ReThreading Madness
Bernadine Fox
Bernadine Fox brings a rare and powerful combination of lived experience, long-term disability rights advocacy, and creative insight to her role as host and producer of ReThreading Madness, the award-winning radio show and podcast that dares to shift how we think about mental health.A recipient of the 2022 Courage to Come Back Award, Bernadine is a white settler of Scottish, Irish, and French heritage with a familial connection to the Tsuut'ina nation. She has spent over 30 years advocating for those with lived experience of mental health challenges including survivors of trauma and therapy harm. She is an intersectional feminist, artist, and author of Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist—a memoir that confronts the devastating misuse of power in therapeutic relationships.Bernadine is not a clinician, but she is a deeply informed mental health advocate with firsthand knowledge of trauma, CPTSD, and disability. Her background includes decades of work as a support worker for survivors of severe childhood trauma, a trauma consultant, and public speaker. She has led expressive arts groups in collaboration with Richmond Mental Health and Gallery Gachet, where she also served on the board and helped publish The Ear magazine. She has served on the board of such organizations as Kickstart (Disability Arts and Culture) which focused on breaking down barriers to creative access for people with disabilities.What sets Bernadine apart as a radio host is her unwavering commitment to telling the truth—even when it's uncomfortable. She doesn't shy away from difficult conversations; she invites them. With compassion and clarity, she brings forward voices that are often silenced, challenges harmful narratives, and explores the messy realities of mental health, trauma, and recovery.ReThreading Madness is more than a show. Under Bernadine's guidance, it's a platform for unfiltered, survivor-centered dialogue—one that refuses to pathologize trauma and instead builds community through shared truth. RTM won the Breaking Barriers CRABO award through the NCRA. Bernadine currently lives in the forest with two cats, raises her grandchild, and continues to create, speak, and advocate for a world where mental health care is ethical, accessible, and just.ReThreading Madness is produced and aired on the ancestral and unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We extend our gratitude and appreciation to the Indigenous people who have been living and working on this land from time immemorial.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 1, 2025 • 1h
Building Self-Worth with Tavares Garrett
Building Self-Worth with Tavares GarrettTavares A. Garrett CNC, CPT, BCS is a “Health & Transformation Educator, Motivational Speaker, Mentor, Author, Servant Leader, Energy Giver/Healer, Podcast and TV Host. He's certified by NASM (National Academy Of Sports Medicine) and is the owner of The Body Synthesis.” As you listen you will recognize that Tavares is someone who uses his skill to connect and listen with people to create an environment to help that individual build self-worth. He comes and chats with Bernadine to talk about what are the ingredients to transform pain and trauma into rediscovering self and building self-worth: necessary for taking action and making change happen. “He loves to help others re-build & rediscover themselves through nutrient-rich, preventative medicine coaching, behavioral change, fit-nutrition, sobriety support and enlightenment.” Tavares has published several books including, “Kissed by the Wind” “A book of Poems and Passions” Volumes 1, 2 & 3 and “I Like That” A Book of Inspirational quotes, The Body Synthesis - Guide To A Better Mind, Guide To A Better Body, The P.F.O. Method and is the Host of Living Your Truth w/ Tavares & The Black Love Xperience Podcast.”Music by Shari Ulrich, Ana Clendening, Omar RudbergBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Mar 26, 2025 • 1h 1min
Raising Drug-Resistant Kids with Elisa Fortes Christiansen
Raising Drug Resistant Kids with Elisa Fortise Christiansen Elisa Fortise Christensen joins RTM to discuss her 30-year history of addiction with prescription drugs which she developed after a back injury. She has been clean for many years but that addiction spurred her on to examine how to protect her kids from the same fate. Elisa is an American author, poet and public speaker who has been through some real-life challenges but who lives her life with gratitude, love and passion. She has written 8 books all of which focus on approaching life with what she calles “crazy courage and deep gratitude.” We sat down to discuss the material she has outlined in her book “Teen Warrior: Raising Drug-Resistant Kids”You can find more information about Elisa at https://www.authorelisa.comMusic by Jelly Roll and Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Mar 11, 2025 • 1h
Judy and I on Dissociative Identities
Judy and I on Dissociative IdentitiesThis program comes out of seeing one more untrained therapist postulate that folks with dissociative identities (formerly known as multiple personalities) are rare and dysfunctional or simply do not exist. Judy and I are here to push back against this assumption that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you are a woman in Canada and haven’t heard of Judy Rebick, you haven’t been paying attention. Judy is a Canadian writer, journalist, political activist, and is considered one of Canada’s leading feminists. She was the former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) and held the Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy. She rubbed elbows and engaged with politicians in intense discussions. She has been the TV host for CBC programs and was the founder and publisher for rabble.ca. Judy is known as a vocal spokesperson to legalize abortion and taking on a protestor with a pair of garden shears pointed at Dr. Morgentaler. She is the author of Heroes in My Head (2018) which outlines not just her political life but that of her personalities. And while my audience has come to know me over the years, for the purpose of this program it is important that I fill you in a bit more. I am a graduate of Emily Carr University and an established visual artist, curator, and instructor. I worked as a film production manager before becoming a peer support worker and consultant for those with childhood trauma and dissociative identities. For 30 years, I have been an award-winning mental health advocate and am the host of this program which is Canada’s longest-running syndicated show on mental health where we disregard colonial-based ideas about mental health and the DSM. I am a survivor of human trafficking and spent years speaking out against organized crime. I currently provide peer support through TELL the Therapy Exploitation Link Line to survivors of therapy abuse and exploitation. I am a public speaker providing workshops on TAE and facilitating peer support groups for fellow survivors. And I have, like Judy, authored a memoir, Coming to Voice, which chronicles surviving an abuse therapist and the role my dissociative identities played in saving my life.So to dispel the myth that folks with DI are fragile and dysfunctional, Judy and I are here to answer the questions sent into ReThreading Madness listeners of what DI is from our lived experience.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Mar 4, 2025 • 1h
ADHD, PTSD, and Autism with Randi-Lee Bowslaugh
ADHD, PTSD, and Autism with Randi-Lee Bowslaugh Randi-Lee Bowslaugh is a fellow warrior out there around the issue of mental health awareness fighting the inappropriate stigma we face as folks who live with mental health challenges. Randi-Lee is an author and outspoken advocate for mental health. She has lived with depression from the age of 14 years and was eventually diagnosed with autism and PTSD as an adult. She is the host of the Write or Die Show a podcast that you can find on You tube. And of course, like so many of us, as a well-rounded person she has other sides to her. One of them is kickboxing in 2015 she was a Canadian National Champion and in 2016 she won silver in Pan-Am games. Randi-Lee is also a mother and grandmother.Music by Shari Ulrich and Brandi CarlisleBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Feb 28, 2025 • 60min
Connection Salon & Gathering Place, Crisis Centre of BC & Kagan Goh
Connection Salon & Gathering Place, Crisis Centre of BC & Kagan Goh In today’s program we speak with Pierre Leichner from the Connection Salon here in Vancouver BC and Carrie Campbell from the Gathering Place about their collaboration to ensure that art comes to those who live with mental health challenges. We also speak with Mark Sheehan, Program Director, and Paul Vincent, Volunteer, about the Youth Education projects bringing mental health information to youth through the Crisis Centre of BC. And then Kagan Goh joins us to talk about his upcoming documentary on mental health entitled Common Law. Music by Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Feb 11, 2025 • 1h
What does Mental Health, Psychiatry, and the Ouija Board have in Common?
What does Mental Health, Psychiatry, and the Ouija Board have in Common? Dan Nelson, is the author of Ouija Board and the Skeptic (Mad In America) and holds a BA in Philosophy, MA in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. Through twenty years of working in management systems, he knows that systems are designed to output a particular product or service and that the system was the cause of any and all undesirable results the system outputs. In this article, he states that the mental health systems are responsible for their lack of ability to assist some who live with mental health challenges. Dan writes, “Psychiatry's practices are so entrenched, its methods so accepted, that skeptics and outsiders are often dismissed as uninformed or unqualified simply because they haven’t undergone the same training that instills confidence in its frameworks. But skepticism, especially from those with lived experience, isn’t just valid—it’s necessary. It forces us to question whether our tools and methods truly serve those they claim to help.” We respond to our lives, our challenges, our struggles. Too often mental health issues are a normal and nature response to trauma. As Dan points out if the psych industry isn’t looking at the systems around their clients and changing those systems, and instead they medicate and work with the client to be able to tolerate the difficulties they are dealing with – they aren’t solving the morning. They are applying a band aid. A good example of this is how our systems are designed to pathologize the victim is schoolyard bullying. Too often the victim is expected to learn to develop new skills to deal with the bully. Often they must be extricated from the school to be protected. The bully, too often, is not confronted or restricted in ways that would prevent the bullying. Dan demonstrates how we can take that same example and apply it to the mental health system where victims come forward with mental health challenges caused by environmental factors and yet the industry will medicate the victim instead of looking at how to change the environment. The DSM and psychiatry is accepted to often without including the possibility (like with a Ouija Board) that perhaps it is not truth. Music by Shari Ulrich and Jelly RollBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Feb 4, 2025 • 1h
Spotting a Coaching Scam with youtube creator Danielle Ryan
Spotting a Coaching Scam with youtube creator Danielle RyanDanielle Ryan describes herself as a youtube channel creator and “just a troll on the internet covering topics related to the business & life coaching industry.” As she says, part of the problem is lack of regulation and then what happens when coaches coaches to become coaches. She spends a lot of time sharing “my silly little opinions as I deep dive into *allegedly* problematic people, organizations, and techniques used to manipulate people in the space while also sprinkling in the occasional small business video.” Her channel is a mix of educational & commentary content. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itsdanielleryanWebsite: https://danielleryan.me Music by Shari Ulrich, David Laronde, and Elizabeth WallaceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 29, 2025 • 1h
