DEPTH Work: A Holistic Mental Health Podcast

Creating your life like a work of art starts with having a vision and being deeply intentional about what we desire (while also leaving room for the mystery). Modern “goal setting” strategies can feel cold or simply exhausting. I’ve spent a decade researching the best ways to intentionally set goals that are aligned with your values in a way that also feels easy and fun. So in today’s episode I co...

It takes radical imagination to envision a future of mental health that is rooted in community support and multiple ways of approaching healing. Noah Gokul is an artist and mental health educator who embodies this concept in all their work. Grounded and affirmed by legacies of activism before us, we discuss what it was like to be peer specialist working in a clinical mental health setting. Noah sh...

People have been experiencing altered states of consciousness since the dawn of humanity, whether it's through plant medicine, meditation, spiritual practices, or spontaneously (in experiences that often get labeled as "psychosis"). We are now starting to understand that altered states of consciousness, no matter the origin, have the capacity to be deeply healing. In this episode, wi...

There is no such thing as being "too sensitive," we simply live in a world that doesn't honor the gifts of sensitivity. This week we're diving into the various ways we can feel "too sensitive" or reactive to the world around us - emotionally, physically, or spiritually, and the ways in which highly sensitive people often get labeled as mentally ill. We discuss finding t...

When it comes to mental health crises, there are incredible and highly effective healing alternatives to psychiatric institutionalization all over the world! These respite centers offer agency, choice, freedom, and collective care, in place of the dominant “medicate and separate” model. Activists, clinicians, peers, healers, and researchers have been building and uplifting these models for decades...

I’m a multi-passionate person who spent most of my life feeling scattered in a million directions. Such is often the cost of living a really creative life. However, I now truly believe we can feel creative, inspired, motivated, and also prioritize what we value. I believe we can feel at ease at the intersections of our varied desires. For me, it’s not about “discipline”, it’s about getting honest...

“For us to truly reach equity we must all be involved in this process of reconnecting and recovering our humanity" - Milta Vega Cardona.  In this episode we discuss: Working inside Institutions that abuse power and fighting back from within How race became a construct and the core of the hierarchy in the US. Why white supremacy isn’t about individual actions, but systemic abuses of power The...

In this beautiful intimate conversation with Lilly King, we discuss  the realities of navigating mental and physical health concerns within a fractured health care system in the U.S. We share our best tips for advocating for yourself, navigating the medical industrial complex, talking to doctors, and building a care team.  Lilly’s work is largely interdisciplinary. She loves chatting with people a...

This week I got to talk to my friend and colleague, Ana Florence, Brazilian clinical psychologist and researcher, about the impact of globalization, the export of psychiatry from the global north to the south, and what it means to be a clinician dedicated to consistent self-inquiry. Also in this episode: Psychology and human rights activism in Brazil, how open dialogue revolutionizes crisis treatm...

Many of the wounds, patterns, and emotions we carry in our bodies are not only our own. Some emotional wounds that get conceptualized as personality traits, habits, or norms, are actually inherited ancestral trauma. In this episode we talk about intergenerational/ancestral trauma, using the example of impostor syndrome as rooted in historical oppression. We also walk about elders, getting to know...

Why do we get nervous when things start to feel really good? Why does the mind often sabotage moments of Joy or bliss? Joy is a wonderful, expansive state and can also be overwhelming or even terrifying - as Brene Brown says " When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, joy can be foreboding ". We're not talking about happiness or excitement that stems from external circumstances,...

“Don't shrink the power of your cultures and ancestors to fit into oppressive systems” - Elmina Bell Have you been curious about ancestral healing but unsure how to engage? Most of us have been disconnected from our ancestors through colonialism, but that doesn’t mean we can’t access the wisdom that lives on through us. This week I had the huge privilege of getting to talk with Elmina Bell of...

