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PODCAST

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Trauma, and Psychedelics

Craig Heacock MD

How do we find a way out of the darkest depths of despair? Psychiatrist Dr. Craig Heacock hosts a deep dive into powerfully moving stories of hope and healing, as well as topical explorations of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and psychedelics.

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All Episodes

14:02

The hidden minefield of Positive Countertransference

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/04/17

In this solo episode Dr. H shares his thoughts on the unexpected risks of feeling too much positive energy and/or identification with a patient. This talk is also a sneak preview into the workshop that Dr. H teaches with Dr. Hillary McBride called "I Love You I Hate You...Are You My Mom?' Support the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive workshop for psych NPs and PAs, June 3-6 2026 in Ft Collins https://www.craigheacoc...

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49:06

The gasoline and the match— Bipolar disorder, THC,...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/04/03

Today’s story is one of genetic predisposition, environmental triggers, and finally a psychiatric flame thrower. Whitney’s uncle had a particularly severe form of bipolar disorder and she too began to develop mood instability and depression as an adolescent. When we think of environmental triggers for mania, we tend to think of sleep deprivation, substances, and the postpartum period. And through her 20s and 30s, Whitney began to have more serious bouts of hypomania during times of slee...

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61:10

How can we actually prevent suicide? Guns, access to...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/03/20

The US has a major suicide problem, around 50,000 people every year, and 60% of these suicides are gun suicides. The number one risk factor for completed suicide is not depression or anxiety or addiction….it’s access to means, and it turns out that it’s actually not that easy to impulsively kill yourself, unless you have ready access to a gun. We are finally starting to talk about ways to keep guns out of the hands of potentially suicidal people, and a concrete step in that direction is...

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64:50

A somatic therapist and her apprenticeship of grief

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/03/06

Today’s story explores how we love, how we grieve, and how we eventually find some sort of equilibrium thereafter. This episode is a heartbreaking, yet beautiful story by Colorado-based somatic therapist Darci Meyers about her journey through multiple losses, grief, and ongoing recovery. Support the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support Darci Meyers http://www.darcimeyers.com/ Bringing Therapy into Med Management-- An intensive workshop for psych NPs and PAs, June 3-6 2026 in ...

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47:52

A gift of therapy- Discovering the wisdom of the body

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/02/20

Kari reconnected with her birth mother in her 40s and finally began to understand the suffering for which she had no words. This is a story of adoption and reunification, of forgetting and remembering, of finding a truth without words in the wisdom of the body. Kari’s birth mother was able to see something deep in Kari that she had never had words for….and thus began her path toward healing. Support the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support Bringing Therapy into Med Mana...

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64:48

A Nurse + Grief + Alcohol + Adderall— Finding Hope...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/02/06

Kate started her addiction journey at a young age, using substances as a salve for her terrible grief. Later, drugs and alcohol helped her to cope with the transition to nursing and the unending demands of a hospital setting. But as with all addicts, this strategy worked until it didn’t….Kate eventually had to find a new way to cope if she was going to survive past her 30s. Kate Gibson (The Coleman Institute) Kate@thecolemaninstitute.com Kate.gibson.dnp@gmail.com Support the show!&nbs...

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22:57

The Scary Med List-- A Case Consultation with Dr. H

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/01/23

Dr. H dives deep into a patient's scary, confusing, and ill-advised list of psych meds to illustrate some deeper truths and lessons about psychopharmacology and the med management model of psychiatry. Support the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support Explore the full BFTA Content Catalog: A listener-built, human-curated index of every Back From The Abyss episode to help you find themes, topics, and episode formats of interest. Best viewed on a laptop or desktop (not mobile). C...

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71:12

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Ketamine, and...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2026/01/09

Dr. H sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Fenstermacher, Medical Director of the TMS Clinic at the University of Colorado- Anschutz to explore the growing role of TMS and neuromodulation in psychiatry. They explore questions such as: •How should we think about TMS vs ketamine in the treatment of depression? Trauma? OCD? •Who are the best candidates for TMS? •What are the relative merits of intensive TMS (SAINT) vs standard protocols? •How might TMS and ketamine work together to promote p...

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80:45

When psychiatric illness isn't just psychiatric-- ...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/12/26

There is a growing awareness in psychiatry that not all psychiatric illness is psychiatric— some percentage of what presents in psychiatric settings is actually triggered by autoimmune responses to various pathogens and insults. In the late '90s a syndrome called PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with strep) came on the scene with cases of sudden onset OCD and tics that appeared in conjunction with strep infections. The theory behind PANDAS was that part...

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16:11

10 Questions to Deepen Psychotherapy-- Inviting the...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/12/12

Psychotherapy can often get stuck in a there and then storytelling mode....how do we shift the therapeutic encounter into the immediacy of the Here and Now? Here Dr. H shares 10 questions which shine a spotlight on what's happening (and not happening!) between therapist and patient. Support the show! https://www.buzzsprout.com/396871/support "I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?" An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary Mc...

