Queer Journey of a Somatic Earth Artist: An Interview with Ahjo Sipowicz

Join Sascha Altman DuBrul and Jacks McNamara for a wide-ranging conversation with therapist and author Laura Mae Northrup on her new book Radical Healership. Topics we cover include: -The path and calling of being a healer, and the complexities of using the term “healer” -The nuances of boundaries inside healing work -Desire and living our values -The “shadow” why - trying to heal your own baggage through getting your clients to heal -Class, grief, and building a financially sustainable practice -Healing as threatening to the abusive power structure of capitalism About Laura: Laura Mae Northrup, MFT is the creator and host of the podcast Inside Eyes, a series that explores the use of entheogens and psychedelics to heal sexual trauma. She is the author of the book Radical Healership and is a practicing psychotherapist and educator in Oakland, CA. Her work focuses on defining sexual violence through a spiritual and politicized lens and supporting the spiritual integrity of our collective humanity. You can learn more about her at www.lauramaenorthrup.com. Find Laura online: On the web: http://www.lauramaenorthrup.com On Social Media: @lauramaenorthrup Use discount code somanywings to buy Radical Healership with 35% off +free shipping here: https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/radical-healership/     Applies to print, e-books, and audio Links to So Many Wings’ social media and websites SMW on the web: https://somanywings.org Donate to SMW: https://somanywings.org/donate On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast Jacks McNamara’s website and social media: On the web: https://jacksmcnamara.net On Instagram: @jacksmcnamara Sascha Altman DuBrul’s website: On the web: www.saschadubrul.com

Can survivors be therapists – and even be better at it? Jacks McNamara – poet, trauma healing coach, and co-founder of The Icarus Project – joins Will Hall - advocate, counselor and founder of Madness Radio - to discuss the calling to become a therapist/counselor/coach inspired by their own struggles and survivor mutual aid. Topics discussed include -What makes a “good therapist”?  -Is mutual aid and friendship enough or do we need professional healers?  -How does sharing your trauma and oppression with clients affect working as a therapist?  -What about licensing and credentials – can they get in the way of truly helping people?  -And is a therapist at heart a wounded healer? Find Will Hall and Madness Radio online: On the web: https://willhall.net/ Madness Radio on the web: https://www.madnessradio.net/ Will on twitter: @willhall  Free book download: Outside Mental Health, http://www.outsidementalhealth.com/ Find Jacks McNamara online: On the web: https://jacksmcnamara.net On Instagram: @jacksmcnamara  Jacks’ book of poetry, Inbetweenland: https://jacksmcnamara.net/inbetweenland-book/ The Big Queer Poetry Class Details and registration at https://jacksmcnamara.net/spring-2022-big-queer-poetry-class. Use the discount code SoManyWings to get 10% off if you register before February 8th. Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org To donate: https://www.somanywings.org/donate/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Vesper Moore. Topics we cover include: Getting involved with the Mad Liberation Movement How disability, ableism, and saneism intersect with “mental illness” Survivor led mutual aid spaces Decolonizing the gender binary De-pathologizing the experiences that get diagnosed and labeled under the western mental health paradigm How restrictions on psychedelics and the western medical model's suppression of indigenous culture are interconnected. The history and reemergence of Madness Network News. About Vesper: Vesper Moore, is a mad liberation activist, trainer, writer, and psychiatric survivor. They have been advocating as a part of the mad movement for several years and have been the recipient of many social justice and diversity awards. Vesper has brought the perspectives of mad people, disabled people, and psychiatric survivors to national and international spaces. They have experience working as a consultant for both the United States government and the United Nations in shaping strategies around trauma, intersectionality, and disability rights. They have been at the forefront of legislative reform to shift the societal paradigm around mental health. Vesper as a mad queer indigenous person has made it their life’s mission to rewrite the narrative psychiatry has enforced on our society. Find Vesper online: On Social Media:  Facebook: @Vesper.Moore777  Twitter: @MooreVesper  Instagram: @vesper_j_moore  Linkedin: @VesperMoore Links to relevant resources: Kiva Centers of Massachussetts: https://kivacenters.org/ Karaya Peer Respite Center: https://kivacenters.org/peer-support/karaya-peer-respite/ Peerrespite.com Madness Network News: https://madnessnetworknews.com/ Psychedelics, Madness, and Awakening Conference: http://www.psychedelicsmadnessawakening.com/ Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with somatic trauma therapist and educator Andrea Glik. Topics we cover include: Trauma and the polyvagal theory Being a sex-positive therapist Working with internalized oppressions as a form of cognitive distortion caused by trauma Digital minimalism Finding accessible and politicized language around trauma healing The word witch as a healing term, reclaiming ancestral trauma Finding your voice as a healer & therapist About Andrea: Andrea Glik, LCSW is a somatic trauma therapist, supervisor, and educator. Andrea specializes in treating trauma, nervous system dysregulation, and PTSD, prioritizing women, survivors, and queer & trans folks. She utilizes neurobiological, body-based and feminist therapy practices to help clients feel safe in the present and come home to themselves. Andrea practices online, lives on stolen Osage & Sioux land at the confluence of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois Rivers. She can also be found on Instagram @somaticwitch and at andreaglik.com. Find Andrea online: On the web: www.andreaglik.com On Social Media: @somaticwitch Links to relevant resources: Pat Ogden - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: https://sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org/ Janina Fisher - https://janinafisher.com/ Deb Dana and The Rhythm of Regulation - https://www.rhythmofregulation.com/ Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport: https://www.calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/ Trauma of Money program: https://www.thetraumaofmoney.com Tempest sobriety school: https://www.jointempest.com/ Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a conversation with Tehseen Noorani and Erica Hua Fletcher where we discuss the origins and highlights of the Psychedelics, Madness, and Awakening Conference, as well as each interviewee’s personal research and links to these subjects. Topics we cover include: Why madness is excluded from psychedelic therapy and left outside the emerging conversation, and how to involve mad folks in these conversations Community harm reduction responses to spiritual awakening, and harm reduction with psychedelics The consequences of psychedelic exclusion criteria How themes of overground and underground experimentation and healing show up in each participant’s research And more! About Tehseen Noorani and Erica Hua Fletcher: Tehseen is an independent researcher in the final stages of a five-year postdoctoral project documenting how 'psychedelic' and ‘psychotic’ experiences, practices and histories are connected.  This has involved an ethnography of the overground and underground experimentation happening with, (1) psychedelics, including leading qualitative research with the psychedelics research team at Johns Hopkins University, and (2) madness, including as a long-standing ally of the Hearing Voices Network, and more recent membership of the Hearing The Voice project. His book - planned for publication in 2021 - puts these twinned sites into conversation, locating their joint possibilities within the raced and gendered politics of contemporary drug-taking and spirit-making. Erica is a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the co-chair of the Society for Medical Anthropology's Mental Health Interest Group. Over the last decade, she has worked closely with community members, peer support specialists, and community health workers on collaborative alternatives to traditional psychiatric treatment. Erica writes about contemporary mental health social movements, community health and healing, and carework; her scholarship spans the health humanities, social medicine, and mad studies.  