Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Psychedelics

Craig sits down with Carrie Haynes, a colleague and Colorado-based group therapist and host of the podcast The Art of Groups. They explore their shared love of group process, the unique benefits and risks of working with groups, specific challenges for the group therapist or leader, and finally how and why Carrie is moving away from traditional group therapy to a more heart-focused transpersonal g...

In the streets and sidewalks of every American city, a slow motion disaster is unfolding, with ever increasing numbers of people suffering from serious mental illness and/or addiction. Why is this happening? What can we do to help our most vulnerable citizens? Here Dr.  H sits down with Dr. Dave Iverson, a Colorado psychiatrist, advocate, and policy expert who has devoted his entire career to cari...

Saj Razvi returns to BFTA to discuss a listener letter, which leads to an exploration of treatment resistance, developmental trauma, the absence of experience  ("the void") vs dissociation as experience.  Saj and Craig also explore attachment vs love, whether trauma healing has to be difficult, and the common elements of successful trauma treatment. Saj Razvi and the Psychedelic Somatic...

Some of the most basic questions about ketamine are still under investigation— Which patients are ideal responders? What is the therapeutic dose range? Is there a meaningful dose/response curve? Are fully dissociative treatments necessary for optimal efficacy? How important is psychotherapy after a higher dose IV or IM session?  And how should we think about frequency of initial treatments and the...

Is there a role for love in therapy, whether in the traditional psychotherapeutic context and/or in the psychedelic space?  And if we were to more consciously invite love into therapy, how could we do this in a safe and boundaried way? Dr. Adele LaFrance, a Colorado-based psychologist, the co-creator of Emotion Focused Family Therapy, and now the principal investigator of a fascinating study calle...

Dave and Laurie sit down with Dr. H to share their journey through the denial, fear, grief, and eventual acceptance of their son’s life-altering psychiatric illness. NAMI Family to Family support https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Family-to-Family BFTA on Instagram. @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www....

One of the tragic truths of psychiatry is that the sickest patients more often than not either don’t realize they are ill, or are convinced that treatment will do nothing. No group of patients better exemplifies this than those with schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses. A common presentation in Dr. H's  office is an older adolescent or young adult, often male, who is descending into ps...

Dr. H sits down with Dr. Julia King Olivier, a Swiss psychiatrist and co-founder of the Compassionate Care Center in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore the fascinating landscape of psychedelic-assisted therapy there. Julia is one of a small group of physicians in Switzerland who has permission to work with LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine, and she shares her clinical experience and wisdom in this...

Dr. H's patient Lindsey shares her story of self-medicating her anxiety and depression with cannabis, then steadily building tolerance and moving on to THC concentrates. This led to full-blown dependence and a spiral downward into daily bouts of terrible nausea, near constant panic, and emerging hopelessness. BFTA on Instagram. @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheaby...

In this season 5 opener, Craig sits down with Shelly Winemiller, a Colorado-based trauma therapist, to witness her powerful story of reclaiming her body and spirit from the nightmare of clergy sexual abuse. Shelly Winemiller http://www.oasisforhealing.com/meet-shelly BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ Support the show

Craig sits down with  Dr. Hillary McBride, a psychologist, researcher, author, and podcast host (Other People's Problems) to explore all things psychedelic. Dr. Hillary McBride https://hillarylmcbride.com/ Roots to Thrive-- a model of ketamine group therapy used by Hillary at Katalyst https://rootstothrive.com/ Hillary's ketamine groups at Katalyst https://www.katalystmentalhealth.com/ P...

BFTA's co-conspirators explore what they learned this season, their favorite episodes, ideas/plans for season 5, whether BFTA has become too psychedelic-heavy, and what they most value in each other. BFTA on Instagram. @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ Support the show

In this final story of season 4, Craig speaks with Wayne, a longtime patient of his who has battled treatment resistant depression and crippling anxiety for many years.  Wayne's story highlights a few crucial things— the fact that sometimes you can do everything right, do all the self-care things, yet still be waylaid by the crushing dark force of depression…this story also illustrates the po...