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67:37

Is DID real? Parts, alters, exiles, and what's...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/11/28

Dr. H sits down with Jade Miller, a peer support specialist and advocate for public education about DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). In the first part of this episode, Jade shares her story and how she came to understand that the puzzling gaps and often frightening incongruities in her life were caused by her rotating through a number of dissociated identities or alters, initially protecting her… but eventually leaving her powerless to stop repeated traumatization. Jade and Dr. H t...

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61:04

Parenting through the storm-- Adoption, trauma,...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/11/14

BFTA storyteller Frank shares the joy, confusion, chaos, utter fear, and deepest gratitude when he and his partner Brad adopted and raised two boys, ages 4 and 2, from the foster care system. Twenty years ago, when Frank adopted the boys, trauma was not in the public awareness as it is today, and he was told that these little boys, who had spent some time in a meth house, might well have some challenges…..but he never could have expected what awaited. Can love overcome trauma? Can stability a...

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73:41

When our minds forget our bodies remember-- A trauma...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/10/31

Rachael, a trauma therapist and today's storyteller, describes how her early childhood abuse was buried by the protective mechanism of dissociative amnesia. As Rachael wrote to Dr. H, “The only way I could continue to live, with no way out, with no one to tell, with no words even to describe what was happening to me, was to forget what was happening to me….when our minds forget, our bodies remember.” Rachael saved herself by forgetting, then was forced to finally face what happened to h...

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54:40

Treatment-resistant bipolar disorder-- Finding...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/10/17

This story is a mirror to Elizabeth’s story from season 1 episode 1. Today’s storyteller Sarah was so moved by Elizabeth’s story that it helped her to trust Dr. H's recommendation to take a pretty scary medication, the extremely powerful antipsychotic and mood stabilizer called clozapine. So why tell this story again? As they say, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme, and Sarah’s story rhymes beautifully with Elizabeth’s. Both had severe and treatment resistant bipolar...

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65:04

Hiding in plain sight-- Life, work, and therapy on...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/10/03

In today’s story we explore what it’s like to be on the autistic spectrum, and more specifically, how a later life diagnosis can totally change the way you view the world and yourself. Aurelie, our storyteller today, was an autism expert, a clinical psychologist who had trained with some of the premier autism experts in the country…yet she didn’t discover her own autism until she was 40 years old. This episode explores why women on the spectrum are so often missed, how women on th...

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96:25

Trapped in secrecy and shame-- A boy, his coach, and...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/09/19

How do you rebuild trust amidst the ashes of trauma? This is the story of Sean, an up and coming star tennis player whose coach carefully selected him and then groomed him for years of sexual assault. His trust destroyed, Sean had to find a way to try to trust again…..and after many years of hiding and pretending and near self-destruction, Sean finally was able to share the details of what happened to him. Thus began his therapeutic journey of finding compassion for himself and trust toward o...

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61:39

BFTA Summer Special-- The Wisdom of the Psychedelic...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/08/14

In this fourth annual summer psychedelic special, Dr. H sits down to hear some hard-earned wisdom from a therapist colleague who has been doing underground MDMA and psilocybin work for years. "I Love You, I Hate You, Are You My Mom?" An intensive experiential workshop exploring transference with Dr. H and Dr. Hillary McBride, Feb 4th-6th 2026 in Joshua Tree, CA https://www.craigheacockmd.com/i-love-you-i-hate-you-are-you-my-mom/ BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page https://w...

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111:33

Chris, Craig, and Special Guest Fish in Fishbowl 6

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/06/06

Chris and Craig invite Antonio Sacre, an LA-based professional storyteller, author, and BFTA super-advisor into the Fishbowl to deconstruct season 6. BFTA episode recommendations/Podcast page https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/

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62:13

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners in the Treatment...

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/05/23

Text us a message! Craig sits down with his mentee and colleague Mandy Bliss, a psychiatric NP in Louisville KY, to explore the compelling and complex challenges of meeting the ever-expanding need for psychiatric care. Unlike in psychiatric residencies, much of the current training of psychiatric NPs is done online. Does this constitute adequate training? And what of psychotherapy? Mandy Bliss MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC https://blisspsych.com/ BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast http...

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78:09

The Enneagram in the Therapeutic Relationship

Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories |... ·

2025/05/09

Send us your questions for Fishbowl 6! Craig sits down with Colorado-based psychotherapist and Enneagram expert Joy Gribble (Elemental Psychedelics; Reflective Healing) to explore how the Enneagram can predict the strengths, fears, and blind spots of both the therapist and the client/patient in the complex dynamics of therapy. Joy Gribble https://www.reflectivehealing.com/about-joy-gribble-fort-collins BFTA on IG @backfromtheabysspodcast https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast...

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