Relationships That Invite Health: An Overview of Basic Attendance Part 1
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Dear Listeners, This Podcast series on the Windhorse practice of Basic Attendance explores the discipline as an expression of the wisdom, compassion and resulting reciprocity that can manifest in ordinary human relationships when cultivated within a ground of openness and relational warmth. I came to the Windhorse approach after graduating from the Naropa Institute—now University—in 1980, and I had the good fortune to be around when this was being envisioned with other Naropa graduates. My attraction to this vision and practice had to do with the emphasis on a person being fundamentally...
info_outline
Could I Be A Voice For Those Still Suffering? Pt. 5
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Dear Listeners, Welcome to today’s podcast, the conclusion of our five-part series of Julia’s first-person recovery story. By its nature, what’s being told here is certainly unique, as each person’s journey is completely individual. But in this case, the highly unusual nature of our series goes further, as her team—Janneli Chapin, Jack Gipple, and Chuck Knapp—are also sharing their perspective, making this a truly rare opportunity to experience the multifaceted inner workings of a recovery journey. We had originally planned to have this series end after four segments. However, once...
info_outline
Could I Be A Voice For Those Still Suffering? Pt. 4
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Hello friends and listeners, I am so glad that you are here, and I hope that you will enjoy today’s podcast. Hopefully you have had the opportunity to watch the first 3 podcasts. I was very excited to have been given the opportunity to make these podcasts with Windhorse, and in particular with Jack, Janneli and Chuck. In 1992 I took a medication that triggered a severe bipolar episode that sent me spiraling into a nightmare that lasted more than 20 years. You can hear about many of my experiences on the first 3 podcasts as Jack, Janneli , Chuck and I discuss our relationships over...
info_outline
Could I Be A Voice For Those Still Suffering? Pt. 3
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Dear Listeners, Welcome to today’s podcast, a first-person recovery story which we believe is a unique contribution to the resources on extreme state psychology—particularly around the phenomenon of cutting. In Part Three of this five-part series, we again join the members of Julia’s long-standing Windhorse team—Janneli Chapin, Jack Gipple, and Chuck Knapp—as they discuss the 12 years of their working together, along with her psychiatrist, Dr. Green. Today’s dialogue covers a wide and dynamic arc. Beginning with the horror and helplessness of Julia’s former life having almost...
info_outline
Could I Be A Voice For Those Still Suffering? Pt. 2
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Dear Listeners, Welcome to today’s podcast. In Part Two of this five-part series, we once again join the four members of Julia’s long-standing Windhorse team as they continue to discuss their stark experiences and the realities of her recovery—particularly as this conversation takes them more vividly into her experiences of cutting. Speaking with unusual directness about the dynamics they experienced with each other and with the larger mental health system, this open-hearted discussion explores the power dynamics that harm and those that heal. Again, they speak about—and most...
info_outline
Could I Be A Voice For Those Still Suffering? Pt. 1
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Welcome to today’s podcast, a first-person recovery story which we believe is a unique contribution to the resources on extreme state psychology—particularly around the phenomenon of cutting. The arc of our story begins with Julia, who’s lost in a hellish life predicament, feeling “intrinsically ruined”—with no sense of a way out. At this point, pretty much everything she’s known as reliable reference points have been lost, and her confused acts and thoughts are only begetting more confusion and pain. Making matters worse, the trauma that lies at the root of her extremely...
info_outline
Recovery is possible, no matter how disturbed a mind has become
Windhorse Journal Podcast
In this podcast, four long-time Windhorse practitioners discuss the 4th (and last) principle of recovery: “No matter how disturbed a mind has become, recovery is possible." The conversation touches on the loss of connection with self, others, and the world—and the unique path each person walks to reclaim and reintegrate those parts of themselves that are innate but covered over by confusion.
info_outline
Recovery is the path of discovering one’s own health and sanity
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Anyone who’s considered the territory of recovery from extreme mental states knows this to be a vast and subtle topic. And if this is a concern of yours, it’s also critical to reasonably understand—otherwise you may not recognize some of the key patterns as they’re occurring.
info_outline
The Integration of Windhorse and Open Dialogue
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Welcome to this podcast discussion that explores the integration of the Windhorse approach with Dialogical Process that derives from Finland’s Open Dialogue treatment approach. We are also fortunate to publish here an original paper by Phoebe Walker, The Evolution of Dialogic Practice within the Windhorse Project, that provides substantial background for this exploration
info_outline
Co-Presence: The Legacy of RD Laing – Part 2
Windhorse Journal Podcast
Welcome to this podcast, which is part 2 of Co-Presence: The Legacy of R.D. Laing. Again, our group of distinguished guests includes Nita Gage, Michael Thompson, Fritjof Capra, and Jeff Fortuna. If you’ve been fortunate to already hear part 1, you know you’re in for another feast of the mind and heart.
info_outlineI would like to thank you, dear listener-viewer, for finding your way to part 1 of this most recent podcast entry to the Windhorse Journal. Our panel discusses the book Healing Discipline, which has just been published as an e-book on the Windhorse Legacy Project website. The book is an edited collection of a three-seminar series taught by Dr. Edward Podvoll at Naropa University in 1985-1986. This is an exploration of three core areas of interpersonal healing: dream work, authentic communication, and life transitions. It seemed fitting for me to write the introduction to this first part of the podcast, as it involves a discussion of both contemplative psychology and dream awareness practice as it relates to working with extreme states of mind. Both of these areas of investigation are very dear to me, having studied and practiced them over the years with some depth and dedication, and having recently written a sizeable paper on dream work in psychotherapy. So, it was to my great personal discomfort (even horror), that I found myself at a total loss for words on more than one occasion during the taping of this podcast, most notably during the discussion of the dream seminar! But having the opportunity to watch the unedited “rushes” before writing this introduction, I was struck by the care, kindness, patience, and gentle encouragement demonstrated by my fellow podcaster-friends. My “dream” after taping the entry was that I’d somehow bombed, failed in my ability to communicate an understanding of the material properly, and the encroaching nightmare was that I may have singlehandedly turned viewers off to this gem of a book that elucidates the kind of work we do at Windhorse so beautifully. But the truth is that I wasn’t that bad, and my pod-mates—perhaps because I was able to absorb and act out in a fumbling, twitching, stuttering manner their own personal anxieties and inner demons—spoke to the wisdom of this book with exceeding intelligence, radiance, and confidence. Although I don’t want to do another one of these podcasts for at least 5 years, it was really fun. Please enjoy our full-spectacle discussion of Healing Discipline. You won’t regret it!