It's common to utilize breathing techniques to help with anxiety, slow down the mind, or support relaxation, but breathwork can also be incredibly potent for trauma healing. Holotropic Breathwork is an amazing modality that utilizes breath, embodiment, gentle altered states of consciousness, and emotional expression to create the conditions for any deeply embodied pain that we've held in f...

Mystical experiences are more common than we may think, but we live in a world that views them as strange, pathological, or only available to a “special” select few. I believe we all have the capacity to tap into the divine and see beyond the veil, if we desire, and that connecting deeply to the world around us through our lived mysticism is a foundational part of healing work. In this episode I’l...

Inner Child work is a practice of getting in touch with your subconscious feelings, beliefs, and wounding that may have been stuffed down since childhood. In inner child work, we have the opportunity to re-learn healthy attachment, develop deeper self-trust, notice and resolve “self-sabotaging” patterns, learn how to hold space for intense emotions and re-parent ourselves. There’s a lot of informa...

The "fertile void" is the concept that moments in life marked by massive transitions, emptiness, lostness, and confusion can also be moments of pure magic and possibility. In fact, feeling confused in areas of life can be a really healthy and wonderful sign that there's so much more waiting for us. We need moments of rest, visioning, and recalibration in order to move forward in inte...

Anger is one of the most misunderstood and repressed emotions. There are many ways we dishonor our anger culturally and societally, yet there is so much power and wisdom in our anger when we learn ways to express it without causing harm or violence. Here are a few mistakes I’ve made in the process of learning to honor my anger and what I do now to listen to it. Resources :  Get bonus episodes on s...

Healing from childhood sexual abuse is far more complex than healing somatically. Often we must confront challenging family dynamics, betrayal, attachment wounds, abandonment, rage, grief, self-blame, guilt, and so much more. In this episode, I talk about the biggest lessons I've learned in healing from childhood trauma.  You’ll learn: The complexities around childhood sexual abuse and attachm...

Is there such a thing as healthy distraction when it comes to processing emotions? How do we know if we need a break from healing work? How do we know when to dive in and when to distract from uncomfortable emotions? How do we build capacity and safety in the body so we can engage with pain and emotional processing sustainably? I like to use a framework that emerged from my own healing process to...

Our emotions are vital, and yet we have deep set cultural myths that often prevent us from feeling, expressing, and releasing our emotions. What if the path to healing wasn't learning to "control" or "manage" our emotions, but instead learn to expand our capacity to feel intensity without betraying our self-trust? In this episode you’ll learn: Two ways emotions can get stuc...

For many social workers and counselors, working in the mental health field is unsustainable and rife with ethical violations. Many of us feel complicit in a system that can often do more harm than good. Here you'll hear my personal experience working in mental health crisis, why I decided to quit, and what I did to contribute to communities and build capacity outside the field. In this episode...

Research showing that the chemical imbalance theory of mental health is a myth has just hit news cycles again, but this is not the first time this theory has been debunked. Many working in the field have known there is little evidence to support this theory, so why is it only recently the public has been informed? How did this myth originate and where do we go from here? In this episode you’ll lea...

The biomedical model of mental health, which posits mental health issues are purely biological and only treatable with medication, has dominated the field for the last 40 + years without much evidence to justify it. Many concerned psychiatrists and psychologists argue that this model is outdated and ignores the complex interplay of social, cultural, institutional, and other factors that contribute...

When we think of a severe mental health crisis, we may think of experiences that get labeled as psychosis, schizophrenia, or other extreme states that require intensive support. But what if these experiences also held rich meaning and opportunity for healing when we can care for them without pathologizing or stripping away autonomy? In this episode you'll hear my personal story of surviving a...

The field of Mental Health is in need of drastic change, but we need a vision to get us there. What would it look like in practice to build a system that truly transformed those it seeks to serve? What does mental health that is rooted in rights based, peer-centered, and holistic care look like? In this episode you’ll learn: why we are in desperate need for a new vision of mental health care what...