Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Psychedelics – Details, episodes & analysis
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Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Psychedelics
Craig Heacock MD
Frequency: 1 episode/17d. Total Eps: 152
How do we find a way out of the darkest depths of despair? Psychiatrist Dr. Craig Heacock hosts a deep dive into powerfully moving stories of hope and healing, as well as topical explorations of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and psychedelics.
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See allScore global : 62%
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Parenting through the storm-- Adoption, trauma, acceptance, and humility
Season 7 · Episode 5
vendredi 14 novembre 2025 • Duration 01:01:04
BFTA storyteller Frank shares the joy, confusion, chaos, utter fear, and deepest gratitude when he and his partner Brad adopted and raised two boys, ages 4 and 2, from the foster care system. Twenty years ago, when Frank adopted the boys, trauma was not in the public awareness as it is today, and he was told that these little boys, who had spent some time in a meth house, might well have some challenges…..but he never could have expected what awaited.
Can love overcome trauma? Can stability and structure and patience and compassion adequately compensate for profound early childhood neglect and abuse? Frank’s story is just one example, but it’s a beautiful one, these two dads trying to find a way to heal deep attachment wounds without a roadmap.
Support the show!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support
BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page
When our minds forget our bodies remember-- A trauma therapist comes back to life
Season 7 · Episode 4
vendredi 31 octobre 2025 • Duration 01:13:41
Rachael, a trauma therapist and today's storyteller, describes how her early childhood abuse was buried by the protective mechanism of dissociative amnesia. As Rachael wrote to Dr. H, “The only way I could continue to live, with no way out, with no one to tell, with no words even to describe what was happening to me, was to forget what was happening to me….when our minds forget, our bodies remember.”
Rachael saved herself by forgetting, then was forced to finally face what happened to her when her body carried out its ultimate rebellion in the context of having her third child, her first girl….a little baby girl, with no one to protect her….or at least that’s what the terrible and unrelenting obsessions began to say.
Support the show!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support
Rachael Parsons Svendsen
https://www.rachaelsvendsen.com/
Explore the podcast through themes, domains, formats, and speakers.
The BFTA CODEX is a listener-built and curated field guide to every episode.
"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?" An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBride, June 18-20 2026 in Vancouver BC
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/i-love-you-i-hate-you-are-you-my-mom/
BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Desperately seeking safety -- A trauma healing journey with Koelle Simpson
Season 6 · Episode 15
vendredi 11 avril 2025 • Duration 02:05:54
Craig sits down with Colorado-based equine and somatic therapist Koelle Simpson to witness her harrowing and moving story of healing from repeated sexual assaults through a deep psychospiritual connection with horses, then learning how to trust her male psychotherapist, and finally coming to face the darkness and shame head on through the use of psilocybin mushrooms.
A heads up-- this episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault, please be mindful of whether this is the right time for you to hear this.
Koelle Simpson
"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?" A intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBride, May 28-30 in Victoria BC
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i-love-you-i-hate-you-are-you-my-mom-tickets-1112117516429?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
The clinical moment in psychotherapy-- A conversation with Dr. David Puder
Season 2 · Episode 13
mardi 22 décembre 2020 • Duration 55:15
Dr. H sits down with Dr. David Puder, a psychiatrist and host of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast, to explore the beauty and challenge and mystery of psychotherapy.
What are Chris and Craig wanting for Christmas...??? How about writing us a review!
Dr. Puder and the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast
https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com
Dr. H essay on psychedelic healing for CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/opinions/psychedelics-trauma-healing-this-is-life-heacock/index.html
BFTA and Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
Psychiatric diagnosis guides treatment....except when it doesn't
Season 2 · Episode 12
mardi 8 décembre 2020 • Duration 51:08
In most specialties of medicine, the dictum "Diagnosis guides treatment" is the law of the land. In psychiatry, however, most of what we treat are often overlapping syndromes, not actual diseases, and these syndromes involve hugely varying dimensions of symptoms with a vast array of potential causes and exacerbating factors.
Maggie came to Dr. H with a challenging clinical presentation: likely genetic loading for a mood and/or anxiety disorder, childhood emotional neglect, years of school problems, hormone irregularities and progesterone hypersensitivity, all leading to steadily worsening mood instability, depression, and hopelessness. Over the course of the last 12 years, Maggie and Dr. H were eventually able to co-create both a successful treatment course and a shame-free narrative, without a clear diagnosis to guide them.
Comments, suggestions, questions? We'd love to hear them! Email us via https://www.craigheacockmd.com or message us on Twitter @bftapod
If you haven’t already, please write us a review!
Craig Plays Goalie-- The Psychedelics Today interview
Season 2 · Episode 11
mardi 24 novembre 2020 • Duration 01:03:54
The podcast Psychedelics Today recently released a two part interview with Will Hall, an author, podcaster, therapist, and voice of the anti-psychiatry community. This BFTA episode came about after Dr. H reached out to the hosts of PT and asked for a counterpoint to Will's complete dismissal of psychiatry as a meaningful part of the mental health treatment community.
Here Dr. H presents a more nuanced, balanced, and hopeful perspective, one that recognizes the harm that psychiatrists and other physicians have caused in the past and continue to cause today, while also asking that we try to lean into the positive, to identify and celebrate what works for people, to reject the black/white thinking that calls for tearing down systems which are, by their very nature, messy and imperfect, just as we humans are messy and imperfect.
Psychedelics Today
https://psychedelicstoday.com
Dr. H and BFTA
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
Steering into the hard stuff-- A father and husband's story
Season 2 · Episode 10
mardi 10 novembre 2020 • Duration 43:33
Dr. H sits down with his friend Brian, who watched his daughter, and then his wife, plunge into the depressive abyss. This is the journey of a father and husband, of a "we can fix this" engineer trying to find a path through the ambiguity and uncertainty of psychiatric treatment.
This is the second in an intermittent series of family members describing their journey of trying to support their loved ones through their darkest times.
Grief and loss raft trips (mentioned by Brian)
https://www.pathfindersforyou.org
Dr. H/Back from the Abyss
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
Touching the edges of life-- Healing from divorce
Season 2 · Episode 9
mardi 20 octobre 2020 • Duration 49:01
In this third of an intermittent series about therapists in the abyss, Dr. H sits down with his colleague Dr. Elena Estanol, a Colorado-based psychologist, to explore Elena's "fourth dark night of the soul". Her story serves as a springboard for exploring how to cope with the randomness of life, learning to go inward to heal relational wounds, differentiating pain vs suffering, and finding peace with who shows up for us and who doesn't.
Dr. Elena Estanol
https://www.synapsewellness.com/
Dr. H and BFTA
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
Craig's letters from the past: Mistakes made, lessons learned
Season 2 · Episode 8
mardi 6 octobre 2020 • Duration 25:16
Dr. H finds a trove of patient letters from the last 15 years and shares three of the most poignant, using each as a springboard for lessons learned.
Dr. H and BFTA
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
A mother's story-- Body dysmorphia, psychosis, and powerlessness
Season 2 · Episode 7
mardi 22 septembre 2020 • Duration 41:20
After a difficult final year of high school, Tessa hoped and prayed that her youngest son would make the transition to college and find a way to thrive. He would be only an hour away, he wanted to go, and she was hopeful that getting a new start there could reverse whatever was happening to him. Yet just two months into his freshman year, it was apparent that he was sinking fast into a maelstrom of panic, body dysmorphia, delusions, and hopelessness.
This is Tessa's story of trying to find the strength, and eventually, the self-compassion, to both find help for her son as well as work through her own guilt and shame.
Book recommendation (from Tessa)
The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years
BFTA and Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com
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