Not As Crazy As You Think Podcast Jen Gaita Siciliano

In the episode, "An Interview with Delicia Niami, Author of Kissing Asphalt: On Trauma, Healing, and Resilience (S6 E1)," Delicia joins the show sharing her 3 part memoir series, Resilient AF. The first book in the series, Kissing Asphalt: The Courageous True Story of One Child's Unbreakable Spirit—From Kidnapping & Abuse to Self-Love, tells the story of her early years within a traumatic set of experiences many might not have bounced back from. At the early age of 7, Delicia experienced being kidnapped by her own dad and brought to Bagdad Iraq. 
Through all the trauma, Delicia shines light on the energy of growing up as a member of Generation X-- the culture of no phones and limited check up by parents--highlighting her deep interest in the GoGos and her adventures in weed culture. Her courage in sharing her ongoing dealings with molestation and how that colored her relationship with intimacy and relationships provides hope for anyone who experiences such violation.
Delicia’s second book, Not My Circus, chronicles the goings-on inside the courtroom dealing with her mother’s murder, while Book 3, The Queen of Silver Linings, shares Delicia’s healing journey using a variety of alternative modalities. Delicia uncovers a resilience within and offers a restorative view of how to keep moving forward in the face of such obstacles.

For anyone who has struggled with childhood trauma, Delicia’s unflinching journey through darkness and back to light will resonate. She has decided to share her story publicly in hopes that it will serve as a guide to the many who have suffered in silence and continue to struggle against the daunting weight imposed by childhood trauma.

Buy Delicia's book on Amazon or choose her Audiobook

Learn more about Delicia on her website: https://kissingasphalt.com/

#mentalhealth #trauma #recovery #resilientAF #livedexperience #kidnapping  #plantmedicine #kissingasphalt #notmycircus #generationx #molestation

Please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJen
Connect:
Instagram: @ jengaita 
LinkedIn: @ jensiciliano
Twitter: @ jsiciliano

In the episode, "Journeys Beyond the Frontier: On Treating and Interacting with Psychosis, A Conversation with Psychiatrist Mark Ragins (S5, E17)" I connect with Mark at the ISPS Conference at the University of Delaware where he was giving a talk, on the subject of psychosis and how those who suffer with it are treated by the medical field. Mark has a humanistic and compassionate approach when dealing with those who are sometimes the most feared and avoided characters in the area of mental illness, those with severe mental illness (SMI), and particularly psychosis. He invites in a new paradigm of relating to these patients, and views them as people, not diagnoses. In his embracing of using personal narrative to tell one's own story, he unveils a certain path to get to the healing: making meaning of own's own life in their own words.   

 Learn more about Mark at:  markragins.com

Mark Ragins, MD was the Medical Director for 27 years at the Mental Health America Village in Long Beach, California, an award-winning model of recovery based mental health services, before leaving in 2017 to become the only campus psychiatrist at CSULB and in 2022 joined the Department of Health Services mobile clinics and street medicine teams working with homeless people on the streets throughout LA county.

 His recent book, Journeys Beyond the Frontier: A Rebellious Guide to Psychosis and Other Extraordinary Experiences, is based on the true stories of more than 30 years of clinical work with some of the most underserved and difficult to engage people in our community. A true pioneer and leader of person-centered, recovery-based psychiatry, Mark has also won a number of awards in his field, including the American Psychiatric Association’s Arnold Van Amerigan Award in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association’s John Beard award for his outstanding lifetime contribution to psychiatric rehabilitation, and National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) California’s recovery practitioner of the year.

#mentalhealth #mentalillness #psychosis #livedexperience #psychsurvivor #unhoused #homelessness #substanceabuse

Please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJen
Connect:
Instagram: @ jengaita 
LinkedIn: @ jensiciliano
Twitter: @ jsiciliano

In the episode, "The New Language of Neurodiversity, Decolonization, Depathologization: On Location at the ISPS Conference with Six Voices on a Mission (S5, E16)," I go on location to connect with The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS), which is a pioneering organization with almost 70 years of advocating for transformative psychosocial understandings and approaches to psychosis that restore personhood, dignity, and well-being. The weekend-long conference held at the University of Delaware from October 27th-29th gathered clinicians, researchers, advocates, and people with lived experience, who are deeply invested in advancing psychological and social approaches to “psychosis,” while moving beyond frameworks of deficit and disease.
Connecting with a community of likeminded individuals, who recognize that the mental health system needs transformation beyond the biomedical paradigm was a riveting experience. In the following interview, I speak with six speakers at the event who give a message of hope and hold a more humane vision for an alternative mental health paradigm.

Vesper Moore is an indigenous political activist, leader, organizer, public speaker and educator in the psychiatric survivor and Disability Rights Movements. Vesper has brought the perspectives of mad, labeled "mentally ill," neurodivergent, disabled people and survivors to national and international spaces. Vesper works with both the US government and the United Nations in shaping strategies around trauma, intersectionality, and disability rights.

Dr. Calvin Chatlos is professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, with certification in adult, child and adolescent, and addiction psychiatry. Dr. Chatlos has presented at national and international conferences and is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

 Since 2007, Sean Blackwell has been researching and teaching about the spiritual dimension and healing potential of bipolar disorder. His book, "Am I Bipolar, or Waking Up?," published in 2011, describes his own bipolar awakening, subsequent hospitalization, and complete recovery in 1996. Follow Sean on YouTube or at his website: bipolarawakenings.com.

Oryx Cohen is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Empowerment Center. He serves as president of the board for the Massachusetts Transformation Center and We R H. O. P. E., and is a master Emotional CPR trainer. Oryx co-produced and is a subject in the award-winning social action documentary Healing Voices, which was released in April 2016. You can follow his message on Instagram and on Tik Tok @ NECempowers.

South African Joshua Roberts combines his lived experience, with his Bachelors of Psychology and Masters in Theology to create a synergy between the inner / outer worlds. He's the COO of Inspired Mind Mental Health and works with NAMI and the National Empowerment Center. Josh's website is: InspiredMindMentalHealth.com Follow Josh on: Instagram,  LinkedIn or YouTube.

Mija Bradford is a clinical therapist working in private practice since she graduated from Northwestern University Counseling Program in 2021.  At six, Mija was introduced to the subtler energies in life and answered the healer's calling. Mija comes from a lineage of African diaspora healers that have suffered from collective generational trauma. 

In the episode, "An Interview with Tanya Frank, Author of Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood (S5, E15)," Tanya lends her powerful voice to the show, sharing her insight and experience with the mental health industry.  Tanya’s association with the mental health system began in 2009 when Zach, Tanya’s son, was diagnosed in 2009 after his first episode with hearing voices.  Both Zach and Tanya were not happy with the treatment offered, and Tanya opens up about his forced drugging and coercive hospitalization, as well as the alternative treatments that lent hope and relief. 

Tanya also shares differences and similarities in mental health approaches to treatment between the US, the UK, and other nations that are moving onto a more compassionate path, who utilize programs such as Open Dialogue and the Soteria Network.  Tanya acts as an advocate for families with experience of psychosis and stresses the importance of such support. While she acknowledges the power of the institution, she sees a new revolution emerging, consisting of a growing movement of critics of the status quo, as more people come forward to share their own stories and challenge the current paradigm. Tanya’s compassionate perspective and courageous heart gives hope to all who have lost faith in a system, that for so many survivors, not only proved unhelpful but aggressively harmful. Tanya’s book is so beautifully written with honesty, rawness, and openness, and her presence on the podcast is equally moving and enlightening. 
To buy Tanya's book, go to:
 https://www.amazon.com/Zig-Zag-Boy-Memoir-Madness-Motherhood/dp/0393531880
Bio:
Tanya Frank gained her MFA in Creative NonFiction at the University of California, Riverside. Her debut book, ZIG ZAG BOY: MOTHERHOOD, MADNESS & LETTING GO (Spring 2023) was an editors pick in the New York Times Review of Books. Tanya currently lives in London where she teaches and mentors writers with lived experience of psychosis. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The New York Times, The Washington Post and in various literary journals. She is the recipient of a 2022 Develop Your Creative Practice Award from the Arts Council England.

To learn more about Tanya, go to her website at: https://www.tanyafrank.com/
or follow her on Twitter: @TanFrankUK

#mentalhealth #mentalillness #psychosis #bigpharma #forceddrugging #livedexperience #psychsurvivor #forcedhospitalization #schizoaffective #DSM #ZigzagBoy

Please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJen
Connect:
Instagram: @ jengaita 
LinkedIn: @ jensiciliano
Twitter: @ jsiciliano

In the episode, "The Vision and Voice of Janet Werner: The Documentary, the Movie, the Movement (S5, E14)," Janet joins the show to share her message on spiritual emergencies shedding light on the spiritual side of mental health, and specifically, the spiritually transformative experiences that often get misdiagnosed as mental illness.

Forty-four years ago while in her master’s degree program Janet had an astonishing mystical experience which turned into a spiritual emergency and resulted in being misdiagnosed as Bipolar, involuntarily hospitalized and required to take Lithium against her will. Twenty-five years later in 2005, Janet had another spiritual awakening, which was immediately pathologized given the prejudice from her former misdiagnosis. She was again involuntarily hospitalized, misdiagnosed as Bipolar and coerced into medication against her will. She is now speaking out to raise awareness of the spiritual side of mental health and specifically the DSM V code entitled "Religious or Spiritual Problem": V62.89.

Janet shares her personal journey with spiritual emergency, and how that has brought her to where she is today-- the leader of a global team of mental health experts, who are developing a docuseries (Breaking Open, Breaking Down, Breaking Through) and a mainstream feature movie (Calling God to the Witness Stand). 

Bio:
Janet Werner is an independent entrepreneur and the President of U Have My Word LLC (www.UHaveMyWord.com)  since 1988, which is a corporate consulting firm specializing in large scale system change. She is also the founder of a Meaningful Media that Matters in Mental Health project and Her mission is to ease the journey through change, transition and on to transformation, within and around the mental health system. 
Along with her team she is leading an initiative to include spiritual competency in the 988 first responder training. Janet is also partnering with her team to establish a coalition of religious & spiritual leaders in New Jersey for the purpose of including these resources in mental health crisis support and patient care when hospitalized. 

#bigpharma #spiritualemergency #mentalhealth #mentalillness #forcedhospitalization

To learn more about Janet and her projects, go to:
Calling God to the Witness Stand™ -
Video sample of Calling God to the Witness Stand (2) Calling God to the Witness Stand PR Media - YouTube
Rethinking Mental Health Facebook
Media that Matters Facebook
Janet’s story recorded at Rutgers University Assessing for Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Emergency
 
Janet's book:  N.O. Spells No. Y.E.S. Spells Yes.: Maybe So? It's Got to Go!: Werner, Janet: 9781945853098: Amazon.com: Books
Spoken word art:
07 Resume Track 7 Call Me Crazy Maybe...Just Don't Drive Me To Mental Hill - YouTube
YouTube live on 988:
https://youtu.be/zNt277TYcnQ?si=4DsBGGCpHTev3lDr
YouTube live on Psych Rights:
https://youtu.be/ADyn31uUPno?si=IoIzxLj4-32Rn29H

Please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJen
 
    

In the episode, "On the Polycrisis with Mark McCormack: Psychiatric Coercion, Hegel, A.I. and Saving Humanity (S5, E13),"  Mark begins with sharing his intimate experience with psychiatry and its oppressive structure. A peaceful protestor of 20 years, while on a hunger strike protesting the polycrisis, Mark describes how the institution overtook his life through forced hospitalization and a list of human rights violations. He speaks of his pressing class action lawsuit, which holds accountable the mental health care system in Canada with potential to go global.

Mark also reveals his passion behind the German philosopher, G.W.F Hegel, whose work may pave the way to creatively and strategically confront  head on the polycrisis, which includes climate change, artificial intelligence, and Crispr technology, among others. With the coming AI age and possible reality collapse in our future, Mark addresses the oncoming mental health crisis or possible mass psychosis that may emerge. He believes incorporating Hegel’s philosophy into A.I. research on alignment issues, may help create a benevolent AGI-- the only outcome with which humans can co-exist. Hegel arrived just before modern psychiatry took a more reductionist road, and returning to his holistic and spiritual philosophy may hold the answer for our future. Mark believes in this path so whole heartedly, that he has called out for experts in their fields to unite and claim as a team the upcoming 6 Nobel prizes to legitimize the seriousness of the situation we are currently facing today existentially.

Bio:
Mark McCormack is a philosophy enthusiast at the University Of Alberta. He is passionate about social justice and led a group named Make Poverty History for many years. His studies have ranged across all religions and systems including the German philosopher G.W.F Hegel. After a few thousand hours studying the Science Of Logic, Mark believes there is a way to create a peaceful revolution and New World Spirit for society which would require transformation of the mental healthcare system. Having gone on a hungerstrike as part of a union initiative of Uber drivers, Mark discovered deep fissures in the system which allowed his human rights to be violated in several ways. His goal now is to make this peaceful revolution a reality to address the escalating mental health crisis arising from reality collapse as the polycrisis continues.

#polycrisis #artificialintelligence #realitycollapse #mentalhealth #mentalillness #Hegelianswhowanttochangetheworld #livingphilosophy #Nobelsurprize

References:

Nobel Surprize (10 hour No Cree Council)
https://youtu.be/cKEtPIryrNY


Follow Mark at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/peacefulrevolution23
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmccormack23/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@spiritpeacefulrevolution3523


Please visit my website at: www.jengaitasiciliano.com
Don't forget to subscribe to the Not As Crazy As You Think YouTube channel @SicilianoJen
Connect:
Instagram: @ jengaita 
LinkedIn: @ jensiciliano
Twitter: @ jsiciliano