System Speak Podcast

since 2014

Emma shares about complex trauma, deprivation, and dissociation (CPTSD, OSDD, DID).

Educational, supportive, and inclusive, the System Speak podcast
shares life through insights, conversations, and collaborations.

An archive curated for dignity for all.

CLINICAL INTERVIEWS

We speak with Kathleen Adams, PhD, about abject shame and suffering. She shares about dissociative defenses and terror, as well as why we need groups for healing. She explains abject shame and suffering.

David Archer shares about prejudice, privilege, racism, racial trauma, white supremacy, and how healing comes when we love ourselves.

Content warning for references to racial violence, foster care and adoption, and politics.

Dr. E interviews special guest Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW, author of “The Trauma Toolkit” (for survivors) and “Wisdom, Attachment, and Love in Trauma Therapy” (for clinicians). Susan Pease Banitt shares the history of healers, explains about holistic healing, and teaches about acknowledging our own vulnerability.

Dr. E interviews Peter Barach, PhD, past president of ISSTD. Dr. Barach is the one who linked disordered attachment to DID, and he also was on the committee that produced the treatment guidelines for DID.

We speak again with Dr. Peter Barach, who teaches us all about attachment. He tells the story of being in class with Mary Ainsworth, and explains Bowlby’s theory (links in the blog). He explains the different attachment styles, and what that looks like in adults.

Clinical psychologist Ken Benau explains “relational trauma”, and why most people are not even aware of this trauma. He talks about shame and “pro-being pride”, and how they are conscious or not, and what makes each maladaptive or adaptive.

Chuck Benincasa explains liberation framework, and how we can depathologize and decolonize therapy and healing. He redefines safety as connection in community. He explains why the greatest act of liberation is acknowledging and dignifying who we are.

Chuck Benincasa continues the discussion about relational trauma, and explains how the consequence of trauma is a hijacking of our values… which means healing includes recentering our values, which means therapy and care must center the person’s autonomy.

Chuck Benincasa continues talking about layers of context, including power differentials and domains of privilege. He explains we should work together in a “doing with” kind of way, rather than “doing to” (control) or “doing for” (enabling). He discusses how no one has the right to our internal worlds, and why that is a safety issue.

Dr. Thema Bryant explains liberation and how all of us are in context of our history and culture and intergenerational experiences. She frames healing as reconnection with ourselves through art and music and movement, as well as community and culture.

We interview Dr. Laura Brown about her journey treating complex trauma. She shares about the history of believing women’s stories when others did not. She also explains why she does not use “disorder” with dissociative identities. She also shares her experience with keeping a therapy dog in her office.

We welcome Dr. Richard Chefetz to the podcast! He shares his perspective of the dissociative processes, and how they relate to associative processes. He explains his terminology of “self states” and normalized them as part of the human experience. He also explains assimilation and accommodation, and what these have to do with trauma. He also talks about how he uses hypnosis in his practice, and explains what that it like for those who want to know.

Jon Cleveland shares with us about psychedelic research and HPPD.

We talk with D. Michael Coy.  He shares about somatic dissociation, medical trauma, and his own lived experience.  We discuss identity development and movements.  We explore intersectionality.  We talk about dissociation informed EMDR and the MID.

Lynn Crook, a former clinician with lived experience who also filed an APA ethics complaint against Elizabeth Loftus for misrepresenting her case to the media. Crook critiques Loftus's "Lost in the Mall" study on two grounds: that its design (an older relative supplying details) does not map onto how therapy actually works, and that the study statistically failed, with results she argues were inflated to the often-cited quarter figure. The conversation also explores the broader "memory wars" of the 1990s, the gaslighting and harassment survivors and clinicians faced, and the healing power of being believed and speaking out collectively.

We talk with guest Doris D'Hooghe from the Trauma Center in Belgium, exploring attachment issues and developmental impact.

We welcome back Christine Forner, to share after the virtual ISSTD conference. She talks about the “Cascade of Defense”. She explains Active and Inactive Defenses. She gives feminist context to survivor experiences and treatment.

Our guest this week is Steven Gold, PhD.  We talk about trauma, neglect, and dissociation, and he shares about how he broadens understanding of all these terms into “deprivation”.  We also talk about attachment and the "mirror" of how we see ourselves.... and what happens when there is no mirror, when the mirror is broken, and when there are lots of mirror attempts. 

Our guest is Heather Hall, MD. She shares her experience of treating complex trauma, including differentiating between dissociation and detachment. She also shares about the impact of historical and societal trauma.

We speak with Judith Herman, who wrote the history of trauma in the book Trauma and Recovery we have discussed so often.  She is also credited with establishing the phased based treatment model, including adding safety and stabilization where prior to this it was primarily abreactive treatment approach.

We talk with Rick Hohfeler, PhD, who shares about shame.

Our clinical guest, Richard Hohfeler, is back!  He joins us this time to discuss protector parts, rage, anger, and shame.