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  • Pathologizing Trauma

    Pathologizing Trauma
    2024/09/04
    Pathologizing Trauma

    Trigger Warning: Description of sexual assaults.

    Andrea takes us on a journey through what her childhood, in the 60s and 70s, was like coping with sexual assaults from several males around her from a very young age both in and outside her family. Like other women growing up in this era, she was assaulted, blamed for it, and then punished for making men do this to her. Andrea fought back. Sexual assaults happened and her family along with the social constructs and institutions, of that time, enabled abusers and covered up their crimes while victims who were disclosing, like Andrea, were made into the problem.
    Her drive to survive made her doggedly save her money so she could escape her family. After graduation, she moved away to college. But physical ailments, again rooted in the sexual abuse she experienced, made her so ill the College sent her home: back to the abusive environment she had worked so hard to break free.

    She always knew that her difficulties were rooted in those assaults but instead of recognizing this truth the mental health industry, from whom she sought help for being unable to eat and being underweight, pathologized what were her normal reactions to trauma. Her disclosures of sexual abuse were dismissed as schizophrenic delusions. It was a diagnosis that gave everyone carte blanche to harm her with impunity. Ultimately, Andrea was put on 58 different forms of psychiatric medications including large doses of anti-psychotic meds and given ECT. Several times, doctors were shocked by the large doses she had been prescribed but didn't change it.

    She received no assistance, no therapy. She wasn’t regularly seen by a psychiatrist or therapist. No one talked to her. No one mentioned the abuse she had endured.

    Andrea broke free. This time from the mental health industry. On her own, over ten years, she weaned herself off of all the psych meds she had been prescribed. She has been med-free now for a year and is focusing her time on working to ensure other people don't go through what she did.

    Music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 時間
  • Coping with Mental Health Challenges with JaneA Kelley

    Coping with Mental Health Challenges with JaneA Kelley
    2024/08/28
    Coping with Mental Health Challenges with JaneA Kelley

    JaneA Kelley has throughout her life gathered mental health diagnoses. She has Bipolar 2, PTSD, and ADHD. JaneA candidly talks about these diagnoses; what they mean to her; how they complicate or add to her life; and how she copes with them. She talks about finding herself at rock bottom and the things (mostly her cats) who have brought her back forward. She talks of betrayals and of stigma that originate out of misunderstandings and the impact of her challenges. As a writer, it is no wonder she uses writing to work through these issues and find herself again.

    Music by Shari Ulrich, Jann Arden, Brandi Carisle
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    1 時間
  • Can't Eat Love with Leslie Davis

    Can't Eat Love with Leslie Davis
    2024/08/13
    Can't Eat Love with Leslie Davis

    Leslie Davis’ life moved through a haze that didn’t include her own feelings. After what she has deemed an Emotional Tsuunami, she developed a means of accessing her feelings, sorting through them, and then accepting them. For decades now, this process has proven to be a powerful healing tool. Join us as Leslie describes what this process is and how you can do it as well.

    music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 時間
  • Door knobber Diagnosis: Misdiagnosed Borderline Personality

    Door knobber Diagnosis: Misdiagnosed Borderline Personality
    2024/07/22
    Door knobber Diagnosis: Misdiagnosed Borderline Personality

    When a client drops a therapeutic bombshell as they are leaving a session, counselors call this a “door knobber”. Lynn came to talk with Bernadine about her experience with the Borderline Personality and the door knobber that her therapist laid on her at the tail end of a phone conversation to terminate therapy. Just before she hung up, Lynn was shocked to hear the therapist say she should consider getting a therapist who works with borderline personality. After working together for 2-years where this was never mentioned, it was a casual, quick comment at the end of therapy. This is a door knobber done by the therapist.

    My ex-therapist told me at one point that she didn’t believe borderline existed and that therapists only give it to the clients they don’t like. And certainly, in therapy abuse it has become cliche. One after another, survivors are describing being labelled borderline after confronting an abusive therapist. Why would therapists employ borderline so often? Because one of the things people believe about those who are borderline is that they lie and make up things: ergo, victims won’t be believed that the abusive therapist did harm or sexual assault them.

    And once you have that label it is a sticky thing – even if it is wrong. Worse, professionals make assumptions about folks with that label – even when it is a misdiagnosis. Like Lynn’s experience, people have described being told they are borderline after the first 15- to 20-minute session. Given the level of stigma that is attached to diagnoses like this, applying them should be done with the utmost care. In fact, according to the DSM, a BPD diagnosis must be based on assessing the functioning and behaviour of the patient over a length of time AND after other diagnoses have been ruled out. What they mandate for this diagnosis is a “thorough evaluation” that provides a “comprehensive assessment” which “considers multiple sources of information, including personal history, collateral information, and a mental status examination.” Clearly this is not possible in an initial 20-min session or during a first consultation. But nonetheless, we hear of it over and over where this diagnosis is being applied all too quickly. And those who have been misdiagnosed with BPD, in particular, suffer even more from the stigma the medical and mental health community. We all need to be more careful about our professional work and our attitudes.

    Lynn wrote an article on this issue. It is on Medium.com and entitled “Dear Therapists: This is what BPD Stigma looks like”.