About the Conference: Psychedelics, Madness, & Awakening: Harm Reduction & Future Visions To watch recorded presentations and panel discussions with the Psychedelics, Madness, and Awakening’s conference, check out the PMA website: http://www.psychedelicsmadnessawakening.com Find Tehseen online: On Twitter @tehseennoorani To download Tehseen’s articles: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tehseen-Noorani-2 Find Erica online: On the web: https://ericahua.weebly.com On Instagram @erica.hua To download Erica’s articles: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erica_Fletcher3 Links to relevant resources: Anthropology & Mental Health Interest Group: http://amhig.medanthro.net  Alternatives Conference: https://www.alternatives-conference.org  Hearing Voices conference: http://hearingvoicesnetworkireland.ie/intervoice-congress-2021/  Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a conversation with T. Aisha Edwards where we discuss recovering from complex trauma, somatics for liberation, Radical Rest, and so much more. Topics we cover include: Unburdening the impacts of socialized oppressions for POCs and Queer/Trans folks Using healing justice to support folks on the front lines of racial justice uprisings The Emergent Liberation Collective podcast The trauma-informed stabilization model Parts work: unblending and befriending About Aisha: Aisha Edwards, LMHC (xe/she) is a somatic trauma therapist, healer, writer, performance artist and fire breathing light warrior. She uniquely weaves Gestalt, Somatic Experiencing, early developmental movement, Neuro Emotional Technique, ancestral healing and concepts from Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism into a holistic approach to emotional and spiritual health that fosters the sovereign  relationship with the body as the vehicle to wellness, wholeness, connection and liberation from all forms of oppression.  Find Aisha online: On the web: www.fullflightwellness.com, www.radicalrest.org, https://linktr.ee/emergentliberationcollective On Instagram: @full_flight_wellness, @emergentliberationcollective Links to relevant resources: Somakinese school @somakinese.school  Embodied Biotensegrity https://biotensegrity.podia.com/ Janina Fisher and Trauma-Informed Stabilization model: https://janinafisher.com/tist  @langstonkahn ancestral healing around trauma Magdalena Weinstein @magdalenaweinstein Emergent strategy https://alliedmedia.org/speaker-projects/emergent-strategy-ideation-institute Nurturing Resilience/Somatic Resilience and Regulation Training: https://www.resilienceandregulation.com/ Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Today Jacks shares a mini-episode update on how they’re handling pandemic fatigue and parenting burnout, grieving the loss of things like getting fancy before a live audience, hoping we all get to feel more radiantly alive sometime soon, and why they’re taking a little break from releasing podcast episodes. Links to relevant resources: To suggest a guest for us to interview, go here: https://forms.gle/3FmteexUQabK3h2U8 Jacks’ column on Radiance and Burnout that they read on the show: https://www.sfreporter.com/columns/necessarymagic/2021/02/03/necessary-magic-14/ Find Jacks online: On the web: https://jacksmcnamara.net Instagram @jacksmcnamara Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website: On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for an interview with Wheels Darling where we discuss her path towards becoming an acupuncturist, herbalist, and health educator with an anti-oppression analysis. Topics we cover include: Mutual aid as medicine Coming of age as full-time activist  Possibility magic as a tool and anti-oppression lens Becoming a healer and educator Choosing to pursue an advanced degree/medical license Dynamic transformation, sacred openings, nervous system repatterning, cognitive reframing, and the magic of dreaming and thinking bigger Being a healthcare worker during COVID Connecting to ancestral earth-based spirituality Cultural appropriation in spirituality and medicine About Wheels: Wheels Darling is a queer acupuncturist, herbalist, body worker, healer, educator, witch, and collaborator of educational projects. They are based in the place currently called Portland, Oregon. Wheels is particularly excited to work in the places that are in between, the liminal spaces between what was, what is, and what could be. She uses this imaginal vantage to dream up educational programs, treatment plans for her patients, health equity plans of action, intimacies with her family, friends, lovers, communities, the larger world of humans, and all that is other than human.  