ReThreading Madness

Heidi Little and Her Journey to Heart-based Learning and Education For 30 years Heidi Little hails out of Regina Saskatchewan before she moved to Mexico and then to Austin Texas.  She has been teaching and using music to give people the sacred space to explore and decide who and what they are here for. Heidi has created The Center for Heart Based Education and The Center for Advancement in Social...

Cass Freeman is an Improviser, Activist, Journalist and all-round funny person.  She joins us to talk about the benefits of Improv theatre for our mental health.  She teaches Improv and is setting up class starting in September specifically for folks with mental health challenges.  She chats with Bernadine about what Improv is, why its important, and how it can help all of us overcome fear, embrac...

Courage to Come Back Winner in Mental Health: Theresa Duggan’s Journey  From childhood trauma to becoming a beacon of hope for others, Theresa Duggan’s story is one of resilience and transformation. After surviving years of sexual abuse and a suicide attempt 12 years ago, she struggled with undiagnosed bipolar disorder for much of her life — so paralyzed by her condition she couldn’t even brush he...

Off the Map 2 In this episode of ReThreading Madness, Bernadine has the joy of talking to four more writers from Off the Map: Vancouver Writers with lived experience of mental health issues.   Seema Shah was the powerhouse behind Off the Map.  She along with Betsy Warland and Kate Bird compiled and edited 33 different authors to put together this anthology of stories and poems published by Bell Pr...

Exploring Transference with Amy Avalon Trigger Warning: discusses therapy abuse Have you ever felt an inexplicable pull toward your therapist? Or found yourself reacting to them with emotions that seemed too big, too personal, too charged to make sense? That's transference. It's one of the most powerful, and least talked about, dynamics in the therapeutic relationship. And in the wrong hands, it b...

Art at Outsiders and Others with Redrum the Sticker Artist “Outsiders and Others is a non-profit art Society with a focus on bringing non-traditional artists to the forefront.  Their artists identify as outsider, folk, self-taught, visionary, intuitive, and artists with disabilities.”   Outsiders and Others defines outsider art as the work of those who have no formal training, create art for thems...

Off the Map with writers Angela J. Gray, Venge Dixon, Mary O’Toole with music by Ren Trigger Warning: Song by Ren Gill includes foul language May 1st 2025 saw the release of Off the Map an anthology of prose and poetry that has to do with mental health.  ReThreading Madness had privilege of speaking to 3 of the writers included in this publication.  Venge Dixon is a nonbinary lesbian who writes, c...

Courage to Come Back: Rachel Fehr (2017) and David Chalk (2025) The most obvious thing about Rachel Fehr and David Chalk is that they are not defined by diagnoses and for both of them they have carried several labels.  All of which are important only in that  they defied them all.  Rachel is the 2017 Courage to Come Back award winner in mental health. In the years since then, she has gone from tea...

Therapy Harm Resistance Project with Natalie Russ  Natalie Russ is a psychologist and psychotherapist, with a background in dialogue and deliberation, training pedagogy, and community organizing. She was harmed in a twelve-year psychodynamic therapy beginning in adolescence, as well as in post-harm therapies with well-meaning therapists who, like most in the mental health industry are not trained...

Wildflower Alliance and the Power of Peer Support with Caroline Mazel-Carlton What happens when people who have survived the mental health system begin building alternatives to it? In this powerful episode of  ReThreading Madness , Bernadine Fox speaks with psychiatric survivor and peer support advocate Carolyn Mazel-Carlton of the Wildflower Alliance about forced treatment, psychiatric institutio...

Mad Pride Art Café 2025 with Richard Lett, CR Avery, and Lea Taranto Trigger Warning:  some of the language used in creative material may be offensive to some people. These three artists performed live at the Mad Pride Art Café at the Gathering Place in downtown Vancouver, BC.  Richard brought his particular form of comedy and spoken word.  CR performed musical/spoken word pieces that can only be...

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Building Self-Worth with Tavares Garrett Tavares A. Garrett CNC, CPT, BCS is a “Health & Transformation Educator, Motivational Speaker, Mentor, Author, Servant Leader, Energy Giver/Healer, Podcast and TV Host. He's certified by NASM (National Academy Of Sports Medicine) and is the owner of The Body Synthesis.” As you listen you will recognize that Tavares is someone who uses his skill to conne...