    Music by Shari Ulrich, Anna Clendening, Brandi, Carisle
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    1 時間
  • Dispelling Myths about BC Mental Health Ace with Rob Wipond

    Dispelling Myths about BC Mental Health Ace with Rob Wipond
    2024/07/15
    Dispelling Myths about the BC Mental Health Act with Rob Wipond


    It is so very often that we hear misinformation about the BC Mental Health Act. It is so widely held and believed in some of our BC communities, that if you check yourself into a psych ward voluntarily you can leave when you want and you can refused any treatment that you feel won’t work. Rob Wipond, author of Your Consent is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships joins Bernadine Fox to discuss the BC Mental Health Act and how what we have been led to believe or told is true and what actually plays out in the psych ward are not the same. Voluntary can become involuntary just because you refuse the treatment they tell you to take. And once you are committed, here in BC, you essentially lose all human rights to advocate for your own welfare. And while you can appeal a commitment, you can be forced to take treatments for the 3 weeks it takes to actually have that hearing. And, by then whatever you were forced to take may in fact leave you unable to fully comprehend what is occurring in that hearing leaving the judge to perceive you as incompetent. After finding a pamphlet that repeated the myths to a vulnerable population, it was important to dispel these myths most likely being produced in other places across the province by well-meaning individuals. In comparison to the rest of Canada and many places in the world, BC has what many consider to be the harshest mental health system: one that eliminates the human rights of the patient. If not living in BC, we suggest that If you are someone who accesses or relies on the mental health system, it is advisable to research what is true about your mental health system when it comes to commitments (voluntary or involuntary), forced treatments, and the appeal processes so that you can better advocate for yourself or your loved ones where you live.
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    1 時間
  • Mad Pride Cabaret Vancouver 2024

    Mad Pride Cabaret Vancouver 2024
    2024/07/11
    Mad Pride Cabaret Vancouver 2024

    Have you ever stepped into a room and had a bunch of mad people celebrating the chance to freely be who they are? Well that is what Mad Pride is. In 2024, Vancouver celebrated Mad Pride through the Connection Salon at the Gathering Place downtown. And this program not only talks with three of the performers at Mad Pride it showcases their work. Kagan Goh, curator and artist, brings us his spoken work, Nothing is Forged without Fire. Sandra Yuen, artisit, and David Xhediku, musician, form the band Beautiful Lizards talk about what they see Mad Pride as and then share a piece of their rock/surf music, Psychopath. And last but not least, iveno, who is a multi-media artist, counselor, and theARTist chats with us about his work in the community and then shares his piece of music, Wala20, and what he calls sound bathing.

    Other music by Shari Ulrich, Henry Moodie, and Fearless Soul
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    1 時間
  • Randy Tait on Recovery and Ceremony

    Randy Tait on Recovery and Ceremony
    2024/07/05
    Randy Tait on Recovery and Ceremony

    If you had gone to the 33rd Annual Women’s March it would have been hard for you to miss Randy Tait in his red jacket with matching red John Fluevog shoes. He circled the crowd bestowing eagle down on the heads of elders, guardians, and organizers. Randy is from the Nisga’a / Gitksan Nation. He has made Vancouver his home with few interruptions for many decades. He talks with us about his childhood, his addiction to alcohol, how his family and community stepped in and helped get him into recovery and how he hasn’t really looked back. He uses his recovery to help those who are continuing to struggle.

    Music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 時間
  • When it is a Therapist who Experiences Therapy Abuse and Exploitation

    When it is a Therapist who Experiences Therapy Abuse and Exploitation
    2024/06/23
    When it is a Therapist who Experiences Therapy Abuse and Exploitation

    She came on RTM to talk about her own experience of therapy abuse and exploitation at the hands of her psychologist. But she is unable yet to do so using her name. Why? Because she is also a psychologist who fears retribution for speaking out. She chats with Bernadine about her experience of therapy abuse, how her husband sought retribution for the 'affair', how she was treated by the tribunal that processed the complaint against her abuser, and how they put her and her child's safety with their actions.

    In the penalty imposed on her psychologist the board stated " Dr. X, you are here today in front of this panel of the (redacted) Discipline Committee to be reprimanded on your conduct as a Psychologist with respect to the allegations to which you have pleaded guilty today. We trust that you understand the severity of your behaviours. You failed to maintain the standards of the profession and engaged in a romantic and sexual relationship with a former client. Dr. X, we hope that you understand the impact that your behaviour has had on the trust and respect placed in our profession by members of the public. In working with a vulnerable person who had not had time to separate from the therapeutic relationship, your actions crossed the boundary between the personal and professional. Your behaviour was disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional." He lost his license to practice for 12 months, had to take two ethics programs and write essays to prove that he understood what he did was wrong, and pay a penalty.

    After the interview, the woman said that "I think the findings would have looked different had I been more capable of seeing what he did to me. Instead I was in full self-blame mode and didn’t want to ruin his life. I defended him and told the (redacted) I was in love with him and we had a relationship. I tried to claim that as I psychologist I knew what I was doing…I did not. I was unaware at that time of all the havoc his actions created and continued to create in my life. Very sad."

    music by Shari Ulrich
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    1 時間