Can you treat >95% of all patients with mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders with just ten meds? Dr. H says YES. Here he posits his top ten, based on efficacy, safety, tolerability, and cost. BFTA on Instagram. @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ Support the show

Craig sits down with Ana, a Mexican medicine woman, or curandera. Ana shares a unique perspective and an earned wisdom that is particularly relevant today as we enter a veritable renaissance of plant medicines and psychedelics, while also trying to avoid the rampant mistakes and misuses of the past. Ana works with various medicines, including one that was mentioned in the “The Dark Side of Psyched...

Dr. H explores how to think about psychedelic assisted therapy with ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin in terms of patient selection, ideal indications, psychiatric diagnosis,  trauma history, medical comorbidities, medication interactions, cautions, and contraindications. This episode comes from a recent interview that Dr. H did on the podcast The Testing Psychologist. "The Unwell Doctor" e...

Dr. H sits down with Dr. Will Van Derveer of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute and Higher Practice podcast in a wide-ranging exploration of what's good (and not so good) in current psychiatric practice. They explore topics including:  •Problems with diagnostic nosology •Depression as a spiritual problem or a symptom of disconnection •Integrative psychiatry and how this differs from standar...

The magic of psychotherapy is that it brings forth transference— the patient’s most important and formative relationships, typically with early caregivers, are unconsciously re-enacted in the therapy room. And this transference necessarily creates countertransference, the therapist’s unconscious reactions to the transference.  Alexandria came to Dr. H originally due to her severe harm OCD. But ove...

Thirty years ago, a 10 year old boy was found stabbed to death in a park…the same park where 18 year old Stephanie and three young men were seen riding bikes the night before. Stephanie and the others were repeatedly questioned, they became the prime suspects…..yet they, nor anyone, was ever charged for the murder. It remains unsolved to this day. This is the story how how one event can alter the...

After years of crippling anxiety, substance abuse, mood instability, and loss, Daniel had finally found the path to impending fame and success beyond his dreams. Then everything fell apart, and he was forced to face the fact that he lacked the skills to face life on life's terms. Enter DBT, and Daniel began to piece his life back together with increasing confidence and competence. To contact...

Here Dr. H sits down with Dr.  Kelly Sonnenfeld, a psychologist and DBT expert, in this first of a two part look at dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT.  This episode is a primer on DBT-- what DBT is,  how it works,  and how it fits into the landscape of therapy options. Part Two explores Daniel’s story of how DBT helped him recover from a terrible period of psychiatric suffering. DBT is best kno...

Most medical illnesses appear later in life,  as organ systems fail and the decades of wear and tear eventually  erode the body's innate homeostatic mechanisms.  Psychiatric illness, however, is profoundly different. Here Dr. H explores six central reasons why serious psychiatric illness tends to appear in mid to late adolescence. These factors include: •Leaving the tribe •Contagion and heigh...

Last month marked a fairly momentous occasion in Colorado, the statewide passage of Proposition 122, the Natural Medicines Health Act. Coloradoans voted, by a tally of 53 to 47%, to approve both the decriminalization of psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline, along with the medicalization of psilocybin, with the possibility of a medicalization pathway for the others in 2026.  This is a landmark,...

Psychiatric meds so often get demonized in the media, including the podcast world, and while psych meds are far from perfect and often cause problematic side effects, they also literally save people’s lives every single day. Steve grew up as the youngest of four, a happy boy in a happy family,   a “golden” childhood as he describes it….until everything fell apart. Within a period of just a few yea...

Three women. Three stories. One must listen. Act 1- Sarah Music by Dori Lewis Act 2- Karen Music-- Karen and Craig,  "Waterfall of Wisdom" by Fia Act 3- Elizabeth BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ Support the show