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Let me say this as bluntly as it needs to be said: Don’t ever let anyone — parent, counselor, friend, partner, system — tell you that you’re not good enough! Most of the people who try to shrink you are just terrified of their own limits. They hand you their fear and call it “truth.” And for too long, you believed it. Not anymore. You don’t owe anyone the smaller version of yourself. Not the version shaped by their trauma. Not the version shaped by their judgments. Not the v

A new resource for anyone ready to move forward from the mental health system Over the past few years, I’ve heard the same thing again and again—from friends, family members, people in crisis, and people quietly holding their breath, hoping for something different: “I want out. I just don’t know how.” Not out of life. Out of the system . Out of endless appointments, labels, and the feeling of being managed instead of understood. That sentence— I want out —is exactly why I’ve

When did we decide that being human is a disease? Seems to me about 20 years ago. Every mood, every quirk, every hard season—now stamped with a code from the DSM and billed to insurance. Sad? You have depression. Angry? That’s a mood disorder. Nervous before speaking? Social anxiety. Can’t focus on boring bullshit? ADHD. It’s the industrialization of human emotion. The factory line starts with a checklist. End point: a diagnosis, a prescription, and a monthly bill. The proble

Trauma is not “just in your head.” It lives in your body, nervous system, and subconscious. It changes your stress responses, your sense of safety, and even how you view yourself. But healing isn’t a mystery. Here are five scientifically proven, evidence-based trauma recovery tools —and how you can begin using each one right now. 1. Somatic Therapy: Releasing Trauma From the Body Trauma lives in the body—and that's where healing begins. Why it works: Trauma often gets "stored

Forget the Fluff—Faye Mandell Makes “The Power of Now” Actually Work The Power of Now  by Eckhart Tolle is an excellent book, filled with...

Based on Michael Alexiuk’s Power Therapy In the last post, I said it like it is: If you want strong mental health, stop coping. Start...

(Based on Michael Alexiuk’s Book - Power Therapy) I discovered this book almost 30 years ago and it completely changed my life. It also...

We all have a "shadow"—the desires, feelings, and memories we'd rather cram in a back closet than admit to ourselves. First described by...

The vagus nerve is the body’s long, wandering superhighway from the brainstem to the gut. When it’s firing well (“high vagal tone”), your...

We often believe that our suffering comes from our circumstances — a broken relationship, financial stress, work pressure, or unresolved...

First published in 1961, Thomas Szasz’s The Myth of Mental Illness  remains one of the most influential—and controversial—books in the...

Let's stop sugarcoating it. Let’s talk about the modern mental health system. Not the glossy brochures. Not the polished websites. I’m...

Anxiety is something most of us feel at some point in our lives. It’s that racing heart before a big meeting, the tight chest when...

For decades, addiction has been widely viewed as a chronic, relapsing brain disease—a model promoted by institutions like the National Institute on Drug Abuse and 12-step programs. However, the Freedom Model of Addiction , developed by Slate, Scheeren, and Dunbar (2017), offers a radically different view. It asserts that addiction is not a disease but a habit —a repeated, voluntary behavior based on perceived benefits. Like nail biting or overeating, substance use becomes hab

In an era when psychiatric treatment often meant forced hospitalization and heavy medications, two radically compassionate movements...

For those who don’t believe that our very early years, especially if there was trauma involved, affect our adulthood, I suggest you...

Pain, suffering, loss, guilt, shame, trauma, tragedy, death, violence, horror, grief, surround all of us on a daily basis. Life is really...

Stop screwing around - get pissed off and remember who you the f*ck you are, and get your life back! I’m saying this to whoever needs to...

I was asked by a colleague this week, “ Do you have a certain focus to your work? I mean, is there a central thread to what you do ?”...

Please don’t beat the shit out of yourself for being anxious sometimes. It’s perfectly normal. Life is goddamned scary as f*ck.  Just...