Raising Drug Resistant Kids with Elisa Fortise  Christiansen   Elisa Fortise Christensen joins RTM to discuss her 30-year history of addiction with prescription drugs which she developed after a back injury.  She has been clean for many years but that addiction spurred her on to examine how to protect her kids from the same fate.  Elisa is an American author, poet and public speaker who has been t...

Judy and I on Dissociative Identities This program comes out of seeing one more untrained therapist postulate that folks with dissociative identities (formerly known as multiple personalities) are rare and dysfunctional or simply do not exist.   Judy and I are here to push back against this assumption that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  If you are a woman in Canada and haven’t heard of Judy...

ADHD, PTSD, and Autism with Randi-Lee Bowslaugh    Randi-Lee Bowslaugh is a fellow warrior out there around the issue of mental health awareness fighting the inappropriate stigma we face as folks who live with mental health challenges.  Randi-Lee is an author and outspoken advocate for mental health.  She has lived with depression from the age of 14 years and was eventually diagnosed with autism a...

Connection Salon & Gathering Place, Crisis Centre of BC & Kagan Goh   In today’s program we speak with Pierre Leichner from the Connection Salon here in Vancouver BC and Carrie Campbell from the Gathering Place about their collaboration to ensure that art comes to those who live with mental health challenges.  We also speak with Mark Sheehan, Program Director, and Paul Vincent, Volunteer,...

What does Mental Health, Psychiatry, and the Ouija Board have in Common?   Dan Nelson , is the author of Ouija Board and the Skeptic (Mad In America) and holds a BA in Philosophy, MA in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. Through twenty years of working in management systems, he knows that systems are designed to output a particular product or service and that the system was the cause of any...

Spotting a Coaching Scam with youtube creator Danielle Ryan Danielle Ryan describes herself as a youtube channel creator and “just a troll on the internet covering topics related to the business & life coaching industry.”  As she says, part of the problem is lack of regulation and then what happens when coaches coaches to become coaches.  She spends a lot of time sharing “my silly little opini...

Past Lives, Spiritual Experience, and Mental Health with Kerie Logan What happens when experiences that feel profoundly real to someone are dismissed outright by the mental health system? In this episode of ReThreading Madness, Bernadine Fox speaks with hypnotherapist Keri Logan about past lives, spiritual experiences, intuition, generational trauma, and the growing intersection between spirituali...

With Matt Sandoval from FreeArts AZ and Kagan Goh producer/director of Common Law Matt Sandoval, is the new Executive Director for FreeArts in Arizona. FreeArts AZ provides traumatized children and their families with a means of creative expression and as means of establishing resilience and offering mentorship.   And Kagan Goh talks with ReThreading Madness about his new film, Common Law, a biogr...

Trigger Warnng:  This episode includes information about therapy abuse and may be triggering for some folks. I Married my Therapist:   Ken Schultz is an advocate for mental health reform and a survivor of therapy abuse and exploitation.  He is using his personal experience of harm to raise awareness about unethical therapeutic relationships and their lasting impact. Through his story, Ken aims to...

It’s a New Year    Today’s program is a slightly different structure.  As we walk into the next year, several people came to share their hopes for themselves, their family and friends - with all of you.  It is an uplifting show that demonstrates the amount of care and generosity that exists all around us.  The program is our personal thank you to all who have been a part of the ReThreading Madness...

Importance of Lived Experience in Mental Health Issues: A Conversation with Matthew Jackman    Matthew Jackman has an intense conversation with Bernadine about the importance of the recognizing the immense value of those with lived experience as we examine mental health challenges.   Matthew Jackman is a mental health advocate promoting human rights, social justice …  he is activist from an academ...

Sean Bridges, award-winning screenwriter and author, had never been married until at the age of 55,  he found, what he described as, the love of his life.  He was about to be married.  He was her fourth husband (to-be).  Then something in his gut started shaking him awake to the realization that his life and his own personage had morphed into something he didn’t recognize; didn’t feel comfortable...