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
Feb 6, 2024 • 1h
The Correlation between Weight and Child Sexual Abuse with Patty Cabot
The Correlation between Weight and Child Sexual Abuse with Patty CabotPatty Cabot joins us to talk about her experience of weight loss via coming to terms with the sexual abuse in her childhood. She is the author of "Not That Girl".Music by DG Adams, Robbie Robertson, Meaghan Trainer, and Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 24, 2024 • 1h
Coping with Grief during the Holidays and Anniversaries
Coping with Grief during the Holidays and AnniversariesJennifer O’Brien is grief-experienced. What does that mean? For starters, she has experienced several of her immediate family, including parents, siblings, and husband dying. In working through her grief she created a journal. That journal was published: The Hospice Drs Widow and won numerous prestigious awards. She speaks with Bernadine about grief. Especially grief around holidays and anniversary dates. And she shares what her tools for getting through those dates. Music by David Laronde, Edith Wallace, and Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 17, 2024 • 1h
Gifts of Madness, David Granirer and Katharine Giovanni
Gifts of Madness with Kagan Goh, Stand Up for Mental Health with David Granirer, and Forgiveness with Katharine GiovanniToday’s program includes interviews with Kagan Goh about a multi-media exhibition he is curating called the Gifts of Madness. As the Penticton Art Gallery states, "Gifts of Madness" is an upcoming mental-health themed exhibition at the gallery run by Ignite the Arts, part of a powerful collaboration with Tempest Theatre & Film Society, Voices with Impact, Connection Salon, Gallery Cachet, the Community Arts Council of Vancouver and Workman Arts' "Rendezvous with Madness" Festival. The exhibit's goal is to celebrate "Mad Pride," a movement that embraces the challenges and experiences of mental health and its multifaceted natures, from negative to positive.David Granirer talks about his upcoming performance at the Lightness of Being on Jan 24th and his program Stand Up For Mental Health™ gives programs and classes throughout North America and Australia, everywhere but the Vancouver, B.C. area. And as he says “Our shows look at the stand up comedy side of mental health, mental illness, recovery, and surviving the mental health system.”Katharine Giovanni talks about her new book, “The Ultimate Path to Forgiveness: Unlocking Your Power “ giving us insight into the process of forgiveness and why it might be important for some of us to look at it.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Jan 2, 2024 • 1h
Haida Storytelling with Giihlgiigaa
Haida Storytelling with Giihlgiigaa. Todd DeVries, Giihlgiigaa, invites us in to hear about indigenous storytelling: how and where it is told, how it is learned and passed on, and its importance in the Haida culture. He tells us about the Raven, in the beginning and gives us a Haida Prayer. He explains the Haida concept of time and the seven time periods that are referenced that reach from the present time to the past that goes back thousands upon thousands of years.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Dec 19, 2023 • 1h
When Yes Isn’t Consent: Unpacking Coercion, Power, and Therapy Abuse
This podcast explores the complexities of consent in therapy abuse, discussing the dynamics of abuse, attachment and self-blame in therapeutic relationships, power dynamics and coercion in therapy sessions, and the flip side of therapy and transference. It emphasizes the importance of understanding consent, recognizing power dynamics, and maintaining ethical boundaries in therapy.