Wheels' specialty is that she is a generalist. She's studied literature, political economy, herbalism, East Asian Medicine, queer and feminist theories, revolutionary and radical movements, ways of honoring each of the beings of this planet, histories and stories of those not represented in normative history books, magic, euro-pagan-earth-based spirituality, somatic healing, creative writing, and many other forms of Liberation Studies. Find Wheels online: On the web: Wheelsdarling.com, www.openhandhealth.com On Social Media: Instagram @WheelsDarling, @openhandhealth   Links to relevant resources: Wheels offers classes at Openhandhealth.com Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Crystal Davis of Blooming Fire Healing where we discuss how magic helps us survive, becoming a BIPOC healer, and much more. Topics we cover include: Shapeshifting Learning to live with depression Becoming a healer and reiki master Being a “feral witch” (or Crystal’s term for solitary magical practitioners) Building relationship with the things we can see and the things we can’t BIPOC healing circles Tarot as a mirror and a map About Crystal: Crystal Davis (she/they) is an intuitive empath, healer, and magic maker living in Portland, OR. She moves through the world as a queer Black cis woman. The alchemy of her interests, experiences, and survival have led her down this winding road of exploration, reflection, and the path of the witch. She found her way to metaphysics in her hometown of Richmond, VA. After beginning her Reiki training, Crystal was called to the Pacific Northwest to continue her study of alternative healing and magic.  Healing is a journey - one step inevitably leading to the next. Her perspectives on healing have been informed by her lived experiences, work with youth, and individuals surviving houselessness and poverty at Sisters of the Road. She is an alumni of the Blue Iris Mystery School and a Holy Fire Reiki Master/Teacher. She is a volunteer practitioner with healing justice organization Radical Rest which provides mental health and wellness services to support BIPOC organizers and activists in their continued work of liberation. Through Blooming Fire Healing, she offers tarot, energywork, and monthly BIPOC healing circles to support the healing and magic that her clients bring into the world. She believes that when individuals are in full bloom they give a gift to their entire community.  Find Crystal online: On the web: www.bloomingfirehealing.com On Social Media:  IG: @bloomingfirepdx FB @bloomingfirehealing Soundcloud: Blooming Fire Healing Links to relevant resources: Black Lives Are Magic calendar - https://www.instagram.com/blacklivesaremagic WooPDX - POC-owned magic shop in Portland - https://woopdx.com Sisters of the Road - https://sistersoftheroad.org/ Radical Rest - https://www.radicalrest.org Blue Iris Mystery School - https://www.blueirismysteries.com https://www.wweek.com/culture/2020/09/23/in-2020-everyone-is-struggling-with-mental-health-heres-our-guide-to-finding-peace https://soundcloud.com/bloomingfirehealing/the-shielding-song Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Join us for a conversation with Ahjo Sipowicz where we discuss their path into radical embodiment and the creation of their book EarthBodyBoat. Topics we cover include: Coming into wholeness as a neurodivergent, genderqueer creature Meaning-making and integration after altered state experiences Using scores and performance to connect with the earth and ourselves Freeing the rivers dammed by patriarchy and colonialism Croning, eldership and aging Divination and art-making with an Iphone Making a book to make community About Ahjo: I am a white, non-binary, neurodivergent, pansexual, elemental creature, residing for 30 years on Tewa land at O’gha Po’oge—White Shell Water Place—Santa Fe, New Mexico. My ancestors, primarily Lithuanian and Norwegian, migrated to the Chicago area where I was born and raised. In 1989 I studied the Life Art Process at the Tamalpa Institute with Anna Halprin. The values of the Life Art Process continue to guide me—including creative process over end product, creating dialog between expressive mediums, communicating with the self, life through ritual, performance, and art making. I call myself a “somatic earth artist,” one who is in apprenticeship with both the personal and earthly soma, and expresses both the conflicts and the Eros of these relationships through art. My art arises out of my InBodyNature practice, in which I actively dialogue with nature—communicating, performing, witnessing, and creating in collaboration. I bridge these experiences with writing, video documentation, and visual art through the technology of iPhone apps and composite photography. I am a self-published author of the newly released memoir/artist journal, EarthBodyBoat: Queer Journey of A Somatic Earth Artist. Find Ahjo online: Ahjo’s book, EarthBodyBoat: https://ahjo.art/earthbodyboatbook Ahjo’s website: https://ahjo.art/ On Social Media:  https://www.facebook.com/Sipps.sipowicz https://www.instagram.com/ahjo_k_sipps/ Links to relevant resources: Tamalpa Institute: https://www.tamalpa.org/ Karen Divine Iphone Artist: http://www.karendivinephotography.com/ Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website: On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast