In the episode, “A Conversation with British Psychiatrist Dr. Sami Timimi on His New Book: Searching For Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress, and Neurodiversity”(S6, E14), Dr. Timimi delivers a deeply humane and fiercely argued wake-up call: most of what we’ve been told about mental health simply isn’t true—and believing it is harming our children, our culture, and ourselves.

From the point of view of a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr. Timimi shares how early on he was not comfortable with the status quo of his field. In his work, he highlights how what the public is being told about the nature of mental health is misleading and may be harming our collective sense of well-being. Dr. Timimi explains how labels like ADHD and Autism have exploded over the years, especially among children and teens. He puts forth that psychiatric labels are good examples of “scientism,” or science as faith rather than fact. He shares what the evidence-based medicine approach actually tells us and explains why the number of children getting diagnosed with such labels has skyrocketed over the years in relation to broadening definitions. Sami speaks about the Mental Health Industrial Complex and how the label and diagnosis phenomenon of Western Psychiatry has taken away other meaning making frameworks regarding suffering in Western society, but also as a global approach to mental health.

Dr. Timimi shares about “psychiatric brands” and concept creep, and how in both America and in the UK, early intervention in mental health initiatives in schools also play a factor in the increase of diagnoses. Dr. Timimi calls for a radical shift starting with letting go of psych labels, a decrease in psych meds, and promotion of a public narrative that normalizes emotions.

If you’d like to purchase Dr. Sami Timimi’s book, Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress, and Neurodiversity, click: https://www.amazon.ca/Searching-Normal-Approach-Understanding-Neurodiversity/dp/0771013108.

BIO

Dr. Sami Timimi is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has published more than 150 academic papers and authored or edited over a dozen books, including Naughty Boys, Liberatory Psychiatry, and The Myth of Autism. He lives in Lincoln, UK, and lectures internationally on culture, psychiatry, and child development. You can visit his website at: Home | Sami Timimi Child Adolescent Psychiatrist Psychotherapy

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In the episode, "Exploring Relational Dynamics in the Family: A Talk with Family Therapist Amy Begel (S6 E13)," Amy Begel, reviews the history of family therapy in psychology and emphasizes how many problems, or symptoms, treated as individual issues are in fact embedded in interpersonal dynamics. This interactive and engaging type of therapy is often eclipsed by the focus on brain chemistry, which reduces the focus of human suffering to a person's "wiring." The biomedical framework offers a name diagnosis for the distress, but family therapy looks at the problem as the family’s problem in a relational, holistic way.

In the episode, Amy reviews ways families can develop dynamic strategies to move through times when their relationships get stuck. Amy mentions that often families that appear healthy and normal exhibit interpersonal symptoms that are hidden but lead to poor mental health. Frequently, the family member identified by the family as the problem is often the healthiest one. Amy also brings her talent of music into the therapeutic session, sharing a unique approach called “jazz consultations.” A refreshing take on getting to the bottom of mental distress, Amy practices a form of humane therapeutic intervention that has a much more empathic people-centered focus.

To learn more about Amy, got to: Mosthuman.net or Amybegel.com.

BIO:

Amy Begel is the coauthor of the book Diagnosis Human: How Unlocking Hidden Relationship Patterns Can Transform and Heal Our Partners, Our Children, Ourselves, which is a book of family therapy case stories. She is a family therapist who trained with one of the creators of family therapy, Dr. Salvador Minuchin. Amy is on the teaching faculty of the Department of Family Practice, the Institute for Family Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She maintains a private practice in New York and New Jersey and specializes in family systems medicine, which refers to the interplay between relational dynamics, health and illness.

As Senior Faculty at the Minuchin Center for over fifteen years, she developed and conducted family therapy training for The Brooklyn Bureau of Community Services, a non-profit organization serving marginalized families in New York. She has also conducted extensive training with various Child Guidance and mental health agencies nationally and internationally. She has contributed numerous articles to HuffPost.com and Madinamerica.com.

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In the episode, "A Chat with Psychiatrist Dr. John Calvin Chatlos: Introducing the SOUL, or Science of Unitive Love (S6 E12)," Dr. Chatlos joins the show and discusses a framework of spirituality and how spiritual experience is organized in our human experience through every developmental stage of our lives. He shares recent psychological and psychedelic research that has provided new insights into the nature of spiritual experience. Not only is it real, but it is a fundamental core of human nature that has been subjugated out of awareness during human evolution. Dr. Chatlos describes a cosmological foundation worldview, which emphasizes interconnected, wholeness, and unity of all in alignment with modern physics, all from the Big Bang/Big Breath.

Dr. Chatlos introduces the Soul (Science of Unitive Love) and how self-worth and dignity are key to opening a spiritual core with mystical signs. By connecting to these "gifts of the universe" we can usher in true healing and tap into our creative forces and thrive. Dr. Chatlos' vision of hope will inspire anyone that is troubled by the many crises for survival and happiness that are present in our world today.

Bio

Dr John Calvin Chatlos MD is an addiction and child and adolescent psychiatrist affiliated with the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. He is the founder of the Human Faith Project, a non-profit organization that sponsors NJ A.W.A.R.E. (Are We Aware of Religious/spiritual Experience?) to promote awareness, understanding and community applications of spirituality and the SOUL (Science of Unitive Love). He is opening a Center for Spiritual Awakening in New Jersey for anyone in the state dealing with spiritual issues that often get caught in the mental health, addiction and criminal justice systems. He has made public a bold vision to “Promote a Spiritual Awakening for New Jersey.”

To learn more about Dr. Chatlos, visit these websites:

The Human Faith Project – Elicit the BEST in others

NJ AWARE – The Human Faith Project

Study Referred to:

Pilot study of a CBT-based intervention for promoting spiritual experience among men in residential addiction treatment

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