Dec 12, 2023 • 1h
Rape Culture and the Long Road to Healing with Lenny Gagnon
Rape Culture and the Long Road to HealingTrigger Warning: This hour includes descriptions of sexual assault, rape, and victim-blaming. Lenny Gagnon’s whole world turned up-side-down when her father died in a mill accident when she was 6 years old. At 7 she was groomed and then sexually assaulted by the neighborhood pedophile. And she was raped again at 15. When she reported the last one, the cop who interviewed her also assaulted her. At the hearing, she was grilled and shredded about her character (swearing and sexual history [ie rape]) and based on that the judge refused to go ahead with charging her rapist because he didn’t believe she was of chaste character. Second wave feminists had yet to fight to ensure that victims of sexual assault were treated with care and dignity at police stations and in courtrooms. The trauma Lenny experienced caused depression which ultimately led to her being given anti-depressants and then eventually one that caused her to experience mania. Because of the mania, she was put on neuroleptics or anti-psychotics which caused other debilitating side effects. After decades of being on these medications she finally found a psychiatrist who would wean her off these drugs and help her as she transitioned to CBD oil with THC. Today, Lenny is healthy, living her best life with her loving partner Tom. Lenny is a story of survival and victory. Music by Shari Ulrich and Lyndsey EllBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Dec 6, 2023 • 54min
988 Forced Committals and Suicide Assessment Tools
988, Forced Committals, and Suicide assessments With the new 988 suicide hotline being launched, Rob Wipond cautions us on some of the pitfalls that can occur with traumatizing impacts on people. Barbara Phillips talks with us about her experience of being forceably committed and then Bernadine Fox walks us through the usual type of Suicide Assessment Questions that mental health professionals and crisis lines use to assess whether or not someone is suicidal and in need to being detained. Music by Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Nov 15, 2023 • 1h
Charlene Hellson/Unpacking the Backpack, Stacy Ashton with Crisis & Suicide Prevention & Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health
Charlene Hellson/Unpacking the Backpack, Stacy Ashton from Crisis Intervention, and Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health. Bernadine brings you information on several opportunities for education and support. Grandmother, performer, writer, and Indigenous Mental Health Advocate, Charlene Hellson from the Siksika Nation (Blackfoot Confederacy) talks about her one-woman performance “Unpacking the Backpack” which is an educational and experiential monologue that comes from the heart talking about the intergenerational and historical impact of systemic racism on indigenous. Then Stacy Ashton comes to tell us about a new service available in Canada around Suicide Prevention, 988. She outlines how they are working to “ensure a 24/7 access to a crisis continuum that meets people where they are in suicidal crisis, provide culturally-safe socioeconomic and mental health support without over-relying on police and coercive psychiatric interventions, and continues care until the person in crisis in back in control of their lives.” She gave us crisis lines to reach out to in BC Canada: Mental Health Support Line is 30-6789 (no area code required) and 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433). And then Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health chats with Bernadine about the services that Coast Mental Health can offer folks in Vancouver BC who are coping with mental health challenges, being unhoused, etc. Music by Shari Ulrich, Scott Callum, and Edith WallaceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Nov 7, 2023 • 1h
Taking Care of Each Other: The Morin Family Living with Alzheimers (with Peter, Cathleen & Janell Morin)
Peter, Cathleen, and Janell Morin, from the Tahltan nation, join Bernadine to chat about what happens when Alzheimers grabs hold of a family generation after generation, but mostly to describe their loving care of their mother as she makes this journey. So often we hear of older people with Alzheimers unable to care for themselves and/or plagued with a failing memory being left in care homes to wait out their lives. It is a tragic ending to a full life. But with Peter and Cathleen (their sister Nalaine and Dad who couldn’t join us), what is described is an daily act of enveloping their mother in care and loving. Ensuring she is included in family and family is included in her life. It is touching. And sweet. And what we all should be doing. But these siblings have taken it further. Recognizing the legacy of Alzheimer in their family history, they have planned to ensure that they all take care of each other if this is their future too.Music by Robbie Robertson and Shari UlrichBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
Oct 16, 2023 • 1h
Weetigo on Intergenerational Trauma, Epigenetic Memory, and Superpowers
Weetigo on Intergenerational Trauma, Epigenetic Memory, and SuperpowersWeetigo is a brilliant 60s Scoop Survivor and band member of the Poundmaker Cree Nation. Bernadine met him through TikTok where he talks about intergenerational trauma and epigenetic memory from the perspective of indigeneity. His intriguing ideas are based on what we know about trauma that weaves its way through families and is passed on through our DNA and creates within us superpowers. But Weetigo goes further, he brings into that how autism, ADHD, CPTSD, and being gifted fits into intergenerational trauma and epigenetic memory. Join us – then tell us what you think. Is this aligning with your experiences?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rethreading-madness--5675300/support.
