Suzanne Rodgers is a licensed therapist, holistic health practitioner, the owner of Living Well with Suzanne Rodgers and your cheerleader to LIVING WELL! She helps high-achieving women release what no longer serves them through a blend of talk therapy, energy, and sound healing at The Living Well Center of St. Louis. You can find Suzanne on IG and FB at Living Well with Suzanne Rodgers and her website is www.suzannerodgers.com. 

Chris McDonald is a Licensed Holistic Therapist with a group virtual practice, “Path to Hope Counseling” in North Carolina. She is a 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher and offers gentle yoga to clients in session, workshops and private yoga sessions.

She specializes in treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma and grief in young adults in transition. She teaches clients  trauma informed yoga, meditation and Brainspotting.   Chris also offers Therapy for Therapists and wrote the book “Self-Care for the Counselor” and the Companion Workbook.

Vanessa Holliman, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, founder of BEing Wholistic and practices Integrative Mind-Body-Spirit Social Work. Her work is rooted in the belief that healing trauma, especially the niche of adult sexual trauma, requires addressing the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. With training in psychotherapy, holistic nutrition, functional movement, astrology, and energy modalities like Usui & Holy Fire Reiki, she’s developed an integrated approach to help beings reconnect with their true self.

Emily is a psychospiritual therapist whose therapy practice is rooted in an integrative clinical framework that honors Transpersonal, Psychodynamic, Attachment/Family Systems, Trauma-Informed, Existential-Humanistic, Epigenetics, Ecopsychology, Experiential, and Energy Psychology—woven together to create a multidimensional and deeply personal healing experience. She is also an Akashic Records Reader, Tarot Card Reader, Cacao Ceremony facilitator. Additionally, she teaches Emotional First Aid classes to groups, organizations, and curious individuals seeking to hold space for their loved ones.

Dr. MAC and Léa Fae discuss the clinical gray area of defining altered states of consciousness. Many of the holistic therapists we've interviewed this season utilize modalities that drop their clients into altered states of consciousness. We discuss some theory behind this from the post-Jungian perspective. 

Katie Fields is the creator of CounSouling, a psycho-spiritual model of developmental psychology that focuses on the dynamic between ego and soul. Inspired by Internal Family Systems therapy and infused with psycho-spiritual assessments, including Numerology, Human Design, and the Enneagram, CounSouling helps clients appreciate their lived experiences and reclaim their true, authentic Selves. 

Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and Léa Fae discuss the difference between theory and modality, and delve deeper into different theories that can support holistic psycho-therapy practice.

In this episode we interview Dr. Tina Vitolo, a licensed clinical social worker, educator, and thought leader in the ethical integration of unconventional practices within mental health care. She is the founder of The Black Sheep Therapist platform and the Innovative Practitioner Accelerator (IPA) Program, which supports clinicians in aligning holistic, spiritual, and energy-based modalities with clinical theory and professional standards.

Welcome back to Season 5 listeners! This season we are talking about Holistic Psychotherapy, a post-materialist perspective on alternative spiritual practices and their place in therapy. We have interviewed several therapists who incorporate spirituality into their therapy practice, and we have a variety of discussions on the ethics, theory, legality, and cultural responsibility of this type of therapeutic practice. 

Your hosts are Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan (she/her) LCSW and author of Holistic Psychotherapy from a Post Materialist Perspective. Léa Fae (they/he/she/fae), filmmaker and producer, follow them on instagram.

Our artwork is by Ray Gonzalez and music by Anton Ashmere.

It's our last episode of the season! Our guest Niki talks about her harrowing journey of family, love, and leaving Evangelicalism to find a new relationship with the Divine. You can find her on instagram @Niki_corcoran_nc and @Phoenix_uncaged. Her podcast is Tales of a Trailblazer: Uncaged, check it out! 

