Finding Help: Therapy, Recovery, & Community Matt Shedd

Internet addiction is a condition that we are just starting to recognize and grapple with collectively as a culture. It’s also something that the therapy community is also starting to take seriously and address with clients. And I think if we are honest, most of us can likely identify some form of internet addiction in our own lives, be it mild or severe. Zulaikha Straight, MA, LPC, is a trauma therapist and certified addiction coach specializing in internet addiction. We talk about how this addiction can take on many different forms, including shopping, pornography, social media, and gaming addiction, to name a few. We also discuss how the underlying issues driving the addiction need to be addressed for there to be any long term healing or recovery and the ways that help are available.

0:00 Introduction

2:40 Why Zulaikha started treating internet addiction

5:15 What does internet addiction look like?

7:25 Pornography addiction - the most dangerous form of internet addiction

13:30 Shopping addiction - the dopamine rush from hitting the purchase button

18:20 The consequences of a culture addicted to the internet and the documentary “The Social Dilemma”

26:40 Social media addiction - the underlying need is to be validated and accepted; splitting our identities between public, private, and social personas;

32:50 Possibility of change; looking at the trauma underlying internet addiction; different trauma treatments

40:00 Gaming addiction - the only form of internet addiction confirmed at this point by the DSM and psychiatric world

48:13 What Zulaikha would pass on to people who are listening

Zulaikha's website: https://integrativeGA.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/integrativeGA

Instagram: https://instagram.com/integrativega/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/integrative-counseling-ga/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/integrativeGA


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A lot of times there’s a thin line between a mental breakdown and a spiritual experience. Adam has had his fair share of both. He shares them here and it’s quite a ride.

Things kicked up a notch when he was a NCAA Division 1 football player managing a worsening drug problem. In a televised ESPN game, he had a psychotic break. Spiritual experiences, continued drug use, 12 Step Recovery, and total acceptance eventually follow.

1:35 Amphetamine induced psychotic break during a D1 NCAA football game

5:05 Continued psychosis for 4 months

7:20 Psychosis ends then “things get weird”

9:08 An overwhelming spiritual experience; “losing total sense of time and space”

13:05 “the thin line between a mental breakdown and a spiritual experience”

15:35 Beginning to use black tar heroin

17:35 Instant relapse, going to the bluffs to score drugs

21:35 Why he stopped relapsing - the 12 Steps

23:05 Difficulty  of what families experience

26:05 Lao Tzu and Taoism; peace, contentment, and creativity in recovery

28:00 A few second of contemplation

30:20 Being back on heroin, living in Tulsa with his mom, losing his girlfriend

32:35 Waking up dopesick, using heroin and cocaine

34:35 Getting back into recovery

37:35 Being deeply ashamed of who he was; out of dope, out of money, out of gas

39:05 Looking at a gun and contemplating suicide

41:35 Revisiting spirituality in recovery: Taoism, Zen, Bruce Lee, Alan Watts

46:05 Shared Space, building a recovery-focused social media software

47:35 Pema Chodron, “Comfortable with Uncertainty”

50:05 Taking the 3rd Step

52:35 Working in the treatment field, Life as play rather than work

57:25 What Adam would pass on to people listening

For more information, visit https://mattshedd.com


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A Jungian psychotherapist who approaches the most seemingly ordinary human experience with the curiosity and reverence of a philosopher and a poet, Mitchell Smolkin, MACP, RP, is a profoundly interesting conversation partner.  We work through some big questions in this episode. Specifically, we discuss how therapy can intersect with spirituality in moments of great suffering to be a profound meaning-making tool in our lives.

How do we find dignity in suffering? [1:30]


Accepting suffering and resisting violence to the individual;
Carl Jung’s influence and his “appetite for mythology” as a tool for making meaning;
12 Step Recovery as a framework.

How can we use art and religious narratives to make meaning? [8:45]


The Art of Marc Chagall;
Religious narratives as a tool for making sense out of daily life;
Video games as mythological frameworks.

Why is it so difficult to talk about spiritual and religious identity? [13:30]


Complexities of religious identities;
Jewish rituals of collective mourning after the crusades;
Spiritual practice as a collective connection rather than the modern idea of self-development.

How do you work with religion and spirituality in the therapy room? [20:00]


Transforming suffering into poetry;
Charles Darwin - no single organism is exactly the same as another;
Carl Jung - everyone has their psychology.

How can we acknowledge and work with our cultural and spiritual inheritance in therapy? [27:30]


Forgiving frailties of the individual human psyche, re: group fanaticism, mob mentality;
Mass graves of Indigenous children in Canada and the Catholic Church;
Reckoning with the realities of history without judging.

What would you say to people who are suffering right now? [36:30]


Healing involves connection, and connection requires risk;
Intimacy comes with pain because it touches against our wounds;
Going deep into the lexicon of our pain

For Mitchell’s podcast, look up "The Dignity of Suffering" wherever podcasts are found. Also, you can visit Mitchell at https://mitchellsmolkin.com/

For more of Matt Shedd's work, visit https://mattshedd.com. 


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Terrible things always happened to Kyle when he drank. And yet Kyle could NOT stop drinking, even though he desperately wanted to.

We start off our conversation with his description of being in the hospital with the DTs. And it makes "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" seem tame. 

He recalls after being detoxed, swearing he's not going to drink at the same time that he's lifting the bottle to his mouth.

Eventually, through the process of a 12 Steps program, surrender, and community, a life characterized by isolation and despair starts to give way to connection and hope.

Here's the story of how Kyle found help.

For more of Matt's work, visit https://mattshedd.com


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If addiction is a process characterized by a state of violence toward oneself and others, perhaps the way to recovery is nonviolent. Perhaps lasting habit change doesn't involve forcing, coercing, or punishing ourselves into doing things differently but instead consists of a process of disarming ourselves of ineffective coping mechanisms. And in taking that risk, maybe we can open ourselves to finding a new power grounded in community rather than alienation. In this podcast episode, Matt Shedd lays out how he sees the language and process of nonviolent direct action as coinciding with the process of 12 Step Recovery and the science of mindfulness and habit change. Exploring the intersection between these approaches, Matt draws from several traditions and bodies of knowledge. Looking at the Big Book of A.A; the work of researchers Dr. Judson Brewer and Brené Brown; and Gandhi's practice of "Satyagraha" and the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Matt walks through how he sees all these voices point to a unifying truth. When we learn to lay down the weapons of faulty defense mechanisms (which are only hurting ourselves and those around us), we can perhaps connect to a collective power or way of being that helps to heal ourselves and those around us.

For more of Matt's work or to reach out to him directly, visit mattshedd.com. 


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What happens if a therapist properly understands their client’s unique brain differences and challenges? It can potentially save the client and therapist years of pursuing therapeutic interventions that are ineffective for that client’s particular brain. Kelli Willard’s approach as a therapist changed dramatically when she officially received an ADHD diagnosis. A better understanding of how her own brain functioned helped her shift her entire perspective, not just on her own daily life, but also on working with individuals and couples as a therapist. In our talk we discuss neurodiversity and how everyone’s brain functions differently. Kelli’s work with clients seeks to move past unhelpful disease models related to different-functioning brains. Rather, she focuses on helping her clients embrace and work with the gifts and challenges associated with their unique brain functioning.

Learn more about Kelli's work at: https://loveallthebrains.com/

For more about Matt's work and the services he provides, visit https://mattshedd.com


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