Chris and Craig invite Antonio Sacre, an LA-based professional storyteller, author, and BFTA super-advisor into the Fishbowl to deconstruct season 6. BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/ "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-you-are-you-my-mom/...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 52 min•Season 6Ep. 19
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/ BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page https://www.craigheacockmd.c...
May 23, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 6Ep. 18
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 experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBrid...
May 09, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 17
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 taper and stop. This is a story of overcoming shame, a story that...
Apr 25, 2025•55 min•Season 6Ep. 16
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...
Apr 11, 2025•2 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 15
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.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcas...
Mar 28, 2025•23 min•Season 6Ep. 14
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. Hillary McBride, Feb 4th-6th 2026 in Joshua Tree, CA https://www.craigheacockmd.com/i-love-you-i-hate-you-...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 13
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 on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H ...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 12
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 herpes virus. Dr. H initially treated Erin, then referred her to Dr. Amy Indermuehle, a CO based psychol...
Feb 14, 2025•45 min•Season 6Ep. 11
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 buried by layers of physical and emotional pain, by Daniel’s chronic ...
Jan 31, 2025•53 min•Season 6Ep. 10
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 key issues around med tapering with ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA, inclu...
Jan 17, 2025•18 min•Season 6Ep. 9
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 Hillary. Interestingly, the psychedelic used for this session was TH...
Jan 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 8
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-1112117516429?aff=ebdssbdestsearch BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/ba...
Dec 20, 2024•22 min•Season 6Ep. 7
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 way through her double life, of coming to peace with what she survived, how sh...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 6Ep. 6
In this solo episode Dr. H shares his current thoughts on working in the here and now; polypharmacy; the root causes of suicidality; diagnostic parsimony ; ketamine microdosing; and online psych NP training programs. BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/...
Nov 22, 2024•24 min•Season 6Ep. 5
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 of MDMA and psilocybin helping someone move forward through the min...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 6Ep. 4
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 into profound alienation and increasingly frightening psychosis, and finally into sta...
Oct 25, 2024•58 min•Season 6Ep. 3
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 Psychiatric Institute https://psychiatryinstitute.com/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacock...
Oct 11, 2024•58 min•Season 6Ep. 2
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-you-are-you-my-mom/ BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 1
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 to psilocybin? •Why do some people have no psychedelic experience on apparently therapeu...
Jul 05, 2024•59 min•Season 5Ep. 22
Chris and Craig go meta to deconstruct season 5, explore the art of storytelling and music selection, and answer listener questions. BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
May 31, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 21
Christina grew up with a tumultuous and mentally ill mother, an older brother who decompensated into psychosis and frightening aggression, and just one healthy family member, her father. Dr. H and Christina explore both the wounding of having a desperately ill parent, as well as the profound gift of having another parent able to provide love and support. Christina suffered terribly from these maternal wounds, but she was also able to finally emerge as a healthy, grateful, wise, and deeply caring...
May 16, 2024•54 min•Season 5Ep. 20
Dr. Russell Carr was a career Navy psychiatrist for 20 years and served in Iraq, where today’s story begins. This is a story of a healer, then a terrible wounding, then the healer trying to find his way amidst the chaos of war. This story is about a rite of passage, one that not every psychiatrist faces, but most do at some point-- that of losing the first patient to suicide, then trying to find the strength to move forward. Dr. Russell Carr A Psychiatrist Returns from War-- on Substack https://...
May 03, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 19
A huge problem with current psychiatric diagnosis is that it often lumps completely unrelated things under the same vast and vague tent, such as with the diagnosis of "Major Depressive Disorder". Here Craig sits down with his patient Rebecca to try to make sense of her complex early onset depression and how it played out via addiction, anorexia, and pathological caretaking and how she was finally able find the grace and compassion to prioritize care for herself. Bringing Therapy into Med Managem...
Apr 19, 2024•57 min•Season 5Ep. 18
Here Dr. H sites down with Jenny, a psychoanalyst who shares her moving, then horrifying, then eventually cathartic tale of plumbing the depths of her traumatized psyche, first with years of psychoanalysis, then with five MDMA-assisted therapy sessions. This is a story of numbing and forgetting, then re-opening and remembering...of finding a way to make sense of a life of protective dissociation. Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive psychotherapy training in Colorado with Dr. H ht...
Apr 05, 2024•56 min•Season 5Ep. 17
In this solo episode Craig shares his current thoughts on MDMA medicalization, sleep meds, ADD, motivation vs self-discipline, benzos, how long to stay on psych meds, a change and a proposed addition to his top 10 med list, borderline vs bipolar, and marriage. Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive training with Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd.com/training/ BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/ BFTA/ Dr. H https://www.craigheacockmd....
Mar 22, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Dr. H sits down with Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani, a nationally recognized expert on eating disorders to explore a wide range of topics including: • etiology and the relative influence of temperament, culture, and concomitant psychiatric illness •anorexia as a qualitatively different kind of treatment challenge •treatment ambivalence, building the alliance, respecting protectors •anosognosia and its relationship with severity of illness •how to talk about weight, body image, and eating with mindful/res...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Season 5Ep. 15
The driving force of so many of our self-destructive tendencies is not conscious, it’s an unconscious drive called the repetition compulsion, where we try to reenact early child traumas or deficits, often consciously hoping for a different result but unconsciously walking directly and knowingly into the flames. One of the central tasks of therapy is often helping people identify their repetition compulsions and doing the deeply uncomfortable work of making different choices. For the repetition c...
Feb 23, 2024•59 min•Season 5Ep. 14
The rising tide of psychiatric emergencies in the US most commonly ends up in the emergency room, where psychiatrists are almost never found and the brunt of the heavy lifting falls on emergency medicine physicians. Here Dr. H sits down with Dr. Treve Henwood, an emergency med physician and host of the Rural EM podcast to explore the often overwhelming challenges inherent in trying to effectively manage and treat these psychiatric crises. BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 13
This is an interview Dr. H did a few months ago on the Radically Genuine podcast. Although we posted about this interview on our Instagram feed back in August, we thought this was worth re-releasing on the main BFTA feed. Of all the podcast interviews Dr. H has done, this one might be the most interesting and relevant for our listeners. Here Dr. H discusses the deep structural problems with current psychiatry, the confusion around psychiatric diagnoses and nosology, controversies and mistaken be...
Jan 26, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 12