We have another special guest! Our friend Justin discusses his life growing up in a conservative Evangelical environment and how it was not an easy road to accept his gay identity and reconcile his faith. In this season about spiritual trauma, we've discussed how it is rooted in one's fear for their immortal soul. Justin's story is a beautiful tale of his dark night of the soul and recovering with a beautiful relationship to his God, and community. 

We have a special guest! This season we have been unpacking religious trauma and spiritual abuse. Our guest today is Mikayla Gilbreath (she/her), LMSW, CCTS-I. Mikayla discusses discovering her queer identity in an Evangelical community, coming out, and her work as a grief and trauma therapist. 

Grief, loss, and trauma can all accompany leaving a spiritually abusive environment. While previously we talked about how an institution can be religiously abusive -even if it's not a cult- today Dr. Mac and Léa Fae talk about the trauma associated with removing oneself from a high-demand environment. Leaving is never easy. 

Earlier this season Dr. MAC and co-host Léa defined spiritual abuse, and discussed the unique characteristics of trauma from religious/spiritual abuse. Healing wounds from this specific type of trauma is its own unique journey, and in today's episode we discuss what that can look like. 

Today's episode Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan (she/her) and Léa Fae (they/he/she/fae) discuss types of organizational structures that don't meet the standard definition of a cult, but still practice spiritually abusive tactics. 

Spiritual abuse that takes place during childhood is unique in the trauma developed by the abused. In this episode of Finding Our Minds. Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan (she/her) and co-host Léa Fae (they/he/she/fae/faer) discuss how religious trauma differs from other types of childhood trauma, and how that can affect development.

Sources for this season can be found in two parts. Below, and in the Episode 1 description.

Sources (2/2)
McGraw, Danielle M., Marjan Ebadi, Constance Dalenber, Vanessa Wu, Braindi Naish, and Lisa Nunez. 2019. “Consequences of Abuse by Religious Authorities: A Review. Traumatology, 25. No. 4: 242-255.

Mulvihill, Natasha, Nadia Aghtaie, Andrea Matolsci and Marianne Hester. 2022. “UK Victim-Survivor Experiences of Intimate Partner Spiritual Abuse and Religious Coercive Control and Implications for Practice. DOI: 10.1177/17488958221112057.

Novsak, Rachel, tina Rahne Mandelj and Barbara Simonic. 2012. “Therapeutic Implications of Religious-Related Emotional Abuse. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 21. No 1:31-44.

Ward, David J. “The Lived Experience of Spiritual Abuse. 2011.” Mental Health, Religion, & Culture, 14. No. 9: 899-915.

Ross, Rick A. 2014. Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out.  North Charleston, South Carolina:  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Singer, Margaret T. 2003. Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing fight Against Their Hidden Menace. San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Whitsett, Doni & Stephen A. Kent. 2003. “Cults and Families.”  Families in Society, 84, no. 4: 491-501.

Welcome back, listeners! Season 4 tackles the topic of spiritual and religious abuse. In this introduction your hosts Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and Léa Fae Caddigan discuss their personal relationship with spiritual abuse and the inspiration behind this season's topic. A short and sweet introduction to the material before delving deeply into the topic in subsequent episodes.

Sources for this season can be found in two parts, below, and in the episode description of Episode 2.

SOURCES (1/2)
Callaway, Ewen. 2014. "Chicken Project Gets off the Ground." Nature 509, no. 7502: 546.
Piller, Ingrid. 2016. Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice: An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cashwell, Craig S. and Paula J. Swindle. 2018. “When Religion Hurts: Supervising Cases of Religious Abuse.” The Clinical Supervisor, 37. No. 1: 182-203.

Demasure, Karlijn. 2022. “The Loss of the Self—Spiritual Abuse of Adults in the Context of the Catholic Church.” Religions, 13: 509.

Diederick, F. Remy. 2017. Broken Trust: A Practical Guide to Identify and recover from Toxix Faith, Toxic Church, and Spiritual Abuse. Self Published.

Downie, Alison. 2022. “Christian Shame and Religious Trauma.” Religions 13: 925.

