet it...

“Whatever happens in the body affects the brain, and what happens in the brain affects the body” - Dr. James Greenblatt. The biomedical model of mental health is critiqued for being “one size fits all” and ignoring multiple pathways that can lead to whole system dysfunction. Dr. James Greenblatt, a psychiatrist and early adopter of the now popularized functional medicine lens to mental health, is working to bridge disciplines in order to treat the individual more holistically and uncover...

It’s common for survivors of trauma to feel pressure to forgive and/or to let go of relationships with family members who have caused harm. There are a lot of unhelpful notions around forgiveness and repair, and it’s easy to feel guilt or shame when we don’t feel ready. Today we discuss how to get out of the binary, redefinging forgiveness. and finding a sense of peace with or without repair. Reclaiming All Parts of You: Healing the Roots of Shame and Insecurity [Free workbook &...