Alternatives

Psychology professor Randy Frost, author of Buried In Treasures, discusses his work on hoarding, people who collect so much stuff excessively that it disrupts their lives or creates a health or fire hazard, including how to help people without risking adding to the problem through intrusive or drastic intervention.

rfrost@smith.edu

Oregon Mental health counselor Ron Unger discusses his experiences with altered states of consciousness, and how cognitive behavioral therapy can be a useful alternative to medication and mainstream psychiatric treatment. Ron is a longtime organizer with the human rights organization Mindfreedom International, and his website is http://www.recoveryfromschizophrenia.org/blog/

Blacks in the UK are much more likely than white people to be locked up, put on drugs, and mistreated in the mental health system.

Social scientist Philip Morgan of London’s Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organization (THACMHO) discusses the legacy of slavery, survivor-run advocacy for system change, and an innovative project reclaiming Black identity through historical research.

http://www.thacmho.org.uk

Counselor and researcher Joe Goodbread discusses his more than 25 years experience working with madness and extreme states using Process Oriented Psychology, an innovative approach based in the work of Carl Jung and developed by Arnold Mindell.

Joe describes listening to the meaning in experience, helping people unfold their states, taoism, dreams, rank differences, and working with the body. Joe is a senior faculty at the Process Work Institute and author of The Dreambody Toolkit and Radical Intercourse.

http://www.aamindell.net
http://www.processwork.org

Award-winning journalist Philip Dawdy, formerly a writer with the Seattle Weekly newspaper, discusses how forced psychiatric treatment and drugging are ineffective responses to violent crime and the so-called “dangerous mentally ill.” Philip is the writer of the excellent blog about Big Pharma profiteering and mental health policy

http://www.FuriousSeasons.com

After James Chasse, a man with a schizophrenia diagnosis, was killed by Portland police in 2006, reforms included improved police training. Julie Diamond discusses efforts to help teach police better de-escalation and conflict resolution techniques as an alternative to force and violence.

Check out http://www.mentalhealthportland.org, http://www.juliediamond.net, and another audio interview with Julie at http://www.katejobe.com/podcast.html

Clinical psychologist Bruce Levine discusses his new book Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy, an insightful exploration of the social and political causes of depression and how to heal by rebuilding communities.

http://www.brucelevine.net

Freedom Center co-founder Oryx Cohen talks about how men can recover and heal from trauma, and creating a trauma-informed mental health system. Oryx also discusses the creation of the new Recovery Learning Community in Western MA.

Phenix City, Alabama mobile DJ John Rice describes how he spent decades on neuroleptic drugs after being dragged into the psych system in the Deep South, and his discovery of Jamaican dub reggae music as a pathway to recovery and spiritual connection. An amazing interview.

Psychotherapist and MindFreedom activist Matthew Morsey discusses the deeper meaning of “psychosis,” his own healing journey, and his past work at a unique center that focused on facilitating recovery from what are classified as “major mental disorders.”

Longtime consumer-survivor movement leader and pioneer in recovery education Pat Deegan talks about her story surviving a schizophrenia diagnosis, empowered medication decisions, and her development of innovative assisstive technology.

http://www.patdeegan.com

Psychologist and advocate with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and the Marijuana Policy project, Mitch Earleywine discusses medical marijuana, dangers and uses, and the relationship between marijuana and psychosis.

NORML http://www.norml.org
the Norml podcast http://www.normlaudiostash.com
the Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org

Rocky Caravelli talks about his recovery from 25 years of methamphetamine and heroin addition and a bipolar diagnosis through treatment with Ibogaine, a visionary plant medicine from indigenous people in West Africa, and his work helping many others heal.

Rocky is director of Ibogaine treatment center Awaken In The Dream house in San Francisco de Nayarit, Mexico.

http://www.awakeninginthedream.com

Dr. Pat Bracken, Irish psychiatrist, philosopher and co-author of the book Post-Psychiatry: Mental Health in a Post-Modern World, discusses community development as an alternative to individualistic and harmful Western mental health care world wide, including a critique of the PTSD diagnosis and its treatment based on his work in Uganda.

Ed Knight, schizophrenia and homelessness survivor, has become one of the leading advocates of a recovery-based approach in mental health, and is one of the main organizers of the consumer-survivor movement.

Ed is the Steward of The Healing Circle, a Zen Peacemaker Circle, and a Senior in the Buddhist Zen Peacemaker Sangha, as well as Vice President of Recovery, Rehabilitation and Mutual Support at Valueoptions, and a mentor in the Prison Dharma Network.

http://www.professored.com