Ellis, Heidi M., Joshua N. Hook, Sabrina Zuniga, Adam S. Hodge, Kristy M. Ford, Don E. Davis, and Daryl R. Van Tongeren. 2022. “Religious/Spiritual Abuse and Trauma: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature.” Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 9, no. 4: 213-231.

Finch, Jamie L. 2019. You are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity. Self Published.

Johnson, David & Jeff van Vonderen. 1991. The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church. Minneapolis: Bethany House.

Knapp, Patrick J. 2021. Understanding Religious Abuse and Recovery. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.

Kvarfordt, Connie L. 2010. “Spiritual Abuse and Neglect of Youth: Reconceptualizing What is Known Through an Investigation of Practitioners’ Experiences.” Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 29. No. 2: 143-164.

It's (finally) the final episode of the season! Dr. Mac and Leah wrap up this season's discussion on "the sense of self." Why is the medical model not the best way to look at mental un-wellness and the healing journey? How can we help our clients without infantalizing them? How dose a mind-centered depth-approach therapy allow for an individual's healing journey to inform the therapeutic process, better than evidence-based practice? This and more on today's episode. 

Today's final episode of this season's lecture series, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses what it takes for inner change to occur in an individual, and how other people are involved in the process.

Works discussed in today's episode include:
Benjamin, J. (2004). Beyond doer and done-to: An intersubjective view of thirdness.  Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 73, 5-46

Benjamin, B. (1988).  Bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the problem of domination. Pantheon.

Chessick, R. G. (1990).  Self-analysis:  A fool for a patient?  Psychoanalytic Review, 77, 311-340. 

Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. & Target, M.  (2005). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. Other Press.

Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. Basic Books. 

Tronick, E. Z., Bruschweiler-Stern, N., Harrison, A. M., Lyons-Ruth, K., Morgan, A.C., Nahum, J. P., Sander, L. & Stern, D. N. (1999). Dyadically expanded states of consciousness and the process of therapeutic change.  Infant Mental Health Journal, 19, 

Our final installment of discussing identity, personality, and character, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses what makes up one's character. She goes on to review personal ethics in the context of forming identity and character, and how this relates to treating mental suffering in the therapeutic context.

Works cited in today's episode:
Carol Gilligan (1982) In a Different Voice

Johathan Haidt, Fredrik Björklund, and Scott Murphy (2000). Moral Dumbfounding:  When Intuition Finds No Reason. https://polpsy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/haidt.bjorklund.pdf

Hursthouse, Rosalind and Glen Pettigrove, "Virtue Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/ethics-virtue/>.

 Nel Noddings (1984).  Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education

Today's episode is a review of personality through the lens of developing a healthy self. How does this relate to identity, character, and development? Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and Leah Faye discuss.  

In this episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and co-host Leah Faye discuss the various ways in which those suffering from mental illness choose to identify. Today's lecture unpacks how mental suffering can arise when a society chooses to project an identity onto an individual whose sense of self is at conflict with the societal projection. 

This meditation is meant to be paired with episode 5, and focuses on our sense of self. 

In this episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan breaks down the concept of multiple selves, and the experience of multiple selves in a dissociative context. How does one unify the self? What is the difference between multiple selves and multiple experiences?

Works cited in today's episode:

Steven Kuchuck:  The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

Richard Schwartz:  ifs-institute.com/resources/articles/internal-family-systems-model-outline

Richard Schwartz:  Internal Family Systems Therapy, 2nd Edition

Galen Strawson:  Selves

Galen Strawson:  The Subject of Experience

In this episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses the Jungian definition of individuality, and the means by which Carl Jung studied the sense of self. The co-hosts discuss the impact Jungian and post-Jungian psychology has on the sense of binaries, and the concept of individuation. 

Works cited in today's episode:
Murray Stein: Handbook of Jungian Psychology

Christine Becker: Letting your Life Speak:  The Gentle Art of Individuation. The Jungian Path.

C.G. Jung:  Psychological Types

Today's episode explores how we define a healthy sense of self. 
Books referenced in today's episode:
Galen Strawson: Selves; The Subject of Experience

Jiri Benovsky: Mind and Matter: Panpsychism, Dual-Aspect Monism,
and the Combination Problem

Daniel Stern: The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from
Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology

Peter Fonagy: Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the Development
of the Self.

Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses the concept of self and how it is defined from a psychotherapist's perspective. Who or what experiences the concept of self? Works discussed in today's episode include:
 Jiri Benovsky:  Mind and matter:  Panpsychism, dual-aspect monism, and the combination problem.

Philip Bromberg:  Standing in spaces:  The multiplicity of the self and the psychoanalytic relationship.  In Contemporary Psychoanalysis, volume 32.

Lionel Corbett and Leanne Whitney:  Jung and non-duality:  Some clinical and theoretical implications of self ans totality of the psyche.  In the International Journal of Jungian Studies, volume 8.

Galen Strawson:  The subject of experience

In this first episode of Season 3 our co-hosts Dr. Mac and Leah Faye attempt to define the "self" while asking the question: What is it we are actually experiencing when we talk about our 'self' as a sensation?

Leslie Kean:  Surviving Death: A journalist investigates evidence for an afterlife
Harvey J. Irwin & Carolyn J. Watt: An Introduction to Parapsychology 5th Ed. 
Julie Beischel.  Among Mediums:  A Scientist’s Quest for Answers
Daniel Stern:  The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology
Galen Strawson: The Subject of Experience

Looking for a therapist and have no idea where to start? Uninsured? Worried about what type of therapy is right for you? Not sure what questions to ask a potential new therapist? Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses with Leah how to go about the task of finding the right fit. 

 In our next episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses tactics narcissistic abusers use in depth, and looks at ways one can heal from the experience. This meditation is meant to accompany Season 2, Episode 9, as a way to help ease mental suffering that results from gaslighting and other abusive tactics. We hope you find peace and solace in today's meditation. 

Narcissistic abusers have many tactics to control and manipulate people in their lives. The good news is there are ways to heal after experiencing this kind of trauma. In this episode, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses a few of the tactics a narcissistic abuser may use to manipulate a person, and the steps one can take to heal from such an experience. 

What if your abuser is your workplace, or your school? In this episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses how narcissistic abuse can extend to the structure of an institution, and posits how we can hold institutions accountable for abusive practices. 

In previous episodes we discuss how narcissistic abuse can involve thought-insertion, the non-somatic communication of degrading thoughts directed at a victim. In this episode, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses how in therapy we can support clients experiencing this, and the dangers of incorrectly labeling a victim of narcissistic abuse as psychotic.

Dr. Arnd-Caddigan leads us in a meditation to center our chakras. 

In this week's episode Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses the history of telepathy and telepathic studies in the discipline of psychoanalysis. 

We've been discussing all season the implications of mind-to-mind communication in the context of abuse. When someone experiences a narcissist's abusive tactics (such as gaslighting) it can often seem as though the abuser has an otherworldly control over our minds. In this episode we discuss the concept of psi, the mind-to-mind link between two people, and how that is twisted by the abuser to harm others. If you've ever experienced an encounter you would consider telepathic -either by an abuser or in another context- this episode is for you. 

A guided meditation in the practice of progressive relaxation, lead by Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan.

Today Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses abusers, specifically, types of narcissistic abusers. From oblivious (or, covert) narcissists to malignant narcissists, this episode unpacks the ways in which abuse can manifest from different type of narcissistic abusers; and why you don't have to have a personality disorder to commit narcissistic acts of abuse. 

Last week we looked at what constitutes a healthy personality, and how a healthy personality is developed in early childhood. This week Dr. Arnd-Caddigan breaks down what a personality disorder is and how that relates to narcissistic abuse. 

When talking about Personality Disorders it first helps to define personality. What is a flexible personality, a rigid personality, and how can one's personality become disordered? Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and her producer Leah discuss what a healthy personality is, can be, and how a healthy personality can respond to external narcissism. 