How Past Lives and Spiritual Experiences Impact our Mental Health with Kerie Logan
How Past Lives and Spiritual Experiences Impact our Mental Health with Kerie Logan While there doesn’t seem to be any scientific consensus of past lives, the correlation between them, present-day conflicts, and/or emotional baggage is significant. And the anecdotal stories include resolving problematic patterns that one has around behaviors, phobias, relationship, relationship difficulties among others. In addition, we have individuals who when they have spoken about past lives or spiritual experiences are dismissed with labels of being crazy by people around them and professionals in the mental health industry and some are simply shipped off to the psych ward. So we decided it was time to take a look at what this was and how it manifests in people's lives.Here in Western culture where so much is based on Christianity and white culture, we experience a pronounced dissonance. On one hand we are taught to believe in the bible and that Jesus rose from the dead. The Holy Ghost is recognized as a witness of God and Jesus and confirms the truth. And yet, we are told that ghosts are not real and reincarnation is the stuff of snake oil salesmen. We are taught that according to the bible angels exist, but if someone sees them, a psychiatrist will likely define that as delusions. There is nothing offered that explains those two opposites beliefs.The other truth here is that not everyone is situated in white culture and we have the benefit of learning from others where reincarnation, ancestors, and ghosts are integral to their lives.Award-winning hypnotherapist, Kerie Logan joins Bernadine to explain how our past lives or spiritual experiences may impact on our mental health. Logan has spent the last 40+ years working with people using meditation, NLP, creative visualization, relaxation, inner child work and hypnosis. She has won awards for her hypnotherapy work. ReThreading Madness talks with her about the impact past lives and spiritual experiences has on our mental health and how we might be able to resolve them. So if you have experienced past lives or angels in ways that have impacted your mental health this program is for you.Music by Shari Ulrich and BornMore information about Kerie Logan at:Website: https://mastertheupperrooms.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mastertheupperroomsPodcast: On all platformsInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/mastertheupperrooms/https://www.empoweredwithin.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 21, 2025 • 1h 4min
With Matt Sandoval from FreeArts AZ and Kagan Goh producer/director of Common Law
With Matt Sandoval from FreeArts AZ and Kagan Goh producer/director of Common LawMatt Sandoval, is the new Executive Director for FreeArts in Arizona. FreeArts AZ provides traumatized children and their families with a means of creative expression and as means of establishing resilience and offering mentorship. And Kagan Goh talks with ReThreading Madness about his new film, Common Law, a biographical account of his experience of learning he had BiPolar and how this impacted on his relationships with his long-time girlfriend and family. Through this we learn how individuals who receive Persons With Disability in BC, are unable to keep this benefit if they enter into a common-law relationship and how that changes the relationship and their own sense of self. Kagan also talks about his preference for the term manic/depressive instead of BiPolar.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 15, 2025 • 60min
I "Married" My Therapist: Ken Schultz talks about the damage he suffered
Trigger Warnng: This episode includes information about therapy abuse and may be triggering for some folks.I Married my Therapist: Ken Schultz is an advocate for mental health reform and a survivor of therapy abuse and exploitation. He is using his personal experience of harm to raise awareness about unethical therapeutic relationships and their lasting impact. Through his story, Ken aims to inspire change in laws and practices to protect others from similar experiences. If we want to examine the power and authority mental health professionals have over their clients – Ken’s story is a prime example. He saw this therapist for 3 months and in that time frame, he went from someone who had zero attraction to being sexually exploited by her all the while believing how she defined it as ok. If we want to examine how the institutions should be assisting us after we have experienced therapy abuse and exploitation, Ken is another prime example. The therapist he was seeing reported her, then left him to deal with the fallout on his own. The Texan state licensing board narrowed his complaint down to violating one aspect of the statutes: the timeline. His “therapist” dragged out leaving the ‘marriage’ to prevent a complaint based on the allotted time. But the licensing board ignored another statute that their social workers are not allowed to have sexual contact with a current or former client – of which she clearly had violated and of which had done so within the statute of limitations. And his church and police believed her statements without any corroboration and victimized him again. Things must change. We all need to wake up to harm perpetrated against those who have experienced therapy abuse and exploitation so that we are not inadvertently exacerbating that harm that is already catastrophic in too many cases. Music by Shari Ulrich and Shawn MendesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
