Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories

Craig sits down with his mentee and colleague Mandy Bliss, a psychiatric NP in Louisville KY,  to explore the compelling and complex challenges of meeting the ever-expanding need for psychiatric care. Unlike in psychiatric residencies, much of the current training of psychiatric NPs is done online. Does this constitute adequate training? And what of psychotherapy?

Mandy Bliss MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC

https://blisspsych.com/

BF...

Craig sits down with Colorado-based psychotherapist and Enneagram expert Joy Gribble (Elemental Psychedelics; Reflective Healing) to explore how the Enneagram can predict the strengths, fears, and blind spots of both the therapist and the client/patient in the complex dynamics of therapy.

Joy Gribble 

https://www.reflectivehealing.com/about-joy-gribble-fort-collins

"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?"  An intensive expe...

Here Dr. H sits down with Lisa, a pediatric nurse practitioner, to witness her story of developmental trauma, concomitant chronic depression, and eventually her path of healing and rebuilding trust and connection, largely through psychotherapy.  During her years of intermittently crippling and suicidal depression, she was put on various psych meds, which might have helped at the time, but later became shockingly difficult to try to...

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 ...

Dr. H breaks down the complex task of deprescribing into six clear steps, starting with the most important and challenging question of all:   Who is the patient and why are they suffering?

"Bringing Therapy into Med Management"-- a psychotherapy training intensive with Dr. H for psych NPs and PAs this October in Ft Collins

 https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/

BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.inst...

This is an interview that Dr. H recently did on a podcast called "The Web: Weaving Psychology and Soul in Circle" where he goes deep into his own journey learning how to work with transference and countertransference.

Carrie Haynes and "The Web"

https://carriehayneslpc.com/

"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?"  An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hil...

Dr. H sits down with Dr. Neill Epperson, chair of the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry, to talk all things hormonal.

"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 o...

This is a re-release of an episode called "Adventures in Exposure Therapy" which first published in 2020. That episode was the second of a two part exploration of OCD, the first episode was called "OCD in the Time of Corona." In brief, "OCD in the Time of Corona" was the story of Dr. H's patient Erin, who suffered from disabling OCD that focused on a catastrophizing fear of cold sores and the herp...

Today’s story is the story of so many marriages— starting off with hope and excitement, then settling into careers and kids and unforeseen challenges,  then facing emerging disenchantment and mounting frustrations,  then maybe even reaching a breaking point, where the marriage seems unable to withstand all the stuff life is throwing in its path.  

For Daniel and Mindy, their initial years of love and hope and adventure were slowly b...

One of the more interesting and difficult challenges of integrating psychedelics into psychiatry is how to deal with the fact that so many of the folks who will seek out care for their treatment-resistant depression or OCD or body dysmorphia or PTSD or attachment trauma are on psychiatric meds, many of which can have very significant and even dangerous interactions with certain psychedelics.

Here Dr. H explores some of the...

Saj Razvi and Hillary McBride return to BFTA, this time together, for one of the most compelling and fascinating episodes we have featured on the podcast-- an in depth, in the room exploration of the moment to moment unfolding of a psychedelic-assisted trauma session. 

During her training to work with Saj’’s psychedelic somatic model, called PSIP, Hillary did a profound session with Saj that led to some very unexpected gifts for Hil...

In this solo episode, Craig synthesizes the most salient aspects of identifying and treating OCD, with some cool musical interludes to boot-- in just over 20 minutes!

"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-1112117516...

You don't end up working in psychiatry/mental health by accident-- therapists and psychiatrists almost always come from their own place of emotional pain. Here Dr. H sits down with his colleague Kristen, a well-respected Colorado psychotherapist who always appeared to have it all together, while battling her own inner demons of feeling like a fraud-- broken, unworthy, irredeemable.  This is Kristen's story of finding a wa...

Kate lived for many years in a hazy and numbing dialectic, thinking that her life was “perfect”, but also having a vague and gnawing sense that just under the surface something was terribly wrong.  This is a story of forgetting and remembering,  a story of finding a therapist who was willing and able to sit through years of hateful negative transference and let Kate work through her parent-child wounds. And finally this is a story ...

Very few people are willing and/or able to share and describe their descent into psychosis— in part because memory formation and consolidation are so impaired during episodes of psychosis…..and also because there is often so much fear and shame tied up in the experience of losing one’s mind.

Here Dr. H's  patient Corben describes his very early onset illness, how it started with years of depression,  then shifted int...

The prevailing model of psychiatric care in the US is called "med management"-- this typically means a 10-15min appointment to review symptoms and choose medications.  Here Dr. Will Van Derveer of the Integrative Psychiatric Institute sits down with Dr. H to deconstruct this deeply flawed model and posit a more holistic and hopeful way of thinking about psychiatric care.

 Dr. Van Derveer and the Integrative Psych...

In this season 6 opener Dr. H sits down with Dr. Erin Jacklin of the Catalyst Center in Denver to explore how we learn to the deeply complex and consistently challenging work of doing good therapy.

"I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?"  An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBride, Feb 4th-6th 2026 in Joshua Tree, CA https://www.craigheacockmd.com/i-love-you-i-hate-y...

Craig sits down with Dori Lewis of Elemental Psychedelics to explore the myths and realities of working with psilocybin mushrooms, including:

•What do people not understand about psilocybin mushrooms?
•Can mushrooms treat depression? If so, which types?
•How should we think about the specific roles of mushrooms and ketamine in psychiatric and psychological treatment?
•What kinds of problems are most amenable t...