What is narcissistic abuse? What is gaslightling? What is an energy vampire? Most, if not all, of us have had to bear the brunt of abusive behavior at least once in our lives. What drives a person to behave this way, and how can we protect ourselves from falling victim to abuse? Dr. Margaret Anrd-Caddigan and her producer Leah Faye discuss narcissistic abuse and outline how Season 2 of Finding Our Minds will tackle this difficult subject matter. 

Trailer for Season 2 of Finding Our Minds, a podcast about Having Mind, Knowing Mind, and Changing Mind. Hosted by Margaret Arnd-Caddigan, PhD, Associate Professor of Social Work at East Carolina University. Produced by Leah Faye.

In this special season-finale, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan and her daughter Leah Faye discuss their experience with Wicca, magic, spirituality, and what that all has to do with therapy. Thank you so much to our listeners for giving us such positive feedback, our idea for this episode was inspired by you. If you liked this season please rate us, review us, subscribe to us, share us with your friends, we have a lot of exciting plans for future episodes and seasons. 

Please email us! Findingourminds@gmail.com or join our facebook group, Finding Our Minds Podcast where we post relevant discussion topics to each episode. 

Your host is Dr. Margaret Arne-Caddigan, clinical social worker, associate professor at East Carolina University, and published author. Her next book titled Intuition in therapy practice: a mind-centered depth approach to healing is being published by Rutledge and will be available this summer wherever books are sold.

Producer: Leah Faye @BossWitchLeFaye
Associate Producer: Lindsey Price
Technical Director: David Caddigan
Artwork by Ray Gonzalez @rays_prints
And with1 music by Anton Ashmere.  

In our last lecture of the season, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan discusses the relationship to the mind and body, and how one cannot exist without the other. This is our second to last episode of the season, and next episode will be an informal discussion on spirituality within mental health practices. Stay tuned! 

This week's episode is less dense, Dr. Arnd-Caddigan talks research. We explore what the research shows about mind-centered therapy, and what it is that makes a therapy experience work for a client. The secret? You'll have to listen...

Why do we need to unburden ourselves of our experiences? Why do we feel better after talking to someone? What's going on in our minds when a therapist is guiding mental healing? Margaret and Leah discuss the ways we relate to experience, how sharing qualia is a necessary part of cementing our understanding of ourselves.

This week we take a semi-deep dive into the Jungian and Post-Jungian understanding of the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. What did Jung mean by the collective unconscious, and what are our interpretations of it today? Is the collective unconscious metaphysical, material, or is there perhaps better language to describe it? Margaret and Leah also discuss the notion of the afterlife. 

This week Margaret goes into how to develop your intuition and how to tell the difference between intuition and projection. Have you ever felt belittled for relying on your intuition? Have you ever been vindicated for listening to your own intuition? Write to us! Findingourminds@gmail.com

What is intuition and how can we learn to apply it in our work, relationships, and practices? How do we know when we're having an intuitive moment, or when we're projecting our desires onto a situation. This week Margaret and Leah discuss how we use our intuition and why it shouldn't be stigmatized in the therapeutic alliance. 

This week Margaret and Leah discuss intuition, and answer: what is intuition? And, when do we gain it in early childhood development? They also discuss their spiritual beliefs and what it's like being a witch in North Carolina. 

In this episode we talk about the concept of mental suffering. How it arises, and how understanding our own minds can help us understand the minds of others. 

Host Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan and producer Leah Faye answer the question "What is mind?" We explore the idea of the single, Universal mind, and discuss the stigma of being called "woo-woo." 

In the first episode we meet our host, Dr. Margaret Arnd-Caddigan and begin to explore the definition of mind. The current dominant worldview posits that your mind, or every experience you’ve ever had, comes from your brain.  This view has been challenged by a growing number of philosophers of mind. The positions of panpsychism and cosmopsychism are explored.